Intelligent sun-tracking system based on multiple photodiode sensors for maximisation of photovoltaic energy production

To maximise the energy collected by a given photovoltaic system (PVS), it is important to track the position of the sun so that the PV panels are exposed to the maximum global radiation at any given time. Thus, it is useful to determine the direction of the maximum global radiation, which does not correspond with the condition of orthogonality between the plane of the array and the beam component of the solar radiation. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate a low-cost solar radiation sensing system that can determine this direction. The proposed system consists of a structure of nine photodiodes (FDs); a suitable analysis of the output signals calculates the azimuth and solar height angles, which are related to the direction of maximum solar irradiance. This paper reports the development of hardware (HW) and software (SW) for a prototype system, which is called SoliSector. Outdoor experimental results regarding testing and calibration of the proposed system are also reported.