Temperature measurement in PV facilities on a per-panel scale.

This paper presents the design, construction and testing of an instrumentation system for temperature measurement in PV facilities on a per-panel scale (i.e., one or more temperature measurements per panel). Its main characteristics are: precision, ease of connection, immunity to noise, remote operation, easy scaling; and all of this at a very low cost. The paper discusses the advantages of temperature measurements in PV facilities on a per-panel scale. The paper presents the whole development to implementation of a real system that is being tested in an actual facility. This has enabled the authors to provide the readers with practical guidelines, which would be very difficult to achieve if the developments were implemented by just simulation or in a theoretical way. The instrumentation system is fully developed, from the temperature sensing to its presentation in a virtual instrument. The developed instrumentation system is able to work both locally and remotely connected to both wired and wireless network.

A new and inexpensive pyranometer for the visible spectral range.

This paper presents the design, construction and testing of a new photodiode-based pyranometer for the visible spectral range (approx. 400 to 750 nm), whose principal characteristics are: accuracy, ease of connection, immunity to noise, remote programming and operation, interior temperature regulation, cosine error minimisation and all this at a very low cost, tens of times lower than that of commercial thermopile-based devices. This new photodiode-based pyranometer overcomes traditional problems in this type of device and offers similar characteristics to those of thermopile-based pyranometers and, therefore, can be used in any installation where reliable measurement of solar irradiance is necessary, especially in those where cost is a deciding factor in the choice of a meter. This new pyranometer has been registered in the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office under the number P200703162.