Power Maximization of a Photovoltaic System Using Automatic Solar Panel Tracking along with Boost Converter and Charge

Controller
Md. Ismail Hossain*1, Shakil Ahamed Khan*2 , Md. Shafiullah*3
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering International Islamic University Chittagong 1 jewel04eee@yahoo.com * Department of Electrical Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering Dhaka International University 2 shakil_pilabs@yahoo.com * Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering International Islamic University Chittagong 3 shafi_buet03@yahoo.com
*

AbstractThis paper proposes a microcontroller based single axis automatic solar panel tracking control method for keeping the solar panel approximately at right angle with the incident photon for the better performance and maximize the output power of the solar panel. The charge controller with the DC-DC boost converter is used along the automatic tracking system for further enhancing output power under variable insolation conditions and protecting the battery from being overcharged and over discharged condition. The Boost converter is used to overcome the lower output voltage of solar panel for not fulfilling the minimum charging voltage requirement of the battery thus more power extraction is possible from the solar panel to battery. The system includes a photovoltaic array, three LDRs sensor, a PWM controlled Boost converter, charge controller and sensor circuits. This paper discusses the low cost implementation of the whole system in the 8-bit microcontroller using the tools and techniques to generate optimized real time code in C for ATMega8 microcontroller which will demonstrate how maximization of power output is visible and efficient solution for increasing the efficiency of a solar system based on experimental results rather than on mathematical models. Keywordsphotovoltaic (PV), solar tracking, controller, boost DC-DC converter, microcontroller. charge

energy can be harvested by the use of photovoltaic (PV) array. But, there are still some drawbacks as follow: the install cost of solar panels is high, and the conversion efficiency is still lower. The output power of the PV array varies depending on the insolation level, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Maximum power varies with different insolation at the same temperature

I. INTRODUCTION Energy is the most basic and essential of all resources .All the energy we use on Earth comes from fission or fusion of atomic nuclei or from energy store in the Earth. The problem with both fission and fusion is that, they have dangerous radioactivity and side effect. Therefore, most of the generation of energy in our modern industrialized society is strongly depending on very limited non-renewable resources such as petroleum. As the worlds energy demands rise and resources become scarce, the petroleum is getting more and more expensive. The search for alternative energy resources has become an important issue for our time. The people seek for new green and unlimited energy sources, e.g. wind energy, water energy, solar energy, etc. The most effective, reliable and harmless energy source is probably solar energy. Solar

Variation in insolation level causes the output of solar panel deviation from the maximum power available due to solar position changing, the tracker needs to response within a short time to the change to avoid energy loss. Also when the output voltage of solar panel stays below the charging voltage of battery then no power is possible to deliver from solar panel to battery for battery charging constraints. That is a handsome power becomes loss. To overcome this drawback, PWM controlled DC-DC boost converter is used to deliver power in the lower output voltage of solar panel. We have proposed a scheme as shown in Fig. 2, based on the use of conventional DC-DC converter, voltage change in LDR where combination of voltage and tracking position is implemented with the use of artificial intelligence algorithm which results in a single axis tracking strategy along with charge controller and boost converter that makes tracking response faster and maximizes the power extracted from the solar module and the power delivered to the load.

SUN
R3
Boost converter

LD

y rra Solar A Panel PV

Voltage Sensor

Switch Battery 1

Voltage Sensor

III. OPERATION OF THE SOLAR TRACKING CONTROL Solar tracking module is designed on the basis of Light dependent resistor (LDR) characteristics. We know that the resistance of LDR is changed according to the light intensity. Fig. 4 shows how the resistance in the CDS photocells (LDR) varies in proportion to the light intensity falling upon its surface.

MOTOR

Driver
Resistor Divider network

LCD

Interface Circuits
PWM A/D Converter I/O Port

I/O Port

L Switch 2 O A D

-controller
A/D Converter Solar tracking Control

-controller

Charge controller

Fig. 4 Characteristic curve of LDR

Fig. 2 Total system block diagram

II. MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SOLAR PANEL The equivalent circuit of the solar panel is shown in Fig. 3 The output current of the solar panel is given by the Eq. (1) [7],

I 0 Ae qV V I 0 {exp( D ) 1} D (1) hc nKT R Sh

(2) (3)

Output voltage V= VD - IRs And Output power P= V*I Where C= velocity of light; h= Plank Constant = Quantum efficiency A= Area of Cell I0 = reverse saturation Current of diode n = diode ideality factor (1 for an ideal diode) q = electron charge k = Boltzmann's Constant VD = voltage across both diode and resistor RSH = V+ IRS T = absolute temperature RSH = shunt resistance. RS = series resistance.

So the voltage will be changed across the resistor dividing network. Three LDRs are used to sense the appropriate solar position. LDR1 and LDR2 are used to track the solar module Left and Right respectively upon their light intensity imbalance. LDR3 is used to sense the morning sun position. When the difference of light intensity of LDR1 and LDR2 crosses the threshold level then motor will rotate until their difference below the threshold level. Solar panel stays in the west direction at the evening. In morning LDR3 is activated to bring the solar panel to the east or solar direction. Gear dc motor is used to rotate the solar panel. Fig. 5 shows how the resistance in the three LDRs varies from morning to evening at normal environment condition.

