3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

IOT BASED EFFICIENT SOLAR PANEL MONITORING

Mirsad Hyder Shah

Student, Technische Universitat Dortmund.

Dortmund, (Germany).

E-mail: itsmirsadhyder@yahoo.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2476-5887

Nasser Hassan Abosaq

Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering Department. Yanbu University College, Yanbu Industrial City,

(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).

E-mail: abosaqn@rcyci.edu.sa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1354-3170

Recepción:

01/09/2020

Aceptación:

05/10/2020

Publicación:

14/12/2020

Citación sugerida:

Shah, M.H., y Abosaq, N.H. (2020). IoT based ecient solar panel monitoring. 3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación

aplicadas a la pyme, 9(4), 87-93. https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

ABSTRACT

The invention of smart grid has already outdated the conventional method of one way power production-

supply concept. While developed countries have already started to adopt smart meters, appliances and

renewable energy sources; underdeveloped and developing countries are still facing power shortages

every day. In the second Industrial Revolution, electricity was the main advancement and the recent

Industrial Revolution 4.0 has pushed giant Production companies into the adoption and promotion of

Renewable Energy sources. The integration of IoT and power systems has revolutionized the world in

terms of power eciency and real time monitoring. This paper discusses an experimental work done

on how IoT can monitor the power/voltage and current production of a standalone renewable energy

source i.e. a solar panel. This paper also discusses how to improve the solar panel eciency by correcting

the tilt angle of the solar panel. The monitoring of the solar panel is done via an inter-connected system

using NodeMCU, Node-RED, Arduino and an MQTT channel. The monitoring of solar panels can

be made easier by implementing the proposed work in a photovoltaic (PV) power plant. Moreover the

monitoring of energy production will greatly enhance the health of the PV system. A 24% increase in

the power output has been noticed after the correction of the tilt angle which was corrected using a solar

tracker.

KEYWORDS

IoT based Solar Panel, Solar monitoring, NodeMCU, Node-RED, MQTT, Tilt Correction using IoT,

Azimuth Correction using IoT.

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

1. INTRODUCTION

Internet of Things (IoT) has already made its way into numerous applications. From smart homes to IoT

based management systems in Industries, IoT has been employed to make our lives much easier and data-

accessible. It is estimated that by 2025, there will be more than 21 Billion IoT devices (Symanovich, n.d.).

The ease which IoT introduces in the monitoring of power production and consumption is unmatched.

2. METHODOLOGY

The components required for the integration of IoT with solar panel are as follows (Oukennou et al.,

2019):

2.1. NODEMCU

NodeMCU is an open source rmware based on ESP8266 wi-soc. NodeMCU provides access to

the GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) subsystem. It is mainly used for IoT based applications.

(NodeMCU, 2014)

2.2. INA219 CURRENT SENSOR

After connecting it with INA219 which is a current shunt and power monitor, it monitors the shunt

voltage and current coming from the solar panel. INA219 is basically a High side DC Current sensor

which can detect current from a range of +3.2 to -3.2 Amperes and 26 Volts.

2.3. NODE-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool which wires the above hardware devices together. Node-RED is also

an open source project. It has a web browser based ow editor with which JavaScript functions can be

employed (Node-RED, n.d.).

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

2.4. ARDUINO

Arduino software is a free Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It is open source application

which can be downloaded from their website. It allows users to create interactive electronic circuits with

program editions which can be uploaded, compiled in Arduino boards.

2.5. MQTT

MQTT is used as a communication channel between two or more devices. It is bandwidth ecient and

consumes very little power. It can be used as a transport mechanism between the devices and IoT.

3. WORKING

The NodeMCU microcontroller or the ESP8266, collects the input parameters (Voltage, current and

power) from the INA219 sensor. After the microcontroller is connected to the MQTT via Wi-Fi, we

can collect the output from the NodeMCU after opening Node-RED. Since the privacy of our data

should not be compromised, we can visualize the results via connecting a device to the Internet with the

username/password. (Oukennou et al., 2019)

Graphic 1. System Architecture.

Source: (Oukennou et al., 2019).

