360° sun tracking with automated cleaning system for solar PV modules

The solar PV modules are generally employed in dusty environments which is the case in tropical countries like India. The dust gets accumulated on the front surface of the module and blocks the incident light from the sun. It reduces the power generation capacity of the module. The power output reduces as much as by 50% if the module is not cleaned for a month. In order to regularly clean the dust, a sun tracking-cum-cleaning system has been designed, which not only tracks the sun but also cleans the modules automatically. This automated system is implemented using 8051 microcontroller which controls the stepper motor coupled with the gear box (40:1 ratio).This mechanism does not require any sensor or synchronization for tracking the sun. While for cleaning the PV modules, a mechanism consists of a sliding brushes has been developed. In this mechanism, the solar panels make a rotation of 360° in a day, which results in sliding of cleaning brushes twice over the PV modules. In terms of daily energy generation, the presented tracking-cum-cleaning scheme provides about 30% more energy output as compared to the flat PV module (module kept stationary on ground) and about 15% more energy output as compared to PV module with single axis tracking. The implementation and working of 360o sun tracking system with automatic cleaning is described in this paper.