A device that is designed to convert the energy of light incident upon its surface into electricity. Its mechanism is the photovoltaic effect: the electrons of the valence band in a material are excited by the high frequency photons in the light to which the cell is exposed. With the energy they absorb from the light, they abruptly transit to the conduction band out of confinement of the valence band. Driven by the Galvani potential between the material the electrons coming from and another material, these free electrons accelerate into this different material, thus the light power is converted into electric power at a certain ratio.
Published in Chapter:
Mechatronic System Design for a Solar Tracker
H. Henry Zhang (Purdue University, USA), Li-Zhe Tan (Purdue University North Central, USA), Wangling Yu (Purdue University North Central, USA), and Simo Meskouri (Chrysler Technology Center, USA)
Copyright: © 2015
|Pages: 36
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-7387-8.ch030
Abstract
The performance and cost-effectiveness of photovoltaic cells depends greatly on the intensity of solar radiation to which they are exposed. Integrating a solar tracking system to the photovoltaic cell panel provides a way to improve the efficiencies of the solar energy system. Designing such an interdisciplinary system requires the mechatronic approach, through which the subsystems and their interfacings relating to the electrical, electronic, mechanical, structural, and control are integrated with multiple functionality and intelligent engineering realized in the microprocessor/controller operations and the controlled mechanisms. This chapter presents a case study of mechatronic system design and prototyping of a two-axis solar tracking system ST100 utilizing microcontroller OOPic. Two stepper motors adjusting the solar panel's rotation and tilt about the horizontal axis and the vertical axis give it the ability to track the movement of the sun and align the solar panel to face the sun at all times.