Arduino Based Solar Tracking System

A
Project Report

Submitted
In partial fulfillment
For the award of the Degree of
Bachelor of Technology
In Department of Electrical Engineering

Submitted to
Submitted by :-
Mr. Sandeep KumarJain
Vishal Kumar Ram (22TEC2EE009)
Assistant Professor
Abhishek Kumar (22TEC2EE008)
Vikash Kumar Gupta (22TEC2EE012)
Robby Kumar (23TEC2EEL01)
Suraj Kumar (22TEC2EE012)

(Department of Electrical Engineering)

VIVEKANANDA GLOBAL UNIVERSITY, JAIPUR
May 2023-24
 CONDIDATE’S DECLERATION

I hereby declare that the work, which is being presented in the project, entitled
“Arduino Based Solar Tracking System” in partial fulfillment for the award of
Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Department of Electrical Engineering and
submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering, Vivekananda Global
University, Jaipur is a record of my own investigation carried under under the
guidance of Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jian, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur Rajasthan.

 I have not submitted the matter presented in this project anywhere for the award of any
other Degree.

Mr.:-
 Abhishek Kumar (22TEC2EE008)
 Vishal Kumar Ram (22TEC2EE009)
 Vikash Kumar Gupta (22TEC2EE012)
 Robby Kumar (23TEC2EEL01)
 Suraj Kumar (22TEC2EE013)

Counter Singh by

(Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jain)

Assistant professor,

Electrical Engineering

VIVEKANANDA GLOBAL UNIVERSITY, JAIPUR

 ABSTRACT
Solar energy is a clean, easily accessible and abundantly available
alternative energy source in nature. Getting solar energy from nature is
very beneficial for power generation. Using a fixed Photovoltaic panels
extract maximum energy only during 12 noon to 2 PM in Nigeria which
results in less energy efficiency. Therefore, the need to improve the energy
efficiency of PV solar panel through building a solar tracking system cannot
be over-emphasized. Photovoltaic panels must be perpendicular with the
sun in order to get maximum energy. The methodology employed in this
work includes the implementation of an Arduino based solar tracking
system. Light Dependent Resistors (LDRs) are used to sense the intensity of
sunlight and hence the PV solar panel is adjusted accordingly to track
maximum energy. The mechanism uses servo motor to control the
movement of the solar panel. The microcontroller is used to control the
servo motor based on signals received from the LDRs. The result of this
work has clearly shown that the tracking solar panel produces more energy
 INTRODUTION

Nigeria is among the tropical countries that fall between 4 degrees and 13 degrees
and enjoys sunshine of 6.25 hrs daily. Presently, public electricity covers only 40%
of Nigerian homes and this is not still on a consistent basis. Due to lack of constant
power supply in Nigeria, people have started embracing the culture of generating
their own power supply. The use of fossil fuels as a means of generating electricity
has become expensive making cost of living very high, especially in the rural part of
the country. Also the use of fossil fuel has brought about pollution to the
environment which in turn is not safe for our health. It releases carbon dioxide
which causes the greenhouse effect. This brings about the deforestation of land and
also the pollution of air and water. Solar energy is gotten solely from the sun and as
a result does not emit carbon dioxide which prevents the green-house effect. The
development of solar energy in Nigeria has the potential to create jobs.
Employment in renewable energy industry would reduce occupational hazards
especially when compared to coal mining and the extraction of oil. Nowadays solar
energy is becoming one of the most reliable source of energy as a result of its
surplus and environmental friendly. According to reference a system that tracks the
sun will be able to know the position of the sun in a manner that is not linear. The
operation of this system should be controlled independently. Maximum energy is
produced by a solar PV panel when it is positioned at right angle to the sun.
Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop an Arduino based solar tracking for
energy improvement of solar PV panel.
 LITERATAURE REVIEW
A solar cell is a device which converts light energy to electrical energy through
photovoltaic effect. Solar cells are the building blocks of photovoltaic modules
known as solar panels. In solar tracking system, the module’s surface tracks the
position of the sun automatically as the day runs by. The position of the sun varies
as the sun moves across the sky. For a solar powered equipment to work best, it
must be placed near the sun and the solar tracker can increase the efficiency of that
equipment at any fixed position. Based on sophistication, costs and performance.
One common type of tracker is the heliostat, a movable mirror that reflects the
position of the sun to a fixed location. A solar trackers accuracy depends on the
application. Concentrators, especially in solar cell applications, require a high
degree of accuracy to make sure that the concentrated sunlight is directed exactly
to the powered device, which is close to the focal point of the reflector or lens.
Without tracking, concentrator systems will not work at all, therefore single-axis
tracking is mandatory . Non-concentrating applications require less accuracy, and
many are likely to work without any tracking. However, tracking with great effect
can improve both the amount of total output power produced by a system and that
produced during critical system demand periods (usually late afternoon in hot
climates). Researches have been done to improve the energy production of solar
panels. These researches include; double-sided panels, conversion stages
improvement, building panels integration geometrically and so on. Maximum
energy is produced by a solar PV panel when it is positioned at right angle to the
sun. For this reason, several researches developed different types of solar panel
tracking systems. Therefore, the primary purpose of this work is to develop a solar
panel tracker based on Arduino advances so as to enhance the energy production
of solar panel.
How does a Solar Tracker Works?
You must be wondering how does it work? As discussed earlier, the solar panel should face
the sun to harness maximum power. So, our system has two steps, first is to detect the
position of sun and second is to move along with it.

