Chapter 1

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.0

MOTIVATION

In the beginning the cars used were a great source of carbondioxide which pollute the
environment as well as great cause of health problems. The system of gasoline which
was used by these cars is a hydrocarbon which produces large amount of carbondioxide
and carbonmonooxide both are dangerous for health and environment. As we know that
carbondioxide gas is a leading green house gas and about 32% of it in environment is
from transportation.
Electric vehicles are used in the beginning of 20 th century to compensate these
problems. These vehicles are great source of reduction in corbondioxide emissions and
energy consumptions. The energy crises of 1970s and 1980s brought a renewed interest
in electric car.
We are living in the era of innovations and it has changed our sense of thinking.
The motivation of such innovation comes from the difficulty that the humans tackle in
performing several tasks or the places where the accurate tracking is required.
To ensure the report is easy to read with consistent format, it is important that students
follow strictly the instruction during report preparation. Only the reports according to
the above format will be considered and graded. The details about the structure of
project report are enclosed. For more information, please contact the FYP Committee.

Chapter 1

1.1

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Energy is the basic need of human survival on earth. All are dependent on energy for
daily requirements. Fossil fuel were great source of energy but are exhaustible and not
good for health and environment. To cope up these problems population move towards
renewable energy to fulfill their requirements based on operating devices in which the
one of the most important is transportation. Population demands for noise free and
pollution free vehicles. The earlier process which is combustion engine was not cleaner
as well as not environment friendly and it has gradually been polluting the atmosphere.
The replacement of such system in transportation is considered to solve the problems
faced by population.
The number of technologies under consideration are nuclear energy, steam power, wind
power, tidal power and solar power.
The most popular source of renewable energy is solar energy which can be used by
photovoltiac cells . Basically photovoltiac is the process in which the solar rays coming
from sun are converted into electricity when these rays hit the panel which is made up
of many semiconductor cells. These cells help the rays to convert it into useable electric
current. This process is called photoelectric effect.
There are many other effects in this process which leads to non linearity in system and
due to this one can not produce efficient useable current to fulfill the requirement. The
effects include temperature. Total resistance, and solar irradiation which have impact on
output voltage and current curves.
To solve the problem of non linear effects we have enhanced the method of
MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING. Which is basically extract maximum power
from solar radiations and make it possible to produce more efficient current and voltage
at output loads. And also helps in reduction of non linear curves.

Chapter 1

1.2

Introduction

OBJECTIVE

Can carry upto 2 person

on board charger to charge the batteries through k-electric.g each Degree of

Freedom using variety of sensors to map the hand, arm and head motions.

1.3

dc drives to control the speed of dc motor.

Solar panel to charge the batteries

Rpm meter use to measure speed of dc motor

Battery monitor to estimate the status of batteries

Indicators,head lights, suspensions and braks

Speed meter
SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM

A solar tracker is a mechanical method which rotates the solar panel. When the sun rays
strikes the panel

it starts to rotate in that direction where the panel catches the

maximum light. This method is used for effiecient power and working of solar panel
form sun light. It can work effieiently only when the rays coming out from sun are at 90
degrees with the panel which helps them in collecting more light from the sun. The sun
is a moving source which can only track the rays at peak noon time efficiently. And at
the time of sunset the panel starts to lose tracking the sun rays. The solar tracking
system is used in this project which efficiently rotate the panel in the high intensity
direction. They are used in increasing the power generated from the sun rays and make
them effiecient 20% to 40 %.
This project helps in power generation by setting solar tracker to get maximum light
automatically. If the panel finds less intensity on it so it automatically turns its direction
where there is a large intensity.

Chapter 1

Introduction

In our prototype design we make solar panel to move in both directions, which is x-axis
and y-axis. Servo motors are used to rotate solar panel according to our requirements,
but the basic idea to move solar panel is based on LDR (light dependent resistor). Four
LDR with the combination of resistors are attached at the centre of the panel. These
LDR used to track the sun rays.
LDR sensors sense the higher density area of sun light and moves through servo
motors. When the sun light is maximum the resistance becomes minimum thus flowing
current through the circuit. Normally in the absence of sun light the resistance of LDR
is maximum around mega ohm and in the presence of sun light the resistance of LDR is
reduced to kilo ohm.

Fig 1.1 solar tracker

Fig 1.2 circuit diagram of solar tracker

Chapter 1

Introduction

This circuit was implemented on the top of our prototype for tracking the sun light and
it was successfully tracking the rays and moving as according to the maximum light
rays. And the lower body made used four DC motors for driving the prototype which is
controlled by H-bridge circuits.
Now we are going to implement this on our real car with the enhancement of Maximum
Power Point Tracking.

1.3 MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING

Maximum power point tracking is a technique which can be used with solar trackers. As
solar trackers are not much efficient to generate that amoiunt of power which we require
fo working. The function of Maximum power point tracking is to maximize the output
power from solar panel but it can not fulfil the requirement of solar tracking system that
is why we implement solar tracking system with MPPT. As we already discussed
Maximum power varies with solar radiation, ambient temperature and solar
cell temperature.
The procedure of MPPT is that it follow two main works firstly it will track the
maximum value of voltage and current within the curve of the panel and then take this
wattage and deliver it to the output load.
Lets take an example of a panel having voltage of 24 volts and current rating is 2.5
amperes. The battey is of 12 volts. It will give power of 60 watts when there is sun
rays are at its peak. This value can be acieved by using MPPT system otherwise there
will be variations. Peak sun shine time is that time when the rays of sun are at the face
of the panel. When the sun is at its peak the mppt will try to deliver max wattage to the
output (load). And it will charge the battery with the current of 5 amperes. It can be seen
that the current increases and more power will be deliver to operate the load.

Chapter 1

Introduction

As the time passes and the radiations coming out from it decreases its intensity due to
not at peak sun shine time the voltages also fluctuate and there is possibilty of not
getting the maximum power point. The values at that time occur, the MPPT track the
maximum from these lower values and send these to output (load).
As the panel value decreases the overall wattage decreases and reulting in a decrease in
battery charging current.
This is main problem that MPPT only tracks what the solar panel gives. This is
restricted to only peak sun shine time. And it gives lower voltage when sun radiations
intensity starts to decrease.
For efficient working and take the advantage of both the maximum intensity and the
maximum power the panel give we use solar tracker with MPPT so that we can fulfill
our requirement of having panel at the suns face and by facing it mppt could extract the
maximum available power.