Design, Experimental Implementation and Performance Comparison of Two Solar Tracking Approaches

Nowadays, solar energy encounters a problem that is the efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) modules which is still low. It is for this reason that this work proposes two approaches that seek to optimize the performance of PV modules under variable meteorological conditions. The first approach uses closed-loop solar tracking thanks to a smart solar tracker that has been implemented. Its particularity is the minimization of the solar tracker consumption. In addition, third world countries, particularly rural areas, do not have the financial and technological means for automation that is why a second approach has been carried out. The second approach is a manual solar tracking; it uses the tracking of the sun’s position with an open loop. In reality astronomical equations make it possible to calculate the positions of the sun in time, the PV module is then positioned manually every hour. This second approach finds its importance much more in rural areas because it could solve energy emergencies in a palliative way in hospitals or industrial buildings. The automatic solar tracking system is made of several parts: a mechanical part, sensors, actuator, a control unit with a microcontroller and the tracking solar panel. While the manual system contains a mechanical rotating structure with angle measuring item and the solar panel. Experimental results were obtained from the two approaches and a comparison was carried out. This study shows the advantage of the automatic method over the manual method due to the low consumption of the electromechanical system which drives the PV module. Nevertheless, the manual method can increase the performance of a PV module up to 21% compared to the fixed module. Furthermore, an experiment-based simulations permit to predict the electrical power of a crystalline silicon module with good precision.