A simple photo-voltaic tracking system

This paper describes a simple photo-voltaic (PV) tracking system which has been designed and manufactured using a pyramidal stand as a base. A rotating unit consisting of two pairs of modules fixed at an angle of 170 degrees between them was installed at the upper edge of the stand. The four modules and a DC motor were connected to a bridge circuit making the system sensitive to solar tracking. The PV tracker has a DC-DC (24/2V) converter, DC-AC (24/ 220 V) inverter and a battery. The modules are able to provide a maximum power of similar to 100 W, which feeds the converter, inverter and DC motor. Wind resistance of the tracker is quite low. The total area of the four modules is 1.26 m(2). The inclination angle between the modules and the horizontal plane is adjustable (34 degrees +/- 11 degrees) and the tracking angle is 120 degrees. The system can track solar motion with an error of +/- 10 degrees. The designed PV tracking system, with modules fixed at an angle of 170 degrees to feed the load as well as the DC motor, exhibited it to be an efficient energy-conversion system. The fabricated system offers low wind resistance. The cost analysis data revealed that the proposed design was very economical and cost effective. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.