IoT-Based Real Time Data Acquisition of PV Panel

Renewable energy is becoming more popular because of the world's increasing demand for electricity as a result of rising energy consumption and the depletion of traditional energy sources. The most important and most efficient of these is solar energy, and to get the maximum value of this energy with the highest efficiency, there should be direct monitoring of the performance of these solar panels. So, in this work, a data acquisition system for a PV panel using a Programmable Logic Controller was proposed and implemented, and the collected data was remotely monitored based on the Internet of Things (IoT). The proposed PV monitoring system, which consists of a PV panel, various sensors, a PLC (a Siemens S7-1200 type), and a load, was experimentally tested in Kirkuk City for approximately 10 hours to visualize the five parameters of PV terminal voltage, load current, power, temperature, and radiation. Three visualization methods were employed for presenting the results: The first, locally direct method, is in SIMATIC WinCC on the computer. The second method is that the collected data was saved in Excel file format. The final and most important technique is smart online wireless remote monitoring on the Ubidots platform, which utilizes the router unit to display the parameters on the smart device. The proposed system has a low price, a simple design, real-time measurements, the ability to be expanded, high efficiency, accuracy, and reliability, and can be built quickly.