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ABSTRACT
The increasing gap between energy demand and generation of electrical energy through conventional methods, the continuous depletion of sources of fossil fuels and the growing concern about pollution, have pushed consumers of electricity to seek modern technologies for the production of electrical energy using clean, renewable sources, such as solar energy, wind energy, etc. Renewable energy is considered safe and sustainable way to get clean energy and reduce dependence on traditional energy sources. Solar energy is gaining increasing importance; especially in Nigeria because of the vast areas and large periods of brightness, making it contributes a large share of the energies used. Conversion of photons into electrical energy using solar cells is still expensive and ineffective. In the bid to increase the efficiency of solar system solar tracking system is believed to enhance the efficiency of solar cells by tracking the sun. Thus, this research work deals with comparison between the electrical energy harvested by stationary and maximum power point tracking solar system. The design uses light dependent resistor (LDRs) as sensors, direct current (DC) motors as actuators and microcontroller ATMEGA328P as a controller unit. The prototype of solar tracking system has a mechanism for precise control to keep tracking of sun automatically and get the largest possible energy on the solar cell. A data logging is incorporated to the design to store the quantum of energy harvested by both stationary and the one with tracker. Results from the research shown that the solar system with tracker have 4-6% efficiency over the stationary system. The results also shown that the quantum of energy harvested in the 12th-14th hours of the are almost equal for both cases which justify that more energy is harvested when the sun is perpendicular to the solar panel.
