My dad has had a solar panel at a semi remote camp for years. And for years, I've been thinking of building a sun tracking or device to move the panel with the sun. The panel was sitting in a tree, mostly stationary unless you wanted to move it manually. I wasn't smart enough then to tackle the idea, but I figured I had the skills now to at least attempt it.
The problem is that a stationary panel only receives maximum light for a potion of the day. To increase it's efficiency, it needs to receive direct sun for as long as the sun is visible. This can be achieved by moving the light, or by moving the panel. A heliostat is a system that moves a mirror to reflect the sun to a target. This can get tricky. It can take an array of mirrors to spread the light across a large panel. I find heliostats more useful for when the light needs to be concentrated to a smaller point, such as heating applications (solar ovens, steam generator, etc…). Heliostats also seem to be pretty complex as far as control software goes.
I wanted to be as simple as possible. I decided to devise a panel moving system. As with most of my ideas, I like to do my first prototype without reviewing other peoples designs. I could save myself a lot of time by reading about other peoples mistakes before I make them myself. However, I enjoy the brain exercise of the initial problem solving and concept development more than anything. Therefore, I like to see where I end up on my own first, warts and all.
