Solar Photovoltaic Tracking Systems for Electricity Generation: A Review

Abstract

This paper presents a thorough review of state-of-the-art research and literature in the field of photovoltaic tracking systems for the production of electrical energy. A review of the literature is performed mainly for the field of solar photovoltaic tracking systems, which gives this paper the necessary foundation. Solar systems can be roughly divided into three fields: the generation of thermal energy (solar collectors), the generation of electrical energy (photovoltaic systems), and the generation of electrical energy/thermal energy (hybrid systems). The development of photovoltaic systems began in the mid-19th century, followed shortly by research in the field of tracking systems. With the development of tracking systems, different types of tracking systems, drives, designs, and tracking strategies were also defined. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of photovoltaic tracking systems, as well as the latest studies that have been done in recent years. The review will be supplemented with a factual presentation of the tracking systems used at the Institute of Energy Technology of the University of Maribor.

Solar Photovoltaic Architecture and Agronomic Management in Agrivoltaic System: A Review

“…At the same time, solar radiation can also be converted to electricity using solar power systems. Solar systems are classified into two types: photovoltaic (PV) systems that convert sunlight directly to electricity using semiconductor materials [36,[76][77][78][79] and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems that convert sunlight to heat before using the heat to produce electricity [30,41,46,51,80]. Despite the fact that both processes need solar radiation to occur, the photosynthesis process is concerned more with the Photosynthesis Active Radiation (PAR) range [47,52,68,[81][82][83] while electrical energy generation is dependent on solar irradiance or light intensity [8,15,35,84,85].…”

“…This total solar irradiance is referred to as solar irradiation. The amount and intensity of R s that the earth's surface receives depends on a variety of factors such as cloud cover [81,[90][91][92][93], latitude [6,73,80,94], altitude [77,78,90,95], season [73,93,[96][97][98], weather [19,38,40,99,100], and daytime [34,46,48,76,101]. In addition, the distance that radiation has to travel is dependent on the angle of the sun [88,93].…”

“…The solar PV modules are wired together in series to form PV strings, which are then linked together in parallel to form a PV array (MS IEC 61836:2010) [116]. The process is simple as it is a direct conversion of sunlight to electricity without any complicated mechanical movement or release of waste to the surrounding environment [52,78,92]. The solar PV cells can absorb up to 80% of the incident solar radiation received from the solar band, but only a small amount of this absorbed energy is transformed into electricity, with the rest increasing the temperature of the cells [89,117,118].…”

npTrack: A n-Position Single Axis Solar Tracker Model for Optimized Energy Collection

“…Since then, the research has brought new concepts and tested new solutions, which can be found in the paper of Seme that presents an updated scenario [2]. The manufacturers have also continued to develop their technologies, each one with its specific tracking error, that is, the deviation of the angle between the sun ray and the normal of the photovoltaic panel, which should be as low as possible as a function of the chosen geometry and electromechanical parts involved.…”

“…The work of Zhang, for instance, used photodiodes in a dual-axis hybrid solar track system, which also uses a GPS module [5]. As another more recent alternative, the inclinometer, a device designed to measure the angle of an object with respect to the force of gravity, also called the tilt sensor, has been used in order to adjust the position of the PV panels adopted according to the model and geometry adopted [2].…”