Automatic Solar Tracking System: Working Mechanism and Components

Abstract
A solar tracking system is defined as a
process to produce power or electricity
from sunlight which is growing very
fast. The generation of energy by using
solar based system is very simple and
easy and it provides maximum power
from the light of the sun. The main
purpose of this report is to understand
the fundamental concept of the
automatic solar tracking system and
their working mechanism. The main
advantage of this equipment is that it
automatically changes the direction of
the solar plant to catch maximum
intensity of sunlight. There are many
other energy systems but solar tracking
process is more efferent and many
organizations use this technology to
reduce their cost. It is observed that in
the year 2016 the rate of the solar
tracking system is increased by 33%
and many power plants generate
electricity by using solar based
technology. There are various kinds of
equipment’s and devices are used to
design any solar tracing system, for
example, microcontroller, LDR, solar
plants, stepper motors, and decade
counters. The main problem occurs with
this innovation is that it is more
expensive rather than other energy
systems. Therefore, in future energy
providers can enhance the performance
of this system and they can adopt
advanced electronic devices and
microcontrollers. If any consumer
develops this type of project then they
ensure that all connections are made
according to the circuit diagram.
Keywords: Solar tracking system, LDR,
stepper motor, microcontroller, and
electronic devices.

Contents
Abstract................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Literature review........................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Methodology..................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 7
3.2 The study design..................................................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Data collection instruments and protocol for obtaining data.............................................7
3.4 Ethical issues............................................................................................................................................. 8
3.5 Data management and analysis methods.....................................................................................8
3.6 Statistical analysis and tests.............................................................................................................. 8
4. Results................................................................................................................................................................. 8
5. Discussion....................................................................................................................................................... 10
6. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 10
7. Recommendation........................................................................................................................................ 10
8. References...................................................................................................................................................... 12
9. Appendix- Reflection................................................................................................................................. 14

1. Introduction
The solar panel is a kind of power
system which is used to generate a large
amount of energy by using various kinds
of components like sensors and motors.
In this type of system solar cells are
arranges and designed in a form of the
grid pattern of the edge of the solar
panel. Solar panel or plates are
established with the help of crystalline
silicon and gallium arsenide that can
enhance the performance of
photovoltaic cells (Akbar, Siddiq, & Aziz,
2017). It is researched that most the
countries obtain energy by using fossil
fuels and it is very limited for which
solar tracking system is developed and
it reduced the problem of energy and
improved efficiency of power systems.
In the field of electricity to reduce
energy losses and optimize the use of
power automatic solar process can be
used because it has the ability to track
the intensity of sunlight by
automatically using controllers and
stepper motors (Al, & Akayleh, 2017).
This report is explaining how solar
tracking system work and the role of
this technology to reduce distortion and
losses.
Figure: Key parameter of the Solar
tracking system
(Source: Al, & Akayleh, 2017)
There are main four components used
to design any solar tracking system such
as Arduino microcontroller, solar
panels, LDR sensor, and stepper motor.
In the last five years, the use of solar
powers are increased by 40% and many
users adopted this technology in their
home and office (Bentaher, et al., 2014).
This paper is categorized into four parts,
for example, literature review, methods,

results and discussion, and
recommendation.
2. Literature review
The solar tracking system is a modern
innovation in the field of the power
system and the main goal of this
technology is to increase efficiency and
produce maximum power from solar
plates. This project is very simple and
cheap because the working mechanism
of solar panel is very easy to understand
and it is less complex as compared to
other technologies (Chao, Huazhang, &
Jie, 2015). There are many researched
provided review on this project and
they identified that the main drawback
of solar tracking process is that the
maintenance cost of solar panels are
very high by which many consumers are
not able to purchase this technology.
LDR is defined as light deepened
resistor which is used in the solar
tracking system to emit an electron and
produce energy signals from the light of
the sun. The main key factor in the
sector of the power system is a solar
panel and it consists of flat surface on
that number of p-n junction are placed
(Chowdhury, Ali, & Kumar, 2016).
Figure: components used in the solar
tracking system
(Source: Das, Habib, & Mynuddin, 2015)
The unique feature of this b technology
is that it uses earth as a reference and
takes the sun as a source which provides
light or electricity. In remote zones, the
sun is a shabby wellspring of power in
light of the fact that rather than
pressure driven generators it utilizes
sun oriented cells to deliver power (Das,
Habib, & Mynuddin, 2015). However,
because of the turn of the earth, those
boards can't keep up their position
dependably in front of the sun. This
issue results in a decline of their
effectiveness. Subsequently, to get a
consistent yield, a computerized
framework is required which ought to