Tracking Solar Light System

What is a solar tracking system?

A solar tracking system is a mechanism to position solar photovoltaic (PV) panels towards the Sun. This ensures that the solar panels are precisely perpendicular to the sun, producing more power than when not aligned. Most commonly, they are used with mirrors to redirect sunlight on the panels.

How does a solar tracker work?

Poulek (1994) developed a new low cost shape memory alloy based sun tracker which could collect up to 40% surplus energy in comparison to the fixed tilt collectors. 2.2.2. Active solar tracking systems These systems use electrical drives and mechanical gear trains to orient the panels normal to the sun’s radiations.

How can solar trackers improve energy production?

These efforts emphasize the significance of enhancing solar panel efficiency and energy production with sophisticated tracking and control systems. Recent developments in solar tracker systems include exploring different module geometries, materials, and tracking mechanisms to boost efficiency.

How to design a solar tracking system?

The idea behind designing a solar tracking system is to fix solar photovoltaic modules in a position that can track the motion of the sun across the sky to capture the maximum amount of sunlight. Tracker system should be placed in a position that can receive the best angle of incidence to maximize the electrical energy output.

What are the different types of solar tracking systems?

Taking into account the type of mechanism, solar tracking systems can be classified into one-axis trackers or two-axis trackers. Because solar tracking implies moving parts and control systems that tend to be expensive, single-axis tracking systems seem to be the best solution for small PV power plants.

How many types of solar tracker drive systems are there?

The solar tracker drive systems are classified into five types based on their tracking technologies, namely, active tracking, passive tracking, semi-passive tracking, manual tracking, and chronological tracking [1–90,92–96,98–100,108–112].