SolTech

Manila | You Are My Sunshine

SolCheck

High-Level Project Summary

SolCheck is an application for government units thats interested in solar energy . It is a user friendly application that primarily shows how viable a Solar-Setup is for your location. It shows data such as Solar Irradiance, Humidity,Temperature and Wind Speed in your area in a graphical manner. It interprets the data into an easier way for the user to digest and it gives a quick answer whether it is viable for a user to start a solar-setup. It also shows historical data and can forecast future data so that the user could have more information in his decision making. It is also useful for people with existing setups to compare their data with that of Nasa's and also could share other data.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10VHm6oKZ6gkDmFjh9-2igdFRVWBdJ3qK?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://github.com/SolT3chTeam

Detailed Project Description

What exactly does it do?

The application flow chart would be discussed below:

Landing Screen - It basically asks for your location for the application to know what data to process
Main Home Screen - Shows "Solar Irradiance" in terms of percentage on how much energy you can harvest from the sun. It also shows a heat map type of solar irradiance in your location which you could navigate. It also leads to the four (4) main sections of the application that are as follows:

a. How do you know? More Supporting Data.

b. How to Harvest? Start your Solar Setup today!

c. Compare with US! Compare or Supplement Data.

d. More Questions? FAQ's Page Here.

a. How do you know? More Supporting Data. - The user would input a range of Month or Year that he wants a Solar Irradiance data. This would then be processed through the Database and a Graphical Representation of the solar Irradiance would be Displayed. The Second Graph would then display Future Predictions (attained through Machine Learning) and also display it in a graphical method to help the user decide whether it is viable to start a solar-setup based on his location. Additionally there would be an option to see other data such as Humidity, Temperature, Wind and Pressure these would also be displayed graphically.

b. How to Harvest? Start your Solar Setup Today! - This section would show a visual representation of "What you'll need" to start a solar set-up. Upon hovering over a component would show a brief description of the component and show links on where users usually buy. Since the location is known the application would show Professional Installing Services nearby additionally it would display various User-Groups nearby that are knowledgeable in solar setups.

c. Compare with US! Compare or Supplement Data. - This section is designed for existing solar setup users to check their yield to that of Project POWER. The user could input their Solar Irradiance, Cloud Cover (%), Temperature, Humidity and Wind Speed. This would then be compared with that of Project POWER and in the instance that it is not up to par it could then lead to Troubleshooting under the FAQ's Page. Additionally, the user could share other data that he has (i.e. PM 2.5 Concentration, CO2 Emission, etc.) these data would then be stored to supplement the data that NASA has.

d. More Questions? FAQ's Page Here. - This section would cover Frequently asked questions for the user. It would also recommend other articles that is about solar setups and might interest you. Additionally, it will serve as an information page for users to gain more knowledge and spark their interest more!

Landing Screen shown in the a tablet and a smartphone.

2. Main Home Screen - shown in a Tablet and Smartphone. Shown how viable a solar setup is for your location through a sunshine meter (Shown as "You can harvest 90% of energy from the Sun!") and a heat map type example is seen in the application.

Section a. of the Application shown in an smartphone. As you can see you can request other Data to be shown such as Sky Surface UV Index, Sky Surface Irradiance, Temperature at 2 Meters, Clear Sky Day and Cloud Amount (Humidity, Temperature, Wind Speed and Pressure could be added but lacked time).

Section c. of the Application shown in an smartphone and tablet. This page would request for data from the user which could then be compared with that of NASA POWER's data and supplement other Data that the user would like to share.

How does it work?

For machine learning model, neural network is trained on the data obtained from Kansas city for the duration of 01-Jan-2019 to 31-May-2021. The trained model is then used to forecast solar irradiance for Kansas City and New Delhi for a duration of approx. 5 months. Multivariate analysis is done to understand the correlation between each parameters that we are using for our model.

https://github.com/SolT3chTeam/Solcheck-Solar-Irradiance-Forecast-Model

Parameters for the Neural Network Model

Sample Graph of Actual vs Forecasted Solar irradiation.

Forecasting for New Delhi is not much accurate as the data for Kansas city was only used to train the neural network model and thus it indicates how change in geographical parameters can have impact on the solar irradiation.

Performance metrics for the Model

Correlation Matrix (Data analysis) - Parameters having values close to 1 indicates high positive correlation (Dark Green Color) and they are highly dependent on each other, similarly the parameters with dark red indicates negative correlation.

What benefits does it have?

The application immediately gives you information whether or not it is viable to start a solar setup in your area based on Project POWER data. It also shares data that is beneficial when creating a solar setups. It also connects you to the user groups within the area to guide you in the process or points you in the direction of professional services in your area. For existing solar-setup users, It gives the platform to check whether the yield of your existing set-up is precise with that of Project Power.

What do you hope to achieve?

The main goal is to have Local Government Units use our application as a decision making tool

We plan on making information more available in a user-friendly manner. Aid the decision making process of the user when it comes to solar setups. Take a step in the direction of a net carbon neutral power supply industry and to lessen the factors that are contributing to climate change.

What tools, coding languages, hardware, or software did you use to develop your project?

Google Colab, tensorflow and python programming language is used for doing data analysis and creating neural network.
Laravel for the backend and API
Tailwind CSS for the styling the web application.
MySQL for storing the data.
Chart.js for the graph visuals

Space Agency Data

What space agency data you used in your project?

Date from the NASA POWER tool was the primary driver in our project. It supplied data for solar irradiance, Humidity, Temperature, Wind Speed, Cloud % and many more!

How you used it

The data is accessed using NASA POWER tool. The timeseries for the parameters mentioned can be accessed using the API's provided and CSV data is used for forecasting the future values of solar irradiance.

How it inspired your project

The data provided by NASA POWER inspired us to create the best product as accurately and efficiently as possible in a limited time frame. Additionally, for us in the Philippines, it is great for us to have a good Data source such as NASA POWER since data in our country is not that accessible or data that may be accessible is lacking some parameters or other relevant data.

Hackathon Journey

We started our journey as mere individuals. We were just formed in one of the team formation sessions. We then ended up with 5 members from the Philippines and from India. We have diverse backgrounds which is always nice to have.

We chose "YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE" Challenge because it is a great solution to slow down the speed of CLIMATE CHANGE. Additionally, with the rising interest in solar set-ups it is best that the user gets a quick answer whether it is viable to setup a solar setup.

We learned that diversity is really a great thing to have in a team. By joining as individuals we are for sure from different backgrounds. With it we covered almost all of the skills required to create and to execute a great idea. We knew that diversity of background is a must have for hackathons like here in NASA Space Apps Challenge to maximize our individual capacities. Different ideas and opinions that’s when collaborated and united will fall into one—solution. SolTech primarily contributes in the society by solving problems using technology.

We started with a visual mock-up of the application, from there we brainstormed on which ideas we could incorporate into the application.

We would like to thank all of our mentors that guided us in this journey. A special mention to Sir Dominic Ligot, for always being there to guide us when we felt stuck and to Sir Michael Lance for organizing the Mentorship Sessions.