Development of a simplified data acquisition kit for PV systems in Africa

Renewable resources have made consistent progress in satisfying the increasing world energy demand and are today an important fraction of power generation in many African countries. However, the running of photovoltaic systems involves a large quantity of data to be collected in real time and to process in order to ensure monitoring and an optimal control of photovoltaic plants. In recent years, a number of data-logging devices have been developed using conventional electronics or based on microcontroller data acquisition system. Most of these devices are commercially available and their cost is quite high and unaffordable in the African context of poverty. In this paper, a low-cost kit microcontroller-based, suitable for Sub-Saharan Africa is developed to collect and store significant and quality data of temperature, irradiance, voltage and current for control and maintenance purposes. The experimental setup based on fuzzy logic algorithm modelled for maximum power point control of a buck converter has been carried out to store data in removable memory cards. The data acquisition kit proposed is suitable for statistic usages; for the maintenance and improvement system’s parameters through analysis of data harvested.