Sun finders based on a pinhole camera

Abstract

Sun tracking is the most diffused strategy to enhance the performance of solar systems based on the concentration of sunlight. The proposed solar finders were developed for Concentrating Photo Voltaic systems, which require pointing precision is of the order of 0.01 angular degrees. These sun trackers are simple, effective, adaptable and low-cost. The sun finders were experimented in laboratory, under controlled and reproducible conditions, assessing their main optical features. The solar finder could be mainly characterized by angular accuracy and field of view of the detection. The field of view can be customized by varying the geometry of the sun finder allowing to use it in many applications.