Low-Cost Datalogger Intended for Remote Monitoring of Solar Photovoltaic Standalone Systems Based on Arduino™

A low-cost datalogger intended for standalone photovoltaic (PV) systems in developing countries was designed by employing open source software and hardware. The low-cost datalogger is capable of measuring electrical and meteorological parameters meeting the accuracy requirements established by the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) standard for the PV monitoring systems. The new datalogger allows the installation of the monitoring system in areas deprived of telecommunications networks, storing data in SD card, and requiring minimal maintenance. A real standalone PV system similar to those employed in developing countries was installed at the IMDEA Water Institute facilities (Madrid, Spain) for testing and validating the new low-cost datalogger under real conditions. The results demonstrated compliance with the IEC standard, monitoring all of the requested parameters with high accuracy and low power consumption.