SUN TRACKING SOLAR PANEL TECHNOLOGY

Ms. G. Sowmya , K.Lakshmi Prasanna , ABandhavi, K.Vikram Manohar Reddy

1. Associate Professor, Project Guide, ECE Department, SoE, NNRG

2. IV-year B. Tech student – 167Z1A0440, ECE Department, SoE, NNRG
3. IV-year B. Tech student – 167Z1A0402, ECE Department, SoE, NNRG
4. IV-year B. Tech student – 167Z1A0438, ECE Department, SoE, NNRG

Keywords: ABSTRACT :
Solar panel In remote areas the sun is a cheap source of electricity
because instead of hydraulic generators it uses solar cells to
Automatic sun tracking system produce electricity. While the output of solar cells depends
Sensors on the intensity of sunlight and the angle of incidence. It
means to get maximum efficiency; the solar panels must
Sunlight remain in front of sun during the whole day. But due to
rotation of earth those panels can’t maintain their position
always in front of sun. This problem results in decrease of
their efficiency. Thus to get a constant output, an automated
system is required which should be capable to constantly
rotate the solar panel.
The Automatic Sun Tracking System (ASTS) was made as
a prototype to solve the problem, mentioned above. It is
completely automatic and keeps the panel in front of sun
until that is visible. The unique feature of this system is that
instead of taking the earth as its reference, it takes the sun
as a guiding source. Its active sensors constantly monitor
the sunlight and rotate the panel towards the direction where
the intensity of sunlight is maximum. In case the sun gets
invisible e.g. in cloudy weather, then without tracking the
sun the ASTS keeps rotating the solar panel in opposite
direction to the rotation of earth. But its speed of rotation is
same as that of earth’s rotation.

1.INTRODUCTION :
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. Solar panel absorbs the
energy from the Sun, converts it into electrical energy and stores the energy in a battery.
This energy can be utilized when required or can be used as a direct alternative to the grid supply.
Utilization of the energy stored in batteries is mentioned in below given applications.
The position of the Sun with respect to the solar panel is not fixed due to the rotation of the Earth.
For an efficient usage of the solar energy, the Solar panels should absorb energy to a maximum
extent.
This can be done only if the panels are continuously placed towards the direction of the Sun. So, solar
panel should continuously rotate in the direction of Sun. This article describes about circuit that
rotates solar panel.

PRINCIPLE OF SUN TRACKING SOLAR PANELS:

The Sun tracking solar panel consists of two LDRs, solar panel and a servo motor and
ATmega328 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 servo 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. Servo motor rotates the panel at certain angle.
When the intensity of the light falling on right LDR 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 cases, panel is constant
and there is no rotation.

ADVANTAGES:
• Renewable energy sources

• Reduces electricity bills

• Low maintenance cost
• Technology development

DISADVANTAGES :
• Cost
• Weather dependent
• Associated with pollution
• Uses a lot of space

APPLICATIONS :
• These panels can be used to power the traffic lights and streetlights
• These can be used in home to power the appliances using solar power.
• These can be used in industries as more energy can be saved by rotating the panel.
Limitations:
• Though solar energy can be utilized to maximum extent this may create problems in rainy
season.
• Although solar energy can be saved to batteries, they are heavy and occupy more space and
required to change time to time.
• They are expensive

2.METHODOLOG:
System model (circuit diagram) :

Components in the Circuit:

• Solar panel
• ATmega328 Micro Controller
• Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) x 2
• 10KΩ x 3
• Servo Motor
• 16MHz Crystal
• 22pF Ceramic Capacitors x 2
• Push Button
• Breadboard
• Cardboard
 • Connecting Wires

The proposed system consists of ATmega328 micro controller, Solar panel, Light Dependent
resistors and Servo Motor.

ATmega328 Microcontroller:
ATmega328 is an AVR family micro controller. It is based on advanced RISC architecture. It
is an 8-bit controller. It has 32K Bytes of Programmable Flash memory, 1K Bytes of EEPROM
and 2K Bytes of SRAM. It has 23 programmable I/O pins. It 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 (I2C), etc.

Solar Panel:
Solar panel is placed on a piece of cardboard (just for demonstration) and the bottom of the
cardboard is connected to Servo motor. Solar panel consists of photovoltaic cells arranged in
an order. Photovoltaic cell is nothing but a solar cell. Solar cell is made up of semiconductor
material silicon.
When a light ray from Sun is incident on the solar cell, some amount of energy is absorbed by
this material. The absorbed energy is enough for the 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.

LDR:
Light Dependent Resistors or LDRs are the resistors whose resistance values depend on
intensity of the 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.
ATmega328 has analog to digital converter internally. It has six ADC channels from ADC0 to
ADC5 (Pins 23 – 28). The two LDRs are connected to ADC pins i.e. 27 and 28 in a voltage
divider fashion with the help of individual 10KΩ Resistors. ADC conversion is done using
successive approximation method.

Servo Motor:
Servo motor is used to rotate the panel. To drive the servo motor, a PWM Signal must be
provided to its control pin and hence Pin 17 (which has PWM) is connected to the control pin
of the servo motor.
By connecting a battery to the solar panel, you can store the energy generated by the solar cells
and this energy can be used when required. There are separate charge controller circuits
dedicated to efficiently control the charge acquired from solar panels and charge the batteries.
WORKING:

• Assemble the circuit as described and upload the code to ATmega328

Microcontroller.
• Power on the circuit and place the set up directly under the Sun (on the
rooftop).
• Based on the light falling on the two LDRs, the ATmega328
Microcontroller changes the position of the Servo Motor which in turn
moves in the pane
REFERENCES:
https://www.seminarsonly.com/electronics/solar-mobile-charger.php
https://www.electronicshub.org/sun-tracking-solar-panel/