Development of a Cheap and Simple Sensor-Based Polar Tracking System

The present work describes the design and construction of a Sensor-Based Polar Tracking System. It was implemented to drive a Photovoltaic module with four panels parallel connected, but it can be used to work with any concentrator with this type of tracking. This system looks for the most incidence radiation region, increasing the amount of collected energy, and therefore increasing the amount of electric energy produced. To control the motion of the electromechanical mounting, a very simple and economic circuit has been developed. Whole system has been tested in different applications like: solar radiation measurement, supplying the energy to a water pump for a Solar Thermal cooling and also to an evaporative cooling system. Experimental results show an increase of the collected energy up to 29% compared with a fixed PV module.