Data Acquisition System for Performance Monitoring of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Generation

--A computer based data acquisition system to monitor and control photovoltaic power generation systems using a novel method, based on Campbell scientific data acquisition board (CR3000) and graphical programming software (PC 400), has been designed and implemented. Prior to designing the data acquisition system, a small sized PV power generation system, consisting of a 6.4kw Solar panel, a charge controller and a DC to AC inverter, has been assembled. At the same time, Data-acquisition systems are widely used in renewable energy source (RES) applications in order to collect data regarding the installed system performance, for evaluation purposes. In this paper, the development of a computer-based system for RES systems monitoring is described. The proposed system consists of a set of sensors for measuring both meteorological (e.g. temperature, humidity etc.) and electrical parameters (photovoltaic voltage and current etc.). Keywords---Wind sensor (speed, direction), Temperature sensor (Ambient, module), Campbell Scientific data logger CR3000, PC 400s 1.5 Data logger software, Elmeasure web software.