Evaluation of a low-cost, solar-powered weather station for small-scale wind farm site selection

Abstract

This work presents the development of a low-cost weather station capable of measuring meteorological data including air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. A LiPo battery and four solar panels were used to power up the complete system. The weather station communicates through Wi-Fi connection allowing the user to access the data remotely. An external Raspberry-Pi was implemented to create a local MySQL database to extract the data collected and a phpMyAdmin administrator page was used to access the database. The weather station was mounted on an adjustable tripod base with a telescoping arm which can raise the weather station sensors up to 3 meters (m) and provides structural support capable of withstanding winds of up to 28.822 m/s (60 miles per hour (mph)). Final implementation of both structural and electrical assemblies is presented in detail. Data gathered from the weather station was compared to a professional-grade weather station located at the same site. Results show that the low-cost weather station is a feasible option to use for site assessment purposes at a comfortable cost.