Ac 2009-564: a Greenlite System: an Efficient Solar Energy Solution Using a Sun Tracker Panel and a Light Harvesting Control Panel

Reducing high energy consumption and costs is imperative and significant to our daily life. In this paper, we describe a capstone senior design project that develops an efficient energy-saving solution. The solution is called the GreenLite system and consists of two components: a selfadjustable solar tracker panel and a light harvesting control panel. The solar tracker panel tends to maximize the absorption of solar power. Specifically, the solar tracker panel can adjust itself automatically to the direction where the panel is directly facing the Sun. To achieve this, the component employs photo-sensors to measure the irradiance of the Sun and to provide the feedback signal on the current position of the panel. The component also uses actuators that contain motors to rotate the panel at all possible angles. The light harvesting control panel designs a dimming fluorescent lighting system. Specifically, the system tends to reduce energy demand by diming lights proportional to the amount of daylight received, based on the measurements from photo-sensors. Moreover, this control panel is powered by the energy obtained form the solar tracker panel. In the project, the microcontroller dspic30f4011, programmed by C++ language, is used to control the motors on the actuators. The system is also designed as sturdy and lightweight as possible for increased durability and mobility. The details of the implementation are given, and the lessons learnt are discussed.