Detecting the position of the Sun:

We measure the intensity of light with LDRs using Arduino and compare the intensity of
light falling on both LDRs. The LDRs are placed on the edges of the solar panel as shown
in the figure below.

Based on the intensity of light on the LDR, we give the signal to the servo motor to cause
the movement. When the intensity of the light falling on the right LDR is more, the panel
turns towards the right and if the intensity is higher on the left then the panel slowly turns
towards the left side.
Consider a scenario of a beautiful winter morning, the sun rises from east side and therefore
it has more light intensity than the west side, so the panel moves towards to east side.
Throughout the day it will track the sun and by the evening, sun has moved towards the
west, hence it will have more intensity than the east direction so the panel will face the west
direction.

Components Required for Making the Solar Tracker

 1 x Arduino Uno
 1 x Servo motor
 1 x Solar panel
 2 x LDR
 2 x 10k Resistor
 Jumper wires

Arduino UNO Microcontroller :-

The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board based on
the Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller (MCU) and developed by Arduino.cc and initially
released in 2010.[2][3] The microcontroller board is equipped with sets of digital and
analog input/output (I/O) pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards (shields)
and other circuits.[1] The board has 14 digital I/O pins (six capable of PWM output), 6 analog
I/O pins, and is programmable with the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment),
via a type B USB cable.[4] It can be powered by a USB cable or a barrel connector that accepts
voltages between 7 and 20 volts, such as a rectangular 9-volt battery. It has the same
microcontroller as the Arduino Nano board, and the same headers as the Leonardo
board.[5][6] The hardware reference design is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike 2.5 license and is available on the Arduino website. Layout and production files for
some versions of the hardware are also available

.
Servo Motors:-

A servomotor is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or
linear position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for
position feedback. It also requires a relatively sophisticated controller, often a dedicated
module designed specifically for use with servomotors. Servomotors are not a specific class of
motor although the term servomotor is often used to refer to a motor suitable for use in a
closed-loop control system. A servomotor is a closed-loop servomechanism that uses position
feedback to control its motion and final position. The input to its control is a signal (either
analogue or digital) representing the position commanded for the output shaft. The motor is
paired with some type of encoder to provide position and speed feedback. In the simplest
case, only the position is measured. The measured position of the output is compared to the
command position, the external input to the controller. If the output position differs from that
required, an error signal is generated which then causes the motor to rotate in either direction,
as needed to bring the output shaft to the appropriate position. As the positions approach, the
error signal reduces to zero and the motor stops.

Solar Panel:-

Solar panel refers to a panel designed to absorb the sun's rays as a source of
energy for generating electricity or heating. Photovoltaic modules use light
energy (photons) from the Sun to generate electricity through the photovoltaic
effect. The majority of modules use wafer-based crystalline silicon cells or thin-
film cells. The structural (load carrying) member of a module can either be the
top layer or the back layer. Cells must also be protected from mechanical damage
and moisture. Most modules are rigid, but semi-flexible ones are available, based
on thin-film cells. The cells must be connected electrically in series, one to
another. Externally, most of photovoltaic modules use MC4 connectors type to
facilitate easy weatherproof connections to the rest of the system. Modules
electrical connections are made in series to achieve a desired output voltage
and/or in parallel to provide a desired current capability. The conducting wires
that take the current off the modules may contain silver, copper or other non-
magnetic conductive transition metals. Bypass diodes may be incorporated or
used externally, in case of partial module shading, to maximize the output of
module sections still illuminated.

