Low-Cost Cloud-Enabled Wireless Monitoring System for Linear Fresnel Solar Plants

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a cost-effective online wireless monitoring system for two linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) solar plants located in two different countries. The first LFR plant is installed in the SEKEM medical center near Belbis city, Egypt, while the second is installed in the campus of the University of Palermo, Italy. The proposed system is a standalone system that reduces the interaction of labor as it offers online wireless monitoring for important parameters of the LFR such as solar irradiance, ambient temperature, outlet and inlet collector temperature and heat transfer fluid flow. For that purpose, a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on Arduino Mega boards coupled with XBee modules are used. The ZigBee XBee modules operate at 2.4 GHz, which have the advantages of being low cost and relatively low power consumption. The wireless nodes are supplied by solar paneled power banks, and send the data to a cloud in order to monitor both LFR plants remotely. The proposed system has been implemented and tested successfully before the future deployment on the LFR plants.

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