MESSAI.iO

AI summary

65% confidence

The paper analyzes the performance of a solar tracker and its optimization for efficiency, highlighting a 27% gain in efficiency compared to a fixed mechanism.

Generated by MESSAI extraction pipeline · review against source PDF

Generic MECRepresentative model
Click to animate flow
loading 3D model…

Representative MEC — matched on the paper’s system type only, not its reactor or geometry.

Extraction

Reported parameters

1 extracted value

View extracted values

Open in lab for full controls, parameter editing, and template overlays.

Open in lab →

What they did

System
MEC

What worked

No outcome metrics extracted yet.

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the richest source of renewable energy on Earth, thus its harnessing is very much necessary for the useful conversion of light energy into electric energy. Solar panels are developed in this direction. Many scientists have developed various methods to gather the solar irradiation in order to maximize the extraction of electric power from the Photovoltaic generators. However, the problem with the solar power is that it is directly dependent on light intensity. The main hindrance with solar panels is their low efficiency with huge investment. Studies show that a solar panel converts 20-40% of energy incident on it to electrical energy. The solution is to use a tracking system1, 7 that maintains the panel’s position orthogonal with the light source. There are many tracking systems designs available including passive and active systems with one or two axes of freedom.8, 9 It has been found that the overall efficiency gain in single-axis solar tracker designed in10 is 27% than that of fixed mechanism. We had optimised the tracker efficiency by performing the experiment with solar tracker for consecutive three days and thus results were analysed by using stat-ease software. Moreover, the testing showed that the power used by the tracking system was much less than that of power gained by tracking system. While working on the developed set-up, focus was given on the incremental efficiency of the solar power generation system. In the present work, further performance analysis is taken up with the help of various parameters viz. Specific Energy Production (SEP), Performance Ratio (PR), Ground Cover Ratio (GCR) and Surface Performance Ratio (SPR)11 to further elaborate the efficiency enhancement in solar trackers as compared to fixed systems.

Key findings

  • The solar panel's efficiency is limited to 20-40% due to its dependence on light intensity.
  • A single-axis solar tracker can improve efficiency by 27% compared to a fixed mechanism.
  • The study optimized the tracker's efficiency through experiments over three consecutive days.

Keywords

Photovoltaic systemSolar trackerSolar energyRenewable energySolar powerElectric power

Identifiers

DOI
10.24321/2455.3093.202202
Journal
Journal of Advanced Research in Alternative Energy, Environment and Ecology
Year
2023