The SMD Story
Inspiration
With the climate crisis impeding on our future, we need to start investing into optimising clean energy. As positioning a solar panel, in the southern hemisphere, is most optimal when north facing and other positioning “might result in 10 – 20% output loss” [Ballarat Solar Company]: we decided to see how tracking solar positional data to position the panels would increase output. We aim to large scale the Solar Movement Devices (SMD) in solar farms to increase the efficiency of the renewables globally. Additionally, the clear economic benefits of more efficient energy have been an inspiration to this project, especially with the ever-rising cost of living.
What it does
The Solar Movement Device (SMD) connects to a website that uses live solar positioning to find the optimal position for the solar panel (perpendicular to the sun’s rays). It then positions the solar panel in the statistically optimised position. So, in short, based off where the sun is positioned, the solar panel will follow it. The data is calibrated to the user’s geographical position and the current time, as the sun hits different locations at different angles. The sun’s position also changes throughout the year and the hours of a day, so those are accounted for also.
How we built it
Hardware: 3D modelled then printed a solar panel stand, which can be controlled (using servo motors) in both the X and Y planes. Coding the servo motors to utilise the Arduino, and using data from the web interface, orientating the solar panel. Software: A website that allows a user to manually position the solar panel or use solar data to automatically position based off geographical position and time. This web interface will communicate with the hardware to position it accordingly. The automatic position utilises user location, date/time, and an api to source sun data (azimuth and altitude). Using vector calculus, the perpendicular is calculated for the solar panel to be positioned into.
Challenges we ran into
The main challenges faced included connecting the subparts (software and hardware) together and interfacing the Arduino, this challenge is largely due to minimal experience. The math behind calculating the optimal position of the solar panel to face the sun was additionally challenging. The 3D printing took a significant amount of time (20hrs) and team members all had varying commitments outside of the hackathon, so time management was critical.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Main accomplishments include the successful CAD modelling (3D modelling) that has been able to successfully model a solar panel moving to follow a sun’s path. The second accomplishment being the working website, that was able to demonstrate our ideas in action. We were also proud of working on a multi-disciplinary team, with a combination of Mechanical Engineers, Computer Scientists, and Electrical Engineers; and seeing all the ideas merge together amazingly.
What we learned
Arduinos are very useful and can be extremely enjoyable but can be hard to use (especially when interfacing it). Time management and delegation of tasks is key for teamwork and that skill was well developed. Another lesson learned was that servo motors are very accurate and robust for control applications. Additionally, there is a lot of useful APIs’ available, but it is quite involved to get the data from it.
What's next for SMD
The current build is a prototype, so pitching it to investors and creating a to-scale product would be the first step. From there, implementing how make the device compatible to pre-installed solar panels, to widen the market. The end goal is having majority, if not all, of the solar panels world-wide to be optimised to orientate towards the sun. Making it accessible to the widest audience is also a priority, this can be done through a multitude of ways; including making a mobile app that recommends users to the optimal angle for their exact location. That way we have both the app/website accessibility and the physical device also.
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