Into the Future with Solar Income (Go Solar = Go Green)

ABSTRACT Whenever we try to have a glimpse of the future regarding our energy requirements the first thing that comes to our mind is the energy crisis we will going to face related to non-renewable sources of energy. The second thing must be a solution then try to make use of renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal, etc. The problem in this solution is that it is easier said than done. Out of these only one is available everywhere on earth and is very promising the solar energy. It is a clean and silent source of energy, eco-friendly, low maintenance is required and once installed is long lasting. This is the reason why our team has a vision that our university must be made capable of producing electricity using solar energy. Keeping this vision of ours in mind we have made great efforts in collecting data related to the present consumption of energy throughout the university and the cost we are paying for it. Then we have collected data related to the rooftop areas which can be used for the installation of solar panels and we have sent our team to make visits to places like .which are a successful running example of an installed solar power plant.

INTRODUCTION The sun sends more energy to the earth in one hour than the whole planet needs in a year. Facts like these only motivate our team more and more towards our goal. We want to capture this energy directly and convert it to a form that could power our hostels, study centres, homes, and cars! One way is to use solar thermal panels to collect thermal energy to heat air and water. Another way is to use photovoltaic (PV) cells, also called solar cells, to convert sunlight directly into electricity ("photovoltaic" essentially means "light electricity").

Figure 1: Working of a Photovoltaic cell

PV cells use a material such as silicon to absorb energy from sunlight. This energy causes some electrons to break free from the silicon atoms in the cell. Because of how the solar cell is made, these free electrons move to one side of the cell, creating a negative charge and leaving a positive charge on the other side. When the cell is hooked up in a circuit with wires, the electrons will flow through the wires from the negative side to the positive side, just like a battery and this electron flow is electricity, and it will power a load ( e.g. light bulb, motor, etc.) you connect to its path. PV cells today are still only able to capture a small fraction of the sun's energy. A lot more scientific work needs to be done to make them more efficient and take up less space. Despite the challenges, solar panels are used to power many things such as emergency signs, school crossing lights, and more. Many people are also able to power their homes by mounting solar panels on the roof, and this will only get easier as the technology continues to advance. An individual silicon solar cell is quite small, typically about 6 inches square producing only about 1 or 2 watts of power. To boost the total power output from solar cells they are connected together to form larger units called solar panels. These modules are usually encased in glass or plastic to provide protection from weather. Solar panels can be connected to form solar arrays. In this way solar systems can be built to meet almost any electric power requirement, small or large. Reliability of solar panels is an important factor in the cost of these systems and in consumers accepting this technology. [fig 2:photo of a solar panel from shivalik school]

The electricity produced by solar cells is direct current(D.C) but nearly all the home appliances work on alternating current. Therefore solar panels will be connected to an inverter which converts DC to AC. Inverters also synchronise the solar current and voltage to match that of the grid the solar system is attached to. { Fig 3:circuit diagram of the inverter which we will be going to design}

CASE STUDY: By having a vigorous discussion with some professionals in this field of installing solar plants and some surfing through the net, we came to know that: AREA REQUIRED FOR 1kW PRODUCTION - 200 sq ft, south facing, shadow free, flat surface 1 KW PRODUCES - 4.5 Units electricity daily (assuming 6 hrs of sunshine) COST WITH BATTERY BACKUP FOR 1kW - Rs 1.45 lac MNRE SUBSIDY ON THIS PRICE - 30% AVAILABLE SUNNY DAYS in our town - 235 days 1kWh means 1 unit of electricity 1 unit can run 1 ton ac for 1 hour 1 unit can run 1 fan and 1 tube light for 12 hours(40 W each) 2 units can run computer lab(20 computers) for 1 hour 1 unit can run a tubewell(100 W) for 10 hours

For the installation of solar panels on the roof of every hostel and other buildings of the university, we required to compute and note down the total available area of the roof. Once the roof top areas of every hostel is computed we can then estimate to a good accuracy of how much energy can be produced by each installation. For Hostel A data collected is Shown in the table below: No. of rooms with 1 student 244 No. of rooms with 2 students 4 Total rooms 248 Total students 252 Appliances in a room 1 tube light, 1 bulb, 1 CFL Table 1: General Information about Hostel A

Month Units Consumed

Jan-12

Feb-12

Mar-12 26000

Apr-12 31100

May-12 35500

Jun-12 6100

Jul-12 21600

Aug-12 55720

Sep-12 32140

Oct-12 35870

Nov-12 22300

25600

25100

Table 2: Monthly Consumption

Chart Title
60000 50000 Units Consumed 40000 30000 20000 10000 0

Month of year

Fig 4: