The project titled “Solar Inverter Using Tracking Mechanism with 5-Level Cascaded Multilevel Inverter” is designed to improve solar energy utilization by tracking the direction of maximum sunlight and converting the generated DC power into AC power. The system consists of a solar panel, charging circuit, battery, PIC microcontroller, LDR sensors, five-level cascaded multilevel inverter, step-up transformer, LCD display, and DC motor driver circuit. The LDR sensors detect the intensity of sunlight from different directions and send the signals to the PIC microcontroller. Based on the sensor readings, the microcontroller controls the DC motor through the L298 motor driver to adjust the solar panel position toward the direction of maximum sunlight. The electrical energy generated by the solar panel is supplied to the charging circuit and stored in the battery. The stored DC power is converted into five-level AC output using a cascaded multilevel inverter controlled by PWM signals generated by the PIC microcontroller. A step-up transformer increases the AC output voltage to the required level for operating an AC bulb. The solar panel voltage is continuously monitored and displayed on the LCD, allowing users to observe the system's operating conditions. This project aims to improve solar energy collection, provide multilevel AC output with reduced harmonic distortion compared with a conventional two-level inverter, and demonstrate an efficient solar tracking and power conversion system.          

The main objective of this project is:  

1. To track sunlight automatically using LDR sensors.
2. To increase solar energy collection by adjusting the panel position.
3. To store the generated solar energy in a battery.
4. To convert DC power into AC power using a five-level inverter.
5. To display the solar panel voltage on the LCD.
6. To control the inverter using PWM signals from the PIC microcontroller.
7. To operate an AC bulb using a step-up transformer.

       

The major building blocks of this project are:  

1. Solar Tracker.
2. Charging circuit.
3. Battery.
4. PIC microcontroller.
5. LDRs.
6. L298 MOTOR Driver and DC motor.
7. Reset Button.
8. Crystal oscillator.
9. LED indicators.
10. MOSFETs Half bridge circuits.
11. LCD display.

       

Software’s used:

1. PIC C compiler software for embedded C programming.
2. PIC Kit 2 software programmers for dumping code into PIC Microcontroller.
3. Express SCH for Circuit design.

           

Block Diagram:        

video: