Experimental Comparison Between Microcontrollers and Programmable Logic Controllers in Sun Tracking Applications

In order to optimize the efficiency of solar-power systems, sun tracking techniques are implemented and tested experimentally. Both Microcontrollers (MC) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) have been used for tracking purposes with both open-loop and closed-loop control systems. This research aims at comparing between both technologies from the performance and cost perspectives. For a valid comparison, an experimental setup is built and both MC and PLC were tested under the same operating conditions. The results show that from the performance point of view, they are comparable and the maximum difference was about 1.8% of efficiency improvement. But from the cost point of view, the MC tracker is cheaper than the PLC tracker by 30%, roughly in the Egyptian markets.