The Project

There is a reason for almost everything. Even for us beeing around in Nairobi. When studying a Master in Science at any university, the final challenge is to do a Master Thesis, usually performed at some commercial/industrial company or at a university research department. We both thought that we wanted to do something that could actually make a change for someone, and maybe even help to make life better, if so only for one person. Also, we had a desire to do this somewhere abroad, preferably in a place where we could immerse ourselves in a different culture, with all of the possibilities for new interactions and discoveries that it brings. So with this in mind we started to develop an idea for a project which is now known by it's formal thesis name:

Development of a Cost-effective, Reliable and Versatile Monitoring System for Solar Power Installations in Developing Countries

A Minor Field Study as a Master Thesis
of the Master of Science in Engineering, Engineering Physics, Uppsala University

 

  

Introduction to the Project

The ongoing search for cheap, renewable energy is maybe the greatest challenge that our civilisation has ever faced. A lot of financial, political and technological focus is being turned to meet this challenge which has resulted in one of the greatest advances in research in modern time. One of the most promising technologies is solar power, a technology that has seen a huge increase in efficiency and reliability over the past decade. Continuous research means that it will keep strengthening its position among the renewable energy sources. 

These new technologies and the change that the world is going through is opening up new possibilities in the developing world, with the chance of becoming world leaders in the deployment and installation of these new, clean technologies. In countries close to the equator the high solar irradiance makes for ideal placement of solar power stations. Kenya is investing big sums into the development of solar power. Right now the government is carrying out a program for electrifying all of the schools in the country with solar power, something which is done to roughly 30 %. A lot of these schools are located in remote areas, without a connection to the national electric grid, why island-type electric systems using local solar power stations is a good alternative. 

One of the groups working in the country with researching the possibilities of solar power in Kenya is the Condensed Matter Group at the University of Nairobi. One of the researchers in the group, Dr. Justus Simiyu has emphasized the ongoing efforts being made on solar power and the need for a functioning monitoring system for solar systems. With the process of installing the systems progressing and more and more systems being operational, the need for evaluation and optimizing the systems occurs. Also this data might benefit during the installation of new systems. During the spring of 2014 a group of students from Uppsala University, Moa Mackegård, Jill Wellholm and Karin Rosén, was working with the Condensed Matter Group in Nairobi with the purpose of investigating the possibilities for improving the solar power in the country. They also encountered difficulties due to the lack of good, accurate and reliable data from the existing installations, so they confirmed the need for monitoring and logging systems for solar power installations in Kenya. 

With this background, the master thesis project was initiated and is being performed as a Minor Field Study (MFS) financed by grant money from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Our idea: the cheap and reliable solar power monitoring system 

No matter if a solar power installation is big or small, and no matter where in the world it is, there is a need for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the installation. This helps detecting malfunctioning modules, environmental issues and other things that might affect performance. There are such systems available on the commercial market, but they are often very expensive and might therefore be a big investment that is hard to motivate for owners of smaller systems and systems in developing countries. Despite this, the need for monitoring still exists. 

We want to develop a system for monitoring solar power installations, using easily available and well tested components. By doing the system in an open-source environment we think that it would be possible to produce a system that has a performance and reliability that is similar to that of the commercial systems, but at a much lower price. Also the open-source approach to the project enables so that it can be used by people all around the world, something that will greatly benefit the operation of smaller installations and installations in the developing countries.

Project goal and deliverables 

The goal for the project would be to produce a working system for measuring the variables which are relevant to a solar power system. This data would then be logged and stored in a way that is easily analysed by the system owner. In order to properly evaluate a solar power system it needs to contain sensors for measuring: 

• Irradiance
• Module temperature
• Ambient temperature and humidity
• Current and voltage from the module 

The data from these sensors will then be stored in a way that is accessible to the user. The monitoring system should be design in such a way so that the system owner is always in focus, meaning that it also needs to be versatile in order to account for different needs for different end users. These needs meaning that some solar power systems will be more isolated than others. Therefore, the system needs to be modular meaning that it is build out of separate units which may be chosen according to the need of the user. The main unit will contain a microprocessor which collects and to some extent interprets the data. This main unit also contains an SD-card where the data is stored. Depending on the system, different modules for sending the data will be developed for connecting and interfacing with the main unit. This could be done with either a LAN, WIFI or GSM circuit depending on the available infrastructure of the installation. The system will also include logic that can determine if there is a major malfunction with the solar power system, in other words if the system is generating no, or very low power despite high irradiance, or if it has experienced a rapid degradation in performance over a short time. A warning is then generated which alerts the user of the problem.