Performance Enhancement of Solar Panel Using Dual Axis Solar Tracker

Abstract

Installation of solar panel in most of solar power plant (off grid and on grid station) using fixed tilt angle. Fixed tilt angle system that implemented on solar power plant is directing solar panel to the sun in certain angle. For the extraction of maximum energy from the sun, the plane of the solar panel should always be normal to the incident radiation. Solar panel installed in a fixed tilt angle facing the sun perpendicularly only for several hours. In this experimental study, dual axis solar tracker (DAST) has been designed and implemented to facing solar panel to the sun perpendicularly. This DAST system is microcontroller-based which using arduino uno as main controller. Light dependent photo resistors (LDR) are used as the sensor of DAST. For rotating the appropriate position, servo motors are used. All experiment output parameters stored in SD card. This DAST system is designed to control the Altitude angle in the vertical plane as well as the Azimuth angle in the horizontal plane of the solar panel workspace. This experimental study shows the output of solar panel using DAST system increase significantly compared to fixed tilt angle solar panel.