A Study on the Development of High Accuracy Solar Tracking Systems

Solar trackers play a central role in concentrating the sun light into an optical fiber where at one end of fiber, a high-density light beam could emerge for indoor illumination, high suns PV applications. Many solar trackers have been developed in the market but they are relatively expensive and high accuracy of trackers may pose long term reliability problems. A key component of the motion controller of trackers is the software, where flexibility, easy-of-use and integration with other I/O ports are parameters for consideration. In this paper, we demonstrate that a cost-effective solution with the off-the-shell software, such as the LabVIEW. It offers solution with excellent accuracy in tracking as well as the output concentration in the fiber reaching up to 200 suns. The tracker system takes advantage of global positioning data (GPS) for the geographical location before applying the simultaneous controls such as the open and closed loop operations. The closed loop feedback control with CdS sensors proves effective in making real time corrections for gear backlashes or under an adverse disturbances arising from strong winds, etc.