Arduino Based Blind Solar Tracking Controller

Abstract

There is no doubt that energy production of photovoltaic systems is a matter of the sun light’s incident angle of the solar panel. The proposed system is offering a dual axis tracking controller, that track the sun based on astronomical equations which used time, date and location to locate the sun position. The presented system is using an Arduino Mega 2560 to find the instant sun position based on a PSA algorithm and with the aid of a real-time controller RTC and the global positioning system GPS. This system is direct the panel to the specific location using two linear actuators, the first for azimuth angle, and the other for elevation angle. Finally, the system periodically measured panel location using an accelerometer to adjust any error between the measured and the calculated angles.