**Abstract**

Solar energy, available nearly everywhere on the globe, is a good alternative for our day to day energy requirements. Harnessing solar energy requires techniques as it is a challenging task to move the solar module with the sun. The device that makes the movement of solar module according to sun's movement is known as a solar tracker. Generally, there are two types of solar trackers: (1) single axis solar tracker and (2) dual axis solar tracker. In this paper, we have used the dual axis solar tracker for comparison with stationary solar modules. A total of 20 solar modules, each of capacity 75 W, were tracked with a dual axis tracker system. The current and voltage were measured by varying rheostat. Current vs. voltage and power vs. voltage characteristics were studied with plotting the respective graphs. Nearly 30–35% power enhancement was observed with this dual axis tracking mechanism.

**Keywords:** efficiency, fill factor, maximum power point tracking, solar tracker

#### **1. Introduction**

 The conventional energy sources are depleting very fast resulting in a crucial shortage of fuels. The high demand of fuel causes an increase in their price. It's time to switch over from conventional energy sources to nonconventional energy sources such as wind energy, tidal energy, solar energy etc. India is blessed with tremendous solar energy. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra states receive remarkable solar energy. Solar energy is clean, unpolluted, environment friendly and its conversion into electrical energy is highly promising. It needs very small maintenance and cleaning of the solar modules for more absorption of solar radiation. The solar cell cost is decreasing due to latest research in different materials and increasing their demand in global markets. Exponential increase of sales in this market with strong growth projection for the coming years is visibly reflected [1]. The conversion efficiency of almost all parts of the solar modules have increased up to 20% due to constant development of the technology but still it is not sufficient. Beltran and Stalter's continuous study in solar energy harnessing technology mentions several solutions to raise the conversion efficiency of solar PV modules. Tracking of solar PV modules on a single axis and dual axis [2, 3], optimizing the geometry of solar cell for increasing its packing density and thereby reducing the area required by the PV module have been tried by Morega et al. [4, 5]. In 1997, Jorgensen et al. [6] tried to enhance the light trapping capacity of the thin crystalline cells by utilization of thin structures on both the sides of wafer and Andreani et al. [7] used thin film silicon cells with photonic pattern. Basor used crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) with polycrystalline silicon technology that requires less than 2 microns thickness and discussed some of the difficulties faced in developing the new techniques [8]. Storage of electrical energy is very difficult but this problem was solved by using

an electrochemical cell. The novel material Cd4GeSe6 was tried by Turmezei [9]. The power produced by solar PV modules strongly depends on the incident light radiation which becomes maximum when the radiation is normal to the surface of PV module. This is attained by mounting the solar PV module on a solar tracking device which follows the trajectory of sun. The solar tracking systems, also known as sun tracker, automatically searches for the optimum PV module position by means of intelligent drive unit that receives input signals from dedicated light intensity sensors [10].
