IoT: Enabling Smart Solar Farms for Asset Management and Beyond
Tags: assetmanagement, industrialiot
Published: 2020-12-01 13:00:51

As the solar farms are developed at a high pace, energy companies require a new perspective to handle their assets and assuring an even integration of renewable into the grid. Enlarging applications of IoT in the power sector could be a strong force in this whole scenario.

As environmental concerns are developing day by day, the energy sector is going through a remarkable transformation with a quick transition towards renewable power resources. Solar farms are now improvingly becoming usable investments for energy production as compared to traditional energy production.

Recently, most of the energy companies are going towards IoT technologies to handle solar power production better. Even though solar farms are usually metered in real-time to recognize the overall revenue, individual panels are generally not analyzed.
IoT allows businesses to directly handle every solar panel in the farms to recognize faulty devices.

With the help of IoT technology, sensors are connected to panels that perform various functions such as workflow automation and asset monitoring.

Solar Farm Asset Management

The conventional way of analyzing assets in companies has determined to be more time-consuming. It also needs more human resources to do the job physically — which is also susceptible.

IoT sensors are connected to every asset to maintain track of their asset health data steadily. These sensors share data such as the current location, health, running status and feasible malfunctions of the assets in an automated process.

This process minimizes human effort and the requirement to check & sustain each asset continuously. It enables the connected devices to interact more effectively between themselves and automatically send data to the essential destination.

Benefits of IoT

Real-Time updates

An IoT sensor on the panels allows industries to receive real-time updates simply. The IoT sensor analyzes parameters such as temperature, energy output and tilt angle. These energy companies receive a visual overview of the panels’ output with the help of location and color. Because of this visual granularity, organizations can approach status updates and correct the concerns in real-time.

Improved Worker Productivity

Another way IoT assists solar farm owners is by assuring the productivity of workers. As declared earlier, IoT technology is able to quickly recognizing and troubleshooting error sources.
Instead of examining every panel manually, automation assists in sending notifications to maintenance teams related to error-specific panels. Therefore, field trips are notably minimized and technicians are not limited to do more crucial tasks.

Increased Asset Performance

Integrating various data such as solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and energy outputs of separate panels, grid managers can reveal low-performing units and potential causes. These assists optimize reparation and maintenance planning to improve asset performance.

Reduces Cost

With the help of automated functions, IoT supports lower energy bills and minimizes the carbon footprint, which will save a lot of time & money. Maintenance costs also decrease extremely with connected assets.

Here asset management with IoT also results in greater uptime of systems. Industries can also upgrade their compliance as current regulations are found in the industry; with virtual asset management, the threats of fines and penalties for non-compliance drop.

Maintenance

With the help of real-time updates of the panels, the industries will know which panel has serious concerns and requires quick maintenance. Businesses can rectify the particular issue that tends to diminish in the farm’s overall performance, whether it is low energy output or any other concern. Maintenance teams can wave in action to intercept major defeats and downtimes occurrences.

Theft and Vandalism Prevention

Smart farms, specifically those in rural areas, can significantly benefit from the Internet of Things. Solar panels review an IoT-based monitoring system combined to protect solar panels against vandalism and theft attempts.

Every solar panel has an IoT sensor that recognizes any doubtful activity around it. The sensor can also recognize if the solar panel is separated from its supporting structure and inform the operators in time.

IoT’s development(https://www.hiotron.com/) in smart solar farms has allowed energy companies to handle without large-scale human effort. With a concentration on solar energy development, IoT has a great role to play.