An Automated Intelligent Solar Tracking Control System With Adaptive Algorithm for Different Weather Conditions

Abstract

The paper considers an intelligent automated solar tracking control system designed to increase the efficiency of solar energy production. The proposed method of detecting cloudiness allows system to adapt to various weather conditions in real time by changing the angle of the solar panel. It is known that in case of strong scattering of solar radiation in cloudy weather panels installed horizontaly are more effective, rather than trackers which precisely oriented to the Sun. Proposed solar biaxial solar tracker equipped with two additional small solar modules. One of the modules is installed in a horizontal position, the second module is also a biaxial solar tracker. The algorithm for determining the position of the solar panel is based on known trajectory of the Sun during whole year saved in memory card and on monitoring the output currents of small solar panels built into the system. When cloudiness increases, the output current of a small solar horizontal module will exceed the current of the module oriented to the Sun. Then the big solar panel goes into a horizontal position. For remote monitoring of the energy characteristics of the solar battery, wireless data transmission based on LoRa AS32 TTL modules were added into the system. Experimental results showed that energy generated in cloudy weather using proposed method exceeds energy collected by biaxial solar tracker by 18%.