The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments

ICEMI2009

All-Weather Automatic Solar Tracking Method Applied in Forest Fire Preventio

Abstract The monitoring equipment of forest fire prevention usually needs all-weather supply of electric power. But most of solar power systems applied in forest fire prevention use fixed-mounted solar panels. This problem results in low efficiency of electricity generation. Thus the area of solar panels has to increase to meet electricity demand of the equipment. An all-weather automatic solar tracking method was proposed, which combined the photoelectric detection and the solar trajectory tracking modes. The method used a sunlight intensity sensor to estimate weather conditions firstly. Then it utilized a solar position sensor and a solar trajectory algorithm to determine the changes of solar position. Finally, different tracking models were taken to track the sun in sunny, cloudy and rainy days. Through simulation experiments, this method could effectively reduce the impact of weather change and ensure to track the sun stably and accurately all weather. Keywords automatic solar tracking, photoelectric detection, solar trajectory tracking.

In Section IV, we will show the solar tracking software designed according to the proposed method; In Section V, the results of simulation experiments will be analysed. .AUTOMATIC SOLAR TRACKING METHOD The novel all-weather automatic solar tracking method combined the advantages of the photoelectric detection and the solar trajectory tracking modes: (1) Sunny days: Firstly, trajectory tracking mode is implemented; secondly, photoelectric tracking mode is used. (2) Cloudy days: Because photoelectric tracking mode is invalid, trajectory tracking mode is used only. (3) Rainy days: The solar light is too dark, so the tracking is suspended.

.INTRODUCTION Forest fire prevention is an important application of solar power. At present, the solar panels of many solar power systems used to forest fire prevention are fixed-mounted. These systems have the disadvantage of low efficiency. Although some efficient solar power systems with tracking function are used, their tracking methods are not mature enough to guarantee themselves operating stably all-weather[1-2]. The common ways used to solar tracking are photoelectric detection and solar trajectory tracking modes. The former uses a photoelectric sensor to monitor the solar movement, and then it controls the mechanisms to track the sun. This mode has high sensitivity, but it is easy to be interfered by the weather and miscellaneous light. The latter controls the mechanisms of tracking by calculating the solar trajectory. This mode doesn't subject to environment, but it has accumulated error which can't be eliminated by it [3-5]. In view of this situation, an all-weather automatic solar tracking method applied in forest fire prevention was proposed. Solar power systems using this method can provide a reliable and efficient electric power for monitoring equipment of forest fire prevention. This paper will be structured as follows: In Section II, the idea of the all-weather solar tracking method will be explained; In Section III, the specific design and implementation of the proposed method will be described;

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of all-weather automatic solar tracking system.

The dashed part in Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of automatic solar tracking system. The trajectory tracking module calculates theoretical values of solar position (solar elevation angle and azimuth angle). The photoelectric detection module detects the signals of the solar position. The single-chip microcomputer (SCM) control module combines theoretical values and detected signals, and then drives two-dimensional mechanisms of tracking to track the sun. The photovoltaic power supply module can store and convert the electric power produced by the solar power system. Finally, it provides the power for forest fire monitoring equipment. .DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION A. Photoelectric detection tracking The photoelectric detection tracking was achieved by using the solar position sensor and sunlight intensity
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978-1-4244-3864-8/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments sensor. Both of the sensors were fixed on solar panels and parallel with the board of panels. 1) Solar position sensor The proposed sensor is mainly constructed by a four-quadrant photoelectric detector and a cylinder with a loophole (see Fig. 2). The four-quadrant detector consists of four photodiodes. These diodes have good photoelectric consistency and each of them corresponds to a quadrant of Cartesian coordinate system. The sunlight passes through the loophole and forms a spot in the surface of four-quadrant detector. When the solar incidence angle is vertical, the distribution areas of spot in four quadrants "A", "B", "C" and "D" are equal. If the sun moves, the distribution areas of the spot in four quadrants will change, and the output signal of the four photodiodes will change accordingly. The move of the spot in the directions of x-axis and y-axis shows the changes of solar elevation angle and azimuth angle respectively. In this way, the solar position can be determined. 2) Sunlight intensity sensor

ICEMI2009

Sunlight intensity sensor is constructed by a silicon photoelectric cell and amplifiers. The photoelectric current of the cell is proportional to sunlight intensity. Fig. 4 shows the detection circuit of sunlight intensity. The circuit transfers the signal of sunlight intensity into voltage signal that could be sampled by the SCM. According to the voltage signal, the SCM judges the weather conditions in order to choose different tracking models.

Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of sunlight intensity detection.

