High-Level Project Summary
Our challenge started with a video with "Rick". He had a problem that he couldn't have an access to all the data of his solar panels on his mobile phone app as he wanted a way to see if the panels were functioning as they should. That's why he needed an app that has an easy access to all the needed information; all in one place, without any unnecessary technical twists.So our main goal was to create a concept of an app that is user-friendly and easy to use. The user should find all the data from their solar panels and their functions in real time, as well as the long-standing information to compare the functioning of the panels to see if they were broken or outdated.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Solar panels can only work for a certain time, and after that they will start to lose their efficiency. After 25 years the panels will only have 80 % of their power left. That is why the owner needs to be aware of the panel's functioning to see, whether the panels are working correctly or if there is something wrong with them.
We started the project by considering the existing problem: How does a mundane see everything they want and need to see, whether their solar panels are working properly or not, and what data do they need an access to? We came to a conclusion that the app should be simple, user-friendly and work on a mobile phone. It needs to show the energy production of the solar panels in real time, but also the past functioning as well. It also has to have a chance to compare the data with itself from the past and with other panels in the nearby area. That way the customer can really see if the panels are working as they should or if they need to be cleaned, repaired or if they're outdated.
USED PLATFORMS
We used NASA's POWER Data Access Viewer to study all the information it has to offer and what we could need with our app. The most crucial parameters were the reflection of the sunlight, and how much of it really hits the ground, and the humidity of the air, because the light will reflect differently from water, snow, etc. The POWER website gathers its information from satellites so the data it offers is extremely detailed and accurate. But it also doesn't have any kind of information from the past four months (Picture below). That is why we had to find a supporting site to have weather information from that time period, where the POWER site doesn't offer information yet.
(A screenshot of data from the POWER Data Access Viewer, parameter "All Sky Surface Shortwave Downward Irradiance"; year, month, day, time and collected data. -999 indicates that there is no data available.)
We found a website called Meteomatics, that is also a part of NASA's space apps challenge collaboration. Meteomatics has real time weather information. They use data from satellites, radars and also weather drones that can rise up to six meters high from the ground and with topography analyzing it can create credible weather data information. The information of radiation is shown in form W/m2 (Picture below), which is effective, since the POWER site uses form kWh/m2 (Picture below).
An example of given data from Meteomatics; Instantaneous flux of clear sky hourly for two days, W/m2.
An example of given data from POWER; All Sky Surface Shortwave Downward Irradiance for five days, kWh/m2.
THE APP
Our app works through communicating with the solar panels. It will gather all the data from energy production real time, and store the information in an external cloud with weather conditions from Meteomatics. The weather conditions will be updated to the data given by POWER once it has updated the information from the last four months. When the user wants to study the gathered data, the app will bring all the needed information to the phone.
When the app is opened for the first time it asks the user some simple questions to get started: Where are the panels located (use automatic location by using GPS or write the coordinates) and how many square meters there are all-together . It also needs the nominal power of the panels to calculate the real efficiency ratio by using the formula below.
Formula for solar panel efficiency (from Vaasa University of Applied Science Solar power course's resources); in this case 15 % is the nominal efficiency, the real efficiency can be calculated by changing the power from the data given by the app; STC irradiance stays the same.
From that ratio the app can tell the health of the solar panels: for example, if the real efficiency is 11 %, that divided by the nominal efficiency, in this case 15 %, the health of the panels is 73 %, which is still good and healthy.
The app also lets the user do some multiple comparisons: they can compare their newest data with the old one for example from one or two years ago or with the same kind of weather conditions. If the results are not looking the same when the conditions are about the same, the app will alert the user to check their panel: it may be dirty, broken or outdated. This gives the user a chance to keep in track with the functioning of the panels without having to wonder, if they are working properly or not. This is possible when all the app users will save their data to the external cloud.
The user doesn't need to use the app actively. The data will be gathered automatically to the cloud from the solar panels and the will be available for the user around the clock.
Space Agency Data
Our main sources of sunshine ireradiation data was from NASA's POWER web portal and it's data access viewer. As our app mainly focuses on the efficiency of solar panels, we were mostly interested with the values that the renewable energy community and it's all sky surface shortwave downward irradiance-option gives as it tells the total net amount of sunlight reaching the earth at a given location. We noticed that the service gives historical data only up to four months ago, so we were interested on where we could find more up-to-date and equally specific and reliable information on the suns irradiance. For our app to be used with more recent data, we used a service provider called Meteomatics that offers similar global irradiation data using information from satellites and drones. Meteomatics offers similar information and API as POWER, but also offers current information.
Hackathon Journey
We started our journey with each team member choosing some interesting challenges. After that we elected/chose together one challenge that sounded good to all of us. We chose this challenge, as the objective sounded straightforward and the challenge sounded suitable for environmental technology students.
In the beginning of the challenge we had some ideas what we wanted to do, so we started to plan the work by brainstorming our ideas on a mind map. Our main point was to create a concept of an app that was as simple as possible, yet encompassing. We faced some challenges with the details - whether something should work in a certain way or not - but these things were either talked through or ignored. Instead of getting stuck with the technical side of the app, we tried to focus on good ideas which seemed plausible to accomplish.
Overall the journey was exhausting, inspiring and educational at the same time. The two-day time period made the whole challenge more intense, since the participants need to work the whole time but also schedule the work, eat and rest. If there's something that could've been done differently, was to start developing the concept earlier so the second day wouldn't feel so stressful, but at least our work was finished in time, and that's the most important thing.
References
RESOURCES
- YouTube video of the challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6VcgwtXrt4
- POWER Data Access Viewer: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/data-access-viewer/
- Meteomatics: https://www.meteomatics.com/en/api/available-parameters/standard-weather-parameter/radiation/
- VAMK (Vaasa University of Applied Sciences) Solar panel course
- Photosource: Unsplash.com
TOOLS
- Slack App
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Prezi.com
Tags
#solarpower