Answers:
Characteristics Of The Project:
The project has been designed keeping in mind the amount of electrical scarcity in the rural areas. The best alternative to use in a rural area is solar energy. As it is largely available in abundance al throughout the year it would prove to be a very reliable source of energy for the people living in the rural area. My project had the implementation a generator connected to a solar powered cell but also a motor which acted as a solar tracker which maintains a constant angle of 1.5 degrees with the sun at the normal position. As the project has the implementation of a solar tracker there needs to be a light dependent circuit which would eventually help in the determination of the suns directions. With the use of two differential voltage the cancelling voltage can be found which will help the cells to know when to stop rotating.
Objectives Developed For The Project
For the implementation of this project I had put forward the following project objectives to provide a quality working model of the solar tracker:
- To provide the best quality solar cell.
- To have a tracking system with a basic solar cell.
- To track the sun as well as convert the sun into energy for the city to use.
My Area Of Work:
I was in charge of connecting all the different parts of the module to produce a collective project which would be able to track the route of the sun while making solar energy. The
documentation of the file was also completed by me.
Project Group:
Figure 1: The hierarchical division of the project group.
My Responsibilities Throughout The Project
I was responsible for connecting all the modules of the project for the perfect implementation of the device. The tracker module was made by my team member and the final product was compiled by me.
Distinctive Activity
Comprehending The Theory Of The Project:
The project has five major modules which were to be connected to produce the complete project:
- Solar Cells: this is the main module of the project which is responsible for collecting the solar radiation and converting it to voltage which is then shared throughout the city. Materials used: Amorphous Solar Cell.
- Analog Solar Tracker Controller Circuit: this is the innovative creation for the project which is aimed to rotate the solar cell to rotate with the suns position. This would help in collecting better radiation from the sun to produce a higher voltage than the normal solar cell. Materials used: ALD110800A MOSFET
- H-Bridge: this is the connector bridge which connects the rotator and the solar cell. This is responsible for consecutively rotating the solar cell with the rotation of the motor.
- Wind Sensor: this is responsible to cancel out the wind force which disturbs the solar cell to change its degree and also produce residual current due to vibration. This could disrupt the cells and eventually burn them. Materials used: ALD110800APCL MOSFET
- Dc Power Supply: this is the power supply for the motor which is responsible for the rotation of the solar cells. The motor can use only DC current so a rectifier has been used to limit the current to the best possible amount. Materials used: 1N3899 diode and LM338 rectifier.
Engineering Knowledge And Skills Applied In The Project:
I have applied the theoretical knowledge of solar cells and the practical knowledge of motor rotation to produce the implementation of the hardware which would be used to process the sunlight captured into solar energy. The energy is then stored in a power s=cell to provide light later.
Accomplishment And Task Performed:
I had chosen to use the Monochrystaline Solar Cells x 4(IXYS SLMD481H12L), Monochrystaline Solar Cell (SCC2422), Amorphous Solar Cell, Light Dependent Resistor or the Photodiodes for the implementation of the project. We had decided that the cost of the project was to be taken as concern thus we settled for the amorphous cells, the diodes, or the LDRs. For the rotational device I had to find the critical angle where the light ray is of high intensity. It was found to be 3 degrees behind the suns angle which was the best position for the device. This position was the best for the creation of the highest amount of voltage across the whole cell while the centre was in focus with the sun.
The solar tracker is a single controller circuit unit which is responsible of the controlling go a single solar cell and the output of it to the H-Bridge. The single motor would have two circuits which would be responsible for controlling the two direction of the motor. The circuit is initiated by taking an input of 26mV. There would be a fluctuation in the voltage due to a single degree change in the sun rays. The voltage is then amplified using an ALD110800A MOSFET. This is a high precision N-Channel MOSFET that comes in a four MOSFET array. It is high precision because it has a gate to source threshold voltage that ranges from 2mV to 10mV at 1μA. This is ideal because it is desired to have the smallest possible voltage be detected from the solar cells.
Finally the MOSFET is connected to thee driving motor of the H-Bridge. There is a use of relay changing in the bridge which controls the direction of rotation of the bridge. The reason relays are preferred for our design is because they use absolutely no current when the contacts are closed, and they only use current on the coils which trigger the closing when the solar cells produce a voltage.
The use of the wind sensor is to limit the fluctuation in the signal produced. The ALD110800A MOSFET is used to limit the changing voltage to a range of 0V to 5V. Thus we have used the ALD110800APCL MOSFET to increase that signal if it’s too small and keep it within the zero to five volts range in case of large voltage spikes from the sensor
A standard method off rectifying has been chosen for the DC supply. I had used a half wave rectifier in addition to a diode and then a full wave rectifier coupled with a rectifier IC. To minimize any additional ripple in the current flow a large capacitor is placed in parallel with the IC. The power supply has a 12V 5A specification. The diode that is used is the 1N3899 diode which can handle a voltage of 20V and a reverse voltage of 75V. The rectifier used is the LM338 which can withstand a peak current of 5A which is more than the need of the power supply.
Identified Issues And Their Solutions:
I faced the first major problem in finding the best light detecting circuit for the project. This was to be the main part of the project. The same project can be implemented by jut setting up the solar cells but to implement a solar tracking mechanism is the main aspect of this project.
Plan To Produce Creative And Innovative Work:
For the future I have thought about making the project larger and stronger to withstand any kind of wind and to produce a lot of energy to power up a whole city. The project had been studied carefully and the test run results were taken and compared with the test results from the solar farm to recognize the quality of work we had done.
Collaborative Work
I had collaborated with my team mate and my project supervisor to complete this project. I had also taken the help of a local solar power station to understand the procedure of the working of the project. The tour around the field helped me to learn a lot about the working model of the solar cells.
Project Review
Project Overview:
After the completion of the project it was found out that the project was by far the best implementation of the use of the solar tracking model of a solar cell. It was found that the best optimal angle for the project was found to be 30 degrees. In addition to this the analog control circuit of the project module can cause chattering at the relay coils in the module when the signal is too close to the turn on voltage.
My Contribution To Work:
I was responsible for connecting the whole project to produce the best working model of the project. I had also helped by team mate with the tracking module. At the end I had helped in the documentation of the project and collecting and test running the device and taking down the results.
