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Design and Implementation of a Single-Axis Automatic Solar Tracking System

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GUB JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, JULY 2014

GUBJSE: ISSN: 2409-0476

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SINGLE-AXIS AUTOMATIC

SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM
Fahmid Sadeque, 1 and Md. Q. Ahsan

Abstract—This paper proposes an algorithm for the
detection of the position of the sun and the
implementation of this control algorithm on
inexpensive single axis solar tracking system with a
view to harness the maximum solar energy. The
tracking algorithm is implemented on ATmega32, an
AVR microcontroller by translating the algorithm into
machine language and burned into the
microcontroller. This paper also discusses on required
torque calculation for the motor used for the single
axis solar tracker and designs the necessary circuitry
for supplying power to the motor. Finally, the paper
discusses on the test results conducted with the solar
tracker controlled by the proposed algorithm. The cost
of the proposed solar tracker system is estimated and
it is fabricated with the locally available components.
The effectiveness of this tracker is investigated by
comparing the energy harnessed with and without the
tracker. The study reveals that the proposed solar
tracker is worth in terms of cost and obtained
electrical energy.
Index Terms—Solar Tracker, Solar
Photovoltaic (PV) Panel, ADC, Microcontroller.
I. INTRODUCTION
sensors. These sensors are mainly light dependent
resistors, photo transistors, photo diodes and solar
cells [3-6]. Those sensors of a tracker may cause
erroneous tracking if all of them do not possess
identical properties. If one of the sensors is damaged,
then the tracker does not work.
This paper proposes a design of single axis solar
tracker with the solar panel itself as the sensor. The
position of the sun is sensed by analyzing the output
of the solar panel. The wide surface of the panel helps
reduce the error of detection due to shadow of cloud
or other objects. The proposed tracker uses the
variable reluctance motor instead of commonly used
DC motor. The use of this motor avoids the variable
magnitude of rotation of the tracker as the speed of the
DC motor varies with the variable output voltage of
the solar panel. Note that a stepper motor rotates a
specific angle within a voltage range; the variation of
voltage does not affect the rotation. The proposed
tracker is fabricated and used in a PV system. Its
performance is evaluated in terms of cost and output
energy.
Position,
II. PROPOSED DESIGN
A single axis solar tracker is designed and its main
components are solar panel, stepper motor and a

P HOTOVOLTAIC (PV) technology converts

solar energy into electrical energy. But the
efficiency of this energy conversion is low.
Solar trackers are used for positioning the solar panel
in such a way that the rays of the sun fall
microcontroller. The rotation of the solar panel is
controlled by a variable reluctance stepper motor. The
sensor is a 5 Watts solar panel. A microcontroller
controls all the operations. Fig. 1 shows the block
diagram of the proposed tracker.
perpendicularly on the panel by tracking the
movement of the sun [1]. A solar tracker tracks the
path of the sun throughout the daytime and orient
photovoltaic panel toward the maximum irradiance
level. Studies show that the use of solar tracking can
increase the energy generated through PV system up
to 40% [2].
Different types of solar trackers are available in the
market and most of them use more than one photo

1
This paper was received on 15 May 2014, revised on 27 June 2014
and accepted on 25 July 2014.
Fahmid Sadeque is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. E-mail:
fahmidsadeque@gmail.com.
Md. Q. Ahsan is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. E-mail:
qahsan@eee.buet.ac.bd. Fig. 1 Block diagram of the design.