LDRs :-

A Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) or a photo resistor is a device whose resistivity

is a function of the incident electromagnetic radiation. Hence, they are light
sensitive devices. They are also called as photo conductors, photo conductive
cells or simply photocells. They are made up of semiconductor materials having
high resistance. A photoresistor is made of a high resistance semiconductor. In
the dark, a photoresistor can have a resistance as high as several megohms (MΩ),
while in the light, a photoresistor can have a resistance as low as a few hundred
ohms. If incident light on a photoresistor exceeds a certain frequency, photons
absorbed by the semiconductor give bound electrons enough energy to jump
into the conduction band. The resulting free electrons (and their hole partners)
conduct electricity, thereby lowering resistance. The resistance range and
sensitivity of a photoresistor can substantially differ among dissimilar devices.
Moreover, unique photoresistors may react substantially differently to photons
within certain wavelength bands.

Schematics and Connection of the Solar Tracker

The connection of the circuit is very straightforward. Here, I used an Arduino Uno as
controller and connected the 2 LDRs to analogue pin A0 and A1 respectively. Pin 9 of
Arduino is connected to the servo motor. Since, we have used a 5V servomotor, we don’t
require any external power supply because all the components can easily be powered the
Arduino itself. All the connections are shown in the figure below.
Software Interface Arduino IDE:-
A program for Arduino may be written in any programming language for a
compiler that produces binary machine code for the target processor. Atmel
provides a development environment for their microcontrollers, AVR Studio and
the newer Atmel Studio . The Arduino project provides the Arduino integrated
development environment (IDE), which is a cross-platform application written in
the programming language Java. It originated from the IDE for the languages
Processing and Wiring. It includes a code editor with features such as text cutting
and pasting, searching and replacing text, automatic indenting, brace matching,
and syntax highlighting, and provides simple one-click mechanisms to compile
and upload programs to an Arduino board.
It also contains a message area, a text console, a toolbar with buttons for
common functions and a hierarchy of operation menus. A program written with
the IDE for Arduino is called a sketch. Sketches are saved on the development
computer as text files with the file extension .ino.
Arduino Software (IDE) pre 1.0 saved sketches with the extension .pde. The
Arduino IDE supports the languages C and C++ using special rules of code
structuring. The Arduino IDE supplies a software library from the Wiring project,
which provides many common input and output procedures. User-written code
only requires two basic functions, for starting the sketch and the main program
loop, that are compiled and linked with a program stub main() into an executable
cyclic executive program with the GNU toolchain, also included with the IDE
distribution. The Arduino IDE employs the program avrdude to convert the
executable code into a text file in hexadecimal encoding that is loaded into the
Arduino board by a loader program in the board's firmware.
Code:-

#include <Servo.h>

Servo servo ;

int eastLDR = 0;

int westLDR = 1;

int east = 0;

int west = 0;

int error = 0;

int calibration = 600;

int servoposition = 90;

void setup()

servo.attach(9);

void loop()

east = calibration + analogRead(eastLDR);

west = analogRead(westLDR);

if (east < 350 && west < 350)

while (servoposition <= 150)

servoposition++;

servo.write(servoposition);

delay(100);

error = east - west;

 if (error > 15)

if (servoposition <= 150)

servoposition++;

servo.write(servoposition);

else if (error < -15)

if (servoposition > 20)

servoposition--;

servo.write(servoposition);

delay(100);

}
Conclusion:-

As dual-axis tracking generates 40% more power from each panel, you can
achieve the same power output with fewer panels, frames and so on, which
reduces a project's upfront costs and offsets to a great extent the additional cost
for tracking hardware. On the other hand, you can use the same number of
panels as originally planned and generate 40% more power and higher revenues.
This reduces the project's payback time and also increases the overall return on
investment (ROI), depending on the financial specifics of the project. Solar
radiation Tracker has played a vital role in increasing the efficiency of solar panels
in recent years, thus proving to be a better technological achievement. The vital
importance of a dual axis solar tracker lies in its better efficiency and
sustainability to give a better output compared to a fived solar panel or a single
axis solar tracker. The tracking system is designed such that it can trap the solar
energy in all possible directions. Generally, in a single axis tracker that moves
only along a single axis it is not possible to track the maximum solar energy. In
case of dual axis trackers, if the solar rays are perpendicular to panel throughout
the year. Hence, maximum possible energy is trapped throughout the day as well
as throughout the year. Thus, the output increases indicating that the efficiency
more than a fixed solar panel (about 30 -40% more) or a single axis solar tracker
(about 6-7% more).