Published Paper Details:

According to market economy, the increasing worldwide demand for energy, forces a continuous rise on the price of fossil combustibles[1]. In fact it is expected in the near future, that the demand for energy will grow faster than the finding out of new available fossil resources[2]. In this context we have assisted, in the last decades, to a concentrated focus on renewable energy research. Among these renewable energetic sources, the international scientific community has devoted intense efforts to wind, solar photovoltaic and biomass. The solar energy is a clean, freely and abundantly available alternative energy source in nature. Capturing solar energy from nature is an advantageous task for power generation[3]. Conversion of sun energy into another form is a highly complex phenomenon. For this purpose, Photo-Voltaic (PV) panels are used which convert Sun energy to Direct Current (DC) electrical energy. Conventional fixed type PV panels extract maximum energy only during 12 noon to 2 PM which results in less efficiency. Therefore, building of an automatic solar tracking system is the need of an hour. PV panels have to be perpendicular with the sun for maximum energy extraction which can be fulfilled by automatic tracking. This project includes the design and development of a microcontroller-based automatic solar tracking system.