Monitoring System Design of Tracking System on Solar Panel Following The Sun Rotation Based on Internet of Things

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
The sun is a source of energy for the lives of all living things on earth.This sunlight has an important role and benefits for human survival.Indonesia itself is a country that is passed by the equator which has a high solar intensity per year.In its use, solar energy which is very abundant is still little utilized.
Solar panels are one of the tools used in utilizing energy from the sun.where these solar panels function to convert energy from the sun into electrical energy.Solar panels are often also called photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic can be interpreted as "light-electricity".Solar panels will produce electrical energy according to the amount of light intensity it receives from sunlight.
The use of solar panels that already exist today is on average the installation of solar panels that are used is still static / fixed, causing the reception of energy from the sun to be less than optimal and the monitoring system process that is applied also cannot flexibly monitor the parameters that the solar panels want to measure remotely.
In order for the solar panels used to get energy from the sun maximally, the solar panels are made to move following the movement of the sun.And the monitoring process that will be applied is using Internet of Things (IoT) technology.This technology can monitor the parameters to be measured by the solar panel, where the parameters to be measured are voltage value, current value, power value, panel surface temperature value, temperature value around the solar panel, and solar irradiation value.

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous research
As for some previous studies or similar research that has existed before that became the material for the preparation of this thesis.
In research by I.M. Benny P.W. and friends explained the solar panel tracking system using an Arduino microcontroller, Servo Motor, and Real Time Clock (RTC).This research makes a tool whose task is to move solar panels following the sun's movement based on time, based on the Arduino ATMega 328 microcontroller.This tracking system functions to position the solar panel always perpendicular to the sun's rays for optimal absorption of sunlight.This solar panel tracking system uses a servo motor to move the solar panel, uses the RTC as a real timing input and gets a voltage supply from the battery to run the tracking system [1].
Research conducted by Ahmad Fauzan explains the solar tracking system using a Servo Motor, Atmega 16 Microcontroller, Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) light sensor.Where this research will design a microcontroller-based solar tracking microcontroller-based solar tracking system with the addition of calculating the sun's declination angle to obtain maximum results [2].
Research conducted by Agus Priyono describes a solar panel drive tool that follows the direction of the sun using the Bascom Program.BASCOM AVR is one of the tools for developing/creating programs to be embedded and run on microcontrollers, especially AVR family microcontrollers.BASCOM AVR can also be referred to as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), namely an integrated work environment, because in addition to its main task of compiling program code into hex files / machine language, BASCOM AVR also has other capabilities / features that are very useful such as monitoring serial communication and for embedding programs that have been compiled into microcontrollers with components namely AVR Atmega 16 Microcontroller, DC Motor, and LCD [3].
Jhefri Asmi and Oriza Candra conducted research on solar tracker based on Arduino Nano microcontroller with Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) sensor.This research makes a two-axis solar tracker prototype based on the Arduino Nano microcontroller.Researchers use Arduino Nano because it has several advantages compared to other technologies, one of which is that the programming language used is the C language which is easier to understand and understand when compared to assembler language programming.This research also uses an LDR sensor as a sunlight tracker which will make the solar panel automatically follow the direction of movement of sunlight [4].
In the research conducted by Septa Anglista, the main control used is Arduino Uno which gets input from sensors, LDR sensors used to detect sunlight, then for the output uses two servo motors to move the solar panel to follow the movement of sunlight constantly [5].
From some of the above research that has been done, currently there are still not many studies that discuss the design of a tracking system on solar panels against IoT-based solar rotation.Some research has been done mostly using Arduino Uno as the microcontroller, while in the research that will be done by the author using the microcontroller is NodeMCU ESP32 and IoT-based for the monitoring system to be carried out.

Solar Panel
A solar panel is a device that consists of an array of solar cells.Solar cells are made of semiconductor materials that can release electrons.As long as light shines on the semiconductor material, the solar cell will produce electrical energy, and when the light stops shining, the solar cell stops producing electricity [6]- [7].

