Desenvolvimento de Protótipo de Aquisição de Dados Meteorológicos: Uma Proposta Móvel e de Baixo Custo

Abstract

The generation potential of a photovoltaic plant is strongly influenced by climatological issues, so obtaining information from these data in a region and making future estimates of the photovoltaic generation potential becomes fundamental for planning the operation of photovoltaic systems in the region. One of the biggest challenges of a photovoltaic system is the reliable monitoring of the climatological variables to which it is subjected. To meet this need, meteorological stations are used, equipped with measurement sensors to record meteorological/climate variables. Such stations have been improved over the years, resulting in automatic meteorological stations, not requiring human displacement to the equipment to collect data. Often due to the difficult access to photovoltaic plants, automatic meteorological stations are considered the most recommended for this application. The typical problem of automatic meteorological stations is their high cost, which makes it difficult to use them in several applications. In this context, the present work aims to build a low-cost, portable meteorological station with self-sufficient sensors for use in remote and/or difficult-to-access areas, for application in photovoltaic plants and rural properties. To validate the proposal, measurement data from a commercial meteorological station installed on the Campus das Auroras at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB). The field tests and the results demonstrated that the proposed station presented satisfactory responses when compared with the measurements of the commercial meteorological station.