JOURNAL PUBLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH FOR ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

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VOLUME: 10 ISSUE: 04 | AUG-2022

IOT Based Solar Energy Monitoring System

Nilakshi Chandratre1 Hrushikesh Pawar2

Student, Department of Electrical Engineering Student, Department of Electrical Engineering

KKWIEER, Nashik, India KKWIEER, Nashik, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Pratiksha Purane3 Prof.S.A.Sagare4

Student, Department of Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
KKWIEER, Nashik, India KKWIEER, Nashik, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Renewable energy resources have became

prominent solution to help the world with depleted conventional I. INTRODUCTION
energy sources, to over through the energy crisis and reduce the The internet of things is a forthcoming technology
emission of harmful gases to zero. Solar energy is now being used
that allows a device to be monitored using cloud server.
in wide applications all over the world, the popularity gained by
solar energy applications gives the purpose for connecting this Besides Power generation is the major issue around the
solar energy devices with other devices and software over the globe due to depletion of conventional energy sources and
internet for exchanging the operational data of solar applications. increasing rate of global warming. Energy from sun can be
There are many issues related to power transmission and power harnessed as a primary energy source in various applications
generation, like power failure, high tariff rates, and harmful as an important renewable energy source.The smart
emissions with hazardous environmental impacts. Solar energy is a monitoring will help the user to analyze and keep track of
reliable source with low maintenance and being an emerging malfunctions. The motivation for this paper is to detect if
technology we can improve its efficiency by IOT application. In the system faces any issues like hot spot conditions,
this paper IOT is used for monitoring the solar energy systems.
This paper will help to understand the need of monitoring and its
shadowing, dusting which can reduce the output of the
advantages.. The paper involves the results of the experiment system nearly by 40%.. These faults can be detected by
performed using by using Arduino Uno R3 as a microcontroller keeping track on the system and its values. Use of IoT will
and sensors with Wi-Fi module. This Wi-Fi module then uploads be more convenient to increase the efficiency of solar
the data on servers that is then accessed remotely, which will energy system. IoT is the network of physical objects that
monitor the variation in the power flow parameters and efficiency embedded with sensors, software for the purpose of
of the system. exchanging the information and data. The system
monitoring the power flow of the system will give Real-
Keywords— IoT(Internet of Things),Solar Time data as well as historical data so that the errors can be
Energy, Arduino Uno R3,Remote Monitoring. minimized before it can cause any damage. .Given system

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IoT based solar energy monitoring system where a solar The internet of things. According to reports can
panel with will be generating power for load, a DC-DC buck connect any devices like computers, smartphones, sensors
converter is Arduino Uno R3 is given the analog inputs etc. to the internet using technologies such as
through voltage divider, current sensor ACS712 for sensing microcontrollers, transceivers and information and network
voltage and current respectively and LM35 temperature protocols. As a result as compared to manual supervision a
sensor mounted on panel for temperature measurement. The communication network with IoT may provide feasible
outputs from Arduino will be then 0displayed on 16X2 LCD monitoring and control of PV system in larger scale or even
in domestic use. There are different methods which are being
Display and sent to cloud by ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module.
used for solar monitoring system. The IoT platform like
Irradiance for region is assumed to be a standard value of
Thingspeak, AWS IoT analytics, datalog, Google cloud IoT
1000 W/m^2. core are available for the data transfer. This data can be
The monitoring platform is based on each supervised remotely. This platform allows the user to
renewable source's current and voltage measurements. The visualize the data in graphical representation. In some
readings are measured using the built sensing circuits. The systems they collect the data from various sources and give
processed parameters are then sent via USB to a personal alerts in case of any complication.
computer (PC) so that they can be kept in a database and the
system can be monitored instantly. Microsoft Visual Studio III. SYSTEM DESIGN
is used to create the observation software. At a glance, the
Net platform allows system administrators to monitor the The system allows the user to monitor the parameters of
amount of energy generated and the current state of each solar panel. The parameters that can be monitored are
current, voltage, temperature, power and energy. These
renewable energy source [2]. The system has better user
parameters are monitored on an interval of time. The interval
interfaces that leverage information and communication of time can set as per daily basis or on a fixed gap of time.
technologies such as Web technology, as well as The parameters are measured using different sensors. The
the integration of management and remote monitoring sensor are ACS712 for current, voltage divider for voltage,
functions into one system. The system has become even LM35 for temperature. The mechanism for each is show in
more reliable when it was converted to a DC power supply the above chapters with description. This hardware setup
and a mutual substitution function was added [1]. The cost includes a PCB(printed circuit board), solar panel, charger
of renewable energy equipment is decreasing due to controller, battery, dc-dc buck converter. The PCB in the
technological advancements, which is promoting large-scale system includes all the sensors with an IC ATmega328P
solar photovoltaic installations around the world. Because which acts as a microcontroller and Wi-Fi module ESP8266.
the bulk of them are situated in inaccessible areas and hence
unable to be monitored from a dedicated site, advanced
systems for automation of the plant monitoring remotely
using web based interfaces are required [3].

II. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Figure 1 Block diagram of system
Wired sensors/components have been used in
almost all monitoring systems. While they are effective, the Current and voltage generated during on load
cost and maintenance requirements have limited the number condition are measured to monitor the power output and
of sensors that can be installed on a particular system. Hard power flow through the load connected to solar panel. The
wire expenses and associated maintenance are significantly ideal ambient temperature for a panel is 25 o C thus the
decreased with wireless IoT deployments, allowing for ambient temperature is measured to monitor the effect of
greater data collecting, monitoring capabilities, and later temperature on power generated as the temperature
learning/AI applications.Many systems communicate via increases power output decreases rapidly. Similarly
cellular networks or WiFi. Cellular coverage is a popular insolation affects the maximum power as the insolation
option because of its vast geographic coverage, but it is also increases power output increases. The power generated will
somewhat expensive. WiFi has its own set of issues, since charge the battery to supply input power to load. Here are
many IT departments are hesitant to allow third-party IoT the calculations for charging time and charging current of
devices onto their networks due to security concerns. the battery.
Commercial solar power systems frequently include a
subscription.

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IV. HARDWARE SETUP Sr. No. Component Name Specification

The Hardware of the system is shown below. The 7. LM35 -55 o C to +150oC
system allows the user to monitor the parameters of solar
8. LCD display 16x2
panel. The parameters that can be monitored are current,
voltage, temperature, power and energy. These parameters
9. Wi-Fi Module 2.4GHz-2.5GHz
are monitored on an interval of time. The interval of time
can set as per daily basis or on a fixed gap of time. The
10. Resistors 1kohm
parameters are measured using different sensors. The sensor
are ACS712 for current, voltage divider for voltage, LM35
for temperature. The mechanism for each is show in the
above chapters with description. This hardware setup
includes a PCB (printed circuit board), solar panel, charger V. IMPLEMENTATION
controller, battery, dc-dc buck converter. The PCB in the The proposed system designed to monitor the PV
system includes all the sensors with an IC ATmega328P System with output power 25Watt with general
which acts as a microcontroller and Wi-Fi module ESP8266. specifications as follows:(Vm:17.08 V, Voc:21.17 V, Isc: 1.26
A) . For this system with the panel the DC-DC buck
converter and a 12V solar charge controller are connected
before the battery. The charging time for the battery will be
5 hours according to the system. The expected energy output
of system considering 5 peak sun hours a day is 93.75 W-
hr/day. Now to check the operation of the developed system
and also to check whether it actually monitors the required
parameters, the PV system is placed under real environment
to generate the required output. Battery in the system is
Figure 2PCB front view
connected to load where current sensor and voltage divider
are connected to monitor the current voltage and calculate
the power and energy output. The sensor data in calculated
and collected by Arduino Uno R3 and uploaded to
Thingspeak platform using Wi-Fi module as IOT protocol.
Final aim of this testing will be to monitor the output
current, temperature, voltage and energy of system in
working conditions.
The parameters to be monitored are
1. Maximum voltage
2. Maximum current
3. Temperature
Figure 3Hardware Setup 4. Energy
5. Power output
TABLE I. COMPONENTS USED

