Internet of Things (IoT)-Enabled Solar Micro Inverter using Blockchain Technology

Performance of the conventional photovoltaic (PV) systems is limited by the on-board embedded systems in the solar inverters. Moreover, an expensive supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system or phase management units (PMUs) are still required for intelligent maintenance of the PV systems. It is expected that the conventional solar micro inverters can be advanced as a result of further investigation of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and cloud/edge computing services. This paper proposes an internet of things (IoT)-enabled solar inverter using blockchain technology, which improving connectivity, observability, cyber security, and decentralized control toward a smarter PV system in smart grid environments. The IoT device incorporating blockchain technology enables the solar micro inverter to securely: 1) aggregate and send data to a main server for PV system health monitoring; 2) sharing data with other devices for decentralized optimal controls; and 3) execute PV inverter-level energy transaction and record. The concept of the proposed IoT-enabled solar micro inverter is validated by experimental studies.