El.Ma. has realized a control system of an innovative PV plant of about 12 kWp called Sound Solar Panel (SSP).

It is an evolution of, on one hand, the already existent acoustic PV panels for antinoise barriers and, on the other hand, a further evolution of use of antinoise barriers as supporting structures for PV panels.

Indeed, the solar panels are moulded so that they present a solar exposure with optimal inclination to sun rays, and intercept the sound waves with perpendicular gradient, i.e. with the maximum energy content.

The SSP plant has been designed and realized by Iris srl, that owns the patent, and has been installed, for experimental/demonstrative aims, into a district of the Province of Trento named Borgo Valsugana.

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The monitoring system has the function to obtain the necessary parameters through the integration of appropriate sensors and machines for datalogging, and for both the data elaboration and controlled distribution through an internet connection.

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The testing is carried out by obtaining and correlating the PV production data (voltage and current DC-AC of every single string, instantaneous power, stored energy, etc.), the phonometric values inside and outside the barrier (acoustic level in dBA, frequency band between 0 and 20 kHz); the data related to the running traffic (vehicle type, speed, etc.), the images of the cameras placed in different points of the considered area, and the environmental parameters (temperature, atmospheric pressure, rain, wind, weather forecast).

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Thanks to a Windows industrial PC, the images and the data are sampled, processed (instruments communicate with different protocols - RS232, RS485 Modbus, Ethernet - so an application has been developed in order to standardize the output), saved and showed locally on a display.

As far as the remote control is concerned, an industrial Linux PC has been installed with the following functions: as a Web server for the real-time data reading (both current and past data) through a browser, as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) server for the access to the local network through a tunnel cryptographied at 128 bits, and as a firewall in order to avoid a non-authorized access.

Moreover, a wi-fi bridge has been installed for the internet connection on wideband ADSL.

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