Originally posted on Kipp & Zonen: (To enable the download of the PDF, you will need to input few details. My write-up is on page 10)
Solar energy is one of the important sources of energy all over the world, and especially in India. In several parts of the country, clear sunny weather is experienced 250 to 300 days a year, hence several initiatives have been launched by the Indian government and lots of solar power plants are coming up.
For a solar power plant it is very important to investigate the potential and actual performance. Climatic conditionsplay an important role in the electrical power generated, such as solar radiation, temperature, etc. Accurate pyranometer and weather sensor data are very important for the design phase and particularly for calculating the theoretical performance ratio, which is a paramount parameter for the design and is even more important when the plant is operational. Therefore, keeping in mind the long term commercialization of a utility-scale solar power plant, weather sensors which are accurate, efficient, reliable, as well as affordable, are a necessity today.
Jambhekar Automation Solutions manufactures data loggers and provides complete weather monitoring systems for solar power plants. We have earned a reputable name in the solar energy industry by providing precise and accurate weather monitoring stations to more than 150 large-scale plants in India. The pyranometers we use are Kipp & Zonen, as we prefer to work with the most reliable and accurate instruments available on the market. These are often combined with weather sensors of our own make or of other reputed manufacturers, such as Lufft, as per the client requirement. We would like to share two of our installed weather monitoring systems:
5MW project at Vizag Steel for Ujaas Energy Ltd.
At this plant for EPC Ujaas Energy we have provided two Kipp and Zonen CMP10 pyranometers, for GHI and POA irradiance, a Lufft WS600-UMB all-in-one weather sensor with radar rain sensor, a PV module temperature sensor and a Jambhekar data logger. The data logger collects measurements from the sensors and sends data to the SCADA system over Modbus® TCP/IP. The system was installed in 2016 and is running smoothly till date.
5MW solar power plant for Enrich Energy Pvt. Ltd.
For EPC Enrich Energy we installed on a mast a Jambhekar module temperature sensor and data logger with two Kipp & Zonen CMP10 pyranometers, a WS500-UMB weather sensor from Lufft and a tipping bucket rain gauge.
As before, the Jambhekar data logger feeds information into the SCADA system over Modbus® TCP/IP. This system was also installed in 2016 and is still working well.
