To increase energy capture efficiency of Solar Panels.

As Globalisation became widespread the need for renewable energy came into being. With exhaustive resources as petroleum and nuclear power being used on higher scales daily, the damage that they bring along in terms of nature and pollution are devastating. One of the finest forms of renewable energy is solar energy. Most countries/continents situated in the tropical and subtropical region are capable of harnessing solar energy to a great extent.

The method to tap into this solar power is expensive in terms of initial investment of finance and surface area, but on the long run can repay for its own costs. Solar geysers, solar lamps have become increasingly common in modern households and highways.

One major setback of solar panels is the efficiency. Current Solar panels offer an efficiency of around 40% (give or take 5%) this is less than half of the actual power.

This project aims to increase the efficiency by tilting the solar panel in the direction that it is perpendicular to the Sun. This ensures that most of the sunlight is tapped at maximum efficiency.

This charecteristic was borrowed from Sunflowers. As sunflowers have a tendency to move the flower bud in the direction of the sun, hence the name.

• To prototype this project, follow the circuit diagram with the necessary components to build the model, in our case we have used a cardboard to mimic a solar panel.

1. Copy and paste the code into the Arduino IDE .
2. Connect the Arduino board to the laptop and post the code to the board through the IDE.
3. Ensure all model connections are complete as in the diagram.
4. Use a flashlight to mimic sun rays and move the solar panel in that direction.

• C language
• Arduino IDE

• make the rotation speed slower in order to cater for large solar panels