Solar Power Enhancement Using Concentration

Method, Tracking System and Fuzzy Based Control

System
Muhammad Salahuddin Kabir,
Rahnuma Rifat Chowdhury
and M. Nabil Amin
Department of Electrical, Electronic
and Communication Engineering,
Military Institute of Science and
Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email:
muhammad salahuddin kabir@yahoo.com,
rahnumarifatchowdhury@yahoo.com,
m.nabilamin@yahoo.com
Deen Md Abdullah
and Wali Md Abdullah
Department of Computer Science
and Engineering,
Military Institute of Science and
Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email: rabi.mist@yahoo.com,
shashi.mist@yahoo.com
Muhammad Abdullah Arafat
Department of Electrical, Electronic
and Communication Engineering,
Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email: abdullah arafat@eee.buet.ac.bd
AbstractThis research paper carries out a realistic exper-
imental approach to enhance the solar output power to a
signicant level with the application of solar concentrator and
tracking system and also proposes a fuzzy based control system
for the utilization of the duration for which solar power is
available. By using only a solar panel, the theoretical value is
supposed to be around 40% more. The method is arranged
using Double Sun Technologyand Solar Tracker. In addition
to Double Sun Technology, four at mirrors have been used
to increase the output power. A remarkable enhancement in the
output power is achieved with this method. Rather than using
only a solar panel, the output power increases by 58.32% by
using a photovoltaic (PV) panel with four at mirrors with solar
tracker system. The concentrators are designed to collect the
incident light from the sun and concentrate them on the PV panel
so that the solar irradiance is more. The experiment is conducted
in four different setups. In the rst setup, the output power is
calculated without the use of Double Sun and solar tracker. In the
second setup, power is measured with Double Sun but without
solar tracker. Both Double Sun and solar tracker are used in
the third setup. Then four at mirrors and solar tracker are
considered. Output power has been calculated using open circuit
voltage and short circuit current. Finally, the proposed system
improves the total output by maximum utilization of available
photovoltaic energy and maximum utilization of the duration for
which solar power is available based on fuzzy logic.
Index TermsPhotovoltaic (PV) panel, passive device, Double
Sun Technology, solar tracker, concentrator, fuzzy logic.
I. INTRODUCTION
Power generation is going to take a complete new shape in
twenty rst century. Fossil fuels like coal, gas, petroleum are
not going to be plenty for electricity generation. Renewable
energy presents a better alternative to fossil fuels with greener
impact on environment. Though hydroelectricity offers a po-
tential amount of renewable energy to the world, yet it is not
available to all the places of the globe. Solar energy on the
other hand has all the opportunity to take over the existing
power generation system [1]. Solar energy can be used for
small industries and in a very small scale for large industries;
like garment industries where the solar energy can be used as
secondary source for lighting and ventilation, reducing power
consumption from the main power line. But the output power
of photovoltaic (PV) panel is considerably low [2]. Extensive
research shows that output power can be increased in either of
two ways - by fabrication or by using passive devices [3], [4],
[5], [6], [7]. As fabrication is costly and hard, passive devices
are widely used to increase the efciency as well as ll factor.
Concentrators with two at mirrors and solar tracker are used
to enhance solar power. Concentration with two at mirrors is
known as Double Sun Technology.
Fuzzy control is a methodology for constructing control
system in which the mapping between real-valued input and
output parameters is represented by fuzzy rules. Fuzzy control
has been very successful in commercial products such as
automatic transmission, video cameras etc.
In this paper, experimental results have been given which
shows the enhancement of output power by using concentrator
and solar tracker with a solar panel. The experiment is
conducted in four different setups. In the rst setup, the output
power is calculated without the use of Double Sun and solar
tracker. In the second setup, power is measured with Double
Sun but without solar tracker. Both Double Sun and solar
tracker are used in the third setup. And nally four at mirrors
and solar tracker are considered. An increase of 33.50% solar
power is found with the Double Sun and solar tracker, the
theoretical value of which is 40% [8]. 58.32% increase in
solar energy is observed by applying four fat mirrors with
solar tracker. Then we have proposed a scheme as [9], [10]
based on the use of conventional DC-DC converter, where
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Fig. 1. Solar PV panel with two at mirrors (Double Sun Technology).
combination of voltage and power feedback control system is
implemented with the use of articial intelligence algorithm
that makes tracking response faster and maximizes the power
extracted from the solar module.
