A low-cost system for real-time measuring of the sunlight incident angle using IoT

The incidence angle of solar irradiance is an important parameter for sizing and locate photovoltaic systems, which affects the installation design and has a high influence in the power production of photovoltaic panels. This angle is traditionally estimated considering the geographical position, however, this approach ignores the existence of local elements that affect the generation, such as weather conditions, topography, constructions with high reflection, among others. Therefore, this work presents the design and construction of a measurement device with nine irradiance sensors, which are located at different angles on two orthogonal axes within a semisphere. Since the angles of the sensors are known, a model to determine the direction of the maximum incidence irradiance, at each instant of time, can be calculated from the on-site measurements. In this way, it is also possible to calculate the panel inclination and orientation producing the maximum power for a particular location. The device acquires the irradiance magnitude in the nine sensors in real time, and it is transmitted using the Internet to simplify data recollection. Finally, the device uses a low-cost platform, which makes possible the adoption of this solution in a wide range of applications, e.g. design, diagnostic or reconfiguration of PV arrays.