Rotating Solar Tracker System for Solar Panel Power Optimization
Project Summary: To provide maximum power output, a solar panel must face the sun directly. This project will be focusing on solar electricity generation by use of Rotating Solar Tracking System, Sun releases an estimated 384.6 Yotta watts of energy in the form of light and o
2025-06-28 16:28:59 - Adil Khan
Rotating Solar Tracker System for Solar Panel Power Optimization
Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject SummaryProject Summary:
To provide maximum power output, a solar panel must face the sun directly. This project will be focusing on solar electricity generation by use of Rotating Solar Tracking System, Sun releases an estimated 384.6 Yotta watts of energy in the form of light and other forms of radiation. Energy has become mankind’s basic need of living. Energy crisis is causing tension on conventional energy resources.
Renewable energy has gained tremendous attention in recent years and solar systems are becoming cheaper day by day due to increasing demand, It is observed that in almost every solar system fixed stand has been used, which comes along with it. Standalone systems are only positioned at the constant angle for energy production for a limited number of hours each day. With a Rotating Solar Tracking System, panel will always position to optimal angle to achieve high degree of sunlight to achieve maximum efficiency. We purpose and design Rotating Solar Tracking System which will carry the solar panel and rotates it around the sun using sensors which will surely enhance the power rating of Solar panels. The proposed system will be very efficiently used in remote areas, because in remote areas or in rural areas we do not have other source of electricity. The aim to design such a system is to achieve maximum efficiency of solar panels, as sunshine is available throughout the year in Pakistan. By taking advantage of this opportunity moving Solar panels in the direction of Sun with the help of sensors, the efficiency can be further increased up to 25 to 30%.
? References:
? A. Qazi et al., "Towards Sustainable Energy: A Systematic Review of Renewable Energy Sources, Technologies, and Public Opinions," in IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 63837-63851, 2019, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2906402.
? A. Sawant, D. Bondre, A. Joshi, P. Tambavekar and A. Deshmukh, "Design and Analysis of Automated Dual Axis Solar Tracker Based on Light Sensors," 2018 2nd International Conference on I- SMAC (IoT in Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) (I-SMAC)I- SMAC (IoT in Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) (I-SMAC), 2018 2nd International Conference on, Palladam, India, 2018, pp. 454-459, doi: 10.1109/I-SMAC.2018.8653779.
? A. Masih and I. Odinaev, "Performance Comparison of Dual Axis Solar Tracker with Static Solar System in Ural Region of Russia," 2019 Ural Symposium on Biomedical Engineering, Radioelectronics and Information Technology (USBEREIT), Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2019, pp.375-378,doi:
? A. H. Mohaimin, M. R. Uddin and F. K. Law, "Design and Fabrication of Single-Axis and Dual-Axis Solar Tracking Systems," 2018 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD),Selangor,Malaysia,2018,pp.1-4,doi: 10.1109/SCORED.2018.8711044.
Project ObjectivesProject Objectives:
? The main objective of this project is to design and build Rotating Solar Tracking System for Solar Panel Power Optimization. and investigate the efficiency of solar system.
? To design a prototype of the proposed system on Fusion 360 software by Autodesk.
? To create a system that can follow the sun vertically and horizontally.
? 3. Hardware testing of the proposed system will be carried out by checking the system ability to track and follow the sunlight in efficient way in real time environment.
Project implementation comprises of the following steps:
? Designing a prototype of proposed system on Fusion 360 software by Autodesk.
Fig 1. Process of designing the prototype
? Assembling electronic components according to the proposed design, after that Arduino coding will be carried out such that the proposed system can detect the sun using the LDR. In addition to that the servo motor will also be used for rotating the solar panels.
? The final phase of the project will be testing our project in real time environment.
- Block Diagram of Proposed System:
? Motor Driver:
The speed of DC motor an also be controlled with MCU. PWM or pulse width modulation technique is used to digitally control speed of dc motors.
? Block Diagram
Here sun position can be calculated from sun position algorithm and panel position can
be calculated from angle sensors connected to the tracker. Figure 1 shows the block diagram of rotating solar tracker. 4 LDR sensors are placed adjacent to the solar panel and will be activated when light is detected. An activate signal will be sent to the microcontroller and when the signal is received, the Arduino microcontroller will trigger the 2 drivers and activate the 2 motors.
? Electric Circuit Design:
The electric system is included four sensors fixed on the panel. They detect the largest irradiation of sun rays and convert it into transferred signal to programmable unit which find the direction of motors movement in horizontal east-west or vertical north- south directions. Therefore, the panel is adjusted in the optimum position. Fig. 2 show the Flowcharts for tracking system activated by Arduino program and the block diagram of solar system.
? Tracking Process:
DC motor movement will follow the condition of the LDR. In rotating solar tracking system, there are 2 DC motors. One motor is used to control elevation axis and another motor is used to control azimuth axis.
? Case 1: LDR1 light intensity > LDR2, LDR3 and LDR4
If LDR sensor 1 has the highest intensity of light hit on it thus producing a higher voltage output than the other sensors.DC motor A rotates in clockwise direction and DC motor B rotates counter-clockwise direction
Case 2: LDR2 light intensity > LDR1, LDR3 and LDR4
If LDR 2 receives more light thanelevation axis has to move counter- clockwise and the azimuth axis move clockwise.
? Case 3: LDR3 light intensity > LDR1, LDR2 and LDR4
DC motor B rotates clockwise. azimuth axis which is controlled by DC motor A will rotate counter-clockwise.
? Case 4: LDR4 light intensity > LDR1, LDR2 and LDR3
this case, the solar tracker needs to rotate its elevation axis clockwise and the azimuth axis must rotate counter-clockwise. In this simulation DC motor A moves counter-clockwise and DC motor B will rotate clockwise.
? Case 5: LDR1 light intensity = LDR2 = LDR3 = LDR4
At this State The DC motor A and B stay at the same position instead of rotating.
Benefits of the Project? Benefits of the Project:
Multiple degree of freedom trackers are particularly useful when higher energy output is desirable with area availability constraints. This can be suitable for homes, offices, solar heater and solar steam power plant too. These trackers are advantageous, especially at farmlands and commercial complexes, where has inbuilt algorithm for position control, one can use it at any part of world having sunlight presence. Also, it is most useful in rainy days as sun radiations comes from different direction due to cloudy condition
Project Technical:
This project comprises of Fusion 360 prototype and hardware, for multiple application. In this project Rotating Solar Tracking System For Solar Panel Power Optimization.is by using solar detector like light dependent resistors LDR to find sun’s position in the sky and rotate the PV panel toward the sun using motors and actuators. The end delivery will be closed loop hardware and software Design system working together in real-time.
The proposed device design is shown in Fig 4:
Fig.4 Proposed Design
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 29000 | |||
| Arduino | Equipment | 2 | 1000 | 2000 |
| 3D Prototype Printing | Equipment | 1 | 12000 | 12000 |
| Sensors | Equipment | 10 | 60 | 600 |
| Solar Panel | Equipment | 1 | 1200 | 1200 |
| Wires | Equipment | 20 | 60 | 1200 |
| Servo Motors | Equipment | 2 | 1500 | 3000 |
| Travelling for Consultation | Miscellaneous | 3 | 1500 | 4500 |
| Holding of the panel | Miscellaneous | 1 | 2000 | 2000 |
| Thesis Printing | Miscellaneous | 5 | 500 | 2500 |