Page 127 - New Trends in Green Construction

MONITORING PHOTOVOLTAIC FACILITIES IN BUILDINGS BASED ON INTERNET OF THINGS AND COMMUNICATION USING LORAWAN TECHNOLOGY
Luis M. Fernández-Ahumada, Isabel Moreno García, Javier Gómez- Uceda, Manuel Torres- Roldán
Keywords: Monitorization, Photovoltaics, IoT, Free hardware, LoraWan 1. Introduction
The use of non-fossil-based energy is a social, economic and technical imperative that has recently made spectacular progress around the world. Within clean energy, solar energy, and especially photovoltaics, has seen an enormous rise for a variety of reasons (Mousazadeh et al., 2009).
Increasing the efficiency of the modules comprising a photovoltaic facility is a key element when evaluating the competitiveness of this technology compared to other market options. The monitoring of PV installations is an essential tool in this objective and focuses on the significant variables of the modules (ambient air temperature, output voltage, output current...) (Raza et al., 2016).
In recent years, the development of ICTs has led to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) connecting any type of information associated with an object to the Internet. Once data to be shared have been identified, the chosen system (photovoltaic panel) must be equipped with the software, hardware and communications necessary for connecting to the Internet (Carballo et al., 2019)
IoT-based communication solutions designed to be located on the rooftops of buildings must comply with the following requirements: range, low cost and the possibility of connecting a large number of devices. The Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) are wireless, allowing to operate with very high range (several km in urban environments) as well as low energy consumption and low cost.
2. Materials and methods
Figure 1 describes the system proposed to monitor the relevant variables of the photovoltaic module, so that the final user can interact with the module from an IoT platform (Thingspeak in our case). The Arduino MKRWAN 1300 board manages the reading of the module's control variables, as well as the sending of such variables, through the LoRaWan network, to The Things Network (TTN) platform. This network allows communication of IoT-based objects with low battery consumption, long range and low bandwidth. TTN is based on Gateways or concentrators receiving the information to be monitored. Node-Red, a software tool communicating hardware and IoT services in a fast and simple manner is employed.. For the proposed supervision, TTN is connected to ThingSpeak, Matlab® IoT platform. This is the platform where the application's end user can visualize, interact, store and control the information received.
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New Trends in Green Construction