Solar Panel Working Principle
The working principle of solar panels is to change or convert light from the sun, which occurs when sunlight hits the surface of solar cells called photoelectric.This photoelectric process occurs because the materials that make up solar cells are semiconductors consisting of two types of semiconductors, namely the negative type layer (n) and the positive type layer (p) which are excited and cause electricity due to photons contained in solar energy on the surface of solar cells [8].

Tracking System
Tracking according to the English -Indonesian dictionary has the meaning of following the road, or in its free meaning is an activity to follow the trail of an object.The definition of tracking in this case is an activity to move the existence based on the position obtained from tracking equipment.The type of solar tracker used is Vertical Axis The rotation axis for the vertical axle tracker is made perpendicular to the ground.This tracker moves from East to West for a day [9].

Monitoring System
Monitoring is defined as a cycle of activities that includes collecting, reviewing, reporting, and acting on information about a process that is being implemented.Monitoring can provide information on the continuity of the process to determine steps towards continuous improvement.In practice, monitoring is carried out while a process is in progress [10].

Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a chip or IC (integrated circuit) that can be programmed using a computer.The purpose of giving a program to a microcontroller is so that the electronic circuit can read input, process input and then produce the desired output.The microcontroller serves as the brain that controls the input, process and output of an electronic circuit [11].

NodeMCU ESP32
NodeMCU is an electronic board based on eLua Firmware and System on a Chip (SoC) ESP32.NodeMCU ESP32 has the ability to perform microcontroller functions well.In this microcontroller, there is already Bluetooth and also an internet connection (WiFi) in it so that it is very supportive to create an IoT application system that requires a wireless connection.NodeMCU ESP32 also has several I/O pins so that it can be developed into a monitoring or controlling application for IoT projects [12].

Blynk Application
Blynk application is one of the applications used for various projects on IoT.This Blynk application is an iOS and Android application that functions to control Arduino, NodeMCU, Raspberry Pi and the like through this application can also be used to control hardware devices, display sensor data, store data, visualization, and various other features [13]- [15].

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Place and time of research
The research conducted will be carried out at the Basic Electrotechnics Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, Tanjungpura University, Pontianak, West Kalimantan.The location of this research was carried out in one of the laboratories in the Faculty of Engineering majoring in Electrical Engineering.This research was conducted from September 2022 to June 2023 starting from determining data variables, designing tool design systems, making tools, testing tools, collecting data, analyzing data to completing journal writing.

Tool Design and Programming
The design and programming of the tool is to design and make tools that will be used in research and program the tool so that it is in accordance with the research conducted, namely in this study it can perform automatic tracking on solar panels and monitoring data in the form of data obtained by solar panels.

Tool Testing
Tool testing is testing the tools that have been designed.If the designed tool does not run well, the tool will be assembled and reprogrammed to get results that are in accordance with the objectives of this study.

Data Collection
Data collection is taking data on solar panels so that it can be analyzed then the data obtained will be analyzed and then make conclusions drawn from the results of the research that has been done.

Hardware Design
The following is an overview of the tool design that will be made.In the design of the tool there are several components used such as the INA219 Sensor which is used to take data on voltage and current and power on solar panels.DHT22 sensor is used to take temperature data on the surface of solar panels.DS18B20 sensor is used to take temperature data around solar panels.Ambient Light Sensor is used to collect data from solar panel solar irradiation.NodeMCU ESP32 will take the sensor data and send it to the Blynk application.

Software Design
The software design carried out in this study is to declare all the variables that will be used.Then read the values of voltage, current, power, panel surface temperature, ambient temperature and solar irradiation, then the reading results of the sensors will be processed by the NodeMCU ESP32 microcontroller.The data that has entered the microcontroller will be displayed to the Blynk application using the internet network and will also be displayed on the LCD.
The next software design is the UI (User Interface) design in the Blynk application on a smartphone.The purpose of making the UI display on the Blynk application is to create interaction between the user and the system application in monitoring the designed hardware or device.In its creation there are a total of 10 monitoring items, namely there are 4 static solar panel monitoring items, 4 dynamic solar panel monitoring items and 2 monitoring items of ambient temperature and solar irradiation.

