Temperature Measurement in PV Facilities on a Per-Panel Scale

• Main Authors: Miguel A. Martínez, José M. Andújar, Juan M. Enrique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-07-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: temperature measurement; hot spots; instrumentation system; PV facilities; 1-Wire bus; virtual instrument; remote operation; per-panel scale
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/14/8/13308

This paper presents the design, construction and testing of an instrumentation system for temperature measurement in PV facilities on a per-panel scale (i.e., one or more temperature measurements per panel). Its main characteristics are: precision, ease of connection, immunity to noise, remote operation, easy scaling; and all of this at a very low cost. The paper discusses the advantages of temperature measurements in PV facilities on a per-panel scale. The paper presents the whole development to implementation of a real system that is being tested in an actual facility. This has enabled the authors to provide the readers with practical guidelines, which would be very difficult to achieve if the developments were implemented by just simulation or in a theoretical way. The instrumentation system is fully developed, from the temperature sensing to its presentation in a virtual instrument. The developed instrumentation system is able to work both locally and remotely connected to both wired and wireless network.