What Is The Future Of IoT Based Solar Tracking System

Posted by chandni on January 28th, 2020

Solar energy is the fastest-growing renewable source of energy in the world. It is marching forward at an average rate of forty percent every year. More and more energy companies such as Mahindra Teqo are expanding to offer solar power solutions.

Solar energy organizations have more options now than ever before to extract the most out of their equipment. By utilizing the power of digitization and Internet-of-Things or IoT, these companies can resolve all the challenges associated with complex energy grids. With the support of these new systems, it will be far easier to manage solar panels and the energy output.

Challenges with asset management

Despite all the advantages, it can be quite challenging for asset management companies such as Mahindra Teqo when it comes to management. The task of accumulating data from the edge over a diverse and distributed range of solar assets can turn out to be a major obstacle. Even tech-savvy organizations with massive budgets and engineering resources won’t be able to scratch the surface. Then again, even in a country like India, Mahindra Teqo was able to utilize Internet-of-Things to create an IoT based solar tracking system. It goes without saying that IoT applications are extremely complicated. They require significant end-to-end infrastructure to transmit and process the data produced and integrate the same into specific systems.

Further complications

More complexities arise from the fact that renewable energy plants including solar and wind tend to remain clustered and widely distributed. In conditions such as these, even the best IoT based solar tracking system may prove useless. When energy generation systems become too complicated, it leads to logistical nightmares for grid managers and technicians. It is simple mathematics. The chore of making sure that every panel is working successfully becomes challenging when you add more panels into the mix. The situation can get even worse if a grid has thousands of panels. It harbors a higher potential for system vulnerabilities. In general, when your system gets more complex, the chances of incurring pitfalls increase.

Simple and integrated systems

Even after the existence of challenges, they won’t be much of a setback for solar companies. With dedicated effort and ample investment, IoT and solar energy can amalgamate and resolve most of the issues. The key to success lies in the elimination of complex hardware integration, security concerns, and certification. Once you get rid of them, your business will seamlessly access operational data in your cloud infrastructure and integrate the same with your IT systems. Then, you should be able to extract, orchestrate, and act on the data gathered from your remotest assets securely.

The main benefit

The primary benefit of using IoT in solar energy is that you can see everything that is happening with all your assets from one central control panel. When you connect your devices to a cloud network, you can identify the point of origin of the problem and assign a technician to fix the problem before it starts disrupting the entire system. Without IoT, you won’t be able to determine whether it was a network-related or hardware-related issue. IoT bestows intelligence upon you that you need to recognize problems in real-time as soon as the error pops its head up.