B. Solar trajectory tracking The solar trajectory tracking used solar elevation-azimuth angle pattern which based on horizontal coordinate system. This pattern can determine solar trajectory with the help of astronomical formulas. Using the solar trajectory, the SCM can control the mechanisms to produce the sun tracking.
(a) (b)

1) Horizontal coordinate system Horizontal coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system that uses local horizon circle as the fundamental plane. It utilizes solar elevation angle "H" and azimuth angle "A" to determine solar position (see Fig. 5). "H" is the angle between solar light of incidence and the horizon; it's positive and gets the maximum at noon. "A" is the angle between solar light of incidence projected on the ground and the south of the horizon. The value of "A" is positive when the sun is in the west of south, negative in the east of south, and zero in the south [7].

Fig.2. Schematic diagram of solar position sensor. (a) Four-quadrant detector. (b) Cylinder with loophole.

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of solar azimuth angle detection.

On the basis of the above sensor, the detection circuit of solar position was designed. It includes two absolutely symmetrical circuits, which are the detection circuit of solar elevation angle and azimuth angle. Fig. 3 only shows the detection circuit of solar azimuth angle. Photodiodes "A" and "C" respectively correspond with quadrants "A" and "C". The output voltage signals Ux and Uy are proportional to the changes of solar azimuth angle and elevation angle respectively. These voltage signals can be sampled by the SCM. The SCM transfers the voltage signals into angle signals by using the addition and subtraction algorithm of four-quadrant [6], and then controls the mechanisms to track the sun.

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of horizontal coordinate model

2) Calculate of solar elevation angle and azimuth angle In horizontal coordinate system, solar elevation angle H and azimuth angle A for any location and any time on earth can be determined only by the current sun declination

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The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments , the hour angle are as follows: (1) A = arcos ((sin H * sin (2) The detailed calculation process can be found in references [8-10]. Based on the above algorithm, a program was developed to calculate the theoretical values of solar elevation angle and azimuth angle. Taking Hangzhou as an example, its latitude is 3016'. The error of calculated values is within the range of 0.1. So the feasibility of the algorithm was proved. C. Combination of two tracking modes The closed-loop control system constructed by the two tracking modes is shown in Fig. 6. In normal situation that is sunny weather, the solar tracking system uses the two modes to complete once tracking together. Firstly, according to the date and time provided by the external clock, the SCM calculates solar elevation angle H and azimuth angle A by using solar trajectory algorithm and controls mechanisms to implement the solar tracking. Secondly, the SCM uses photoelectric detection mode to get the adjusting values h and a of the current solar elevation angle and azimuth angle, then compares h and a with the threshold values H0 and A0. The threshold values are set by the control system according to tracking accuracy. If the adjusting values are bigger than threshold values, the SCM will control the mechanisms to track the sun further, so as to reduce the accumulated error of solar trajectory tracking mode. Otherwise, the mechanisms need not to track the sun again. - sin ) / (cos H * cos )) and the local latitude . The formulas * sin + cos * cos * cos )

ICEMI2009

H = arcsin (sin

When the sunlight intensity is weak, the tracking system will set the adjust values generated by photoelectric tracking module to zero, in order to reduce the impact of climate changes on the tracking system. .SOFTWARE DESIGN According to the all-weather automatic solar tracking method, the software used to solar tracking is designed. The program flow is shown in Fig. 7. At the beginning of the program, two tracking conditions are judged firstly. They are mechanisms of tracking locating at benchmark position and current time between sunrise and sunset. Only if the two conditions are satisfied, the program controls the mechanisms to move to the start position, so as to access to the tracking cycle rapidly. The solar elevation angle and azimuth angle at start position can be calculated by solar trajectory algorithm. In the tracking cycle, according to weather conditions, three different models are selected to track the sun, they are sunny model, cloudy model and rainy model. Delay time represents the interval of tracking circle. Specific tracking is completed by the subroutines of solar trajectory tracking and photoelectric detection tracking (see Fig. 8 and Fig. 9). Besides, the software can distinguish day and night. According to approximate time of sunrise and sunset, it controls mechanisms of tracking to turn back to the benchmark position, which is the position of solar panels toward the local south and paralleling with the horizon.

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of closed-loop control system for solar tracking.

Thus once tracking is completed. After a certain time, the next tracking was enforced. Considering the solar power system applied in forest fire prevention doesn't require very high tracking accuracy. Besides, tracking the sun frequently in order to pursuit high power generation efficiency is not worth the candle. So we determined 10 minutes as the value of time interval. It is supposed that the system works 10 hours per day, so the tracking times is about 60 times per day. In this way, the power consumption caused by frequent tracking can be avoided. At the same time, certain power generation efficiency can also be guaranteed. Similarly, the setting of threshold values in photoelectric detection tracking is also used to prevent the frequent tracking.

Fig. 7. Flow chart of solar tracking software.

In Fig. 8, motor M1 and motor M2 are tracking motors of the mechanisms. M1 can drive solar panels to turn in the horizontal plane in order to track the changes of azimuth angle; its positive position is westward. Similarly, M2 can drive solar panels to turn in the style of pitching so as to track the changes of solar elevation angle; its positive
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The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments position is downward. In this subroutine of solar trajectory tracking, the position of mechanisms needs to be judged. Because, when the mechanisms locate at benchmark position, M2 always turns downward. Otherwise, M1 always turns westward. So it is necessary to distinguish the two conditions to control the two motors easily. The subroutine of photoelectric detection tracking in Fig. 9, samples voltage signals and transfers them into angle signals. By comparing the angle signals with threshold values, the two motors take different movements to finish photoelectric detection tracking.

