French IoT firm Kerlink and Cloud Energy, a Vietnamese IoT start-up, are developing and deploying IoT services in rural areas around Ho Chi Minh City.

Expanding on their earlier collaboration on smart-building and energy-management projects in the city of nearly nine million people, the two companies recently developed and deployed a fully wireless LoRaWan to monitor and manage a 900kWp solar-power installation on a mushroom farm 80km from the city.

The installation of the wireless solar-power system was chosen by NG Investment for its stability of data reading, ability to connect to different inverter brands, and the cost savings on investment and maintenance.

The IoT upgrade included Kerlink’s long-range, low-power Wirnet iStation gateways and its Wanesy management centre to operate and manage the system, and Cloud Energy’s LoRaWan-based meter and devices for data management, optimised to meet the requirements of utility scaling. The system is expected to reduce the owners’ operation and maintenance costs by 30 per cent annually compared with the previous system. New installations are expected to shave 30 per cent off the cost of a new wired monitoring system.

“Wired monitoring systems are expensive to install and challenging and costly to maintain, because employees must be sent to the site for regular inspection and repair throughout the year,” said Tuan Anh Pham, founder of Cloud Energy. “A successful deployment of wireless solar-farm management can achieve faster return on investment compared to wired solutions using classic data loggers and non-real-time remote access.”

Integrating LoRaWan technology from Kerlink was a natural choice, said Tuan Anh Pham, as the firm previously gained expertise working with Kerlink in energy-metering projects in Vietnamese cities.

“Expanding our focus to potential IoT applications in remote areas allowed us to take advantage of Kerlink’s Wanesy management centre platform bundled with its secured LoRa network server,” said Tuan Anh Pham. “That ensures that our client’s system and data are monitored 24/7.”

Rene Arbefeuille, Kerlink’s vice president for Asia Pacific, added: “Smart farming is one of the internet of things’ most important vertical markets in south-east Asia, but it needs the breakthrough innovations that companies like Cloud Energy bring to new fields to reach its potential. Cloud Energy’s success in exceeding objectives set by end-users will pave the way for system integrators and financial institutions to invest in the expansion of smart-farming projects using private network infrastructure. Together, Kerlink and Cloud Energy are helping producers maximise specific and tailored farming production yields, demonstrating again how LoRaWan IoT networks are enabling new opportunities in the agriculture sector.”

More than 140,000 Kerlink installations have been rolled out with over 350 clients in 70 countries. Based in France, with subsidiaries in the USA, Singapore, India and Japan, Kerlink is a co-founder and board member of the LoRa Alliance.

Cloud Energy isa Vietnamese start-up using IoT for its markets in smart utilities management, smart buildings and smart cities. Located in Ho Chi Minh City, the company leveraged many years of innovation and development to become a growing IoT provider serving a range of customers, from large corporations to businesses of any size, as well as cities and other government organisations.

The start-up also provides wireless products, including wireless mobile routers and cloud management platforms, optimised to meet the requirements of utility scaling to provide solar monitoring for energy efficient installations.