Automatic solar panel tracking system

Abstract

Solar Energy is the one of best renewable source of alternative energy. The efficiency of the solar panel can be improved more by tracking it in such way that it always faces perpendicular to the sun-rays throughout the day rather than it is kept fixed at an angle. At present, there are three methods for solar tracking, out of which refrigerant method is found to be more efficient as it is of a passive type and requires no external power source for its operation. In this project we have used R-134a [Tetrafluoroethene (CF3CH2F)] as the refrigerant medium for tracking the panel. To store the refrigerant, we have made use of two canisters and a copper conduit for connecting the canisters. The tracking system works on the principle of Differential Pressure Controlled system where high-pressure refrigerant from one canister to other flows and due to imbalance in the weight of canisters, the panel will tilt in the direction of the side where the weight is high due to gravity. Thus, our main objective is to harvest more solar energy at a much lower cost than the available trackers.