 Use of a reluctance stepper motor for solar tracking based on a programmable logic array (PLA) controllerM. Abouzeid Renewable Energy, 2001, vol. 23, issue 3, 551-560 Abstract: The tracking of solar cell panels in solar-generation systems has improved their overall efficiency to a great extent. The methods used previously were either active or passive. In order to ensure a relatively small position resolution for the panel axis, the DC motors ordinarily used for active solar tracking need a complicated gear system. In this work, a 8/6 four-phase, reluctance stepper motor (RSM) controlled by a programmable logic array (PLA) is used. The angular position resolution for the RSM is 7.5°. This resolution is guaranteed due to locking of the RSM at each step through a power converter fed from a 220 V DC supply. The control circuit for the power converter consists of an Erasable Electronic Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) and a PLA chip. The control circuit is fed from two separate sensing cells which determine the movement to the next angular position. The application of this tracker is essential for stand-alone systems in remote areas. Its use may result in improving the solar energy generation by a considerable factor. The control system is a completely closed loop system without any human interference. Date: 2001 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:23:y:2001:i:3:p:551-560 DOI: 10.1016/S0960-1481(00)00133-6 Access Statistics for this article Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier |
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