Design and Analysis of Weather-Dependent Dynamic Dual-Axis Stepper Motor Solar Tracker

Tie, Daniel Tong Hong (2021) Design and Analysis of Weather-Dependent Dynamic Dual-Axis Stepper Motor Solar Tracker. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

In order to fully utilize solar energy efficiently, the method of tracking the sun is now generally adopted to maximize the output power. This project introduces the control principle, system hardware composition and control algorithm of the sun tracking system. The dual-axis solar tracking system a adopt stepper motor and a linear actuator to achieve both pitch and horizontal moving mechanism to adjust the solar photovoltaic panel azimuth and altitude angle. On this basis, the solar tracking system with high tracking accuracy, simple structure, reliable control, and low energy consumption rate which is able to improves effectively the utilization rate of solar energy is developed. Besides, the energy consumption of the dual-axis solar tracking system is 1.38% of the energy generation which is lower than dual motor dual-axis solar tracking system in the market. The dual axis solar tracker is programmed by Arduino which using the idea of shadow effect on the LDRs and the microcontroller will operate according to corresponding situation. In addition, to prevent micromovement, the system will scan LDRs’ value every 5 minutes instead of scanning every second. The dual axis solar tracker shows 21.8% and 53.65% higher energy conversion efficiency as compare to single axis and fixed solar panel. The energy improvement of the system was increased by 62.10% as compared to fixed solar panel. The prototype consumed with 1.38% of energy generation in a sunny weather. Last but not least, parallel tests were conducted and verified the dual axis solar tracking system increase the energy conversion efficiency compared to the single axis solar tracker ang fixed panel type under normal weather conditions; the prototype improved a higher weightage of energy improvement as compare to other dual axis solar tracker in the market.