Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Energy Conversion and Management: George Cristian Lazaroiu, Michela Longo, Mariacristina Roscia, Mario Pagano
Energy Conversion and Management: George Cristian Lazaroiu, Michela Longo, Mariacristina Roscia, Mario Pagano
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Photovoltaic technology allows to directly convert solar energy into electrical energy with clear advan-
Received 2 August 2014 tages: no environmental impact during operation, reliability and durability of the systems, reduced oper-
Accepted 14 December 2014 ating costs and maintenance, ability to both supply remote customers and simply connect to the
electrical network. This paper evaluates the performance of two photovoltaic systems: one fixed and
one equipped with a sun tracker. The objective of this research is to analyze the increase of daily pro-
Keywords: duced energy by using the sun tracking system. The analysis accounts also the energy consumption of
Photovoltaic system
the sun tracker. An analytical approach is proposed. To validate the results through experimental tests,
Sun tracking
Lab prototype
two alternative low power PV systems were built. Each system consists of a PV source, a MPPT (Maxi-
Energy analysis mum Power Point Tracker) power converter and a 12 V–40 A h electrochemical battery, which is used
as electric load. The sun tracker system evidenced an important growth of power production during
morning and evening.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2014.12.046
0196-8904/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
144 G.C. Lazaroiu et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 92 (2015) 143–148
Nomenclature
[6,7]. Commercially tracking systems are available as either a sin- where I and v are the PV terminal current and voltage, Iph represents
gle-axis or a dual-axis design. The single-axis tracker follows the the photo-current (A); I0 represents the reverse current (A); Rsh
sun apparent east-to-west movement across the sky, while the represents the shunt equivalent resistance (O); Rs represents the
dual-axis tracker, in addition to the east–west tracking, controls series equivalent resistance (O); Ai is the diode quality factor;
the solar collector to follow the sun changing tilt angle [4]. VT represents the equivalent voltage, which depends on the
In the last years, design methods for solar tracking systems have temperature (V).
been worldwide proposed [8–14]. From the analysis, sensing of sun The PV module efficiency g is the ratio between the power
light, providing initial position of the solar panel, control unit delivered by the module and the irradiation power per area multi-
design, efficiency assessment, motorization of the tracker are the plied by the active area of the module [15]:
major challenges of solar tracking systems. Previous studies com-
P out
pared the efficiencies of electricity generated by a fixed and a g¼ ð2Þ
sun-tracking array. The fixed array are tilted by a fixed angle such GA
that the PV array uses as much as possible the sun radiation at the The efficiency is maximized when the source operates on the
determined geographical location. The array equipped with sun instantaneous Maximum Power Point (MPP). By analyzing (2) it
tracking system adjusts the tilt angle such that to point the sun can be observed that PV output power can be increased by improv-
during its daily movement. ing the accuracy of MPPT algorithm, or/and by maximizing the
This paper investigates a sun tracker system for PV application. amount of solar irradiance useful for the conversion into electric
The objective of the research is to highlight the improvement in energy.
daily output energy by using the sun tracker. Using two prototypes,
experimental tests were carried out during several environmental
3. PV power systems with sun tracking
conditions. The conducted analysis investigates the PV power pro-
duction, as well as the sun tracker energy consumption. Hence, the
The PV systems, generating a DC power, are connected to the
impact of the auxiliary internal energy consumption on the
50 Hz mains through an electronic power converter. Fig. 3 shows
amount of total produced energy can be assessed.
the electrical power system configuration.
The power converter maximizes the energy production in any
2. Photovoltaic electric source atmospheric conditions by controlling the PV output power. This
Rs i
PV system
+ SUN TRACKING
PV system
Iph ID1 Rsh FIXED
solar
sensor
v PV module PV module PLC
230 V/400 V 50 Hz
MPPT Bridge
ELECTRIC MPPT
GRID
12V 40Ah Battery
Photovoltaic Electronic power 12V 40Ah Battery
electric source converter Interconnection switch
Fig. 4. Fixed and sun-tracking PV power test systems.
Fig. 3. PV electrical power system configuration.
Table 1 Table 2
PV panel data @ STC and NOCT. Obtained values of electrical current measured during the experimental tests.
Module Initial value Nominal value Time (s) I1 (A) I2 (A) Rotation angle (°)
(STC) (NOCT)
0 0 0 0
Characteristic data 0.5 1.7 1.64 12
Peak power 142.4 Wp 121 Wp 1 1.41 1.37 24
Open-circuit voltage, VOC 60.2 V 59.2 V 1.5 1.14 1.1 36
Short circuit current, ISC 3.43 A 3.35 A 2 0.94 0.88 48
Maximum power voltage, VPM 48.2 V 45 V 2.5 0.71 0.65 60
Maximum power current, IPM 2.96 A 2.69 A 3 0.5 0.43 72
Normal Operating Cell Temperature 44 °C 3.5 0.66 0.64 84
(NOCT) 4 0.86 0.82 96
Temperature coefficient, Pmax 0.30 mV/°C 0.30 mV/°C 4.5 0.12 0.06 108
Temperature coefficient, VOC +0.07%/°C +0.07%/°C 5 0 0 120
Temperature coefficient, ISC 0.24%/°C 0.24%/°C
5. Experimental results
Based on the results and weather conditions, the monitoring days when the energy spent to move the panel cannot be compensated
were classified according to three classes: by the improvement of power, as shown in Fig. 8(c).