Green University Press 1

SADEQUE ET AL: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SINGLE-AXIS AUTOMATIC SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM
It has three main units-
 Position Sensor Unit
 Motor Unit
 Controller Unit
A. Position Sensor Unit
The sensor unit consists of a 5 Watts mono-
crystalline type photo voltaic panel. Its voltage at
maximum power point is 8.6 Volt and current at that
point is 0.58 Ampere. The voltage generated within
the solar panel is measured by the microcontroller at a
reduced level.
The advantage of using this type of sensor is that
unlike traditional photo sensors it does not require
additional biasing circuit that requires external voltage
supply. Rather, it is independent of any external
circuit and device.
B. Motor Unit
To track the sun in horizontal direction variable
reluctance stepper motor is used. There are three
independent stator phases and each one can be
energized by DC voltage signal from the controller.
The energization of one or more stator coils causes the
rotor to step forward or backward to a position that
forms a path with least reluctance with the magnetized
teeth. It has a very high torque/inertia ratio giving high
rate of acceleration and fast response.
It has micro-stepping facility. The solar tracker
rotates 7.5° per step if pulse train for half stepping is
applied. The pulse sequence for CCW rotation is 1, 1-
2, 2, 2-3, 3 and 3-1. Repetition of the same sequence
continues the rotation. The rotation in reverse is also
possible by reversing the controller pulse sequence.
The motor must deliver sufficient torque to
withstand the maximum wind speed and the weight of
the structure. The design process evaluates the torque
[6] as follows.
TABLE I
PARAMETERS FOR TORQUE CALCULATION
Surface area of the panel 0.0621 m
Wind velocity (maximum) 80 km/h
Wind pressure 30.865 kg/m2
Drag coefficient 2.0
Force due to wind 37.57 N
Weight of the designed system 6 kg
Gravitational force 58.8 N
Radius of the base column .0127 m
Required torque 12.5 kg-cm
The variable reluctance stepper motor has a holding
torque of 20 kg-cm. Its phases are energized by 12
Volt, 2 Ampere DC adapter. Mechanical relays are
installed to transmit the command signal of the
microcontroller to the motor windings.
C. Controller Unit
2 Green University Press
The operation of the solar tracker is controlled by
the controller unit. The microprocessor gives
necessary instructions for operation. But, it is not
capable of supplying necessary current for operating
the motor. It requires assistance of relays or switches
to control the motor. The unit has three voltage
controlled switches to operate the motor.
The ATmega32 microcontroller functions as the
brain of the system. ATmega32 is a high performance,
low power consuming 8 bit microcontroller with built-
in timer, counters, ADC (analog to digital converter)
and internal memory [7]. It has 40 pins with their
distinctive features.
Voltage generated by the solar panel is sensed by
the ADC of ATmega32 microcontroller. The analog to
digital converter (ADC) of the microcontroller
converts the analog values to digital values. The
voltage generated from the solar panel may have
values higher than 5 Volts, which is beyond the
detection range of microcontroller’s ADC. A voltage
divider circuit with variable potentiometer is used to
measure a portion of voltage.
The motor control signals are generated from three
output ports of the microcontroller. The number of
pulses determines the number of rotation and the
sequence of the pulses decides on the direction of
rotation. A built-in timer of the microcontroller
calculates the time difference between two operations
and keeps track of overall time spent.
The relay used here is actually a 5 Volt DC voltage
controlled mechanical switch with five pins. The
switch changes its state when a 5 Volt DC signal is
applied. The command signal is generated by the
microcontroller.
7805 is a three terminal voltage regulator for fixed
5 Volt DC [8]. The regulator provides a fixed 5 Volt
DC power for the microcontroller. Note that this
regulator is independent of any external problems.
III. ALGORITHM
Initially the microcontroller reads voltage from the
2 output of panel. Tracking is initiated when input data
goes above a preset threshold level. The panel is first
rotated clockwise and then counter-clockwise from its
initial position. The position at which the voltage is
found higher indicates the direction of path of the sun.
This direction is set as a default for next search
operation. Then the panel is rotated to that direction
step by step. Voltage is measured at each step. This
data at each step is compared with the previous data
stored in memory. The process continues as long as
the voltage is increasing. When the voltage is found
lower than the previous one, the panel rotates back to
immediate previous position. This is the optimum
position for maximum power at a particular instant.
Once optimum position is found the microcontroller
initializes the timer and waits for the next operation.
The next operation depends on preset delay time. The
tracking operation is shown in the form of flow chart
in Fig. 2.
GUB JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, JULY 2014

