Affordable PIC Based Solution for Photovoltaic Panel Auto-Tracking

Photovoltaic (PV) conversion is one of the most important applications of renewable energy sources because of the direct conversion of solar energy to electric energy. Although PVs are more expensive compared to other types of energy converters, they have some advantages such as low weight and feasibility of small scales. Therefore, it is important to absorb the maximum solar energy in order to increase the efficiency of the energy converter. PV's absorption of the solar energy is incomplete mainly due to angle of incidence (resulting from both the daily sun motion and the seasonal trajectory differences) as well as the partial loss due to reflection off PV's surface. One way to increase efficiency is to optimize the angle of incidence by employing continuous solar tracking. This paper proposes a cheap PIC based embedded design calculating next optimal spatial orientation by using four LDR (light dependent resistor) sensors, and tracking that optimal orientation with a two-degrees of freedom stepper drive.