II. DOUBLE SUN AND FOUR SUN TECHNOLOGY
The amount of radiation that falls upon the modules in this
system is usually characterized by the concentration factor.
The most common denition is the geometric concentration
factor (C), which, for this system, is calculated by the ratio
between the effective area (the area seen by the sun) and the
active cell area as dened by the following equation [8], [11]:
C =
A
eff
A
module
=
A
mirrors
+A
module
A
module
= 1 +
A
mirrors
A
module
Here, A
eff
is the effective area (the area seen by the sun),
A
mirrors
is the area of the mirrors that is seen by the sun and
A
module
is the total area of the modules. In this experiment,
for Double Sun Technology
A
mirrors
= 2 (10 20.5)sq.inch = 410sq.inch
A
module
= (12.5 18.5)sq.inch = 231.25sq.inch
C = 1.8x
And for four at mirrors,
Fig. 2. Solar PV panel with four at mirrors (Four Sun Technology).
A
mirrors
= 2 (10 14 + 10 20.5)sq.inch
= 690sq.inch
A
module
= (12.5 18.5)sq.inch = 231.25sq.inch
C = 3.98x
According to the denition, the geometrical concentration
factor using four at mirrors is 3.98x ( 4); whereas it is 1.8x
( 2) for Double Sun Technology [8]. Hence four at mirrors
is termed, hereafter, as Four Sun Technology in this paper.
Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show the experimental setups of Double Sun
and Four Sun Technology respectively. However, the value
of C is higher than the real concentration factor, since the
efciency of the mirrors, reective losses and the percentage
of direct radiation are disregarded. Such factors were taken
into account by the theoretical model developed by Reis [12].
III. FUZZY LOGIC IMPLEMENTATION
A. Fuzzy Logic Controller Structure
Our designed controller takes the measured value of the light
strength received by the sensor as the feedback and implements
control using many rounds of modications.
The basic fuzzy control system structure is shown in Fig. 3.
B. Implementation
In our proposed control system the whole fuzzy controller
can be designed in ve steps.
Denition: We dene the input variables, output variables
and linguistic variables.
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Fig. 3. Solar Energy Fuzzy Control System Structure.
The input variable is Error e
The output variable is the number of seconds be-
tween the rotation and reversion adjustment of the
stepper motor.
For the domain of the output and input variables we
shall use normalized discrete domain to set domain
scope.
For linguistic items, we can dene ve linguis-
tic items for each linguistic variable, i.e. e =
NB, NS, ZE, PS, PB
NB: Negative Big
NS: Negative Small
ZE: Zero
PS: Positive Small
PB: Positive Big
Build Membership Input Functions: Based on the
dened linguistic variables, we can build the input mem-
bership function.
Set up Fuzzy Rules Base: The setup of the fuzzy
rules base is crucial because all states must be operated
based on the rules dened in the rules base. To set up
a fuzzy rules base smoothly, we shall adopt ve fuzzy
control rules expressed with IF THEN statements for ve
linguistic items.
Dene Fuzzy Inference Engine: There are many fuzzy
inference methods and different results are inferred with
different methods. In our proposed control system we use
the center of gravity method proposed by Mamdani as
the defuzzication tool because the method is easy and
reliable.
Defuzzify Result: There are many methods for defuzzi-
cation. In this proposed control system we use center of
gravity for defuzzication to obtain actual operation. The
defuzzication method can also be easily implemented
with a digital circuit.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
To verify the energy enhancement by the concentration
methods and tracking system, data have been taken for three
days for four different conditions: without concentrator and
without solar tracker, with Double Sun and without solar
tracker, with Double Sun and with solar tracker and with Four
Fig. 4. Solar output power without concentrator and without solar tracker.
Sun and with solar tracker. Open circuit voltages and short
circuit currents are measured for seven hour period starting
from 9 : 00 am to 4 : 00 pm with half hour interval and
power is calculated from the data. Maximum power is achieved
when the sun ray is at right angle to the solar panel surface.
