Electrical Engineering: Solar Tracker Project - Competency Report

This report presents a comprehensive overview of a student's final-year electrical engineering project: a solar tracker. The project aimed to address electrical scarcity in rural areas by implementing a solar-powered system with a tracking mechanism to optimize energy capture. The report details the project's background, objectives, and the student's role in connecting various modules, including solar cells, an analog solar tracker controller circuit, an H-Bridge, a wind sensor, and a DC power supply. The student applied engineering knowledge and skills related to solar cells, MOSFETs, and motor rotation. The report also discusses identified issues such as energy storage and light detection circuits, along with solutions, and plans for future improvements. The student collaborated with teammates and a project supervisor, and the project's review highlighted the optimal tracking angle and potential disturbances in the analog control circuit. The report concludes with a summary of the student's contributions, including the final assembly, testing, and documentation of the solar tracker project.

COMPETENCY
DEMONSTRATION REPORT
Career Episode 3
NAME

CE 3.1 Project Information
Name of the project: Solar Tracker
Location of the project: [PLEASE FILL]
Project Duration: [PLEASE FILL]
Organization: [PLEASE FILL]
Role and Designation during the time: [PLEASE FILL]
CE 3.2 Project Background
CE 3.2.1 Characteristics of the project
The project has been designed keeping in mind the amount of electrical scarcity in the
rural areas. The best alternative to use in a rural area is solar energy. As it is largely available in
abundance al throughout the year it would prove to be a very reliable source of energy for the
people living in the rural area. My project had the implementation a generator connected to a
solar powered cell but also a motor which acted as a solar tracker which maintains a constant
angle of 1.5 degrees with the sun at the normal position. As the project has the implementation of
a solar tracker there needs to be a light dependent circuit which would eventually help in the
determination of the suns directions. With the use of two differential voltage the cancelling
voltage can be found which will help the cells to know when to stop rotating.

CE 3.2.2 Objectives developed for the project
For the implementation of this project I had put forward the following project objectives
to provide a quality working model of the solar tracker:
 To provide the best quality solar cell.
 To have a tracking system with a basic solar cell.
 To track the sun as well as convert the sun into energy for the city to use.
CE 3.2.3 My area of work
I was in charge of connecting all the different parts of the module to produce a collective
project which would be able to track the route of the sun while making solar energy. The
documentation of the file was also completed by me. The skills which I had used for te
completion of this project was limited to my bachelor degree. To implement the best possible
quality work I had studied different research materials based on solar cells which helped me to
learn about the working of the solar model.

CE 3.2.4 Project Group
Figure 1: The hierarchical division of the project group.
CE 3.2.5 My responsibilities throughout the project
I was responsible for connecting all the modules of the project for the perfect
implementation of the device. The tracker module was made by my team member and the final
product was compiled by me. As the theory of the project was mainly the implementation of the
solar model thus I had to study different journals and research papers based on the solar cell.
This helped me to learn more about the project property and helped me to deliver a quality
project for my final year.
CE 3.3 Distinctive Activity
CE 3.3.1 Comprehending the theory of the project
The project has five major modules which were to be connected to produce the complete
project. Solar Cells are the main module of the project which is responsible for collecting the
solar radiation and converting it to voltage which is then shared throughout the city. The model
used for the project is Amorphous Solar Cell. Analog Solar Tracker Controller Circuit is the

innovative creation for the project which is aimed to rotate the solar cell to rotate with the suns
position. This would help in collecting better radiation from the sun to produce a higher voltage
than the normal solar cell. I had used the ALD110800A MOSFET for the implementation of the
tracker circuit. H-Bridge is the connector bridge which connects the rotator and the solar cell.
This is responsible for consecutively rotating the solar cell with the rotation of the motor. Wind
Sensor is responsible to cancel out the wind force which disturbs the solar cell to change its
degree and also produce residual current due to vibration. This could disrupt the cells and
eventually burn them. I had used an ALD110800APCL MOSFET for the implementation of the
wind sensor. Dc Power Supply is the power supply for the motor which is responsible for the
rotation of the solar cells. The motor can use only DC current so a rectifier has been used to limit
the current to the best possible amount. 1N3899 diode and LM338 rectifier were used for he
implementation of the power supply.
CE 3.3.2 Engineering knowledge and skills applied in the project
I have applied the theoretical knowledge of solar cells and the practical knowledge of
motor rotation to produce the implementation of the hardware which would be used to process
the sunlight captured into solar energy. The energy is then stored in a power cell to provide light
later. I had gained knowledge about the different modules of the project from research journals
which had helped me to complete the project is a systematic manner.
CE 3.3.3 Accomplishment and task performed
I had chosen to use the Monochrystaline Solar Cells x 4(IXYS SLMD481H12L),
Monochrystaline Solar Cell (SCC2422), Amorphous Solar Cell, Light Dependent Resistor or the
Photodiodes for the implementation of the project. We had decided that the cost of the project
was to be taken as concern thus we settled for the amorphous cells, the diodes, or the LDRs. For

