Design and construction of a microcontroller based single axis solar tracker

Abstract

Solar energy is rapidly gaining popularity as an important means of ex-panding renewable energy resources. As such, it is vital that those in engi-neering fields understand the technologies associated with this area. This pa-per presents the design and construction of a microcontroller-based solar panel tracking system. Solar tracking allows more energy to be produced because the solar array is able to remain aligned to the sun. A working sys-tem will ultimately be demonstrated to validate the design. Problems and possible improvements will also be presented.