The Concept of a Hybrid Data Transmission Network with a Mobile Application Intended for Monitoring the Operating Parameters of a Solar Power Plant

Abstract

Often, solar power parks are built in remote areas where the provider’s internet connection using the GSM network is insufficient. In addition, in order to monitor the parameters of each solar module, a very dense arrangement of IoT components would be required, as a result of which the speed of the external network would not be sufficient. In solving this problem, a hybrid data transmission network (there are no universal hybrid network concepts proposed in the literature for monitoring the operating parameters of a solar power park) was designed and tested for the monitoring system of the working parameters (voltage, current, etc.) of the solar power plant. This network consists of RF modules, RS458 modules communicating with a twisted pair cable, a GSM module, etc. PIC series microcontrollers with original programming code written in the C language were used to ensure the operation of the monitoring system and the hybrid data network. The data of the operating parameters of the solar power plant are stored centrally on a server, in a MySQL database. The central server has the ability to display data not only on the graphical output device, but also to transmit it to mobile devices using the Android operating system. During the testing of this network, observations of the working parameters of the 870 W solar power plant were made. Observations lead to the conclusion that such a network can be fully used in solar power parks as an alternative to the GSM network. Analyzing the data, it was found that the efficiency of bifacial type batteries is about 15–20% higher than that of traditional, silicon-based solar batteries. The voltammetric characteristics of a bifacial type battery, a new silicon battery and a 10-year-old battery basically match, which means that the silicon active material of all types of batteries has a similar alloying degree and the same internal resistance.