In terms of daily average energy, the sun tracker system is able
– case A: clear sky (15 days); to improve the total produced energy of the PV system. The
– case B: partially clear sky (9 days); increase depends on the weather conditions and varies between
– case C: cloudy sky (6 days). 12% and 20%. The growth is maximized during ‘‘clear sky’’ days,
when the sun tracker’s action improves the performance of the
Fig. 8 shows different outputs in specific days of May, in partic- PV source especially during the ending hours of the day.
ular May 10, 18 and 25. In this way it is possible to observe the dis- To assess the real gain in the average produced energy with the
tribution of the output power in different irradiation conditions: PV tracking system, the power losses of the auxiliaries used to
‘‘clear sky’’, ‘‘partially clear sky’’, ‘‘cloudy sky’’. The measured out- move the structure must be considered. The useful energy can be
put powers of the PV systems are compared as a function of the defined as the ‘‘net’’ energy, expressed as the difference between
time, whereas on the right the amounts of produced energy were the produced energy and the energy consumed by the sun tracker
compared. auxiliaries. The minimal energy consumption can be analyzed by
In case A (i.e. ‘‘clear sky’’ conditions), the power varies regularly adopting a flexible control strategy and an efficient mechanical
during the day, reaching its maximum at the middle of the moni- solution.
toring period, as shown in Fig. 8(a). The first and last hours of As expected, based on the experimental tests reported in Fig. 8,
the day highlights the effectiveness of the sun tracker. During these during ‘‘clear sky’’ days the sun tracker produces a discontinuous
hours, the improvement of the output power among the two PV unidirectional movement of the structure from east-to-west. In
systems is, as expected, extremely relevant. In case B (i.e. ‘‘partially case of ‘‘partially clear sky’’ and especially ‘‘cloudy sky’’ days, the
clear sky conditions’’), the action of the sun tracker is also high- movement can result alternative in direction and continuous in
lighted at the beginning and ending of the day, as illustrated in time, as consequence of the instantaneous sky varying conditions.
Fig. 8(b). Whereas the weather condition makes the action of the In ‘‘clear sky’’ days, it was observed that the solar tracking system
sun tracker does not relevant in case C (i.e. cloudy sky conditions), is usually active only for few instants, while correcting the position
(A)
120 10.05.2014
100
80
60
40
20
20%
0
929 15%
1000 754 10%
800
Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W] 5%
600
0%
400
Increasing % of sun tracking PV
200
with respect to fixed PV
0
(B) Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W]
120 18.05.2014
100
80
60 15%
40 690
20 700 10%
0 650
594 5%
600
0%
550
Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W] Increasing % of sun tracking PV
500 with respect to fixed PV
Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W]
(C)
25.05.2014
120
100 15%
80 594
60 600 10%
40
5%
20 550 515
0 0%
500
Increasing % of sun tracking PV
450 with respect to fixed PV
Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W]
Fixed PV [W] Sun Tracking PV [W]
Fig. 8. Output power evaluated in different conditions: (a) clear sky, (b) partially clear sky, and (c) cloudy sky.
148 G.C. Lazaroiu et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 92 (2015) 143–148
of the panel with respect to the sun for every one hour of duty. rotational kinetic energy. For any angular velocity x, Erot depends
Thus, the average value of the daily consumed energy by the test on the rotational moment of inertia io by:
system (i.e. actuator losses) was estimated around 100–200 W s.
1
Similar results are obtained for different days and weather condi- Erot ¼ i o x2
2
tions (warm and cold conditions). The power losses due to moving
the structure are small compared to the gained power [20]. Thus, The energy Esource, supplied by the external source to the electri-
considering the increase of energy used by the solar tracking sys- cal drive for sun tracking, depends also on the efficiencies of the DC
tem (a few percent of the produced energy), it is possible to sum- motor and gear transmission box. Therefore, Esource can be assessed
marize that the net energy produced by the solar tracker can be using:
estimated as almost equal to the total energy produced by the Erot
system. Esource ¼
gmotor ggear
6. Conclusions
References
Maximizing the energy yield of PV systems in order to generate [1] S
ß enpinar A, Cebeci M. Evaluation of power output for fixed and two-axis
the highest possible return on investment is an ongoing research. tracking PV arrays. Appl Energy 2012;92:677–85.
