Associate Professor Beth Sparks, during a Fullbright Scholarship in Uganda, developed an amazingly simple way to significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells in developing countries and other remote areas.
In Uganda, between 20 to 25% of people have no access to electricity. One solar cell supplies enough energy to power lights and charge cell phones and radios giving a huge quality-of-life improvement.
Solar panels are typically mounted on a fixed frame and only optimally oriented toward the sun during specific hours of the day.
Professor Sparks worked with students at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology to design a frame, using cheap metal tubing that a local welder could easily obtain and assemble, that allows the solar panels to track the arc of the sun throughout the day.
The device uses a bucket of rocks is placed on the west side of the frame and a bucket of water is placed on the east side. Using a controlled leak from the water bucket, the weight shifts and the panel slowly rotates from east to west throughout the day.
The solar cell on the movable frame captured 30% more sunlight than the stationary solar cell at the same location.