Real time simulation and remote observation for renewable energy systems

Due to rapid depletion of fossil based energy sources, efficient and effective use of energy has become tremendously important in recent years. On the other hand, there has been a continous increase in the demand for energy. As a result, a strong interest has arosen towards the renewable energy sources.Developed countries have been carrying out several research projects in the area of energy production from natural resources through photovoltaic panels and fuel cells. Especially Germany and Japan have been very active in energy production from wind, solar and other alternative energy sources. They also have strong state incentives to spread the use of these sources. There is similar work in Turkey too, but due to high capital investment costs the developments are slow and insufficient.In this thesis, a system that can be used in renewable energy systems to measure and observe certain parameters is investigated. The project has been implemented in the clean energy caravan of Gazi University Research and Application Center. A system which enables the measurement of several variables such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, in the solar ? hydrogen cycle that is set-up in the caravan, and observation of these parameters through a computer interface in the internet media has been established. The system also registers the data and can present them in graphical form if needed. Certain points of the energys system can be activated or deactivated by control relays through the computer interface.Real time digital simulation technique which has been receiving attention recently has also been used in this thesis to simulate a simple solar energy system to model it and investigate the maximum power point operation.