The objective of this paper is to compare two alternative photovol- [2] Koussa M, Cheknane A, Hadji S, Haddadi M, Noureddine S. Measured and
modelled improvement in solar energy yield from flat plate photovoltaic
taic systems. One is a fixed, whereas the second one is a PV system systems utilizing different tracking systems and under a range of
equipped with a sun tracker. The sun tracker is able to increase the environmental conditions. Appl Energy 2011;88:1756–71.
amount of daily direct radiation incident on the source. The design [3] Cruz-Peragón F, Pedro J, Peláez C, Francisco A, López-García R, Palomar JM. An
approach to evaluate the energy advantage of two axes solar tracking systems
of the sun tracker was deeply investigated. In particular, indica-
in Spain. Appl Energy 2011;88:5131–42.
tions to estimate the 50 W s energy consumed by the sun tracker [4] Al-Mohamad A. Efficiency improvements of photo-voltaic panels using a sun
were analyzed in detail. For comparing the performances of the tracking system. Appl Energy 2004;79:345–54.
[5] Seme S, Stumberger G, Vorsic J. Maximum efficiency trajectories of a two axis
two systems, two PV lab prototypes were built and investigated
sun tracking system determined considering system consumption. IEEE Trans
during a 30 days monitoring campaign. The experimental results Power Electron 2011;26:1280–9.
highlight the significant increase 12–20% of the produced energy [6] Kaldellis J, Zafirakis D. Experimental investigation of the optimum
by using the sun tracker. In addition, the results obtained during photovoltaic panels’ tilt angle during the summer period. Energy 2012;38:
305–14.
‘‘clear sky’’ days show that any solar tracker must be designed such [7] Ya’Acob ME, Hizam H, Khatib T, Radzi M, Amran M. A comparative study of
that to limit the energy consumption caused by small variations of three types of grid connected photovoltaic system based on actual
solar irradiation. performance. Energy Convers Manage 2014;78:8–13.
[8] Sefa I, Demirtas M, Çolak I. Application of one-axis sun tracking system. Energy
Based on the results obtained during ‘‘partially clear sky’’ and Convers Manage 2009;50:2709–18.
‘‘cloudy sky’’ days, further research to countermeasure the random [9] Mousazadeh H, Keyhani A, Javadi A, Mobli H, Abrinia K, Sharifi A. A review of
irradiation variations must be conducted. In this way, the energy principle and sun-tracking methods for maximizing solar systems output.
Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2009;13:1800–18.
consumption associated with unnecessary rotations of PV source [10] Lee CY, Chou PC, Chiang CM, Lin CF. Sun tracking systems: a review. Sensors
can be limited. 2009;9:3875–90.
[11] Kassem A, Hamad M. Microcontroller-based multi-function solar tracking
system. In: Proc IEEE int systems conference (SysCon); 2011. p. 13–6.
Appendix A [12] Bentaher H, Kaich H, Ayadi N, Hmouda MB, Maalej A, Lemmer U. A simple
tracking system to monitor solar PV panels. Energy Convers Manage
2014;78:872–5.
The moment of inertia of any rectangular rigid body respect to [13] Kelly AN, Gibson TL. Increasing the solar photovoltaic energy capture on sunny
an axis passing through the center of the mass, can be expressed and cloudy days. Sol Energy 2011;85:111–25.
as: [14] Singh GK. Solar power generation by PV (photovoltaic) technology: a review.
Energy 2013;53:1–13.
2 2
3 [15] Durisch W, Bitnar B, Mayor JC, Kiess H, Lam KH, Close J. Efficiency model for
a2 þ b photovoltaic modules and demonstration of its application to energy yield
io ¼ m 4 5 estimation. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 2007;91:79–84.
12 [16] Huang BJ, Ding WL, Huang YC. Long-term field test of solar PV power
generation using one-axis 3-position sun tracker. Sol Energy 2011;85:
If the rotation axis does not pass through the center of the mass, 1935–44.
[17] Koussa M, Cheknane A, Hadji S, Haddadi M, Noureddine S. Measured and
the Huygens–Steiner theorem provides a convenient expression to modelled improvement in solar energy yield from flat plate photovoltaic
compute the moment of inertia of a rigid body around an axis z, systems utilizing different tracking systems and under a range of
which is parallel to the axis passing through the center of the mass. environmental conditions. Appl Energy 2011;88(5):1756–71.
[18] Tian-Pau Chang. Output energy of a photovoltaic module mounted on a single
The moment of inertia iz with respect to axis z is given by:
axis tracking system. Appl Energy 2009;86:2071–8.
[19] Eke R, Senturk A. Performance comparison of a double-axis sun tracking versus
iz ¼ io þ m r2 fixed PV system. Sol Energy 2012;86:2665–72.
[20] Serhan M, El-Chaar L. Two axis sun tracking system: comparison with a fixed
where r is the distance between the two parallel axes. system. In: Proceedings of international conference on renewable energies and
The energy consumed for rotating any rigid body with respect power quality, Granada, Spain, 23–25 March 2010. <http://www.icrepq.com/
icrepq%2710/227-Serhan.pdf>.
to an axis passing through the center of the mass, Erot, is the