A self-calibrating sun tracker based on a differential pressure control system

The efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity via photovoltaic panels can be significantly improved by using sun tracking. Sun trackers are such devices for efficiency improvement. To solve the problem that the existing sun-tracking apparatus cannot work without electricity, this paper puts forward an automatic sun tracker driven by differential pressure controlled system. The system has two axes of motion, being respectively responsible for tracking the solar altitude angle and azimuth angle synchronously by exploiting one propellant gas with a low boiling point. The performance and working principle of the self-calibrating system will be introduced and tested. This paper also presents a self-locking device to assure the stability of the system and quantitatively researches the self-locking performance and unlocking conditions through an experiment. On the basis of experimental prototype, the feasibility of this type of sun tracker is verified.