By implementing fuzzy control system we can ensure that the
sun ray will be at right angle to the solar panel surface during
our dened period.
A. Without Concentrator and without Tracker
The at solar panel has been exposed to the sun. No solar
tracker and no mirror is used in this stage. The solar panel is
inclined at a xed position for the entire time period. Fig. 4
shows the variation of the experimentally measured power with
time. Data are collected for three different days of similar
weather condition.
B. With Double-Sun but without Solar Tracker
In this setup, data are taken with the Double sun Technique,
i.e. using two side mirrors, but no tracking has been done.
The power versus time graphs for the same days are shown in
Fig. 5.
C. With Double-Sun and with Solar Tracker
In third setup, open circuit voltages and currents are mea-
sured, with the Double Sun Technique and using solar tracker.
The power versus time graphs are shown in Fig. 6.
D. With Four Sun and with Solar Tracker
Finally, with the Four Sun Technology and solar tracker,
open circuit voltages and currents are measured. The power
versus time graphs for the same three days are shown in Fig. 7.
V. DATA ANALYSIS
The average output power for the four experimental setup is
given in Table I and Fig. 8 shows the variation of the average
output power with time for the four conditions. In the rst case
i.e. only with at PV panel at xed position, the average output
978-1-4673-4836-2/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 466
Fig. 5. Solar output power with Double Sun concentrator but without solar
tracker.
Fig. 6. Solar output power with Double Sun concentrator and with solar
tracker.
power of approximately 16.99 watt (W) has been achieved.
With Double Sun but without tracker, the average output power
has been increased by approximately 12.14% than the rst
case. Thirdly, with Double Sun and solar tracker, the average
output power has been increased by approximately 33.50%
than the initial condition. Finally, with Four Sun Technology
and solar tracker, the average output power has been increased
by approximately 58.32% than the initial condition and the
average power is found to be 26.90 W.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has shown the experimental results of the perfor-
mance of the Double Sun Concentration and Four Sun Con-
centration PV systems with geometric concentration factors
of 1.8x and 3.98x, respectively, using conventional silicon
modules and no active cooling. The result for the Double
Sun Technology with solar tracker is increased by 33.50%.
It also demonstrates that the use of four at mirrors and
Fig. 7. Solar output power with Four Sun technology and with solar tracker.
Fig. 8. Average output power in four experimental setups.
solar tracker can lead to an improvement of 58.32% in the
total average output power. This paper has also proposed
a fuzzy based control system to improve the total output
by maximum utilization of available photovoltaic output and
maximum utilization of the duration for which solar power is
available. Therefore, the proposed Four Sun method with solar
tracker and fuzzy control system is an easy and cost effective
way of increasing energy received from the solar panel.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would gratefully like to acknowledge the end-
less support by Military Institute of Science and Technology
(MIST), Dhaka, Bangladesh for supporting this research-work.
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978-1-4673-4836-2/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 467
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF THE FOUR EXPERIMENTAL SETUPS
Average Output Power (W)
With With
Without Double Double With Four
Time concentrators Sun but Sun and Sun and
(Hour) and without without with solar with solar
solar tracker solar tracker tracker
tracker
9:00 AM 12.16 15.61 20.44 24.80
9:30 AM 13.00 16.29 21.69 27.38
10:00 AM 14.59 17.53 21.87 27.60
10:30 AM 16.20 18.41 23.18 27.91
11:00 AM 19.05 21.80 23.70 28.45
11:30 AM 20.11 22.45 24.56 28.14
12:00 PM 20.18 22.99 24.55 29.25
12:30 PM 20.90 22.98 23.18 28.46
1:00 PM 19.79 22.27 23.03 27.58
1:30 PM 19.20 21.97 23.60 27.83
2:00 PM 18.43 20.30 22.83 25.79
2:30 PM 17.26 17.83 22.67 25.49
3:00 PM 16.22 15.64 22.38 25.10
3:30 PM 14.81 15.17 22.36 25.43
4:00 PM 13.02 14.63 20.29 24.38
Pavg 16.99 19.05 22.68 26.90
Percent
Increase Base 2.14% 33.50% 58.32%
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