Solar tracking system with automatic panel cooling mechanism for efficient power generation

Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Energy crisis is the most important issue in today’s world. Conventional energy resources are not only limited but also the prime culprit for environmental pollution. Renewable energy resources are getting priorities in the whole world to lessen the dependency on conventional resources. Solar energy is rapidly gaining the focus as an important means of expanding renewable energy uses. Solar cells those convert sun’s energy into electrical energy are costly and inefficient. Different mechanisms are applied to increase the efficiency of the solar cell to reduce the cost. Solar tracking system is the most appropriate technology to enhance the efficiency of the solar cells by tracking the sun. A microcontroller based design methodology of an automatic solar tracker is presented in this paper. Light dependent resistors are used as the sensors of the solar tracker. The designed tracker has precise control mechanism which will provide three ways of controlling system. A small prototype of solar tracking system is also constructed to implement the design methodology presented here. Compared for various combinations. From the results it could be depicted that tracking with only reflection and only cooling give higher power than tracking without reflection or cooling; but while tracking with reflection plus cooling the power increase is much more than any other combination.

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