A low-cost monitoring system for maximum power point of a photovoltaic system using IoT technique

Integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is considered as an important aspect for monitoring, supervising and performances evaluation. The main aim of this work is to design a low-cost monitoring system for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in a PV system. Two electronics board have been developed: a data-acquisition sensing and a DC-DC boost converter. The designed monitoring board consists of an embedded board (Arduino Mega 2560 based upon ATmega2560), current and voltage sensors, voltage regulator Mini BEC, LCD Display, and a WiFi module ESP8266 to transmit the monitored data (I-PV, V-PV, V-L, I-L and D) on the internet. In addition, a website has been also designed to store and display the monitored data in real time. The designed prototype has been verified experimentally at Renewable Energy Laboratory (REL) of Jijel University, Algeria. Based on the monitored data the users can check easily if the system works well or not by just comparing the measured output power with the one expected by a model.