Implementation of an RTC based multilevel solar panel system

Abstract

A prototype of a multilevel solar panel system with a real time clock (RTC) based automated solar tracker has been developed for its use in urban residential areas. The proposed system consists of three panels mounted in a rack one above another at a fixed distance from each other to minimize the floor area while shifted horizontally from each other by half the panel width to avoid shading of the lower panels. The panels will be fitted with the solar tracker to track the sun to maximize the energy collection. Experimental result shows that the developed system can harness about 20-23% more energy while occupying 33% less area than that by the conventional fixed panel system of same size. The proposed system will be useful for large urban city dwellers, especially in third world countries, where not only electricity is in short supply, availability of roof top space to install solar panels is also very limited.