A comparison of two automatic solar tracking algorithms

¹ Department of Electrical and Mining Engineering, University of South Africa, Corner Christian de Wet and Pioneer Avenue, Florida, 1709, South Africa
^2&3 Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Central University of Technology, Free State, Private Bag X20539, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa

^* Corresponding author: lehlomc@unisa.ac.za

Abstract

Due to global climate change as a result of pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels, the world has changed its view when it comes to power generation. The focus is now more on natural and clean energy, such as solar PV systems. An effective solar PV system is not a simple system, as the sun is not a stationery object. The sun moves from east to west daily and that makes the design and installation of an effective solar PV system challenging for optimal power harvesting. The purpose of this paper is to compare two algorithms (linear regression and fuzzy logic) that are applied to a dual-axis tracker in order to maximize the output power yield that may be obtained from a fixed-axis system. One fixed-axis PV module serves as the baseline for comparing the results of the dual-axis trackers that are controlled by the two algorithms. A key recommendation is to align a PV module perpendicular to the sun from sunrise to sunset using a control algorithm based on fuzzy logic principles in order to extract the maximum amount of available energy.