Sun Tracking Solar Panel

As the non renewable energy resources are decreasing, use of renewable resources for producing electricity is increasing. Solar panels are becoming more popular day by day. In the country like ours where we face half a day load-shedding it has become the best alternative. Solar panels absorbs the energy from the sun and is stored in the battery. This energy can be utilized when required. Solar panels should absorb energy to maximum extent. This can be one only if the panels are place towards the sun direction. So panels should continuously rotate in the direction of sun. 

Sun Tracking Solar Panel Principle

The sun tracking solar panel consists of two LDRs, solar panel and stepper motor and Micro-controller. Two light dependent resistors are arranged on the edges of the solar panel. Light dependent resistors produce low resistance when light falls on them. The stepper motor connected to the panel rotates the panel in the direction of Sun. Panel is arranged in such a way that light on two LDRs is compared and panel is rotated towards LDR which have high intensity i.e. low resistance compared to other. Stepper motor rotates the panel at certain angle.

When intensity of light falling on right LR is more, panel slowly moves towards right and if intensity on the left LDR is more, panel slowly moves towards left. In the noon time, Sun is ahead and intensity of light on both the panels is same In such a cases, panel is constant and there is no rotation.

Sun Tracking Solar Panel Circuit Diagram







Sun Tracking Solar Panel Circuit Diagram


Components in the Circuit


  • Solar Panel
  • micro-controller
  • Light Dependent Resistor
  • Motor Driver IC
  • Stepper Motor
Automated Sun Tracking Solar Panel Circuit Design

The proposed system consists of ATmega8 microcontroller, Solar panel, Light Dependent Resistors and motor driver IC. ATmega8 is AVR family microcontroller. It is based on an advancedRISC architecture. It is an 8 bit controller having Kb flash memory,512 bytes of EEPROM and 1KB SRAM. It has 23 programmable pins, supports peripheral features like two 8-bit timers, one 16-bit timer, 6 channel ADC with 10-bit resolution, programmable USART, Serial peripheral interface, 2 wire serial interface, etc. Solar panel is connected to the stepper motor. Solar panel consists of photovoltic cells arranged in order. Solar cell is made up of semiconductor material silicon. When a light ray from the sun is incident on the solar cell, some amount of energy is absorbed by this material. The absorbed energy is enough for electrons to jump from one orbit to other inside the atom. Cells have one or more electric field that directs the electrons which creates current. By placing metal contact energy can be obtained from these cells.

Light Dependent Resistors are the resistors whose resistance values depend on intensity of light. As the intensity of light falling on the LDR increases, resistance value decreases. In dark, LDR will have maximum resistance. LDR will output an analog value which should be converted to digital. This can be done using analog to digital converter. ATmega8 has analog to digital converter internally. It has 6 ADC channel from ADC0 to ADC5. The two LDRs are connected to ADC pins i.e. PC0 and PC1. ADC conversion is done using successive approximation method.

Stepper motor rotates the panel in a stepwise angle. To drive this motor a driver IC is used. Driver IC amplifies the input voltage and protects the microcontroller from back EMF. The motor driver IC used is L293D. It has H-bridge internally made up of transistors. This IC has 16 pins. Output pins are connected to the stepper motor pins and Input pins to the controller.

By connecting the battery in the solar panel, one can store the energy generated by the solar cells and this energy can be used when required.

How Sun Tracking Solar Panel Works?

  • Initially power the circuit
  • Place the setup in dark
  • When the two LDRs are in dark, there is no movement in the panel
  • Now place a torch in front of the left LDR. Panels slowly move towards left.
  • Now move the light from left to right. The panel moves slowly with the torch towards right.
  • In the middle when the intensity on both LDRs is equal, panel will not move until there is difference between the light intensity falling on the LDRs.

Code for Sun Tracking Solar Panel


//suntracker.c

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <util/delay.h>

void InitADC()
{
ADMUX=(1<<REFS0);                         // For Aref=AVcc;
ADCSRA=(1<<ADEN)|(1<<ADPS2)|(1<<ADPS1)|(1<<ADPS0); //Prescalar div factor =128
}

uint16_t ReadADC(uint8_t ch)
{
   //Select ADC Channel ch must be 0-7
   ch=ch&0b00000111;
   ADMUX|=ch;

   //Start Single conversion
   ADCSRA|=(1<<ADSC);

   //Wait for conversion to complete
   while(!(ADCSRA & (1<<ADIF)));
   
   ADCSRA|=(1<<ADIF);

   return(ADC);
}
int check(int cnt)
{
if(cnt>16)
{
for(int i=0;i<30;i++)
for(int i=0;i<60;i++)
_delay_ms(1000);
cnt=0;
DDRB=0xFF;
for(int i=0;i<16;i++)
{
PORTB=0B00010000;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00001000;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00000100;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00000010;
_delay_ms(2);
}
DDRD=0xFF;//30.0
PORTD=0B00110000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
for(int i=0;i<9;i++)
for(int i=0;i<60;i++)
for(int i=0;i<60;i++)
_delay_ms(1000);
}
return(cnt);

}
void disp(int cnt)
{
switch(cnt)
{
case 0: DDRD=0xFF;//30.0
PORTD=0B00110000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 1: DDRD=0xFF;//37.5
PORTD=0B00110000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 2: DDRD=0xFF;//45.0
PORTD=0B01000000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01010000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 3: DDRD=0xFF;//53.5
PORTD=0B01010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 4: DDRD=0xFF;//60.0
PORTD=0B01100000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 5: DDRD=0xFF;//67.5
PORTD=0B01100000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 6: DDRD=0xFF;//75.0
PORTD=0B01110000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01010000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 7: DDRD=0xFF;//83.5
PORTD=0B10000000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 8: DDRD=0xFF;//90.0
PORTD=0B10010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 9: DDRD=0xFF;//97.5
PORTD=0B10010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 10: DDRD=0xFF;//105
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 11: DDRD=0xFF;//113
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00010011;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 12: DDRD=0xFF;//120
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00100000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 13: DDRD=0xFF;//127
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00100111;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 14: DDRD=0xFF;//135
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00110101;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 15: DDRD=0xFF;//143
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01000011;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
case 16: DDRD=0xFF;//150
PORTD=0B00010000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B01010000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000000;
_delay_ms(100);
break;
}
}
void motor()
{
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000010;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00000100;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00001000;
_delay_ms(2);
PORTB=0B00010000;
_delay_ms(2);
}
void main()
{
   uint16_t value;
   int cnt=0;
   MCUCSR|=(1<<JTD); // sendig 1 to JTD, DISABLE JTAG
   MCUCSR|=(1<<JTD);
   InitADC();
   DDRD=0xFF;//30.0
PORTD=0B00110000;
DDRC=0xFF;
PORTC=0B00000000;
DDRB=0xFF;
PORTB=0B00000001;
   while(1)
   {
value=ReadADC(0);// Read Analog value from channel A0
if(value<=750)
{
cnt++;
cnt=check(cnt);
motor();
disp(cnt);
}
}
}


Advantages of Sun Tracking Solar Panel
  • The solar energy can be reused as it is renewable source 
  • This is cost efficient as there is no need to pay for energy use.
  • The life time increases as they are mostly fully charged.
Sun Tracking Solar Panel Application

These panels can be used from household, business to the industrial purpose as well with the full optimization of the resources available.

Limitations

  1. Although solar energy can be utilized to maximum extent this may create problems in rainy season
  2. Solar batteries are to be maintained timely
  3. Installation cost is expensive.
Reference: Different websites and books that do not have any copyright issues.

Comments

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