Sensing wind for environmental and energy applications

Increased interest in wireless data collection for environmental and energy applications has developed due to the recent growth in renewable energy power systems. Wireless sensor networks have improved the efficiency and ease of monitoring and reporting of environmental data and system performance from remote locations. This paper describes the development of a wireless sensor network for environmental and energy applications. An array of sensors measuring wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity and rainfall are present at a remote sensor node. A Libelium Waspmote was used to interface the weather sensors and two Raspberry Pi's were used for pre-transmission processing, data storage and web hosting. XBee-Pro 868MHz RF modules were used for the wireless communication of data between nodes. The system implemented is a robust, flexible platform for wind data sensing, particularly suitable to remote locations where renewable energy plants are often located.