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

4. CORRECTION OF TILT AND AZIMUTH ANGLE USING IOT

The tilt angle describes the vertical angle of a solar panel. Azimuth angle is their horizontal facing in

relation to the equator. For solar panels to perform best they should be directed accurately towards the

sun. Users in the northern hemisphere should face their solar panels towards the south and vice versa.

Due to magnetic declination, the inaccuracy of nding the true south hinders the solar panel’s best

performance (Wholesale Solar, 2018).

Graphic 2. Azimuth and tilt angle in relation to the equator.

Source: (Wholesale Solar, 2018).

A solar tracker is a device that orients the direction of the solar panel directly towards the sun. With

employing IoT, solar panels can be made much more ecient. This can be done by providing accurate

data to the microcontroller which then corrects the tilt angle. Brushless DC motors are employed under

the solar panel which take hourly readings from the microcontroller and adjusts the tilt angle.

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

5. RESULTS

This paper proposes a real time and low cost monitoring system for solar panel using NodeMCU which

is connected to Node-Red. This system can help to measure PV system’s productions: voltage, current

and power. The table below compares the measured values of INA219 and a multimeter.

In Table 1, the monitoring of the solar panel has been carried out. These results were achieved with the

combined setup of the Microcontroller, Sensors, Software and a multimeter. In Table 1, the measured

power using a multimeter is much more accurate but dealing with a software using the current sensor is

much easier.

Table 1. Results with NodeMCU and Node-RED setup.

Measured power using INA219 Measured Power using multimeter Inaccuracy in results

24 mW 24.4mW 0.4 mW

30 mW 30.2 mW 0.2 mW

33mW 33.4 mW 0.4 mW

36mW 36.6 mW 0.6 mW

37 mW 37.3 mW 0.3 mW

In Table 2, Voltage and Power readings with and without the correction of tilt and Azimuth angle have

been discussed. As it can be inferred from the power readings with and without IoT, IoT provides a much

higher power output. At time 12:00 p.m. the power with IoT is 24% more than power without IoT.

Table 2. Results obtained after correcting tilt and Azimuth angle using IoT.

TIME Voltage without IoT Voltage with IoT Power without IoT Power with IoT

8:00 a.m. 10 V 12 V 20 mW 27 mW

10:00 a.m. 15.27 V 17.46 V 26 mW 32 mW

12:00 p.m. 19.55 V 21.65 V 32 mW 42 mW

14:00 p.m. 19.71 V 21.34 V 35 mW 42 mW

17:00 p.m. 14.25 V 18.62 V 22 mW 30 mW

3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Ed. 36 Vol. 9 N.º 4 Diciembre 2020 - Marzo 2021

https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n4e36.87-93

6. CONCLUSION

IoT has already managed its way into our daily lives in the form of Smart homes. This paper discusses

how IoT can be integrated with a standalone renewable energy source i.e. a solar panel. Typical Solar

panels waste about 15-20% of their maximum power potential due to magnetic declination, this paper

also involves IoT as to improve solar eciency by correcting the tilt angle of solar panel. As a result, a

24% increase in power was noticed with the inclusion of a solar tracker. The monitoring of a standalone

solar panel was also carried out using the NodeMCU, Node-RED, Arduino, INA219 and multimeter

setup. Except for some minor inaccuracy in the power output, the proposed system can easily work well

in a solar power plant.

REFERENCES

NodeMCU. (2014). https://www.nodemcu.com/index_en.html

Node-RED. (n.d.). https://nodered.org/

Oukennou, A., Berrar, A., Belbhar, I., & El Hamri, N. (2019). Low Cost IoT System for Solar Panel

Power Monitoring. Colloque sur les Objets et systèmes Connectés, Ecole Supérieure de Technologie

de Casablanca (Maroc), Institut Universitaire de Technologie d’Aix-Marseille (France),

CASABLANCA, Morocco. hal-02298769f. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02298769/

document

Symanovich, S. (n.d.). The future of IoT: 10 predictions about the Internet of Things. https://us.norton.com/

internetsecurity-iot-5-predictions-for-the-future-of-iot.html

Wholesale Solar. (2018). Tilt and Azimuth angle. https://www.wholesalesolar.com/blog/solar-panel-

azimuth-angle