Results Analysis
The analysis was carried out quantitatively, which is a method of processing data with a static approach.The test result data is in the form of numbers in certain units displayed in the form of tables and graphs.Analysis can be done by examining symptoms and behavior during testing.

Error
Testing the deviation value is carried out to determine the results of testing the sensor magnitude with other similar measuring instruments. (2)

Average Value
The number of data values taken is then divided by the frequency of data collection.Taking the average value is done to find out how much the tendency of the value of a variable is centered on a certain value.

RMSE (Root Mean Square Error)
To evaluate the measurement data obtained accurately is to find the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value which is the magnitude of the prediction error rate, where the smaller (closer to 0) the RMSE value, the more accurate the prediction results will be.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Testing is carried out to determine the overall performance of the tool in order to get the appropriate design results.The testing process involves various additional equipment in the form of measuring instruments such as Solar Power Meters, Digital Clamp Multimeters, Humidity / Temp.Meter, and Thermometer gun to collect data on the measured variables.The test data in Table 2 is the current value test.The average value of the percentage error obtained in the dynamic solar panel current test is 2.97% and the RMSE value is 0.02.The average value of the percentage error obtained in testing the static solar panel current is 5.05% and the RMSE value is 0.04.
In Table .3,the power value test.The average value of the percentage error in dynamic solar panel power testing is 5.90% and the RMSE value is 0.54.The average value of the percentage error in static solar panel power testing is 7.18% and the RMSE value is 0.56.

Testing Temperature Variables Around Solar Panels Using DS18B20 Sensor
This variable test is carried out to measure how much accuracy the test results obtained by the DS18B20 and Humidity / Temp.Meter sensors.The test variable to be tested is the reading of the temperature value around the solar panel by the DS18B20 sensor.The variable values that have been obtained by the DS18B20 sensor and the Humidity/Temp.Meter measuring instrument when testing on dynamic solar panels and on static solar panels are carried out to calculate how much the error value, percentage error and RMSE value obtained on the tool that has been designed.The test results of the temperature value around the solar panel are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Temperature testing around the solar panel Based on the test results data in Table 6.namely testing the value of solar irradiation carried out.The average value of the percentage error obtained in testing the solar irradiation of dynamic solar panels and static solar panels is 24.62% and the RMSE value is 348.08.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of testing and analysis carried out, several things can be concluded that the design of a monitoring system for tracking systems on solar panels following solar rotation based on IoT in real time can work and be carried out properly, which can monitor data from both solar panels, namely data on voltage, current, power, surface temperature of solar panels, temperature around solar panels and solar irradiation.The power value obtained by dynamic solar panels that have been designed with tracking can still absorb power above 12:30 WIB while the power generated by static solar panels or without tracking above 12:30 has decreased, this is because solar panels with tracking still get more energy from the sun than solar panels without tracking.
The average percentage of error value obtained by the INA219 Sensor, DS18B20 Sensor and DHT22 Sensor is below 10% while on the Ambient Light Sensor the average percentage of error obtained is above 10%, where if the percentage error value is below 10% the sensor value is close to the measuring instrument value if the percentage error value is above 10% the sensor value is far from the measuring instrument or less accurate.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. User interface of the Blynk application 3.6 Results Analysis

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Physical form of static solar panel (left) dynamic solar panel (right) Percentage ErrorPercentage error is a value in percent that shows how close the test results are to the reference values used.

Table 2 .
Current Testing

Table 3 .
Power TestingBased on the test result data in Table1, namely the voltage value test that has been carried out.The average percentage error value obtained in dynamic solar panel voltage testing is 3.94% and the RMSE value is 0.60.The average value of the percentage error obtained in static solar panel voltage testing is 4.24% and the RMSE value is 0.61.