ABSTRACT
In the present study, the hardware system is developed and applied to characterize the photovoltaic (PV) module system under different climatic conditions. With the change in surrounding conditions with time, it has become difficult to obtain accurate readings manually. To overcome this problem, automatic-sensor-based data acquisition systems (DASs) become necessary for the real world, providing an error-free and rapid response. A data acquisition system is designed to store real-time voltage, current, temperature, humidity, and irradiation values at variable resistive loads during an experimental study of a different commercial module of 20 W solar PV system. The ATmega-328 micro-controller first analyzes the experimental data and then stores in an external micro-SD memory card assembly as well as thing speak Internet of things (IoT) to plot the real-time power–voltage (P–V) and current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the PV system. The developed system consists mainly of ATmega-328 micro-controller components, current sensor, voltage sensor, humidity and temperature sensors, light intensity sensor, Real-Time Clock (RTC), micro SD card assembly, etc. Also, MATLAB/Simulation is performed to validate the efficiency and stability of the developed system. Performance parameters such as maximum power, minimum power losses, and improved fill factor (FF) represent the proposed system’s effectiveness.
