A Low-Cost Remote Laboratory for Photovoltaic Systems to Explore the Acceptance of the Students

This paper proposes the use of a remote laboratory assigned to students online practical activities. The hands-on laboratory has a power system where the practical part of subjects related to photovoltaic can be taught. It consists of photovoltaic modules or a programmable source, a low-cost DC/DC buck-boost converter and a load. The remote laboratory is managed by a dsPIC30F microcontroller which serves as a link between the web server and the power system. Thus, the behavior of a photovoltaic system can be studied. It allows to obtain the characteristic curves under different conditions, the supervision of control strategies to track the maximum power point and even the design of the maximum power point tracking algorithms. At the same time, the students’ activities are tracked for pedagogical purposes. The obtained data suggest that the online laboratory facilitates the autonomy of the learners to conduct experiments and have a positive effect on students’ motivation.