SUN TRACKING SOLAR PANEL

A PRESENTATION BY
GROUP NUMBER - 07, POB-2022

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

PROFESSOR ABHIJIT DEY

DEPARTMENT OF ECE, TECHNO MAIN, SALT LAKE
Contents
1. Brief Idea About The Project
2. Literature Survey
3. Functional Block Diagram
4. Detailed Functionality Of The Components
5. How it will work ?
6. Working Principle
7. Component Price List
8. Future Planning
9. References
Brief Idea About The Project
● With the impending scarcity of nonrenewable resources, people are considering using alternate
sources of energy. From all other available resources sun energy is the most abundant and it’s
comparatively easy to convert it to electrical energy.
● Use of solar panel to convert sun’s energy to electrical is very popular, but due to transition of the Sun
from east to west the fixed solar panel may not be able to generate optimum energy.
● The proposed sun tracking solar panel system solves the problem to track the Sun.

● The purpose of this project is to design and construct a solar tracker system that follows the sun
direction for producing maximum output for solar powered applications.
● Light Dependent Resistors are used for sunlight detection and the control circuit is based on Arduino
Uno. It is programmed to detect sunlight via the Light Dependent Resistors before actuating the servo
to position the solar panel. The solar panel is positioned where it is able to receive maximum light thus
producing maximum electrical power.
Literature Survey
● One of the most promising renewable energy sources characterized by a huge potential to be
converted into electrical power is solar energy.

● A solar cell is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the
photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell,
defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary
when exposed to light.

● Light gathering is dependent on the angle of incidence of the light source providing power to the
solar cell’s surface, and the closer to perpendicular, the greater the power.
● Most photovoltaic solar panels are fitted in a fixed location, for example on the sloping roof of a house,
or on a framework fixed to the ground, which is far from an ideal solution.

● Since solar panels absorb light from the sun, and the latter always moves across the sky throughout
the day, a tracking mechanism is often incorporated into the solar arrays to keep the array pointed
towards the sun to receive the best angle of exposure to sunlight for absorption.

● A flat solar panel mounted on level ground, over the course of the day the sunlight will have an angle of
incidence close to 90° in the morning and the evening. At such an angle, the light gathering ability of
the cell is essentially zero, resulting in no output.

● As the day progresses to midday, the angle of incidence approaches 0°, causing a steady increase in
power until at the point where the light incident on the panel is completely perpendicular, and
maximum power is achieved.
● The sun travels through 360 degrees east to west a day, but from the perspective of any fixed
location the visible portion is 180 degrees during a half day period.

● A solar panel in a fixed orientation between the dawn and sunset extremes will see a motion of 75
degrees on either side, thus losing 75% of the energy in the morning and evening.

● Rotating the panels towards the sun can help recapture these losses and a good solar tracker can
typically lead to an increase in electricity generation capacity of 30-50%.

● This process of sensing and following the position of the sun is known as Solar Tracking and in our
project a sun tracking solar panel has been implemented to increase the efficiency of the output
power generated by the PV cells.
Functional Block Diagram
Detailed Functionality Of The Components
● LDR
1. LDR is a device whose sensitivity depends upon the intensity of
light falling on it.
2. Strength of light falling on LDR increases the LDR resistance
decreases(ohms),
3. Strength of the light falls on LDR is decreased resistance
increased(ohms)
4. Four LDR’s are present which sense the light falling on them from
four different directions. The intensity values are given to the
controller.

● Arduino Uno
1. We are using Arduino for checking the lowest LDR value, through our
programming which will be run with help of Arduino.
2. As per the lowest LDR value, Arduino generates a PWM signal which
acts as input for the servo motor.
● Servo Motor

1. To make this motor rotate, we have to power the motor with +5V using
the Red and Brown wire and send PWM signals to the Orange colour wire
From arduino.
2. The servo motor expects to see a pulse every 20 milliseconds and the
length of the pulse will determine how far the motor turns.
Servo checks the pulse in every 20 milliseconds.
pulse of :-

1. 1 ms (1 millisecond) width can rotate

servo to 0 degree

2. 1.5ms can rotate to 90 degree (neutral position)

3. 2 ms pulse can rotate it to 180 degree.

