Open Source Development and Solar PV

jwrgorman
jwrgorman Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭✭
I just wanted to say hello and post an update about a solar software project underway that I’m involved with. The same way the linux community created drivers for a huge number of pieces of computer hardware, we think there’s the same potential in renewable energy gear. We have developed an open-source framework called SolarNetwork that uses Java (OpenJDK), booting off Debian or BSD that acquires data from a variety of solar gear - usually talking serial protocols, but sometimes over WiFi - and visualizes that on the web with HTML5. again - not rocket science, but I have to say, it’s getting pretty cool! If anyone is interested in working on such a topic, and pushing renewable energy management ahead, there are some interface implementations to be done. If you’re familiar with Java and OSGi, please let me know or do check out:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/solarnetwork/

https://github.com/SolarNetwork

http://www.solarnetwork.net/developmentGuides.php
John Gorman / SolarNetwork Foundation
e:john@solarnetwork.net

Comments

  • KenZ71
    KenZ71 Solar Expert Posts: 58 ✭✭
    Re: Open Source Development and Solar PV

    Hate to sound like a buzz kill but check out http://www.networkupstools.org most of what you are looking for might be already done.

    Although there is a lot of satisfaction gained from building your own.
  • pechan
    pechan Solar Expert Posts: 92 ✭✭
    Re: Open Source Development and Solar PV

    If you added support for Outback Inverters and Midnite Charge controllers you might gain some more interest from this forum!
  • jwrgorman
    jwrgorman Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭✭
    It has been a while since I have been back so apologies for not replying. the networkupstools.org site looks very interesting and possibly has some good target hardware to review, I think I could learn a lot. We are focused on a Java OSGi implementation, that allows for "plugins" to be developed talking to lots of different devices, like the "drivers" on networkupstools.org.  Our data acquisition client is one part of the solution but we also have a server repository that holds the information, creates aggregates and exposes a RESTful API to other clients that people may want to build. One of these under development is called SolarQuant which is using a neural network engine to find correlations between the time-series that a device may output and the weather. this might be interesting for people monitoring batteries with networkupstools.org as it leads to energy forecasts and hopefully storage forcasts as well.

    We do support Outback at the moment using the MATE2 serial port, but have not started on Midnite Solar - but we'd love to take a look at the data interface for these charge controllers, they look very cool.
    John Gorman / SolarNetwork Foundation
    e:john@solarnetwork.net