Fig. 5 Resistance of Three LDRs in different time at normal environment

IV. DESIGN CONSIDERATION When a direct connection is carried out between the source and load, the output of the PV module is seldom maximum and the operating point is not optimal. So, a charge controller with a DC-DC boost converter is connected between the source and the load as shown in Fig. 2. A. Hardware implementation The LDR sensors provide analog data as an output. For further processing of these data, A/D conversion is needed. Since six ADC modules contained in ATMega8 microcontroller and can work on voltage up to 5V, so it is an added advantage which reduces the cost of separate A/D converters IC. The analog output of sensors is connected to ADC pins of ATMega8 microcontroller and the A/D conversion is completed by using software program. With a

Fig. 3 Equivalent circuit of the solar panel

The characteristic curve of the output power is shown in Fig. 1 due to different insolation level on the basis of Eq. (1), (2) and (3).

10-bit ADC over the full range of mains voltage (0~30V) scaled to 0 to 5V. The resolution is 30/1024 or 0.03V. This is too high a resolution called for. B. Voltage sensor Voltage divider network is used as voltage sensor for the controller. The resistance values chosen are 22K and 8.2K. This gives the resistance ratio of 8.2K/ (32K+8.2K) = 0.20 and therefore gives the maximum input voltage to the A/D conversion channel is 0.2025=5V. C. Current Sensor Four resistors network with two parallel paths each having two resistors is used as current sensor for the controller. By connecting a current resistor at the inputs of the two parallel paths, the current from the PV array passing through the resistor and voltage drop across it is calculated by measuring two terminal voltage of its. If the solar panel is assumed it operating its maximum capacity, the maximum output current is 4.85 amp, and if 0.5W dissipation is allowed for the current sensing resistor, the resistance value can be determined by (0.5=4.852R) or (R=0.5/4.852=0.0213 ). A 0.022 surface-mount resistor is chosen for this design. D. DC-DC Converter The power flow is controlled by varying the on/off duty cycle of the switching. The converter is operated at the switching frequency of 16 KHz. The average output voltage is determined by the Eq. (4) [5], [6].

VII. CONCLUSION This paper has demonstrated the implementation of Automatic solar panel tracking along with Boost converter and charge controller to a microcontroller for a PV module under variable insolation conditions and variable solar panel output voltage. The total system is easy to implement and require a small amount of inexpensive components in compact size. The designed controller is capable of rapidly locking into the sun position for a photovoltaic panel and offer better use of renewable energy in efficient way.

VOUT 1 V IN 1 D

(4)

Where, VOUT is the output voltage VIN is the input voltage and D is the duty cycle of controllable switch. The main task of this converter is to give the output voltage in such a way so that battery always charges up whatever the terminal voltage of solar panel below than minimum charging voltage of battery. E. Charge controller Charge controller always measure the battery voltage and compare its with the highest and lowest threshold value so that battery is protected from being overcharge and over discharge condition. When battery voltage increases greater than highest threshold value then switch1 is opened similarly when battery voltage decreases less than lowest threshold value then switch2 is opened. In this way battery is protected and its life time is increased. V. FIRMWARE DESCRIPTION The overview of Solar panel tracking program and charge controller along with boost converter program is shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 9 respectively. The Liquid Crystal Display is used to display the required information. VI. TEST AND RESULT The position of the three LDRs is shown in Fig. 12 and the boost converter performance is shown in Fig. 10. The total hardware is shown in Fig 13. The comparison of solar power with tracking and without tracking is shown in Fig 7. Finally the efficiency of tracked solar panel output power with respect to non tracked solar panel is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 6 Solar panel tracking program flow chart

Power output for 3W solar panel
2.6 2.4 Power with tracker Power without tracker

Power in W att------------------>

2.2 2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Time in hour------------------->

Fig. 7 Comparison of solar output power for tracker and without tracker

% of power increases with respect to Non-Tracking solar module

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

E fficienc y in percentage(% )------------>

Fig. 11 Hardware implementation of Current sensor & Voltage sensor

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Time in hour---------------------->

Fig. 8 Output power efficiency of tracked solar panel with respect to non tracked solar panel

Fig. 12 positioning three LDR sensors on the Solar panel

Fig. 13 Hardware implementation of total system Fig. 9 Charge controller program flow chart

REFERENCES
[1] H. P. Desai & H. K. Patel, Maximum power point algorithm in PV generation: an overview. International conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, (PEDS07), Nov 27-30th, Thailand, 2007. pp637-641. H. Matsuo and F. Kurokawa., New solar cell power supply system using a boost type bidirectional DC-DC converter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron, vol. 31, pp. 51- 55, Feb. 1984. Bor-SenChen, Chung-Shi Tseng and Huey-Jian Uang, Robustness Design of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems via Fuzzy Linear Control, IEEE Trans. Ind. Fuzzy Systems , vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 571-585, Oct. 1999. N. Ozog, W. Xiao, and W. G. Dunford, Topology study of Photovoltaic interface for maximum power point tracking, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 16961704, Jun. 2007. Simoes, M. G., Franceschetti, N. N. and Friedhofer, M., A Fuzzy Logic Based Photovoltaic Peak Power Tracking Controller, Proceedings of the IEEE Inter-National Symposium on Industrial Electronics, pp. 300-325 (1998). Mohammed H. Rashid. Power Electronics Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 2nd ed., 1994. J. Wilson, J.F.B Hawkes Optoelectronics Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 2nd ed., 2001

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Fig. 10 Boost converter output voltage for different duty cycle

[6] [7]