New Prototype of Photovoltaic Solar Tracker Based on Arduino

Carlos Morón, Daniel Ferrández, Pablo Saiz, Gabriela Vega and Jorge Pablo Díaz
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Carlos Morón: Departamento de Tecnología de la Edificación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Daniel Ferrández: Departamento de Tecnología de la Edificación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Pablo Saiz: Departamento de Construcciones Arquitectónicas y su Control, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Gabriela Vega: Departamento de Tecnología de la Edificación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Jorge Pablo Díaz: Ciclo de Eficiencia Energética y Energía Solar Térmica, Institución Profesional Salesiana, Salesianos Carabanchel, 28044 Madrid, Spain

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The global increase in energy demand and exponential exhaustion of fossil recourses has favored the development of new systems of electricity production. Photovoltaic solar energy is undoubtedly one that has the highest application in housings, due to its simplicity and easy implementation. In this work, a new prototype of photovoltaic solar tracker with Arduino platform was developed. Feedback control system that allows carrying out solar tracking with two axes using a stepper motor and linear actuator was established through an electronic circuit based on photodiodes. Moreover, real construction of the prototype was carried out, where the effectiveness of the design and its capacity to draw a maximum benefit of an incident radiation can be observed, placing the panel perpendicularly to the received energy and improving its performance for its application in future installations in housings. Results obtained from the comparison between the developed prototype and a static panel oriented according to the latitude of the area, show about 18% energy gain.

Keywords: solar tracker; Arduino; photovoltaic solar energy; photodiodes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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