N.Cibiraj

D.Shanmugakani

S.Surulirajan

MICROCONTROLLER BASED SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM

HOW SOLAR CELLS GENERATE ELECTRICITY

Solar (or photovoltaic) cells convert the sun’s energy into electricity.

When photons strike a PV cell, they may be reflected or absorbed, or they may pass right through.

Only the absorbed photons generate electricity.

SOLAR PANEL

A solar cell is a solid-state electrical device (p-n junction) that converts the energy of light directly into electricity (DC) using the photovoltaic effect.

Controller

Mechanicalarrangement

Geared motor Driver

LCD DisplayRTC

Solar PanelBattery

+5 V

BLOCK DIAGRAM

RTC (REAL TIME CLOCK ) SWITCH

Totally nonvolatile with over 10 years of operation in the absence of power

Self–contained subsystem includes lithium, quartz, and support circuitry

Counts seconds, minutes, hours, days, day of the week, date, month, and year with leap year compensation valid up to 2100

Binary or BCD representation of time, calendar, and alarm

12– or 24–hour clock with AM and PM in 12–hour mode

Daylight Savings Time option

STEPPER MOTOR

Motor's position can then be commanded to move and hold at one of these steps without any feedback sensor.

Applications

Street light applications with out using normal power supplies.

In Remote areas implementing a small power systems units at each home.

Using this system to getting hot water

Advantages

The advantage of this unit is that to run the system it does not need computer.

Solar cells directly convert the solar radiation into electricity using photovoltaic effect without going through a thermal process.

During the winter the sun has a low position, tracking angle from sunrise to sunset is shortened.

Limitations

Using this system at a time we can control only one solar panel.

Higher hardware expenditure.

Weather condition can affect the system.

Future Scope

By Using controller microcontroller we can implement the intelligent system in future.

In Future the conventional energy is not sufficient for use so there is need of use non conventional energy sources

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