A Customized PV Performance Monitoring System in Qatar’s Harsh Environment

A customized PV panel monitoring system is proposed. It is based on available hardware, as well as easily configurable Arduino© software which does not require high specific programming skills. The configuration of hardware and software of the proposed system is presented. The system consists of a group of sensors measuring relevant meteorological parameters essential to forecast the energy yield along with voltage and current sensors for MPPT operation. LabVIEW has been used, it allows ubiquitous access and processing of recorded data over the web or from an IoT Cloud database engine. The developed system has been employed to continuously collect appropriate data in Doha under harsh environment. This type of environment is extremely challenging; for that a cooling system was developed to stabilize the system's performance. The obtained data during the peak season (June and July 2018) are consistent and shows the effect of temperature on PV performance.