World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 17 2008

Solar Tracking System: More Efficient Use

of Solar Panels
J. Rizk, and Y. Chaiko
South DC, NSW 1797, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]).
Abstract—This paper shows the potential system Y. Chaiko is with Riga Technical University, 1, Kalku Street, LV-1658,
Riga, Latvia (e-mail: [email protected]).
benefits of simple tracking solar system using a stepper
motor and light sensor. This method is increasing power level ground, it is obvious that over the course of the
collection efficiency by developing a device that tracks day the sunlight will have an angle of incidence close
the sun to keep the panel at a right angle to its rays. A to 90°in the morning and the evening. At such an
solar tracking system is designed, implemented and angle, the light gathering ability of the cell is
experimentally tested. The design details and the essentially zero, resulting in no output. As the day
experimental results are shown. progresses to midday, the angle of incidence
approaches 0°, causing an steady increase in power
Keywords—Renewable Energy, Power Optimization. until at the point where the light incident on the panel
is completely perpendicular, and maximum power is
I. INTRODUCTION achieved.

E
As the day continues toward dusk, the reverse
XTRACTING useable electricity from the happens, and the increasing angle causes the power to
sun was made possible by the discovery of decrease again toward minimum again.
the photoelectric mechanism From this background, we see the need to maintain
and subsequent development of the solar cell – a the maximum power output from the panel by
semiconductive material that converts visible light into maintaining an angle of incidence as close to 0° as
a direct current. By using solar arrays, a series of solar possible. By tilting the solar panel to continuously
cells electrically connected, a DC voltage is generated face the sun, this can be achieved. This process of
which can be physically used on a load. Solar arrays sensing and following the position of the sun is known
or panels are being used increasingly as efficiencies as Solar Tracking. It was resolved that real-time
reach higher levels, and are especially popular in tracking would be necessary to follow the sun
remote areas where placement of electricity lines is effectively, so that no external data would be required
not economically viable. in operation.
This alternative power source is continuously
achieving greater popularity especially since the
II. THE SENSING ELEMENT AND SIGNAL
realisation of fossil fuel’s shortcomings. Renewable
PROCESSING
energy in the form of electricity has been in use to
some degree as long as 75 or 100 years ago. Sources Many different methods have been proposed and
such as Solar, Wind, Hydro and Geothermal have all used to track the position of the sun. The simplest of
been utilised with varying levels of success. The most all uses an LDR – a Light Dependent Resistor to
widely used are hydro and wind power, with solar detect light intensity changes on the surface of the
power being moderately used worldwide. This can be resistor. Other methods, such as that published by Jeff
attributed to the relatively high cost of solar cells and Damm in ‘Home Power’ [8], use two phototransistors
their low conversion efficiency. Solar power is being covered with a small plate to act as a shield to
heavily researched, and solar energy costs have now sunlight, as shown in Fig. 1.
reached within a few cents per kW/h of other forms of
electricity generation, and will drop further with new
technologies such as titaniumoxide cells. With a peak
laboratory efficiency of 32% and average efficiency of
15-20%[1-4], it is necessary to recover as much energy
as possible from a solar power system.
This includes reducing inverter losses, storage
losses, and light gathering losses. Light gathering is
dependent on the angle of incidence of the light source Fig. 1 Alternative solar tracking method
providing power (i.e. the sun) to the solar cell’s
surface, and the closer to perpendicular, the greater the When morning arrives, the tracker is in state A from
power [1-7]. If a flat solar panel is mounted on the previous day. The left phototransistor is turned on,
causing a signal to turn the motor continuously until
J. Rizk is with University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith

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 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 17 2008

