Established at IIEST, Shibpur in 2014 by NIWE / MNRE under a national program

  • Standard measurement system of SRRA
    • Solar Radiation Measurements
    • Pyranometers: For the measurement of global radiation
    • Pyranometers With shading disc: for the measurement of diffuse radiation
    • Pyrheliometers: For the measurement of Direct solar radiation
    • Solar trackers: For tracking the sun
    Solar Tracker with pyranometer, pyrheliometer mounted
  • Meteorological measurements
    • Air Temperature sensor
    • Relative humidity sensor
    • Wind speed
    • Wind direction
    • Atmospheric pressure measurement sensor
    • Rainfall or precipitation sensor
    Relative humidity/ temperature probe
    Ultrasonic anemometer
    Tripping bucket rain gauge
  • Auxiliary equipment
    • Data Logger
    • GPS
    • GPRS
    • Weather shields for housing temperature and humidity sensors
    • Batteries
    • Solar panels(80 Wx2)
    • Power Meter
    • Sensor cleaning indicator switch

Advance measuring equipment of SRRA

Spectral sun Photometer or sky scanning radiometer: Scans whole sky and measures aerosol particle distribution which is useful for the study of aerosol concentration
Parameters measured:
Optical depth
Scattering coefficient
Aerosol distribution
Energy distribution

Albedometer: Measures the solar albedo ,or solar reflectance for surface characterization

Infrared radiometer: For measuring terrestrial radiation

Net radiometer: For measuring net radiation

Pyranometers:For measuring Global radiation on an inclined surface.

Visibility sensor: Monitors the changes in visibility due to rain, snow, fog, smoke and dust. Itcan provide visibility up to 16 kilometers.

Multi spectral sun photometer
Sky scanning Radiometers
UV Radiometer (UV-B (280 nm-320nm) UV-A (320 380 nm)
Infrared radiometer/ Pyrgeometers
Albedometer
Visibility sensor
OVERVIEW ON SOLAR RADIATION RESOURCE ASSESSMENT STATION
  • Solar resource assessment is the first objective to be covered, in order to determine, during a certain time, the site conditions regarding the available solar energy. So the system has been designed for allowing the measurement of all solar radiation parameters, such as global, direct and diffuse radiations, by means of highly sensitive pyranometers and pyrheliometers supported by very precise solar trackers. Once the solar plant is in operation, other three fundamental issues have to be considered
  • Real-time monitoring of all the main or critical plant parameters. This will provide the possibility of a quick identification of failed components or abnormal operation conditions of the plant.
  • An efficient remote alarm management procedure by means of the urgent transmission of SMS alert messages to cellular phones and emails to central computers, in order to minimize the trouble- shooting efforts and to prevent damages in key plant components.
  • Off-line analysis of the plant efficiency, in order to know the overall performance of the thermal or photovoltaic installation. These three issues will allow enlarging the operative life of the plant and, at the same time, to assure the maximum investment profitability.
The remote Acquisition and Transmission Unit Model 2000C/3000C Series (the heart of the Sun Power System) includes a GPRS cellular modem that allows the transmission of data, and also still images when connecting optional color webcams to the remote unit. Data and image transmission to the WEBTRANS Platform, is carried out in near-real-time, or at programmable intervals of 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. An advanced and useful graphical presentation of historical data is showed in the standard layout of the WEBTRANS Platform, but the portal can be also designed according to user's preferences.