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 s 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.
