Designing an Edge Layer for Smart Management of Large-Scale and Distributed Solar Farms

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. However, the energy source faces challenges due its dependence on environmental elements such as shading, soiling, and temperature. Solar facilities can greatly benefit from smart monitoring technologies made available by Internet of Things. Low-cost sensing and lightweight communication make it possible to remotely analyze the performance of a solar facility, automate diagnosis and prognosis, and optimize their operation and management processes. However, in order to make the best out of a smart solar monitoring system, the system must be designed to cater for the requirements of the given applications. This paper presents the design of a remote monitoring system based on IoT technologies and designed to enable monitoring and control of large-scale and distributed facilities. The work presented here focuses on the edge layer of smart systems as the costliest and most vulnerable segment of an IoT system. The data generated and resource consumed by various types of edge hardware are explored. An edge-to-core network architecture is also explored in terms of scalability and timeliness. This work aims to evaluate the feasibility of deploying such type of architecture in existing large-scale and distributed facilities.