Web enabled data logger for photovoltaic inverter (I)

Abstract

In this era of industrial development and population rapid growing, the demand for energy has an enormous increase. However, largest energy sources like coal, petro and natural gas are limited and will run out in next century. To overcome this energy crisis, renewable energy could be an important issue for research. Among different types of renewable energy, solar energy is easily installed and has less restriction such as space and district. Nevertheless, efficient power conversion in photovoltaic system needs some improvements by data analysis. In this project, we implement a data logger for photovoltaic system, in which data are stored in memory card and forwarded to web server and hence providing a portable monitoring system to user. The data logger is constructed by a core-board with self-design console board and a web-based board. Lots of communication protocols like SPI, RS232 and RS485 are applied to communicate with different integrated-circuit devices and photovoltaic. By using point-to-point wireless modulator on each board, data can be transmitted from data logger to web server and displayed simultaneously. In order to provide an online monitoring web site, Linux OS should be implemented in web-based board for controlling TCP/IP services.