IV. CODE DEVELOPMENT V. CIRCUIT DESIGN AND FABRICATION

The microcontroller is programmed through codes
developed on AVR GCC platform in C programming
language [9]. AVR Studio is used to compile the code.
The code is converted to machine language and then
burned into the microcontroller with the help of the
software named Extreme Burner. A serial programmer
is used to transfer the code from computer to
microcontroller.
Start
Read Voltage, V
A stainless steel pipe of 1 inch diameter is used for
the base of the structure. It is mounted on a wooden
platform through a bearing, so that it can freely rotate.
The column has a gear placed at the centre. Another
matched gear is mounted on the shaft of the stepper
motor.
A metal plate is connected at the top of the column
and the solar panel is mounted on the plate by screws.
The metal plate can be tilted horizontally for
adjustment of angle.
The total weight of the column and the panel is
supported by two wooden sidewalls on which another
wooden platform with bearing is placed.

no Wait for X1
V > level ? minutes
yes

Rotate 1 step CW &

Read Voltage, VCW

Rotate 2 steps ACW &

Read Voltage, VACW

VCW>VACW ?
no
yes
Rotate 1 step CW Rotate 1 step ACW
& Read Voltage & Read Voltage

yes yes Fig. 4 Hardware implementation of the solar tracker

Vnew>Vold? Vnew>Vold?
The circuit consists of an ATmega32
no no microcontroller that operates at 5 Volt DC. The
motor’s stator coils are connected through three
Rotate 1 step ACW Rotate 1 step CW
voltage controlled mechanical switches. The motor
requires 12 Volt and 2 Ampere for operation. 230 Volt
50 Hz AC supply is converted to 12 Volt DC through
Wait for X2 no
Reset ? an adaptor. A 7805 IC steps down the 12 Volt to 5
minutes Volt. A metal heat sink is attached to the voltage
yes
regulator to maintain its temperature within limit.
Rotate back to initial
End position of the panel

Fig. 2 Flow chart of the algorithm.

Fig. 3 A serial programmer for AVR microcontrollers Fig. 5 Hardware implementation of control circuit

Green University Press 3

SADEQUE ET AL: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SINGLE-AXIS AUTOMATIC SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM

The total cost of the designed tracker is presented in The total generation of energy is measured by
table II. The cost may vary with the size and rating of determining the area under the curve in Fig. 6 using
solar panel and motor. composite trapezoidal method of integration. It is
found that the 5W solar panel with the tracker
TABLE II
generates 32.213 Watt-hour of energy and the panel
COST OF THE DESIGN without solar tracker generates 29.277 Watt-hour.
That is, 10.02% incremental energy is possible to be
Components Cost (BDT) generated if a single axis solar tracker is used to track
Ply Wood 500 the optimum position of the panel at any instant of
Steel Pipe and Sheets 100 time.
Bearings 50
Gears 50 TABLE III
AZIMUTH ANGLE COMPARISON
Solar Panel 350
Potentiometer 10 Azimuth Angle of Sun (in Degree)
ATmega32 220 Time Actual Position Detected Absolute
Position by Solar Tracker Error
LM7805 5
8:00 AM 95.7 97.5 1.8
5 Volt Relays 90
9:00 AM 104.6 105.0 0.4
Design Assembly and Fabrication 1000
10:00 AM 112.8 112.5 0.3
Others 350
11:00 AM 129.9 127.5 2.4
Total 2725
12:00 AM 181.8 180.0 1.8
VI. PERFORMANCE VERIFICATION OF THE DESIGN 1:00 PM 218.2 217.5 0.7
2:00 PM 247.5 247.5 0
The fabricated solar tracker was operated for a
3:00 PM 254.5 255.0 0.5
whole day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and voltage is
recorded at hourly interval. At the same time, another 4:00 PM 264.1 262.5 1.6
solar panel of identical specification is set at a fixed 5:00 PM 271.4 270.0 1.4
position and voltage is also recorded throughout the
day. Short circuit currents at every hour are also VII. CONCLUSIONS
recorded for both the solar panels. Two 5W rheostats
are used to vary load and measure voltage and current. Solar energy is an unlimited source of energy. Solar
Fig. 6 shows the hourly power from the 5 Watts solar tracker is used to harness this energy to improve the
panel with and without the solar tracker. efficiency of the PV system. This paper demonstrates
the implementation of solar tracking system in a
Power output from 5W Solar Panel simple way with the locally available components.
5
With Solar Tracker
Direct use of output data from solar panel makes the
4.5
Without Solar Tracker system independent of light sensor that requires
external biasing circuit. Also the possible errors due to
4 multiple sensors have been eradicated. The use of
stepper motor ensures more accurate tracking with
Power (in Watts)

