Development of a Solar Panel Control Strategy for Tracking Maximum Power Generation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Brazilian Journal of Development 18691 ISSN: 2525-8761 Development of a Solar Panel Control Strategy for Tracking Maximum Power Generation Desenvolvimento de uma estratégia de controlo de painéis solares para rastrear a produção máxima de energia DOI:10.34117/bjdv7n2-488 Recebimento dos originais: 23/01/2021 Aceitação para publicação: 23/02/2021 Aurélio Gouvêa de Melo Doutorando em Eng. Elétrica Instituição: Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora Endereço: Galpão Engenharia Elétrica - Via Local - São Pedro, Juiz de Fora - MG E-mail: [email protected] Milena Faria Pinto D.Sc. Eng. Elétrica Instituição: CEFET-RJ Endereço: R. Gen. Canabarro, 485 - Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20271-204 Dr. Alessandro R. L. Zachi Instituição: CEFET-RJ Endereço: R. Gen. Canabarro, 485 - Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20271-204 Dra. Camile A. Moraes D.Sc. Eng. Elétrica Instituição: UFV Endereço: Campus Universitário Viçosa – MG/BR CEP: 36570-900 Cleberson L. A. Melo Graduação Eng. Elétrica Instituição: CEFET-RJ Endereço: R. Gen. Canabarro, 485 - Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20271-204 Marcos G. L. Moura Graduação Eng. Elétrica Instituição: CEFET-RJ Endereço: R. Gen. Canabarro, 485 - Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20271-204 ABSTRACT The solar panel is an essential energy conversion component of photovoltaic (PV) systems, an indispensable key for converting clean and sustainable solar energy into electricity. Over the last few years, there has been a growing demand for renewable sources due to sustainable development and global warming. Therefore, this work describes the prototype of an electronic supervision and control system for the orientation of a bench solar panel. The developed tracker prototype has as its core an electronic circuit based on a commercial microcontroller model Tennsy 3.0, within which the control algorithm is embedded. In addition to the controller, a supervisory Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p. 18691-18707 feb. 2021 Brazilian Journal of Development 18692 ISSN: 2525-8761 software was developed to monitor solar cells’ status in real-time. The supervisory showed the angle of the solar plate and values of luminosity and acquired power. Simulations results were presented to show that the amount of energy generated can reach 37 %. Keywords: Solar tracker, Microcontroller electronics, Solar energy, PID controller. RESUMO o painel solar é uma componente essencial de conversão energética dos sistemas fotovoltaicos (pv), uma chave indispensável para a conversão de energia solar limpa e sustentável em electricidade. Nos últimos anos, tem havido uma procura crescente de fontes renováveis, devido ao desenvolvimento sustentável e ao aquecimento global. Portanto, este trabalho descreve o protótipo de um sistema electrónico de supervisão e controlo para a orientação de um painel solar de bancada. O protótipo de rastreador desenvolvido tem como núcleo um circuito electrónico baseado num microcontrolador comercial modelo tennsy 3.0, no qual o algoritmo de controlo está incorporado. Para além do controlador, foi desenvolvido um software de supervisão para monitorizar o estado das células solares em tempo real. A supervisão mostrou o ângulo da placa solar e os valores de luminosidade e potência adquirida. Os resultados das simulações foram apresentados para mostrar que a quantidade de energia gerada pode atingir 37 %. Palavras-chave: rastreador solar, electrónica de microcontrolador, energia solar, controlador pid. 1 INTRODUCTION The solar panel is the fundamental energy conversion component of photovoltaic (PV) systems Chung et al. (2003). PV systems are essential for converting clean and sustainable solar energy into electricity Liu et al. (2016). Besides, this efficiency range can be further reduced by decreasing irradiance, increasing panel temperature and varying load conditions Bendib et al. (2015). In the last few years, there has been a growing demand for electricity Cui et al. (2019a). Consequently, much work has been done for renewable sources, as presented in Debbichi et al. (2018), which can be related to sustainable development, including concerns about global warming. Recently, many works have been published regarding the plates’ composition and the generation of new materials, as mentioned in Yao et al. (2019); Cui et al. (2019b); Anderson et al. (2019); Genene et al. (2019). Due to the PV’s low relative efficiency and its non-linear characteristics under different operating conditions, it can be beneficial to apply control to track solar radiation maximum point throughout the day. Accordingly, to Chung et al. (2003), Khan et al. (2010), there are three possible methods to maximize the solar power extraction: (i) sun-tracking; (ii) maximum power Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p. 18691-18707 feb. 2021 Brazilian Journal of Development 18693 ISSN: 2525-8761 point tracking; or (iii) both. The panel position control ensures that it can