Energy-neutral weather stations for precision agriculture: challenges and approaches

The demand for modular, robust, and uninterrupted weather stations has increased as climate change is strongly affecting agriculture. Internet of Things (IoT) based weather stations is a promising solution to achieve uninterrupted operation of the weather station which is affected by constrained energy availability. This research provides ideas to overcome the energy challenge of a weather station and also the insights to develop an energy-neutral weather station. The primary requirements of a weather station for precision agriculture are explored and each component level challenges are presented. A novel development life cycle of an IoT based energy-neutral weather station is also presented for the developers. Finally, the best practices for developing an energy-autonomous weather station are presented.