An Efficient IoT Based Solar Photovoltaic System with Sun-Tracking and Power Monitoring Capabilities

Conventional methods of mounting solar panels, facing true north in the southern hemisphere and true south in the northern hemisphere, lead to the underutilization of available solar energy resources [1].This is because solar panels can only convert most of the incident light energy to electrical energy when the light rays strike the panel surface perpendicularly.When the angle of incidence is not perpendicular, a significant percentage of the incident light is lost and not converted to electrical energy [2].To address this issue, a sun-tracking mechanism was proposed to ensure that light rays from the sun always strike the solar panel surface perpendicularly throughout the day.This solution involves enabling the solar arrays to rotate along two axes: the azimuth axis and the zenith axis, ensuring the panels are always directly facing the sun.The system comprises a microcontroller connected to light-dependent resistor sensors to track light movement and two servo motors to rotate the panels accordingly.Additionally, the project includes an Internet of Things (IoT) powered remote monitoring web application.This application monitors and tracks the system's performance by displaying real-time trends of the system's parameters and historical trends through periodic data logging via power monitoring circuitry.The developed system can track the sun from dawn to dusk and maintain a communication channel with an IoT server for real-time monitoring, thus maximizing power harvest from the sun.Life-size systems can be developed using this prototype, depending on the size of the panels and specific system requirements.