produce the maximum power for the available solar radiation. Works like Fathabadi (2016) and Jamroen et al. (2020) presented basic viable methodologies for solar tracking. Despite the results presented, both articles can be optimized by assessing the appropriate time to perform the solar search. This means that tracking only occurs if the power increase is beneficial to the system by evaluating local generation conditions and estimating the increase in generation and the power consumption. Other works such as Kim and Cho (2019) propose efficient methods based on the total measurement of the celestial condition. Although efficient, it has a high financial cost and is not viable on a small scale. Over the years, many researchers have studied control methods to improve the performance of PV systems. Advanced control methods have been developed to achieve better performance, such as in the work of Kiyak and Gol (2016); Zhao et al. (2019). However, conventional control strategies are used in many control problems, especially their dynamics are not completely known or contains uncertainties Sabir and Ali (2016). The widespread of PID is due to its simplicity and easy implementation in almost any microcontroller. This reduces the overall cost, making it more attractive than other advanced systems Aguilar et al. (2019). The main objective of the solar tracking developed in this work is to increase panels efficiency keeping optimal positioning in relation to incident solar radiation. Despite increasing system efficiency, energy costs are created due to the motor’s activation to move the panels. In this way, motors’ activation frequency must be optimized to maximize the energy gain and minimize its consumption. This maximization means that there may be no gain in moving the panel on certain days, such as cloudy days. Thus, a fixed position set-point should be kept, regardless of whether there are slightly brighter regions being detected by the sensor. This work offers a mathematical model and a decision heuristic in order to determine the conditions in which it is feasible to move the panel. Therefore, this work presents a control and optimization system applied to position tracking using a microcontroller. Besides, supervisory software is used to monitor the state of solar cells in real-time. This platform shows the angle of the solar plate and luminosity and power values acquired. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the model and the mathematical foundations used. Section 3 presents details of the controller and the tracking mechanism. The results and discussions are presented in Section 4. finally conclusions are presented in Section 5. Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p. 18691-18707 feb. 2021 Brazilian Journal of Development 18694 ISSN: 2525-8761 2 SOLAR TRACKER SYSTEM MODEL This work focus on the solar panel automatic orientation. It is a mechanism composed of a PV cell mounted on rotating support whose articulation point is corrected to the axis of a DC motor with a reduction box, as illustrated in Figure 1. On the sides of the PV cell that intersects the rotation plane of the mechanism, two Light Dependent Resistors (LDRs) are fixed to sense the incoming light. The LDRs, which are responsible for detecting the sun’s position throughout the day, are mounted on the mechanism’s rotating support sides. This position was selected in order to allow a good position facing the sky. The sensors are positioned with a fixed angle of 65표 relative to the cell plane. Figure 1: Prototype driving and sensing schematics. In order to obtain the mathematical model that describes the solar tracker movement, the DC motor dynamic equation and the mechanism geometric relationships are used. 2.1 DC MOTOR The dynamics that DC Motors behavior is well known in the literature Kathushiko (2011). This equation can be organized in function of the motor axis angular position 휃 [푟푎푑]: Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p. 18691-18707 feb. 2021 Brazilian Journal of Development 18695 ISSN: 2525-8761 휃̈ = −훼 휃̇ + 훽푉푚 (1) or in function of angular speed 푤 [푟푎푑/푠]: 푤̇ = −훼푤 + 훽푉푚 푤 = 휃̇ (2) In Equations (1) and (2), the real constants 훼 > 0 and 훽 > 0 are the motor electromechanical parameters and 푉푚 [푉표푙푡푠] is the voltage applied. 2.2 MECHANISM GEOMETRY Figure 2 is a simplified illustration of the tracking mechanism. Due to its geometry, one will observe that the light sensors always move in an imaginary circumference represented by 푅 and defined by the mechanism structure. Figure 2: Panel geometry and displacement. The reference point 푂퐴 corresponds to the midpoint of the arc segment that joins the two light sensors on this imaginary circle. When the rotating support tilts from an angle 휃, the midpoint 푂퐴 moves over the circumference along an arc length 푆. Since 휃 is measured in radians, then the relationship between these two displacements can be written as 푆 = 푅 휃. Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p. 18691-18707 feb. 2021 Brazilian Journal of Development 18696 ISSN: 2525-8761 When tracking the sun, the midpoint 푂퐴 is aligned with the sun and the mechanism pivot point.