THE OPTIMAL ANGLES OF A DUAL-AXIS TRACKING SYSTEM BY PREPROGRAMMED METHOD USING A MICROCONTROLLER

This paper presents the automatic control system for the orientation of a photovoltaic panel versus the solar radiations. The system device comprises two actuators and a control circuit equipped with a series link to the computer. The orientation system is based on programming the movement of the panel with the sun trajectory modeling by time equations, which allows us to control the two axis at predetermined intervals according to the sun position in two astronomical angles: declination δ and azimuth ω. The maximum irradiation is then collected by maintaining the direction of permanent luminous flux and perpendicularly to the surface of the panel during most of the time. Experimental measurements were taken to measure the quantity of incident solar radiation received by the PV panel with the tracking system and compare it to that of a fixed panel and identify the optimal correction angles in the area which gives the most significant gain. The results show a gain of about 33% in terms of collected solar energy, which deduct the economic importance of the proposed systemc.