the rotational device I had to find the critical angle where the light ray is of high intensity. It was
found to be 3 degrees behind the suns angle which was the best position for the device. This
position was the best for the creation of the highest amount of voltage across the whole cell
while the centre was in focus with the sun.
Figure 2: The angle of inclination to be found for the solar cell.
The solar tracker is a single controller circuit unit which is responsible of the controlling
go a single solar cell and the output of it to the H-Bridge. The single motor would have two
circuits which would be responsible for controlling the two direction of the motor. The circuit is
initiated by taking an input of 26mV. There would be a fluctuation in the voltage due to a single
degree change in the sun rays. The voltage is then amplified using an ALD110800A MOSFET.
This is a high precision N-Channel MOSFET which comes with four MOSFET array. It has high
precision as it has a gate to source threshold voltage that lies between 2mV to 10mV at 1μA.
This is ideal because it is desired to have the least possible voltage to be detected from the solar
cells.

Figure 3: The controller unit of the solar tracker.
Finally the MOSFET is connected to thee driving motor of the H-Bridge. There is a use
of relay changing in the bridge which controls the direction of rotation of the bridge. The reason
relays are preferred for the solar tracker because they have absolutely no current consumption
when the contacts are closed. They use current on the coils which is triggered by the closing of
the contacts when the solar cells produce a minimum voltage.
Figure4: The H-Bridge of the solar tracker.

The use of the wind sensor is to limit the fluctuation in the signal produced. The
ALD110800A MOSFET is used to limit the changing voltage to a range of 0V to 5V. Thus we
have used the ALD110800APCL MOSFET to increase that signal if it’s too small and keep it
within the zero to five volts range in case of large voltage spikes from the sensor
A standard method off rectifying has been chosen for the DC supply. I had used a half
wave rectifier in addition to a diode and then a full wave rectifier coupled with a rectifier IC. To
minimize any additional ripple in the current flow a large capacitor is connected in parallel with
the IC. The power supply has a 12V 5A specification. The diode that is used is the 1N3899 diode
which can handle a voltage of 20V and a reverse voltage of 75V. The rectifier used is the LM338
which can withstand a peak current of 5A which is more than the need of the power supply.
CE 3.3.4 Identified issues and their solutions
I faced the first major problem in finding the best light detecting circuit for the project.
This was to be the main part of the project. The same project can be implemented by just setting
up the solar cells but to implement a solar tracking mechanism is the main aspect of this project.
The major problem which we had faced during the implementation of the project was the energy
storage. The energy being produced was being directly shared with the house during the day
time. However there was a problem which pertained to the use of electricity during the night.
This made us attack an external battery with the module. The battery would be responsible for
storing the energy during the day which would be enough for the house to be used during the
night.

CE 3.3.5 Plan to produce creative and innovative work
For the future I have thought about making the project larger and stronger to withstand
any kind of wind and to produce a lot of energy to power up a whole city. The project had been
studied carefully and the test run results were taken and compared with the test results from the
solar farm to recognize the quality of work we had done. The implementation of a solar tracker is
costly. This factor has been considered by us so that the model being made by us will be of lower
cost son that it can be implemented in private homes. There was a drawback in the model which
was the resetting of the solar cell to the east facing side. This would be added to the future
model.
CE 3.3.6 Collaborative work
I had collaborated with my team mate and my project supervisor to complete this project.
I had also taken the help of a local solar power station to understand the procedure of the
working of the project. The tour around the field helped me to learn a lot about the working
model of the solar cells.
CE 3.4 Project Review
CE 3.4.1 Project Overview
After the completion of the project it was found out that the project was by far the best
implementation of the use of the solar tracking model of a solar cell. It was found that the best
optimal angle for the project was found to be 30 degrees. In addition to this the analog control
circuit of the project module can cause disturbance in the relay coils in the module when the
signal is close to the turn of voltage.

CE 3.4.2 My contribution to work
I was responsible for connecting the whole project to produce the best working model of
the project. I had also helped by team mate with the tracking module. At the end I had helped in
the documentation of the project and collecting and test running the device and taking down the
results.