Design of Track Control System in PV

Jun-ming Xiao , Ling-yun Jiao , Hai-ming Zhu, Rui Zhang

School of Electronic and Information Engineering Zhongyuan University of Technology Zhengzhou, P.R. China xiaojunming528@163.com(1. M .Xiao) jiaolingyun@163.com(L. Y. Jiao)

Abstract-Solar

energy has an enormous developing application

industry. In order to reduce the cost of PV power, countries around the world are constantly exploring, at this stage the more mature approach are mainly tracking method and the light-gathering method. Tracking method that is using "sunflower" model, keep light vertical irradiate photovoltaic array surface to improve solar panels' ability of absorb solar radiation. Track control system in PV using automatic tracking solar power generation equipment can enhance the power generation efficiency 35%, decrease cost by 25% [2]. II. THE STRUCTURE OF TRACK CONTROL SYSTEM IN PV

capacity as one kind of green renewable energy source which can be continuously used forever. The track control system in PV adapts automatic tracking light techniques to make solar panels always perpendicular to sunlight. This way can greatly improve the generated energy of PV array, add solar energy utilization ratio, reduces the cost of photovoltaic power. This paper mainly introduces the basic structure and hardware and software design process of track control system in PV, gives the hardware circuit, parameter test methods and software control process of this system, analysis the advantages and disadvantages of sun trajectory tracking mode and electro-optical tracking mode, choose the method that electro-optical tracking as the major tracking mode while the sun trajectory tracking mode as additional tracking mode on unusual weather conditions.
Keywords-photovoltaic power; automatic track control;

controller; sun trajectory tracking; electro-optical tracking

I.

INTRODUCTION

In the energy crisis and environmental pollution highlight of today ,states have adopted a series of significant measures to encourage and support the development of solar energy. Photovoltaic power is one of the main ways of solar energy utilization, has the characteristics of environmentally-friendly and non-polluting, application range is very wide, has now been used in communication, transportation and other fields, has a place in the national economy energy system [1]. At present, the cost of photovoltaic power generation is too high, can not be compared with the traditional forms of power generation, influenced the development of domestic PV power Solar energy as one kind of clean and non-pollution energy, has very broad prospects for development, however, there is the problem of low density, intermittent and space distribution changes [3], which put forward higher requirements for the collection and use of solar energy. At present, solar panels of photovoltaic power generation system are basically fixed, can not make full use of solar energy resources and generation efficiency is lower. Track control system in PV can
Fig.l The block diagram of track control system in PY

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automatically adjust the orientation of solar panels according to the altitude angle and azimuth angle of sun, make the sun light always perpendicular incident the surface of photovoltaic array to obtain the maximum power generation efficiency. As figure
I

lj? is installation site latitude;

days of year.

Bh is solar hour angle;

is the

According to the geographical latitude, the declination Angle and observation time, using equation (1) and (2) can calculate the sun's altitude angle and azimuth angle at any moment, any area.
B.

show is the block diagram of track control

system in PV, system uses modular design, mainly composed by photovoltaic array, tracker, sensors, controller, inverter and other components. Sensors can accurately receive sunshine within a certain angle and transform it into a measurable error signal; tracker can handle the error signal which is measured by sensors, then output motor triggered signals according to the control algorithm; controller can control the motor's running and stop according to the motor triggered signals. III.
TRACKING METHOD AND CONTROL STRATEGY DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Tracking mode
The tracking mode that adopts at home and abroad

currently is very much, it can be divided into sun trajectory tracking mode and electro-optical tracking according to the different forms of tracking [5], can be divided into uniaxial tracking method and biaxial tracking method according to the different forms of exercise [6]. Both sun trajectory tracking mode and electro-optical tracking mode have some limitations, sun trajectory tracking mode need to accurate positioning before running, can not carry on automatic adjustment when sun angle calculation has errors. Electro-optical tracking mode under the influence of the weather greatly, usually appear not to track or wrong track of the situation because of the weather problem, especially in cloudy weather conditions may occur motor reciprocating motion situation, result in the waste of energy. This paper selected the biaxial tracking method of sun trajectory tracking mode combined with electro-optical tracking mode. In the situation of strong light using light intensity detect circuit detect ray deviation to electro-optical tracking, In case of weather changes the system automatically turns into sun trajectory tracking mode.

A.

The calculation a/sun angle

The sun path changes as the season changes, the sun

position tracking method can be divided into horizon coordinates tracking and equatorial coordinates tracking, horizon coordinate tracking method track the sun's altitude angle and azimuth angle, equatorial coordinate tracking method track the sun's declination angle and solar hour angle. Since the change range of solar declination angle is no more than 2327', its changes slowly so choose horizon coordinate tracing method. The calculation formula of sun altitude angle azimuth angle rs [4]:
a

and

sin a cos rs

sin lj? sin 5 + cos lj? cos 5 cos Bh ( 1 ) (sin a sin lj? sin 5) / (cos a cos lj?)
-

C.

Control mode
In photovoltaic power tracking system, control mode can

be divided into three types of open loop, closed loop and hybrid control according to whether exist feedback while the control system control the quantity control. Although the open loop control mode is uncomplicated and easy to realize, has the problem of tracking inaccurate, when the continuous overcast and rainy days, system will consume large amounts

Or, sin rs

cos 5 sin Bh / cos a

(2)

Where, declination angle

23.45 sin(360 x

284 + 365

of power. Therefore, this article selected the closed loop control mode. Closed loop control mode schematic diagram is shown as Fig.2.

