Automatic solar station for ground-based measurement of solar energy resource in Pekanbaru City Indonesia

Solar energy system is one of the most promising renewable energy resources to meet the energy demand. This resource has been developed and utilized in many countries. Indonesia, as one of the tropical countries has been blessed with a huge amount of radiant energy from the sun during the whole year. However, the solar energy resource data is very limited. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop an automatic solar station to measure the potential of solar energy resource in the unique tropical region like Pekanbaru City. The availability of solar energy resource data are the foundation of information for designing, utilizing and deploying of solar energy generation and technologies. It is expected that the automatic solar station has capability to measure not only solar radiation data but also other related parameters such as air temperature and humidity. The measured solar energy resource data are also designed as foundation of solar energy resource data base of Pekanbaru City Indonesia.