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How Solar Finland let its customers monitor their solar panels and detect possible problems in advance
A patent-based solar panel monitoring system that detects problems caused by severe weather and other environmental factors early, so that they can be prepared for in advance.
Solar Finland
Customer context
Solar site owners lose yield when single panels underperform unnoticed. The need: see every panel, not only the inverter.
SADE Innovations implemented Solar Finland’s patent-based solar panel monitoring system, which enables early detection of possible problems caused by severe weather conditions and other environmental factors, as well as preparing for such challenges in advance.
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What the solution gives each group
Site owners
Energy yield protected: underperforming panels found instead of hidden in site totals.
Maintenance teams
Electrical and mechanical issues located per panel, with fewer site visits.
Operators
Site status and alarms remotely, with inverter cloud data in the same views.
Solution provider
A sensor network, gateway and cloud that scale from one site to many.
- Booster Cloud
- Wireless panel sensors
- Cellular gateway
- Admin web UI (control room software)
The full storyThe challenge · The SADE approach · Technology · Business outcome
The challenge
In modern energy production, the operative systems have to be actively monitored and regulated to keep the output optimal and the reliability at its maximum at all times. A solar power plant is exposed to severe weather and other environmental factors, and one underperforming panel is easily hidden in the totals of the site. Solar Finland wanted to see every panel, not only the inverter, and to detect problems before they grow.
Why the obvious solution was not enough
Inverter data shows the totals of a site, not the single panel. Panel-level monitoring needs sensors on the panels, a gateway at each site, secure connections and a cloud that scales from one site to many, with the inverter data from the manufacturer’s cloud in the same views.
The SADE approach
Using its SADE IoT Booster technology, SADE Innovations implemented the panel sensors, the gateway device, secure cloud connections, AWS-based serverless cloud services and the control room software for Solar Finland’s patent-based monitoring system.
Technology and delivery
- Wireless sensors on the solar panels
- Gateway device with a cellular connection, one per site
- Secure cloud connections
- AWS-based serverless cloud services on the SADE Booster IoT Asset
- Control room software: an admin web UI with the site map, site status and the panel data history
- Inverter data from the manufacturer’s cloud in the same views
Business outcome
- Possible problems caused by severe weather and other environmental factors are detected early, and the owner can prepare for them in advance
- Underperforming panels are found instead of hidden in the site totals
- The system was tested in a wide variety of conditions during the winter and spring, and it works great
- Cost reduction: minimal changes / maintenance after installation: everything has worked completely reliably from freezing winter to superhot summer
What happens next
Cooperation with Solar Finland continues.
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