ICEMI2009

controller and a PC, an experimental tracking device was designed. Some simulation experiments had been done by using the device and solar tracking software. Table 1 shows the experimental data. The data was got from the solar tracking experiment depending on the trajectory tracking mode on March 30th in Hangzhou.
Table1. Data of solar tracking experiments (Unit: degree). Solar position A 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 08:53 09:03 09:13 09:23 09:33 09:43 09:53 10:03 10:13 10:23 10:33 -69.03 -67.12 -65.11 -62.98 -60.72 -58.30 -55.72 -52.95 -49.98 -46.78 -43.34 H 37.65 39.65 41.63 43.58 45.49 47.36 49.18 50.93 52.63 54.25 55.79 Once Total tracking tracking angles angles X' Y' X' Y' axis axis axis axis 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.90 -2.01 1.90 2.01 2.01 -1.98 3.91 3.98 2.13 -1.95 6.04 5.93 2.26 2.42 2.58 2.77 2.98 3.20 3.44 -1.91 -1.87 -1.82 -1.76 -1.70 -1.62 -1.53 8.31 10.73 13.31 16.07 19.05 22.25 25.69 7.84 9.71 11.53 13.29 14.98 16.60 18.14

Item number

Current time

Fig. 8. Flow chart of solar trajectory tracking subroutine.

In Table 1, item number represents tracking circle. The interval of the circle is 10 minutes. The X' and Y' axes represent the horizontal and vertical axes of the turntable respectively, which are used to track the changes of solar azimuth angle and elevation angle. The once tracking angles mean the volumes that the axes turned during one circle. The total tracking angles mean the total volumes that the axes turned since the beginning of the track. As can be seen from the data, once tracking angles of the cycle are changing, it reflects the basic law of solar moving. After a period of continuous operation, the experimental system can track the sun stably and accurately. To sum up, the all-weather solar automatic tracking method can effectively detect the weather conditions and take appropriate tracking model. It reduced the impact of weather change and accumulation errors on the tracking system. At present, the photoelectric detection tracking module has been designed. Its simulation experiment is still in progress. But the solar trajectory tracking mode had been proved on the experiment platform, and the corresponding tracking system had shown a good running state. So the above research provides a good experimental basis for the application of this all-weather tracking method in the field of forest fire prevention. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 9. Flow chart of photoelectric detection tracking subroutine.

.EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Based on the hardware of a solar panel, a twodimensional electric turntable, a dual-axis motion

This work is supported by Zhejiang Science and Technology Project (NO.2007C13062) and Zhejiang Province College Students Innovation Project. The authors would like to acknowledge Zhejiang Global Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd for its support of the experimental solar panels.

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The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments Supproted by Zhejiang Science and Technology Project (NO. 2007C13062) and Zhejiang Province College Students Innovation Project. REFERENCES
Sheikh, N.M.,Efficient utilization of solar energy for domestic applications.IEEE Electrical Engineering International Conference, pp.1-3, March. 2008. [2] Douglas J.Mcrae and Den Boychuk, Comparisons and Assessment of Forest Fire Danger Systems .Forestry Studies in China, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 11-13, Jan. 2005. [3] Xiao-Nian Zheng and Qiao-Yang Huang, Study on Sun-Tracking Methods and Application. Energy Technology, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 149-151, April. 2003. [4] Piao Z.G. and Park J.M., A study on the tracking photovoltaic system by program type. IEEE ICEMS, Vol. 2, pp. 971-973, Sept. 2005. [5] Wen-Hua Lu and Xiao-Lei He, Development of Full-Automatic Solar Tracker and Its Application. Optics and Precision Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 12, pp. 2544-2550, Dec. 2008. [6] Long-Ling Feng and Ren-Liang Deng, Study on Optical Tracking with Four-Quadrant Photodetector. Infrared and Laster Engineering, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 16-22, Jan. 1996. [7] Si-Yang Liu and Chun-Sheng Wu, the Design of Active Two-Axe Solar Tracking Controller. Renewable Energy Resources, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 69-72, June. 2007. [8] Karabanov S. and Kukhmistrov Y.,Calculation of ground photovoltaic systems by meteorological data. IEEE WCPEC, Vol. 3, pp. 2259-2261, May. 2003. [9] Bingzhong Wang,Calculation of the Astronomical Parameters in Solar Energy . Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 8-10, Fed. 1999. [10] Bingzhong Wang and Jie Tang, Comparison of the Different Methods for Solar Position Calculation. Acta Energiae Solaris Sinic, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 413-416, April. 2001. [1]

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