the shadow from the plate returns the tracker to state the angle of incidence of light to the reference panels
B. As the day slowly progresses, state C is reached will cause more light to fall on one cell than the other.
shortly, turning on the right phototransistor. The This will obviously cause a voltage difference,
motor turns until state B is reached again, and the where the cell that is facing the sun will have higher
cycle continues until the end of the day, or until the potential than the other. This phenomenon will result
minimum detectable light level is reached. in a detectable signal at each cell, which can be
processed by a suitable circuit.
The problem with a design like this is that
phototransistors have a narrow range of sensitivity, III. A PROTOTYPE SOLAR TRACKER
once they have been set up in a circuit under set bias The final stage involved coupling the circuitry to
conditions. It was because of this fact that solar cells the motor and mounting it onto the bracket. The final
themselves were chosen to be the sensing devices. product is seen complete in Fig. 5. It has a Solarex
They provide an excellent mechanism in light intensity 9W solar array made of polycrystalline silicon
detection – because they are sensitive to varying light mounted on the flanges, which was borrowed from the
and provide a near-linear voltage range that can be tech officers.
used to an advantage in determining the present Quite simply having two test subjects carried out
declination or angle to the sun. As a result, a simple testing. The first scenario involved removing the
triangular set-up was proposed, with the two solar panel from the tracker and laying it in a flat
cells facing opposite directions, as shown in Fig. 2. orientation. The output was connected to a load that
In its rest position, the solar cells both receive an would dissipate 9W that would match the panel’s
equal amount of sunlight, as the angle of incidence, rating. 9W at 12V corresponds to a current of 0.75A,
although not so by Ohm’s law; a load resistance was calculated as
90°, is equal in both cases as seen in Fig. 3. being 16Ω. A 15Ω 50W resistor was the closest value
found and was connected to the panel. The tracking
device still requires power, but a 12V battery that is
connected in a charging arrangement with the solar
Cell 1 Cell 2 panel supplies it. The voltage across and current
through the load was monitored using two separate
multimeters, and was recorded every halfhour on a
clear day into an Excel spreadsheet. The readings
were taken on a span of days that possessed similar
conditions including no cloud cover. The readings are
shown below in a graph generated by Excel in Fig. 6.
Fig. 2 Set-up of solar reference cells

Fig. 5 A prototype solar tracker

Fig. 3 Solar reference cells at rest position

It can be seen in Fig. 4 that as the sun moves in the

sky, assuming that the solar tracker has not yet moved,

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simple construction and the high torque capabilities

of the motor. The parts used for this device were also
extremely low-cost, with the total value using parts
found from ‘scrap’ sources being a total of about
A$30, including all electronic components and solar
reference cells. The geared support was removed
from an old security camera, the stepping motor from
an old printer, and all other parts, excluding the 9W
solar panel, were sourced from various scrap items.
Fig. 6 Experimental results of power increase for tracked However, if all
panel

It is possible to calculate a percentage increase and

an average increase by writing the appropriate
calculations in excel. It was found that in this case,
the fixed panel provided an average of 39% of its
9W, or 3.51W, calculated over a 12hour period. By
contrast, the tracked solar panel achieved an overall
71% output, or 6.3W over the same time frame. At
the earlier and later hours, the power increase over these parts would have to be purchased, the cost would
the fixed panel reached up to 400%. This amounts to be projected at no more than A$100.
an average 30% increase in power simply by A single axis tracker such as the one made offers a
maintaining the solar panel as perpendicular as great power increase over a fixed solar panel, but a
possible to the sun. two-axis tracker would provide more power still. This
To ensure that power was not being wasted, the could be a subject for further development.
device itself was also monitored for current drawn to Solar tracking is by far the easiest method to
power itself. When the device was at rest, an increase overall efficiency of a solar power system for
ammeter was placed in series with the battery. The use by domestic or commercial users. By utilising this
total current at 12V was measured as only 4mA, simple design, it is possible for an individual to
which corresponded to a power dissipation of 48mW construct the device themselves.
under no load.
V. CONCLUSION
IV. DISCUSSION A solar tracker is designed employing the new
A solar tracker was proposed, designed and principle of using small solar cells to function as self-
constructed. The final design was successful, in that adjusting light sensors, providing a variable indication
it achieved an overall power collection efficiency of their relative angle to the sun by detecting their
increase from only 39% for a fixed panel to over voltage output. By using this method, the solar tracker
70% for the same panel on the tracking device. In was successful in maintaining a solar array at a
terms of real value, this means that the overall cost of sufficiently perpendicular angle to the sun. The power
a system can be reduced significantly, considering increase gained over a fixed horizontal array was in
that much more power can be supplied by the solar excess of 30%.
array coupled to a solar tracking device. By
extracting more power from the same solar panel, the REFERENCES
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Fig. 4 Solar reference cells at a significant angle to the sun

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