Solar tracking and weather station

Project summary

Version One – 2011

The customer’s requirements called for a remote and self powered ground station that would routinely monitor and log solar and weather data measured at the site. In conjunction with Collinsville Solar project consultant, Pacific Data Systems Australia designed an innovative solar tracking station.

By incorporating an active solar tracker and pyrheliometer for monitoring direct solar irradiance, the solution constantly tracks the sun’s position. When cloud cover prevents monitoring of the sun’s azimuth and elevation, the solution is able to revert to passive tracking to ensure only a small degree of drift occurs. When the cloud clears, the solution reverts automatically to active tracking.

A data logging solution with remote communications was incorporated into the design of the solution to enable recording of the solar radiation data as well as the air temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure and precipitation data gained through an additional weather sensor.

Version Two 2013

After the research was completed in 2011, the system was removed from the Collinsville site and installed elsewhere. A second system, again designed by Pacific Data Systems Australia, was installed at the Collinsville site in 2013. The second system utilised a dataTaker with internal modem, replacing the need for an external 3G modem.

Background

In 2009 the Australian Federal Government announced the $1.5 billion Solar Flagship Program, an initiative designed to accelerate the delivery of large-scale, grid-connected solar power to the National Electricity Market. Collinsville Solar Limited, a subsidiary of Novatec Solar, the technology provider in the Transfield Consortium, is shortlisted to develop a 1 S0MW solar thermal power station near Collinsville in Queensland. An important component of the full application was a feasibility and design study which included the accurate collection of on-site solar irradiation data.

Our solution

The requirements called for a remote and self powered ground station that would routinely monitor and log solar and weather data measured at the site. In conjunction with Collinsville Solar project consultant, Pacific Data Systems Australia designed an innovative solar tracking station.

Phase one – Design

Phase two – Integration

Once the design phase of the project was complete, the Engineering Team at Pacific Data Systems Australia commenced pre-installation integration works. As part of this process, programming of the data Taker data logger was carried out to ensure Collinsville Solar would be able to easily download and interpret the results.

Phase three – Commissioning

In late August 2010, Paul Gapes from Pacific Data Systems Australia, travelled to the Collinsville site to assist with the commissioning of the station. Over the course of two days, Paul assisted a team of engineers to install the various components, ensuring that there was a seamless handover to Collinsville Solar.

The result

Subsequent to commissioning, the ground station was put into immediate operation for measuring weather and solar radiation data and has been running since that time. T he system runs autonomously yet will obviously be affected by environmental conditions like heat, dust, rain and strong winds and lack of sunlight during protracted cloudy conditions. At the times when technical maintenance is required, the good design and documentation of the system has allowed local technicians at the site to keep the system in good working order. An important part of the integration process was the training of key client technologists for proper use of the system.

Key components

The key technology supplied and configured by Pacific Data Systems Australia included:

dataTaker DT80 data logger
Vaisala WXT520 weather transmitter
3G data modem
Active Solar Tracker

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