A state-of-the-art review: Solar trackers

Solar energy is the most widely used renewable energy source because of its versatility and its presence worldwide. Although, these systems have many promising features, they have numerous challenges to be addressed. This paper aims to present a compressive literature survey on the advancement of photovoltaic (PV) systems in terms of materials used, various module geometries, and tracking systems that are used to improve the efficiency of the overall PV solar systems. A particular attention is given on the factors affecting the efficiency of the PV system and efficiency improvement using solar tracking systems. To this end, various tracking systems namely, single axis and dual axis tracking systems mechanisms and their advantages and disadvantages are elaborated. Numerous periodicals related to solar tracking systems have been underlined and performance assessment of different tracking systems has been discussed. Moreover, some of the future trends in PV technologies such as bifacial PV systems are stated.