Below are some conclusions resulting from our project and avenues of future work.
Conclusions, Future Work, and Device Cost:
- Demonstrated successful sun-tracking, charging, data logging, and battery switching
- Sun-tracking & charging consumes 3.4% of daily harnessed energy
- 6.17hr nightly LED runtime possible with scaled up device (4 cells)
- Costs $100.50 maximum to manufacture (4 cell device)
- Use batteries with higher round trip efficiency (ours max of ~70%)
- Buy more effective Max Power Point Tracker or build our own
- Print lighter stand for cells
- Make device collapsible
- Within the next 10 years, switch to organic photovoltaic cells, as they show great promise in cost for conversion efficiency
| Component | 4-Solar Cell Device |
| Solar Panels | $32 |
| Batteries | $24 |
| LEDS | $10 |
| Temperature Sensor | $1 |
| Servo Motors | $7.50 |
| Arduino | $12 |
| Voltage Sensor | $2 |
| Relays | $6 |
| Switches and Plywood | $6 |
| Total | $100.5 |