Application of The Internet of Things in Solar Energy Industry

The internet of things (IoT) defines everyday physical objects being connected to the internet and being able to identify themselves to other devices to exchange data amongst them. This technology is useful in enhancing the performance, monitoring and maintenance of the various systems. One of the very important field of application is use of solar energy, The proposed system will continuously supervise the monitoring and maintenance of the solar panels. The rotation of the panel will be in accordance of the real time position, intensity of sun radiation and climatic condition. In case the system is unable to harness the required amount of energy of all the working home appliances at a definite time remaining energy will be acquired from other modes of electricity. The project highlights in providing analysis of the system data along with user friendly interface to the users. Timely notifications will be provided to the user regarding dust accumulation so as to restore the efficiency of the system and minimizing the its effects in energy production.

Introduction

A solar panel is basically a collection of photovoltaic cells, which can be used to generate electricity through photovoltaic effect. These cells are arranged in a grid-like pattern on the surface of solar panels. Power generation from Solar Photovoltaic plants is variable in nature due to changes in solar irradiance, temperature and other factors. Thus remote monitoring is essential. First the sunlight hits a solar panel and the panels convert the energy to DC current, which flows through an inverter. The inverter converts the electricity from DC to AC, which you can then use to power your home or industries. If the system produces more energy during peak daylight hours compared to customers usage then excess energy is stored in grids for later use It is simple and clean, and it’s getting more efficient and affordable.

The remote monitoring will help to eliminate the hazards associated with the traditional wiring systems and make data measurement and monitoring process much easier and cost effective and an IoT based systems take a enormous leap towards monitoring systems by intelligent decision making from web. The current architecture of the remote monitoring systems and its flexibility of implementation make it most suitable for industrial purposes. In general remote monitoring systems have to fetch, analyze, transmit, manage and feedback the remote information, by utilizing the most advanced science and technology field of communication technology and other areas.

Some of Applications of solar energy:

1. Homes: Residential appliances can easily use electricity generated through solar power.
2. Commercial use: The panels are used there to supply electricity to different offices or other parts of building in a reliable manner.
3. Swimming pools: You can add a solar blanket in the pool that will keep the water hot with energy generated from sunlight.
4. Solar lights: These lights store natural energy of sun in day time and then convert this energy into electricity to light up in night time.
5. Solar Cars: It is an electrical vehicle which is recharged form solar energy or sunlight.

Wi-fi technology is also used for remote monitoring and control of photovoltaic system for domestic applications. Wi-Fi (IEEE 802. 11g) is chosen as it operates at 2. 4GHz and offer high data rate of about 54Mbps in contrast to ZigBee (250Kbps) but this solution is convenient only for microgrid network architecture. The proposed system focuses on supervising the monitoring and performance of the solar panels. The web portal aims to introduce a proposed method that helps the user to acquire the information regarding condition and status about the solar panel efficiency and performance. The application also suggests to rotate the solar panel according to the intensity of sun's radiation to produce high amount of energy with the help of real time data.

The dust sensors present is used to notify the user on excessive dust accumulation so that removing it will restore its previous efficiency. Analysing the output of solar panel and the required power to run the different home appliances the system will automatically switch from solar power to other modes of electricity.

Literature Survey

The implementation of a remotely accessible collection of solar energy programs for determining electrical characteristics and Maximum Power Point (MPP) tracking of a Photovoltaic ( photovoltaic ) module. Two remote communication technologies have been used for this purpose: the LabVIEW Web Services and the LabVIEW Remote Panels.

One of the requirements about integration of photovoltaic power generation systems into the traditional generation systems will be monitoring photovoltaic generation systems and also adopting photovoltaic power generation systems to the present power system is another significant subject. In this study, a system was introduced for developed photovoltaic power generation system in the laboratory with Labview by using its useful and effective tools.

kWp grid connected photovoltaic system was used as a photovoltaic power generation system and NI USB-6221 data acquisition (DAQ) card and developed electrical measurement circuits were used for monitoring the photovoltaic system. Parameters and parameter changes at current, voltage and generated power in photovoltaic system acquired from the system and these parameters were monitored in real time thanks to Labview DAQ card. Output voltage, output current and power generated from the photovoltaic system were also monitored with developed Labview software.

One of the system is developed on an online monitoring and control system for distributed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) based on Android platform. This method utilizes the Bluetooth interface of Android Tablet/ Mobile phone as a communication link for data exchange with digital hardware of Power Conditioning Unit (PCU). The Low Cost Android tablet can replace the graphical LCD displays and Internet modem of RES Power Conditioning Unit (PCU) with enhanced graphical visualization and touch screen interface.

A professional O&M service package ensures that the photovoltaic system will Maintain high levels of technical and consequently economic performance over its lifetime. Nowadays, it is well acknowledged by all stakeholders that high quality of O&M services mitigates the potential risks, improves the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) prices and positively impacts the return on investment (ROI).

A material in which the absorption of light raises an electron to a higher energy state, and secondly, the movement of this higher energy electron from the solar cell into an external circuit. The electron then dissipates its energy in the external circuit and returns to the solar cell. A variety of materials and processes can potentially satisfy the requirements for photovoltaic energy conversion.

Proposed System

Looking into the problems in the field of solar energy based applications, the project aims to make the user the solar based system more flexible and easy to use. The user is unknown about many of the parameters related to the solar system. This project aims to give a solution to the problems the people are facing The proposed conceptual system in this work is to monitor the state of a photovoltaic system through an IoT based network in order to control it remotely and used for maintenance of the system. The information from the sensors is transmitted via the mobile radio network. A GPRS module is laboured to send data to the remote server. The objective of the system is to improve efficiency of the system and provide the system control privilege to user. The implementation steps involves:

Rotation of Solar Panel

The rotating solar panel system scans from one horizon to other to know the current position of sun and hence the position from which the ample solar energy can be harnessed. The position with the peak value of energy is chosen to charge the battery. In this way we can produce the most from the solar panel by adjusting it to continuously in sun direction to make it more efficient and smarter. In order to perform solar panel rotation we will be using real time data.

Notify the User

The system will show the present statistics of the solar panel, that is the production of current and and voltage throughout the day and notify user timely. The system furthermore will provide user with predicated detailed report of the entire weeks production. Depending on data collected on user energy requirement the system will predict if solar panel production is sufficient enough to generate the entire energy or it will need tos switch to other modes.

Switching of Energy Source

The system will analyse the quantity of energy expected by all the home appliances to work as per its expectation. If the system is unable to generate the required energy then it will switch to other mode of electricity.

Conclusion

Our model provides efficient method of controlling and monitoring solar panel power from remote areas using Raspberry Pi and Web browser. GUI is designed to provide interactive graphical interface for user for monitoring generation and consumption of power. Implementation of this proposed prototype will benefit in terms of protection, operation and monitoring of solar systems.

The power generated will be captured in battery. The current and voltage sensors are used for determining the current and voltage output from solar panel. The rotation of the solar panel in sync with real fetch data will be performed with the help of stepper motor and motor driver. Temperature and dust sensors helps to maintain the productiveness of the system. Wi-Fi Module is used for communicating to IoT.

The Solar Panel will rotate with respect to sunlight with real fetch data. Current and Voltage sensors will calculate throughput at particular angels and will set the solar panel at that angel where there is maximum throughput.

The system uses current and voltage sensors to measure current and voltage produced by solar panels respectively. Since, the value of current and voltage produced is very small we used amplifiers to amplify the current and voltage in the measurable range. Temperature and Dust sensors provides the real time data regarding heat and soiling effect respectively. Since the output generated by all sensors is in analog, analog to digital converter is used.