Low cost management for photovoltaic systems in isolated site with new IV characterization model proposed

The control and the follow-up of the operational photovoltaic (PV) systems in isolated sites allow the mystery of this type of installation. In this context, we set up an experimental manipulation based on microcontroller in order to acquire the data issued from a PV installation in isolated site. Then transmit these data by using high frequency (HF) wireless connection to a central computer which manipulates the information. This work presents the design of a universal data acquisition system with available components and is easily accessible with a central server. The contribution of this work is to control the functioning of PV system and also to give the current-voltage (I-V) curve of PV modules in real conditions. The transmission of the data by using HF connection, reduce considerably the cost of the system management. This work allows us to study the performances of the PV system in real time. Also, we present in this article a new model for IV characterization as well as the system realized and the obtained results. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.