This paper is published in Volume-3, Issue-5, 2017
Area
Solar Panel
Author
Aditya Sinha, Ambuj Preet
Org/Univ
Sir M. Vivesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Pub. Date
28 September, 2017
Paper ID
V3I5-1211
Publisher
Keywords
Solar Energy, Solar Tracker, Stepper Motor, DC Servo Motor, Microcontrollers

Citationsacebook

IEEE
Aditya Sinha, Ambuj Preet. Automatic Solar Tracker With Pre Installed Panel Cleaner, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, www.IJARIIT.com.

APA
Aditya Sinha, Ambuj Preet (2017). Automatic Solar Tracker With Pre Installed Panel Cleaner. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 3(5) www.IJARIIT.com.

MLA
Aditya Sinha, Ambuj Preet. "Automatic Solar Tracker With Pre Installed Panel Cleaner." International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 3.5 (2017). www.IJARIIT.com.

Abstract

With the forthcoming drought of Non-renewable resources, people are considering to use alternate sources of energy. Solar energy is one such form , it is swiftly attaining centre stage as an important means of amplifying renewable energy resources. So it vital to those in engineering field to understand the technologies associated with this area & design new ideas. The proposed system tracks the sun’s movement and tries to maintain the solar panel perpendicular to sun rays, ensuring that the maximum amount of sunlight is incident on the panel. This is better than the fixed solar panel, where the panel is fixed and can’t track the transition of the sun from east to west, hence generating optimum energy. This proposed system solves the problem by arrangement for the solar panel to track the sun. The idea in which this paper is unique is that with the solar tracker, the system also includes an automated solar panel cleaning robot. A big issue which is often overlooked too easily is keeping the panel clean. After installation of the panel it is often difficult & dangerous to reach the panels. Also if done manually, it is a time taking process & also requires more money. Hence to remove this limitation use of technology is good choice. This opens up the new field to build a automatic solar tracker which comes with the automatic panel cleaning robot. The project uses a dummy solar panel which is coupled to a DC stepper motor for tracking the sun rays such that maximum sunlight is incident on the solar panel at any given time of the day. The tracking movement of the solar panel is achieved by teaming a DC stepper motor with the solar panel such that the face of the panel is always perpendicular to the sun, so as to generate maximum energy. This is attained by utilizing a programmed 8051 microcontroller to furnish stepped pulses in specific time intervals for the DC stepper motor to rotate the solar panel as appropriate. The cleaning mechanism can be achieved by a DC servo motor which is coupled across the solar panel with wiper & brushes. The DC servo motor is also connected to the microcontroller which is programmed to send signals for cleaning mechanism to operate at different time intervals. Therefore this paper presents a novel method of finding a more economical and efficient system that not only ensures maximum amount of sunlight but also helps in the maintenance of solar panel.