Modeling, Simulation and Control Solutions For Mechatronics Design of Solar Light Tower

As an option to conventional light tower (LT) that uses ICE as electricity generator source, an integration of LT design and PhotoVoltaic (PV) panels resulting in Solar light tower (SLT), this paper proposes a new generalized and refined model for Mechatronics design of pure standalone SLT and some considerations regarding design, modeling and control solutions. The selection, design and integration of main subsystems including mechanical structure, electric DC machines and controls are proposed. The SLT system is designed to operate in two modes manual and automatic. The proposed SLT system model consists of seven main subsystems, each subsystem, is mathematically described and corresponding Simulink sub-model is developed, then an integrated generalized model of all subsystems is developed, and is developed to allow designer to have the maximum output data (numerical and graphical) to select, test and evaluation the overall SLT system and each subsystem outputs characteristics and performance, for desired overall and/or either subsystem's specific outputs, under various PV subsystem input operating conditions, to meet particular SLT system requirements and performance. The obtained results show the simplicity, accuracy and applicability of the presented designs and models to help in Mechatronics design of SLT systems .