Boolean Algorithm Empirical Results for a PV Dual-Axes Tracking-Type System

Renewable energy sources, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are becoming more popular globally due to their profuse availability and eco-friendly nature. Given that the sun moves daily, an effective solar PV system setup is not straightforward. Harvesting of solar energy from a PV module efficiently is affected not only by varying environmental conditions, but also by the installation angles, load profile, latitude of the location of interest and energy management system. PV module energy conversion can further be increased by using solar tracking technologies. The purpose of this study was to develop an effective algorithm for automatic solar tracking system using Boolean algorithm in order to optimize the output power from a dual-axes tracking-type system. A fixed-type PV module installed at tilt angles of 16° served as the baseline to the dual-axes tracking type system. The Boolean algorithm was developed in a National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW user interface software. The direct-tracking system power showed 32 % improvement over the fixed-system power. The study only focused on the summer season in the Highveld of South Africa prompting that further study needs to be conducted for the other seasons to establish if the results will still hold.