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Powering Remote Monitoring in Winnipeg
Powering Remote Monitoring in Winnipeg
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
We discovered on LinkedIn that Stern Power Solar Systems recently kicked off an interesting project including a Magellan MX501™ weather station from Columbia Weather Systems.
Uwe Schaible, Stern’s co-founder and CTO, told us a bit more about it:
The project
We are doing a one-year trial with the DFO (Canadian Department of Fisheries and Ocean) where they are testing the different configurations of our product line. The Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg is our testing partner for the power poles under the Innovative Solutions Canada program.*
The intent is to supply continuous power for remote monitoring and surveillance in unserviced locations, which is of particular interest to the DFO.
The installation
This is the 2-module PRO750W Stern Power Pole equipped with two 60W lamps for area illumination, four of our newly developed PolarCharge 25.6V, 120AH Lithium Metal solid-state batteries, a weather station, and a Starlink.
The purpose of this installation is to demonstrate the ability to continuously power monitoring equipment (in this case a weather station) and transmit the data to the cloud using a satellite ISP.
This system is currently fully operational.
What we're doing with the met data
We use it to measure test site climatic conditions, specifically solar irradiance, during testing. We are using the solar irradiance measurements from the sensor to baseline our test results on-site, otherwise we would have to rely on third-party historical data.
Why we chose Columbia Weather Systems
We picked the CWS product because of the form factor, power draw, and the company’s North American origin.
The Challenge of Remote Sites
Remote and unserviced sites can be notoriously difficult to monitor, without power infrastructure nearby. Running equipment continuously and extracting data is a real challenge, exactly the kind of problem the DFO is interested in solving.
The Weather Station
The Magellan MX501™ weather station features no moving parts and low power consumption, which makes it a natural fit for a remotely-monitored, solar-powered installation like this one. It measures wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation in a single sensor head, with a built-in compass and GPS for auto-aligned wind readings, useful in a setup like this where the station may not be in a fixed, pre-surveyed location.
Monitoring the Data
Stern’s weather monitoring system utilizes a CWS Weather MicroServer, which uploads readings to the Cloud Weather Server over a secure connection every five seconds, giving the team real-time access to conditions at the site from anywhere with an internet connection. They are also beta-testing CWS’s new cloud storage feature to store data for archive and analysis. (This feature will be available soon as a subscription upgrade to all Weather MicroServer customers.)
That real-time data access and archiving depends on connectivity in the first place. Starlink provides the satellite internet connection that makes this possible, since the site has no cellular or wired internet access.
About Stern Power
Stern Power designs solar-powered lighting and power solutions for off-grid and remote locations, including roadways, parking lots, security perimeters, and sites where running power lines isn’t practical or the grid is unreliable. Their power poles pair vertical solar panels with heated lithium-battery storage, built to keep running through extended cloudy stretches and cold climates.
*The Testing Stream of Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) – formerly known as the Build in Canada Innovation Program – is a buy-it-and-try-it program for late-stage, pre-commercial innovative technology developed by small and medium Canadian businesses. ISC helps Canadian visionaries bring their innovative goods and services to market by making the Government of Canada their first customer.
“We picked the CWS product because of the form factor, power draw, and the company’s North American origin.”
A Magellan MX501™ mounted on a Stern Power Pole
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