A Survey of Dual-Axis Solar Tracker System Using Arduino

Phase 1

Abstract

Solar energy is clean and gives unlimited power sources, as per growing requirements of solar energy it should be utilised efficiently. The automated solar tracking system based on the Arduino prototype is mainly built using the Arduino Microcontroller, four LDRs and two servo motors. A mixture of hardware and programmed software is used to run the machine. Four Light Dependent Resistors (LDRs) are used to capture the maximum sunlight. LDRs helps to detect the strongest sunlight intensity. To shift the solar panel according to the LDRs instructions (where the sunlight is stronger), two servo motors are used. These motors are used to direct the solar panel’s in both vertical and horizontal direction. Thus, according to the incident sunlight on the solar panel, it can follow the direction of the Sun, not only the vertical rotation, but also the horizontal rotation. This device can achieve maximum light and reduce the cost of generating energy by requiring a minimum number of solar panels. This device not only track the sunlight during days but also in different months and seasons, therefore this device requires a Real Time Clock (RTC) device for guiding the tracking system for seasonal changes in suns position, So the combination of this tracking system made it call as hybrid dual axis solar tracking system. The power gain and system power of hybrid dual axis solar tracking system is compared with the static and continuous dual axis solar tracking system. It is concluded that the power gain of hybrid dual axis solar tracking system is equals to the power gain of continuous dual axis system and the power saved in hybrid dual axis system is 44.44% compared to continuous tracking system.