Lucian Milea

Two axes detector for photovoltaic panels' automatic full angle orientation

A significant efficiency increase of the photovoltaic systems can be obtained by optimal exposure to the sunlight, using automatic solar trackers. In this paper we propose a detector for one or two axis automatic orientation, which permit a continuous tracking for the entire zenith angle range. The detector has a monotonous and almost linear characteristic for incident angles from −90° to 90°, on any axe. It is appropriate for an analog, low cost, tracking procedure, but also for a digital, more precise one. The West to East return procedure is simple, because of the illumination of at least one cell.

Theory, Algorithms and Applications for Solar Panel MPP Tracking

The photovoltaic panel is a power source whose parameters depend on some external factors like incident light angle, shading, ambient temperature etc. Some of these factors are unpredictable and, for this reason, so is the evolution of cell parameters. The most known parameters of the photovoltaic panel are the open circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current (Isc). These values define the points where the I(V) graph curve of the panel intersects the two axes (I and V), like in Fig. 1.