Design and Implementation of a Two Axis Solar Tracking System
Using PLC Techniques for Measuring Solar Radiation by an Inexpensive Method
Keywords:
Programmable Logic Control (PLC), Photo Voltaic (PV) system, Solar Radiation, Two-axis Solar Tracker.Abstract
This paper presents the design and implementation of an
experimental study of a two-axis (Azimuth and Altitude) automatic
control solar tracking system to measure the solar radiation in an
inexpensive way by a tracking solar PV panel according to the
direction of the beam propagation of the solar radiation from dawn to
dusk. The designed tracking system consists of four sensors (LDR)
and a programmable logic controller (PLC) which controls two DC
servomotors with control software designed for this purpose to move
the system panel according to the information from the input sensors,
keeping the panel always perpendicular to sun rays.
The designed software contains also a backup program (override
part of the software) which controls the tracker in adverse weather
conditions (cloudy or partly cloudy). To investigate the effect of using
two-axis sun tracker system in measuring the solar radiation, an
experimental study is carried out to evaluate its performance in the
territory of Mosul Technical Institute.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). You may not alter or transform this work in any way without permission from the authors. Non-commercial use, distribution, and copying are permitted, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and Al-Hadba University.