Design and Implementation of a Simple Low-Cost and Real-Time Solar Power Monitoring System

Because of cheap conversion technology, zero green-house-gas (GHG) emission, and abundant availability almost everywhere, solar energy is contended to be a cost-effective alternate source of energy. It has the potential to meet ever-increasing energy demands while mitigating the environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels. As solar energy is intermittent in nature, the design of a reliable and cost-effective system requires site-specific weather information. A real-time and low-cost portable solar power monitoring system is a realistic solution for the assessment of energy generation at any site. Real-time site-specific solar power generation data for existing weather conditions is also important for the cyber physical representation of a solar photovoltaic system known as digital twin. In these contexts, a simple real-time and low-cost solar power monitoring system is proposed, implemented, and tested in this paper. The system is designed using a low-cost edge computing device, a Raspberry Pi, a voltage sensor, a current sensor, and the measured data is monitored through the Thing Speak
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cloud platform. Test results of the system, which consists of two 5W photovoltaic modules, show its potential to be used in assessing site specific power generation capacity, PV plant performance monitoring, and in developing a digital twin of a PV system.