Experimental analysis of a two‐axis tracking system for solar parabolic dish collector

Summary In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a two‐axis tracking system for solar parabolic dish concentrator and experimentally evaluated the performance of the tracking system. In this proposed design, the sensor design uses the illumination produced by the convex lens on the apex of a pyramid to align the dish in‐line with the sun. The change in incident angle of the solar rays on the lens surface shifts the area of illumination from the apex of the pyramid towards its faces. Photodiodes placed on the faces of the pyramid are used as the sensitive elements to detect the movement of the sun. The sensor output is fed to a microcontroller‐based system to drive the stepper motor on the basis of the programmed algorithm such that it receives normal incidence of sunlight on the sensor. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, a conventional available 1‐W photovoltaic (PV) panel is placed at the focal point to measure the short circuit current and open circuit voltage. With respect to the conventional solar PV panel, it is observed that the positioning accuracy of the proposed tracking system enhances the short circuit current of 0.11 A by 86%. Thus, the proposed tracking system can be used in a stand‐alone parabolic dish with concentrating PV module as the focal point for further studies. To increase the efficiency of the solar parabolic dish system, a small prototype of two‐axis tracking arrangement system has been made for the commercially available parabolic dish antenna of 0.3‐m2 aperture area to evaluate its performance by placing a 1‐W conventional photovoltaic (PV) panel at the focal point of the dish to measure the short circuit current. It is observed that accuracy of the proposed tracking system, compared with conventional solar PV panel, enhances the short circuit current by 86%.