Self-cleaning and tracking solar photovoltaic panel for improving efficiency

Now-a-days electricity is one of the basic necessities of mankind. As the demand of electricity is increasing, there is need to exploit renewable sources of energy. In the current era of power shortage in India, the use of solar energy could be beneficial to great extent. For this reason, the number and size of the Photovoltaic (PV) systems are growing and consequently the amount of the investments and the related opportunities and risks are increasing [1]. To make solar energy more fruitful, the efficiency of solar array systems must be maximized [2]. For the efficiency evaluation of PV panels, that has been discussed with particular attention to the presence of dust and maximum intensity of light on the panel surface. Mainly, the effects of the dust and intensity of light on the efficiencies of the PV panels have been highlighted. This paper gives the brief description of the design and construction of microcontroller based cleaning and tracking system.