OL SVR based soft sensor for real time estimation of solar irradiance
An accurate measurement of the solar irradiance is of importance for evaluating and developing of solar renewable energy systems. However, devices for solar irradiance sensing (e.g. pyranometers and pyrheliometers) are usually expensive and difficult to calibrate. In this paper, a low cost soft sensor, implemented with a solar cell, is proposed for real time estimation of solar irradiance. It applies On Line Support Vector Regression (OL SVR) soft model to represent the knowledge of the measuring system that is exploited to improve the quality of measurements. The Approximation Parameter Dependence (APD) condition is used to select new samples to reconstruct the model, maintaining the prediction accuracy even when the electrical characteristics of the solar cell vary with irradiance, temperature and age. The proposed approach is validated through simulations and experimental prototyping using real outdoor measurements.
2016 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Circuits and Systems (APCCAS)