A easy single-axis solar tracker to maximise photo voltaic output

Solar energy is superior, however it takes an extended to recoup the funding on {hardware}. The extra output you’ll be able to squeeze from a photo voltaic panel, the quicker you’ll cross that line into precise financial financial savings on power. You possibly can obtain respectable output by way of many of the day with sensible placement, however a solar tracker like this single-axis design from Shawn Murphy will dramatically improve issues.

It is a single-axis solar tracker and so it doesn’t improve output fairly as a lot as a tracker that strikes on two axes. But when one orients that axis correctly, this may nonetheless be a major enchancment over a static photo voltaic panel.

Murphy has 4 300 watt photo voltaic panels mounted on the roof of a shed that they use as an artwork studio. That roof has a slight downward slope, so the panels solely obtain full daylight when the solar is low within the sky. To account for that, a pair of highly effective linear actuators elevate up all the roof of the shed to maintain the photo voltaic panels perpendicular to the solar’s rays as a lot as doable. Fuel struts assist to lighten the load on the actuators.

An Arduino Nano RP2040 Join board controls the linear actuator motors by way of a Drok DC motor controller. The Arduino seems to be at a pair of LDRs (mild dependent resistors) and calculates the differential between them to find out if the panels ought to tilt additional. Murphy related the Nano to the Arduino Cloud to log the readings, which lets him test to see the motion all through the day.

You won’t have a shed with a roof like Murphy’s, however you’ll be able to nonetheless repurpose this undertaking to your personal photo voltaic panels.