Optimal design of Photovoltaic systems for Wireless Sensor Networks

The development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has recently become an area of great interest to researchers and industry. WSNs offer the promise of monitoring, data collection, and control of systems with unprecedented scale and spatial granularity. On this regard, the study of a reliable and low cost energy supply for WSNs remains an open challenge. Of course, the correct sizing of a supply system depends on many factors; in particular, as far as wireless node load demand is concerned, it varies mainly with some load characteristics, such as: transmission technology and type and number of sensors. The main goal of this paper is to study how load characteristics impact the optimal sizing of supply system made of a stand alone photovoltaic system. Optimal design consists of determining the appropriate characteristics of photovoltaic cells, batteries as well as BoS (balance of system) so as to find the counterbalance between the energy availability and total cost of the whole system. Other issues such as the size and weight of the components have been also considered. Finally a case study related to the consumptions of a wireless sensor networks for climatic monitoring prototype will be presented.