● Solar Cell

1. Solar panels generate free power from

the sun by converting sunlight to
electricity.
2. The photons (light particles) produce an
electrical current as they strike the
surface of the thin silicon wafers.
3. A single solar cell produces only about
1/2 (.5) of a volt

4. Therefore many solar cells spread over a

large area can provide enough power to be
useful.
How it will work ?
● The solar panel uses photovoltaic cells (PV cells). The PV cells detect the light intensity and
according to that, the tracker adjusts the direction that a solar panel to the position of the sun in the
sky.

● Every time, the tracker adjusts the panel perpendicular to the Sun more sunlight strikes the solar
panel, and less light is reflected. Hence, it absorbs more energy which can be converted into power.

● In this prototype, we are using the LDR sensor to detect the light(sun) intensity and servo motors for
automatic rotation of the panel using the Arduino microcontroller. Arduino Uno board is
programmed to control the motor as per the output of the LDR sensor.
Working Principle
● Arduino is programmed in such a way that it will compare the average of LDRs value present in top
and bottom or present at left or right, Based on the comparisons, whose average value is lower, it
will generate an input for servo motor.

● On receiving the input, servo motor then rotates the solar panel in the direction of lower average LDR
values. So, that the panel can maintain a perpendicular profile with the Sun and maximum amount of
solar rays can be absorbed.
Component Price List
Serial No. Component Specification Quantity Price per Total Price(in
Name Piece Rupees)

1. Solar panel 5.5V, 250mA 1 299 299

2. Arduino UNO 1 690 690

3. LDR 4 30 120

4. Servo Motor 9G 2 145 290

5. Arduino Sensor 1 299 299

Shield

6. Jumper Wires & 5* M 2 M 10 8 80

connecting wires 5* M 2 F

7. JST connector Female 4 10 40

8. USB cable 1 60 60

9. Terminal Block 12 port 1 50 50

10. Resistors 10K ohm 4 8 32

11. Multimeter 0.2-1000 V 1 200 200

Future Planning
● In our final semester we are planning to assemble the above mentioned components, and implement
the Sun Tracking Solar Panel.
● We are going to use four LDRs which will be attached at four corners of the solar panel, so that we
can track the maximum availability of sun rays both horizontally and vertically.
● For this, we are required to program our arduino properly. We have already started practicing and
learning about the program and code which is required in our project. Although we have developed a
program, we are looking forward to more optimization in the near future.
● We have a plan for checking and comparing the efficiency of a solar panel once when it is kept still
and another when it tracks the sun and positions itself in such a way that it receives maximum sun
rays.
● We are also in a discussion to try our project in the presence of nominal sunlight so that we can see
the exact precision of the implemented hardware project.
● Upon successful completion of our final project we are planning to
develop some applications for the project.
References
● How does solar work? [Online] Available:
<https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/how-does-solar-work> [Accessed 30 December 2021]

● Solar Photovoltaic Technology Basics [Online] Available:

<https://www.nrel.gov/research/re-photovoltaics.html> [Accessed 30 December 2021]

● Robert L. Boylestad, Louis Nashelsky[2020] Electronic Devices And Circuit Theory, Fifteenth
Edition, Ch 16, pp. 842-9, Pearson India Education, Noida UP [2005]

● Peter Amaize, Adoghe Anthony, Awosope Claudius, Idiake Uzairur, Sanni, Victory Imafidon,
“International Conference On Industrial Engineering Management”, Washington DC, USA, October
2018, pp. 3-11.
More References
● Priyanjan Sharma , Nitesh Malhotra, “Solar Tracking System Using Microcontroller”, Proceedings of
first international Conference on Non Conventional Energy, January 16-17, 2014, pp.77-79.

● Syed Arsalan, “Sun Tracking System with Microcontroller”, International Journal of Scientific And
Engineering research, June 2013 Vol.4 No.6, pp. 2998-3001

● Mukul Goyal, Manohar H, Ankit Raj, Kundan International Journal of Engineering Research &
Technology, February- 2013, Vol.4, No. 2, pp. 367-369,

● Arduino Uno [Online] Available: < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino > [Accessed 30 December

2021]
THANK YOU