Estimating the total power generation of Photovoltaic panels by Means of Visible and Infrared Sensing

• Main Authors: Bautista, Maria Patricia S., Daguiso, Janelle Ann F., Ong, Clement Y., Rizon, Aislin Roseann Lei C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: photovoltaic panels; inverter; solar energy; solar power estimation
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/conf_shsrescon/2023/paper_see/13; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/conf_shsrescon/article/1820/viewcontent/Bautista_et_al._DLSU_SHS_Congress.docx.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Energy consumption is continuously increasing as technology advances. The increase in energy demand also means an increase in energy sources, one of which is solar energy, as it is one of the most abundant renewable energy sources. However, for most solar energy systems, the amount generated is only equivalent to the demand at maximum. Its full potential is not yet utilized, and there are only a few studies on estimating the output of a solar panel system. Hence, this study explored the estimation of the total power generation of photovoltaic panels by utilizing sensors. For this, measurements used sensors and a microcontroller to read the input and get the output which is the values coming directly from the sensor. A model was developed from visible light, infrared light, and temperature readings to estimate the maximum possible energy output of a solar panel instantaneously at any given time. Multi-variate regression was used to obtain the coefficients resulting in a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9988 over selected data points. The estimated versus actual power output with rapidly varying irradiance was optimistic, with an average error of 1.53% out of the maximum power generating capacity of the photovoltaic system.