Performance Evaluation of A PV Solar Tracker Panel

Abstract

Solar energy is the most abundant source of renewable energy and solar panels are used to convert it to electrical energy in homes and industries but fixed panels are not efficient in maximizing the amount of the sun’s radiation it receives hence, the use of solar trackers. This paper presents the evaluation and comparison of the performance of the solar tracker panel over the fixed panels. The designed solar tracker is microcontroller-based using ATMEGA328P, ESF-12F module, light-dependent resistors (LDRs), servo motors, a liquid crystal display (LCD) and solar panels. The experiment was carried out for 20 days between 8 am and 6 pm from the 20^th of May to the 9^th of June 2021. It was observed that the efficiency of the solar tracker panel outperformed the fixed panel by approximately 43% overall. However, the difference in performance was significant on sunny days compared to cloudy and rainy days.