Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Sun Tracking Solar Panel |
Daniel Bullock Rohan Gore Tyler Newlin |
Amr Ghoname | design_document3.pdf final_paper1.pdf photo1.png photo2.jpeg presentation1.pdf proposal1.pdf |
|
| # Sun Tracking Solar Panel ## Team Members Daniel Bullock (djb6), Tyler Newlin (tylerjn2), Rohan Gore (rohanvg2) ## Problem Stationary solar panels do not produce the maximum amount of energy possible at all hours of daylight. Setting up stationary solar panels requires an optimum angle to be found as well as lined up to the sun's path in the sky. ## Solution Our solution to maximize energy production is for a sun tracking solar panel. The panel will move to face all directions to be perpendicular with the sun. It will use photoresistors to find the sun’s position and servo motors to move the panel. ## Solution Components ### Photoresistors Multiple photoresistors will be behind the solar panel. When the photoresistors are completely shaded, the panel will be perpendicular to the sun. So the photoresistors will detect which have the most light on them and move correspondingly to minimize light on all of the photoresistors. ### Servos One servo will rotate the whole device on an axis parallel to the ground and another will rotate it on an axis perpendicular to the ground allowing. ### Power Tracking It will have real time output of the power generated by the solar panels. It will log the power output in order to graph the results of the power. It will also have a real time output and log of the power consumed by the whole system. ### Manual Controls For only the first time setup of the device, it will have a button to take over manual control of the panel to roughly(not necessary to be accurate) face it where the sun will be in the morning. ### Nighttime Reset Using the power tracking, it will look for a major drop in power, AKA when the sun goes down. It will do a 180° turn and then turn off the servos. It will then turn them back once power is high enough, AKA the sun is up. # Criterion for Success Our solution will track the sun anywhere in the sky and rotate the panel to face it. It should produce more energy than a panel which is stationary. Currently Zomeworks has a solar tracking panel which only rotates on one axis and requires it to be set up at a specific angle depending on its location in the world. Our panel will rotate on two, allowing it to face the sun in any location in the sky, removing the need for much setup. |
|||||