The Effect of Light Tracking and Tower Based Systems on Pv Energy Generation

Overview

Fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) play a dominant role in current global energy systems. Fossil fuel energy had been the fundamental driving force for our technological advancements. Although fossil fuels may have led to major developments it has caused harmful effects on our environment and has contributed to global warming and climate change. Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundantly available energy source. Solar technologies can harness this energy to produce electricity. My project aims to create an economic and viable solar energy harvester that would be adaptive to weather conditions and would be cost-effective. This project also intends to compare the efficiency of Tower Based Solar Systems to Light Tracking Solar Systems. Hypothesis: If Solar panels follow the sun using a Solar Tracking System, then the panels would generate more photovoltaic energy than the Tower based system which has mirrors positioned at various angles to reflect sunlight onto the solar panel throughout the day. The Solar Tower was built using a PVC pipe which was mounted between a 3-D printed prism and base. The prism held solar panels and the mirrors were positioned around the towers in order to reflect light onto the panels. The Solar Tracker was made by putting two servos into a 3-D printed coaxial holder that held the solar panels. These servos were controlled using an Arduino which identified the brightest portion of the sky using resistance values from several Light Dependent Resistors. The photovoltaic energy generated by all the harvesting methods followed the same patterns of increases and decreases in voltage produced. Amongst all the models, the average photovoltaic energy generated by the Solar tracker was the highest and stationary solar panels had the lowest average photovoltaic energy generated. The calculated t-values show that both the Solar Tracker and the Solar Tower harvested significantly higher amounts of energy when compared to the Stationary solar panels. The t-value of the Solar Tracker vs. Stationary panels was higher than the t-value of Solar Tower vs. Stationary panels. This means that the data obtained suggest that both the Solar tracker and the Solar Tower are much more efficient methods to harvest solar energy and also that Solar Trackers are the most efficient method to harvest solar energy.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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