Sr. No. Component Name Specification

TABLE II. PARAMETERS ANALYSIS
1. Solar Panel 25 watt,12 V

2. DC-DC buck converter 9-36V

3. Charge controller 12V,5A

4. Lead-acid Battery 12V,5Ah

5. Arduino UNO R3 5V

6. ACS712 5A

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Parameter Expected Actual Value

Value

Maximum 17.08 V 15.75 V

voltage

Maximum 1.18 A 0.78 A

Current

Power 25 W 25 W

Temperature 25oC 35oC

On applying this system to the solar PV system actual

values were obtained with little variation as mention in the
above table.
VI. RESULTS
The graphs provide the information about the
working and generation data by parameters to the user
focusing on the real time generation parameters.

Field 1 for Voltage:

The results of voltage divider circuit in the above
graph of voltage Vs date is obtained. The graph shows the

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variations in the voltages that are nearly similar to the Remote Monitoring System for Telecommunication
expected values. Power plants with Fully DC-Powered Center
Field 2 for Current: Equipment” 2007 IEEE
For the current values the current sensor ACS 712 [2] Ersan KABALCI, Alper GORGUN, Yasin KABALCI
is used. In the above graph the values of current are “Design and implementation of a renewable energy
achieved. This graph shows the result curve which is as monitoring system” 2013 IEEE
predicted. [3] Soham Adhya, Dipak Saha, Abhijit Das, Joydip Jana,
Hiranmay“An IoT Based Smart Solar Photovoltaic
Remote Monitoring and Control unit” IEEE, 2016, 978-
Field 3 for Temperature: 5090-0035-7/16
The above temperature Vs time graph shows the [4] Suprita M. Patil, Vijayalakshmi M., Rakesh Tapaskar
constant value of the temperature which is got from the “An IOT based Solar energy Monitoring System”
system during the operational time. IEEE, 2017, 978-5386-1887-5/17
Field 4 for Power: [5] Ambuj gupta, Rishabh Jain, Rakshita joshi, Dr. Ravi
The power Vs date curve shows the power that Saxena “Real time remote solar monitoring system”
produced from the values of current and voltage. This curve 978-15090-6403-08/17/2017 IEEE
shows total power output variation during specific period of [6] Ankit kekre, Suresh k. Gaware “Solar Photovoltaic
time. remote monitoring system using IOT” International
For observing the data with the aim of longer time conference on recent innovations is signal processing
the system can work at day time efficiently and the data will and Embedded systems (RISE 2017) 27-29 October
give output according to the load. Hence, individual can 2017
analyze the output in different weather conditions and get [7] W Priharti “IoT based photovoltaic monitoring system
the enough output for the load. application” 2019 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1367 012069
[8] Mubashir Ali, Mahnoor Khalid Paracha “An IOT based
approach for Monitoring Solar Power Consumption
VII. CONCLUSION with Adafruit Cloud” Vol. 4, Issue 9,ISSN No. 2455-
2143
For this paper the 25 Watt solar panel is monitored
\[9] https://smartxbrains.in/
for power, current, voltage, temperature. The energy
generated from solar panel is being stored in 12V 5Ah lead
acid battery which is supplying power to 10W DC servo
motor. The sensor output data graphs for parameters being
monitored were obtained using Thingspeak platform. This
project justifies the ease of use that Internet of things bring
to the solar energy application where user can record,
analyze the data and predict the energy generation for the
Solar energy System installed. The results of this project can
be further used to enhance this project. The monitored
values can be useful in predicting the values of parameters
for system in use, parameters like current voltage and max
solar output by the system. The predicted values can be
conveyed to the user to decide and manage the usage. This
solar energy monitoring is majorly used for PV applications
like small scale or large scale solar power plants where the
monitoring is majorly done using inverters. The systems like
one made in this project can be useful and feasible for the
smaller systems like solar streetlights, solar agricultural
pumps and other solar applications.

REFERENCES

[1] Yoshihiro Goto, Masaki Kiya, Yo shichika, Mizutani,

Tatsuo Sakai, and Yuji “Integrated Management and

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