International Journal of Scientific Research and Management Studies (IJSRMS) Volume 1 Issue 1, pg: 1-6 http://www.ijsrms.com All Rights Reserved pg. 1 SOLAR PANEL CONTROL USING SLIDING MODE Akshata Upare, Priyanka Kumbhar, Jaydeep Patel, Pawan Chilka, S.L.Chavan Department of Electronics & Telecommunications, Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering Affiliated to University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra, India ABSTRACT In this paper, a new sliding mode controller is proposed as the indirect control method and compared to a simple direct control method in order to control a buck converter in photovoltaic applications. The solar arrays are dependent power sources with nonlinear voltage-current characteristics under different environmental conditions. From this point of view, the DC/DC converter is particularly suitable for the application of the sliding mode control in photovoltaic application, because of its controllable states. Solar tracking allows more energy to be produced because the solar array is able to remain aligned to the sun. This method has the advantage that it will guarantee the maximum output power possible by the array configuration. Problems and possible improvements will also be presented. K EYWORDS— PV Model, Sliding Mode Controller, Buck Converter, LDR comparison, Maximum Power Point Tracker. I. INTRODUCTION In remote areas the sun is a cheap source of electricity because instead of hydraulic generators it uses solar cells to produce electricity. While the output of solar cells depends on the intensity of sunlight and the angle of incidence. It means to get maximum efficiency; the solar panels must remain in front of sun during the whole day. But due to rotation of earth those panels can’t maintain their position always in front of sun. This problem results in decrease of their efficiency. Thus to get a constant output, an automated system is required which should be capable to constantly rotate the solar panel. The SLIDING MODE CONTROL (SMC) was made as a prototype to solve the problem, mentioned above. It is completely automatic and keeps the panel in front of sun until that is visible. “The unique feature of this system is that instead of taking the earth as its reference, it takes the sun as a guiding source. Its active sensors constantly monitor the sunlight and rotate the panel towards the direction where the intensity of sunlight is maximum.” The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II explains the proposed system. Section III describes the analysis of system. Section IV explains the pertaining theory required for lucid understanding of the proposed system. Section V concludes the work with results and also throws a light towards the future work. II. PROPOSED SYSTEM Our proposed system for solar panel control using sliding mode is represented by the block diagram shown in Fig. 1. The various stages of operation in our system are: