DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF SOLAR TRACKER

The increasing demand for energy, the continuous reduction in existing sources of fossil fuel and the growing concern regarding environmental 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. Renewable energy is considered safe and sustainable way to get clean energy and reduce dependence on traditional energy sources. Solar energy is gaining increasing importance; especially in Egypt because of the vast areas and large periods of brightness, making it contributes a large share of the energies used. Converting solar energy into electrical energy using solar cells is still expensive but effective. It is applied to different mechanisms for increasing the efficiency of solar cells to reduce costs. Solar tracking system is the most appropriate technology to enhance the efficiency of solar cells by tracking the sun. Thus, this project deals with controlling the solar panel at two axis by using two light dependent resistor (LDRs) as sensors and direct current (DC) motors as actuators (M1) and integrated circuit (TDA2822) as a controller unit. The prototype of solar tracking system has a mechanism for precise control to keep tracking of sun automatically and get the largest possible energy on the solar cell. Results have proven that, the model has high accuracy in tracking the movement of the sun throughout the day. Keywords: LDRs, Integrated circuit (TDA 2822), dc gear motor.