KuarahyFinder

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1psoJGs_xyC7xeHHYxQIol6LaD9-i0ped/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106777795909769332756&rtpof=true&sd=true

https://github.com/calebtrepowski/KuarahyFinder-App/releases/tag/v0.0.1

• The problem

The raw data found in the POWER portal -though accessible- was hard to interpret for a final user who does not have a technical background; and the formats in which it was retrieved were not always the most simple and understandable for said user. 

At the same time, the complexity of the POWER API and the restrictions it imposed could be a limitation for someone trying to obtain a comprehensive synthesis of the data.   

• Solving the problem

Our project consists of a mobile application that aims to relay the data about sunshine that is already available in the NASA POWER Web Portal to the common user, someone who does not necessarily have a deep knowledge of the science behind solar panels.

The user only needs to know the power of the solar panel bought -or to be bought- and the location where it is or will be put, and the app will do the rest. What does this mean? The user will be able to see straightforward visualizations about the weekly average of solar irradiance and draw comparisons and other insights they want to see, this can be done with several time frames and/or time resolutions.

The app will also provide additional information extracted from calculations to give more insight into the efficiency of the solar panel and the return of investment for the user, and small predictions about sunshine (and other resources, such as wind and humidity) for weeks to come based on averages from previous years.

The alpha version of the android app is fully (and publicly) released in the git hub repository with the corresponding source code. The link to the repository (/calebtrepowski/KuarahyFinder-App) is mentioned above. 

• How?

Once the user pins a location in the map, the java script code makes a request to the POWER API in order to retrieve the pertinent data. Once the information is obtained, the averages are calculated and displayed on screen.

• Infrastructure/Data Flow/Diagram

• Screenshots

• Tools/Coding Language/Other resources

1. Javascript
2. React Native
3. Google’s Maps SDK API
4. (To be implemented) Python/Javascript modeling
5. (To be implemented) Tableau Public with Database
6. Gradle for Android version of release
7. Inkscape
8. Lucidchart
9. Adobe XD for app prototyping
10. Google docs and slides

NASA POWER API

• Difficulties faced

1. Requesting data from the POWER API:

   There is a plethora of available data. It was difficult to tell apart which were the fundamental variables for our measurements. Even though it was a matter of reading the POWER documentation, it resulted in a very time consuming process before implementing the first project’s steps.

2.Integration:

To optimally do the integration between Tableau and the app it is precise to store the calculated models in a database. This is to prevent huge time-consuming operations modeling (in real time) the dataset to use. Also, the POWER API has a limited requests amount per minute, which would cause a bottleneck trying to scale the app to a worldwide niche

3.Modeling optimal data for the database

To get expected data for solar panel’s power output, optimal angle and electricity cost savings. It is required a bigger timeframe than the one used in the ‘simple model’; moreover, it is required to process the parsed data and do specific corrections depending on the solar angle, time of the year, panel’s angle and parameters (price, size, electricity cost, average sunshine time,etc) . The expected data can be developed using dataframe manipulators, such as pandas with numpy (Python) or D3 (Javascript).

4.Graphic and app design:

In the beginning of the Hackathon, nobody in the team had a proficient experience designing graphics or apps.

• Acknowledge

The available data from POWER could also be useful for other areas in which sunshine plays an important role, such as agriculture (where the hours of sun of a location determine what kind of fruits and vegetables can be grown) or health (like indexes at which UVA and UVB rays that could be potentially dangerous to skin). It would also be interesting to add a section in the app to tackle this.

At the moment the application only processes and displays the ‘simple model’ data graph in a desired time frame and time resolution. It is intended to expand the span of features previously proposed, and other user-friendly features (such as tooltips in the first run).

The app is fully functional and released only on android. The project is deployed on react native, this ensures an easy port for iOS and Windows Phone. The former one can be done directly, changing some parameters and methods, the latter can be done with the react-native-windows library, which is backed by Microsoft developers and who are actively supporting it.

Once the app is fully released, it can be easily distributed on Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Microsoft Store with the respective signing keys.

Data & Resources

• NASA’s POWER documentation and API: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/
• Netlabe “How to predict solar energy production - Solar Power Forecasting” : https://netlabe.com/how-to-predict-solar-energy-production-887ce31ec9d1
• Wikipedia’s Solar Irradiance article:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance
• Google API: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/library/maps-android-backend.googleapis.com
• Tableau public: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/
• Energy.gov "Solar radiation basics":https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-radiation-basics
• Nrel.gov “Solar Resource Maps and Data”: https://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar-resource-maps.html 
• Global Solar Atlas:https://globalsolaratlas.info/support/about
• Photovoltaic Software:https://photovoltaic-software.com/principle-ressources
• React Native Maps: https://github.com/react-native-maps/react-native-maps 
• React Native Chart Kit:https://github.com/indiespirit/react-native-chart-kit
• React Native Get Location: https://github.com/douglasjunior/react-native-get-location 
• React Native Windows:https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-windows
• React Native Documentation: https://reactnative.dev 
• W3School:www.w3schools.com
• Geeks for geeks: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ 
• Smashicons on flaticon: https://www.flaticon.com/authors/smashicons 
• Logos by Nick: https://logosbynick.com/inkscape/
• App Icon Resizer: https://resizeappicon.com

A drive folder with our documentation:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zyIHDrW_zsN2JrSWQrT8l-QfJhmlAu9Z?usp=sharing

#solar #mobileapp #data #modeling #eficiency #RenewableEnergy

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.