Abstract—The increasing demand for energy, the continuous reduction in existing sources of fossil fuels and the growing concern regarding environment pollution, have pushed mankind to explore new technologies for the production of electrical energy using clean, renewable sources, such as solar energy, wind energy, etc. Among the non-conventional, renewable energy sources, solar energy affords great potential for conversion into electric power, able to ensure an important part of the electrical energy needs of the planet. This paper deals with the design and execution of a solar tracker system dedicated to the PV conversion panels. The proposed single axis solar tracker device ensures the optimization of the conversion of solar energy into electricity by properly orienting the PV panel in accordance with the real position of the sun. The operation of the experimental model of the device is based on a Stepper motor intelligently controlled by a dedicated drive unit that moves a mini PV panel according to the signals received from two simple but efficient light sensors. In this paper mechanism of building an efficient solar tracking system with the help of Labview software is discussed and also discussed about the control strategy of the stepper motor. From the study it is found that the motor will move the solar array according to the light intensity of the sun.

Index Terms—Light intensity, lab view, stepper motor, solar tracker.

The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering in Tripura University (A central university), Tripura. India

Cite: Gagari Deb and Arijit Bardhan Roy, "Use of Solar Tracking System for Extracting Solar Energy," International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 42-46 , 2012.