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As the figure shown, closed loop control mode is using sensor detect the deviation of the incident light rays of sun and system optical axis, when the deviation over the threshold, drive machine part tum to move through motor, reduce the deviation until the sun ray and system optical axis afresh parallelism, realize the tracking of the solar altitude angles and azimuth Angle.

elements. Phototransistor

Dl

and

D2

tum on after accept

sunshine, triode amplify the electrical signals. The voltage across the voltage follower is equal, avoid the mutual influence of front and back electric circuit, differential amplifier amplify two voltage's difference value.

Comparator's output voltage VDID2 compared with reference voltage Vref, if the co-rotating input voltage larger than the reverse input voltage, the output is high-level, else is low-level. The motor run while the compare result VI is

Fig.2 Closed loop control schematic diagram

low-level.

IV.
A.

DESIGN OF SYSTEM HARDWARE

The basic composition ofhardware

PV tracking controller is a power plant that can make the

solar panel track the orientation of sunshine at any time and the sun light vertical irradiates to the solar panel. It's mainly compose with sensor, light intensity detect circuit, temperature detect circuit, current/voltage detect circuit, stepping motor, motor driver and other until, the hardware structure is shown as Fig.3.
AGND

FigA Light intensity detect circuit schematic

C.

Stepping motor driver circuit

Stepping motor is one kind of actuator that converts

electric pulse into angular displacement, in the tracking control system using the controller's output signal as stepping
Fig.3 Controller hardware block diagram

motor driver's input control signal, in order to control stepping motor's positive inversion of longitudinal direction and horizontal direction. As Fig.5 shown is one of the stepping motor drive circuits, the system totally have four stepping motor drive circuits, respectively drive stepping motor's positive inversion of longitudinal direction and horizontal direction. Control pulse goes into transistor after 74LS 14 reverse phase, the pulse amplified by the transistor, then control photoelectric switch. After photoelectric isolation, carry on the voltage and current amplification by power tube, then drive each phase windings of stepping motor, make stepping

B.

Light intensity detect circuit

The 14 parameters that PV tracking system can detect are

the output voltage/current of PV arrays, battery charging electric current/voltage, output AC current and AC voltage of inverter, environment temperature, battery temperature, PV arrays temperature, environment light intensity, tracking light intensity, sun altitude angle, azimuth angle and wind velocity. Light intensity detect circuit schematic is shown as FigA, circuit is mainly consisted by photosensitive sensor, integrated operational amplifier, triode, resistance, capacitance and other

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motor do forward, backward, speed up, slow down or stop movement. As Fig.5 shown L is one phase winding of stepping motor, RL is winding internal resistance, R
IS

Fig.6 System operating procedures

The software part of PV tracking control system mainly include mam program, data acquisition subroutine, monitoring subroutine, electro-optical tracking subroutine, sun trajectory tracking subroutine, battery charge and discharge subroutine, and so on, control flow is shown as Fig.6. The system can multiple detect signal acquisition, display, query, etc, can carry on real-time or historical data's graphics image processing and print output for the

external resistors, has the function of limit current and improves the circuit time constant, the shunt capacitance across the external resistors can enhance the high frequency performance of stepping motor, D is fly-wheel diode, avoid power tuber's damage because of the back electromotive force that produced by motor winding.
+25V

information stored in the database, has the function of self-calibration, self-diagnosis and self-test. At the same time, the system can automatically adjust the position of PV array according to test results, in order to achieve real-time tracking target. VI.
CONCLUSIONS

Development and use of solar energy is one of the

Fig.S Stepping motor driver circuit

effective solutions of human energy crisis and the effective means of reducing environmental pollution, solar photovoltaic cell array's power generation has relation with the incidence angle of sunlight, the generation is the largest when ray perpendicular to the PV array. PV tracking control system using light automatic tracking mode to make solar battery always perpendicular to sunlight, this method can greatly enhance the capacity of solar array, reduce the overall cost of PV power generation, create high economic efficiency, meet the request of setting up the environmental protection economy energy type social, has the theory research meaning and application prospect of promotion. REFERENCES
[I] [2] [3] [4] X.K.Li. "Photovoltaic power development and policy analysis", Sun energy,voI.2,pp.58-61, 2008.

V.

SYSTEM SOFTWARE DESIGN

Protection subroutine

J. F. Yang and J. P. Wang. "Design of controller for full automatic tracking solar", Foreign electronic components, volA, pp. 4-6, 2007. J. L. Li and S. B. Zhou. "Design of a new kind of solar photovoltaic power tracking system", Electrical applications, vo1.28, pp.68-71, 2009.

P. C. Yu and Y. F. Chen. "A FPPY power system based on intelligent sun tracking with low power cost", Measurement and control technology, vo1.27, pp.36-39, 2008. X. H. Wang. "Design and research of multiple plane mirror condensation solar tracking system", Hefei, Hefei university, 2007.

[5] [ 6]

B. X. Zhang. "Research of solar energy utilization tracking and gather system", Hefei, Hefei university, 2006.

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