Hi all,
Thanks Corather and Mazzaneo for mentions.
A short update on my project called the #solarcoinalphaproject. I promised that the first version would be out by late October so I thought I had better inform about the schedules. I am running behind schedule.
The goal of the project is more of a running proof of concept to show that an encrypted signal can be sent from a stand-alone PV system's API to any required receivers to accurately and securely prove the number of solarcoin's being generated by the system during daylight hours of operation.
0) Design completed. Electrical design and then some tests of the gateway and its communication to the software teams API. Completed. I had some initial road blocks here.
1) Components procured and delivered. So far it also includes a global pyranometer enabling the system to have a prediction mechanism inbuilt based on historical weather data for the location.
2) Weather proofing tested for battery box.
3) Power system DC Wiring half completed.
4) Meeting with software team completed. Understand tasks.
Remaining:
5) Communication box wiring
6) Dry test and link to API.
7) Stability and running for 1-2 weeks.
Writing the white paper (in parallel) to explain the prediction technology, the link to the API and possible further work ( I hope others can pick up from where I stop) i.e. secure blockchain calls and receives because my area of expertise is solar yield prediction technology, solar PV systems and PV monitoring systems, not networking security.
Please note, the system is only a proof of concept intended to show what could be done theoretically. It would not interfere with anything.
Thank you,
-lfloorwalker
Hi All,
I'd like to introduce myself here as a "oldtimer" of the solar industry, as I've been into solar since the mid-late 2000's and installed mostly household rooftop applications (in the hundreds) and studied PV Farms to the bone. So my background would rather more be into the hardware rather than the software side of things, sorry for that. Congrats to those who braught solarcoin already so far, its now time for people like me to put some steam into the solarcoin and create some buzz. I'd like to join in and bring some advice to push the currency further into its development.
First of all, thanks to Mazzaneo, as I've been discussing much with him about solarcoin (I'm one of those 8 investors) and wouldn't be here without him. Having read the brilliant DeKo paper, it seems to me that this cryptocurrency, in sharp contrast with many others, actually makes a lot of sense (and good). So in a word, I believe a lot in this cryptocurrency and the work accomplished to date is impressive.
My concern is Value. Indeed, in order to pickup and move (fast) forward, the solarcoin currency needs to prove that it creates value. You can argue to the fact that whereas fiat ccy is backed by gold on (at best) a 5 to 1 par (ie there is only 1USD of real gold value per 5USD of papermoney circulating out there), solarcoin actually is closer to a real, proven and quantifiable 1 to 1 ratio (ie. 1MWh of
tangible solar electricity = 1SLR), so in essence, solarcoin is more trustable than gold. But my concern is the
tangible. Indeed, in order to take off, this currency needs more than developers and investors. My concern stems to the fact that, in order to bring attraction to the currency, buzz has to be created ; people have to be enticed to either invest (with a forward thinking) into solarcoin (although there is a limit to that, if it is not to create a bubble) and/or list their solar farm or solar rooftop application through the Solarcoin Generator Registration Program. So in order to take off, solarcoin now needs
hardware : actual pv fields or solar rooftops. Only then will it be proven that value is created.
PV owners should simply register then!
The thing is : it's too complicated.
Most of the folk I know from my generation will be very dubious about cryptocurrencies in general, so why would they actually upload information of their solar rooftop application (remember that they need a solarcoin wallet to do this!), let alone invest in the ccy itself...!
Alas, if we don't have any registered solar farm or household PV applications, then widespread adoption of the currency will not follow (there currently is "only" 50.000 coins out there which have been registered through the SolarCoin Generator Registration Program). So we need an answer to this dilemma.
To my mind, what you are doing, Ifloorwalker is just that! By reviewing this Datalogger concept, you are creating a tool to help register these solar applications and create value.
So what is a datalogger ? Lets get to the basics :
An array of solar panels is connected to a/several inverter(s). Light (photons) activate solar cells of the solar panel which, in short, produce electricity in the form of DC current. The inverter converts DC into AC current and then, passed a couple of transformers, you feed this electricity into the grid. I'm sure by now everybody knows this.
The inverter may be equipped (at the request of client, financing party/Bank) with a transmitter/controller/datalogger in order to monitor the amount of solar energy produced (kWh) and fed into the grid. This datalogger is attached directly to the inverter via an RS-485 (or other) cable. Usually, each inverter producer markets its own datalogger. They can be cabled (ethernet), wireless (wifi) or even remote-controled (with a mobilephone chip sim card that will transmit the information on a daily/hourly basis to a Control Unit (usually at the headquarters of an Installer or an inverter manufacturer who supplies some extendible guarantee on the equipment)).
I will kindly refer you here to some types of monitoring devices/datalogger used widespread in the market : SMA's (inverter manufacturer) inverters are plugged to a datalogger (the sunny webbox) which will display indoors (on a small screen called the "sunnybeam") or directly onto your computer screen (via the "sunny portal"). Checkout :
http://www.sma.de/en/products/monitoring-control.htmlThe datalogger I personaly like to work with is that of solarlog because you may use it with
any type of inverter, regardless of the brand. See
http://www.solar-log.com/en/home.htmlThe information sent to client might also be in an excel file or coded to UTF-8 (I personally don't know what that looks like) or some other code and might display info such as : ID - Name of installation, Monthly Energy [kWh] produced in May, Monthly Energy [kWh/kWp] for May, Yearly Energy produced to date [kWh] 2014, Yearly Energy [kWh/kWp] 2014.
In essence, such production information exists and may be used. Indeed, a datalogger is quite cheap (400-500usd max!) and rather than developing a brand new datalogger I'd recommend checking these out first (see above) to see if we couldn't actually use these.
What would we use these dataloggers for ?
I believe that with the information retrieved from each datalogger, we could ask any PV houselhold owner to simply have this information sent to us (ie : "us", being the solarcoin foundation) and we in turn, would manage the solarcoins for the client.
All a PV owner would have to do is register his solar PV info into the registration program, and let his datalogger send us his production info so that we know exactly when his solar installation has achieved 1MWh, at which point we would credit his wallet. The solarcoin foundation would manage his solarcoins until the day when this PV owner actually wants to redeem his coins (by which time, I'm sure he will have figured out how to manage a cryptocurrency wallet).
Now, I'm sure, there's a bigload of coding in order to setup such an interface between the datalogger and the plateform/interent site in order to retrieve this information (especially that each datalogger might have its own coding!), but I believe whomever does come with such an interface will make it (very) easy for Mr. Anybody to register his solar application through the SolarCoin Generator Registration Program.
Looking forward to meeting you all and the development team,
sunnyboy
