Design of Weather Monitoring System for Intermittent Power Generation using Blynk Platform

Abstract

The location of Indonesia, which is at the equator, theoretically has the advantage of having sizeable average solar and wind energy potential. This condition is feasible to be used as a source of solar and wind hybrid energy. The advantage of a hybrid system is that when solar and wind production are used together, the system's reliability increases. However, the solar-wind power plant has lacks, especially in output efficiency, which is relatively low because it depends on weather conditions. Weather station technology can be used to complete infographics about energy absorption for intermittent power generators such as solar and wind. The weather station will later become a parameter for the intermittent power generator activation to weather and climate conditions. In this research, it is proposed to design an weather monitoring station using ESP8266 as a microcontroller, DHT11 as a temperature and humidity sensor, BH1750 as a light intensity sensor, an anemometer as a wind speed sensor, liquid crystal display (LCD) and blynk as an interface for users. After testing, it was found that the average error of temperature reading by DHT11 is 1.52%, the average error of wind speed reading by the anemometer is 0.65%, and the average error of light intensity reading by BH1750 was 2.48%. Testing the monitoring results when compared between LCD and blynk is also appropriate. Based on the test results, the design of weather monitoring station is acceptable and feasible for monitoring weather for intermittent power generators.