3.5
minimum error.
3
REFERENCES
2.5
[1] M. R. Patel, Wind and Solar Power Systems Design, Analysis
and Operations, 2nd ed., Boca Raton, CRC Press, 2006.
2
[2] M. J. Clifford and D. Eastwood, ―Design of a novel passive
solar tracker‖, in Solar Energy, 2004, volume 77, p. 269-280.
1.5 [3] A. H. Yamin, M. N. Ibrahim, M. Idoras and A. R. Zin,
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time (8AM to 5PM) ―Embedded Solar Tracking Instrumentation System‖, in
Fig. 6 Hourly solar power output – with and without solar tracker. Power Engineering and Optimization Conference, 2013,
volume 7, p. 223-227.
[4] M. I. Hossain, S. A. Khan and M. Shafiullah, ―Power
The angular positions of the sun detected by the maximization of a photovoltaic system using automatic solar
solar tracker and the actual azimuth angles of the sun panel tracking along with boost converter and charge
in the day of experiment at different times are controller‖, in ICECE, 2012, volume 7, p. 900-903.
[5] A. Yazidi, F. Betin, G. Notton, G. A. Capolino, ―Low cost
presented in table III. two axis solar tracker with high precision positioning‖, in
The actual values of azimuth angles are taken from IEEE Xplore, vol. 6, p. 216-219, 2006.
[10]. The position detected by the solar tracker is [6] N. Barsoum, ―Implementation of dual axis solar tracking
calculated from the number of rotations required. It is pilot project‖, Global Journal of Technology & Optimization,
vol. 2, p. 49-56, June 2011.
found that the maximum absolute error is only 2.4°.

4 Green University Press

 GUB JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, JULY 2014

[7] ―ATmega32 datasheet‖, Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA, Engineering and Technology in 2014. His research
USA.
interests are Solar Energy, Renewable Energy and
[8] ―7805 datasheet‖, Fairchild Semiconductor, San Jose, CA,
USA. Power Electronics.
[9] M. A. Mazidi, S. Naimi and S. Naimi, The AVR
Microcontroller and Embedded Systems, 1st ed. , Prentice
Hall, 2009.
[10] Gaisma. (2013) The Gaisma website. [Online]. Available:
Dr. Md. Quamrul Ahsan
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/dhaka.html. achieved his B.Sc. and M.Sc.
degree in EEE from BUET. He
achieved his Ph.D. degree from
Fahmid Sadeque was born in on University of Ottawa, Canada. He
22 November, 1991 in Rangpur. is currently working as a
He passed both his Secondary Professor of Bangladesh
School Certificate examination University of Engineering and
and Higher Secondary School Technology in the department of
Certificate examination form EEE as well as an Academic Adviser of the
Dhaka Residential Model College Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
with GPA 5.00 in all subjects in Green University of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
the year 2006 and 2008 respectively. He achieved his
B.Sc. degree in EEE from Bangladesh University of

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