Low Cost Dual Axis Automated Sunlight Tracker Design for Optimized PV Cell Power Yield

摘要

This paper presents a cost efficient heliostat that is able to follow the sun with high accuracy. The main purpose of this work is to design and fabricate a dual‐axis solar tracker with a view to assess the improvement in solar conversion efficiency. A comparative analysis was performed using three systems, i.e., Dual‐Axis Tracking, Single‐Axis Tracking, and Stationary Modules. An intelligent positioning design was achieved without the use of microcontrollers, which simplifies the tracking algorithm that consists of a closed loop dynamic feedback system acting on four pairs of LDR sensors. The results showed that the use of the Dual‐Axis Tracking System produced 19% gain on power output, compared with a Single‐Axis Tracking System. The gain of output power with the Dual‐Axis Tracking System was much higher (56%) when compared with a stationary system inclined at 30° to the horizontal