A remotely accessible photovoltaic system as didactic laboratory for electrical engineering courses

With the involvement of graduating engineering students, a remotely accessible solar energy laboratory has been developed, in order to simulate a small photovoltaic system. The laboratory includes two photovoltaic cells, a charge controller, batteries and a dummy load. A Raspberry PI microcontroller enables to control the different inputs, measures the voltages and the currents in the circuit and provides a remote access through the web. The lab intends to be a prototype of remote lab for the University, in terms of realization costs, communication protocols and software interface. It will be used by graduate students in the Electrical Engineering courses, enabling them to perform some experiments at distance.