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enter image description hereI'm currently working on a project to create a sustainable energy system. I have come up with a design to the system.

A model house will be produced and on top of the house there will be solar panels, however I would also like the solar panels to tilt towards the direction of the light. In order to do this I will need some sort of hydraulic mechanism; to tilt the solar panels. Could someone suggest a type of hydraulic mechanism? For this part I would require using solar panels, light sensors and some sort of hydraulic mechanism, in order to tilt them to the direction of the light.

I was also going to use a wind turbine to harness some wind energy that will be produced.

I have also come up the idea to produce a miniature water wheel; these will work when it’s raining

I was also thinking about producing a small dam, however I wanted the flow of the water to be dependent, on how much energy will be produced by the other systems. After doing a little bit of research I came to the conclusion that a micro controller could be programmed, in order to do this automatically. could anybody suggest a suitable microcontroller that could be used ? I also know that when programming a micro controller it uses a very low form of a programming language. so would I be able to write my program in a higher programming language and be able to use a compiler to produce the code necessary.

I have also got a budged of £20( approx$36) so I wouldn't be able to use an Arduino or a raspberry pi. All of the wiring a circuitry will be done on a breadboard. Could anybody answer some of the question that I have? also does anybody have any suggestions and improvements. I have also attached a diagram in case people are still confused.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This looks like homework/school project? There is a lot of examples of people doing full-size projects like this and documenting them on the internet. The £20 budget is going to buy you one of the three renewable sources and very little else - no hydraulics and few microcontroller dev kits. How much power do you want to output - what will you be driving from it? \$\endgroup\$
    – pjc50
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 16:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ im looking to produce 5v constantly \$\endgroup\$
    – user3541130
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 18:01

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That budget sounds tight even for a toy-sized demonstration of such a system, especially if it must be functional. The energy levels involved will be miniscule, and the losses throughout the system will kill you unless you use expensive precision components.

It sounds like this is a science fair project, and as such, it might be more effective if you were to research such systems and demonstrate your knowledge by producing a software simulation of how they work, using real-world numbers. It could have nice animated graphics, etc., that show the flow of energy throughout the system under various operating conditions that a user can "dial in" — things like the amount of sunlight, wind speed, rainfall, etc.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm looking to producing something no bigger than a size of a shoe box. I was thing about having the size of the house 10*12cm. So i'm not looking to produce a massive model. Its a college project and we have to produce 5v of energy to power an led light bulb.so were not looking to produce a lot of energy from them. But i like your suggestions as well. I've been able to source some rather cheap components. I've also got access to a 3d printer as well. \$\endgroup\$
    – user3541130
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 18:05

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