Automatic sun tracking system

The article below presents the topic of automatic tracking system in solar panels.

The article includes :

1. Introduction
2. What is ASTS
3. Need for ASTS
4. Basic components
5. Working
6. Applications
7. Pros and Cons of ASTS
8. Conclusion
9. References

Introduction

These days the sun is the cheapest source of electricity because it uses solar cells, a natural
resource, to produce electricity.

The effectivness of solar cells is dependent on on the intensity of sunlight and its position
(angle). This implies that to achieve maximum efficiency the solar panels needs to remain in
front of the sun during the whole day. But dues to of Earth’s rotation those panels cannot
maintain optimal position which results in the decrease of their efficiency.

To conclude, to get an unlimited output, the automated system is vital which could be capable
to constinously move and rotate the solar panel and maximize its working.

ASTS- Automatic Sun Tracking System

The Automatic Sun Tracking System (ASTS) was created to solve the problem mentioned
above. It is fully automatic and keeps the solar panel in front of sun until it is visible.
The special feature of this automated system is that instead of treating the Earth as a
reference, it uses the sun. Its active sensors all the day monitor the sunlight and rotate the
panel towards the direction where the intensity of sunlight is the biggest.

If the sun gets invisible due to the clouds or weather conditions, then without the reference
source, the ASTS contunues rotating the solar panel in the opposite direction to the rotation of
the Earth, in exactly the same speed as that of our planet. Due to this movement when the sun
gets visible after a while, the solar panel is always positioned exactly in front of the sun.

ASTS

Moreover, the system is able to maintain errors and displays the error messages on the LCD
display attached. The solar panel can be operated as well in the manual mode, through the
GUI software intalled on the computer and can be moved at any necessary angle.

Need for ASTS

From sunrise to sunset the sun keeps changing the angle from 0 to 90 degrees rising and 90
to180 degrees declining. During the year the sun moves approximately 22.5 degrees north to
22.5 degrees south to equator.

It implicates that the tilt angles of solar panels should be adjusted monthly or at lest seasonaly
to extract the maximum energy from solar panels.

Because of the sun fluctuation, fixed panels cannot give higher efficiencies. Tracking system
helps the panels to stay oriented to the sun to the maximum possible angle.

Solar tracker implemetation enhances solar panels efficiency by 30 to 35% on single axis and
an additional 6% for dual axis.

Components (software)

ASTS is a hybrid hardware/software project.

The software includes:

• VB 6.0 based GUI.

• Microsoft Access Database.

• Embedded Software (written in C) for microcontroller AT89c52.

Components (hardware)

The hardware includes:

• Solar panel assembly structure containing 6 functional sensors, stepper or servo motor and
solar cells.

• System Control Unit containing LCD, Keypad, Error Indicators and Emergency Stop switch.

• Complete PCB containing two microcontrollers (89c52). First one is the “Master
Microcontroller” which controls the automatic operation of ASTS. The second one, the
“Slave Microcontroller” serially communicates (RS232) with VB software in computer.

Working

The basic functional blocks of the ASTS system are six sensors:

1. Sun Tracking Sensors (STS)

2. Night Time Fault Detector (NTFD
3. Day Time Fault Detector (DTFD)
4. Night and Cloud Detection
Their operation depends upon the intensity of sunlight. All sensors send their output to
microcontroller AT89c52 which then executes predefined task in the software.

V-shaped STS sensors are responsible for automatic sun tracking. STS are repositioning and
trying to obtain the maximum sun exposure. They respond to Earth’s rotation and send singals
to microcontrollers to rotate the motor. Such reorientation lasts till the end of day.

Night Time Fault Detector is used for

general faults like night time and full shading. It detects if the solar panel the next day during
sunrise is ready for tracking.
Day Time Fault detectors are detecting rather rotation stops and malfunctioning.

Night and Cloud Detectors detect the changing time of day and changes in the intensity of the
sunlight. Interestingly, in the case of night the microcontroller suspends all the operations and
repositions the solar panel towards the east to track the sunrise the next dawn.

Working- Automatic Control

For successful operation ASTS includes two types of control: automatic and manual.

The automatic operations are controlled by Master Microntroller which senses all the six
sensors, drives LCD, drives stepper motor, controls warning indicators and communicates
with the slave microcontroller.

Working- Manual Control

In terms of manual control we differentiate two types of it:

Stand Alone system control unit and Computer based control unit.

The first one is a simple user interface including onboard LCD, Keypad, Buzzer and a
complete PCB of the system circuit. The display allows user to manually operate the system
and rotate the solar panel from 0 degrees to 180 degrees by using the numeric keypad
The second is is completely software based, incorporating GUI and a Database. This form of
control allows to manually rotate the panel or stop ASTS.

Working- Motor selection

There are many types of motors that can be selected in ASTS design. Currently, several types
of motors bare eing used in the area of solar systems:

 Step-motor
 Servo-motor
 AC asynchronous motor
 permanent magnetic DC servo motor
 permanent magnetic brushless synchronous motor

Even though motors vary in price, size, technical specification, performnace or power range,
all kinds of them can satisfy the precision of the solar tracking system.

Applications

In terms of apllicability there are many places where automatic sun tracking systems could be
usefull. Firstly, it could be used in the remote places where power lines are not easily
accessible and infrastusture is scarce. They could make full use of the solar possibilities of the
area.
Another point would be domestic power backup. It is a perfect and effective way to
effectively use renewable energy resources in the home environment.

Another possibility would be small and medium scale power generations for mutliple uses.

Advantages

Automatic sun tracking system has a lot of advantages. For sure it can maximize the
investements in solar power and considerably improve the effectivity of such solution. ASTS
is for sure highly productive in terms of power production and uses the least place possibe.
What is more, it is very ecological solution which allows for minimizing power consumption
and of course clean and emisionless energy production.

Disadvantages

On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages of ASTS. Such technological solution
can generate high costs of installation and maintanance. Due to complexity of the solution it is
rather difficult to control and requires regular checks which can also generate costs.

Conslusions

All in all, developing automatic sun tracking systems is a good trend. Due to energy resources
depletion and global warming it is important to enhance clean, green and cheep energy
generators. ASTS can greatly maximize the solar panels output using automatized solutions.
References:

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
248706918_Automatic_sun_tracking_system

 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b17b/5ff5a3b02956fffa821f6d2d8743dc07784c.pdf

 https://www.seminarsonly.com/electronics/Automatic-Sun-Tracking-System.php

 https://www.academia.edu/15136023/Automatic_Sun_Tracking_System_ASTS_