Solar Powered Ship

 

What's 100 feet long by 50 feet wide, cost $17.5 million to build and runs on 38,000 photovoltaic cells? It's the Turanor PlanetSolar, a massive catamaran powered solely by the sun.

The what? Turanor is a word taken from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" saga and translates into "the power of the sun". PlanetSolar is the team of 100 engineers and others working to be the first to circumnavigate the globe with a solar-powered boat.

"This is a milestone in the progress of solar mobility," Immo Stroher, a German investor who partnered with Swiss adventurer Raphael Domjan to bankroll the showcase for solar power, said in a statement. "It is my vision to see solar power take its rightful place — not only on rooftops, but also on the roads, seas and in the skies of the future."

After arriving from Europe last Saturday, the catamaran and its six-member crew spent a few days in Miami, Fla., and then left Tuesday for a leg to Cancun, Mexico, where delegates to the U.N. climate change summit are meeting.

"This voyage around the world is meant to test the long-term performance," Domjan stated. "When it comes to solar shipping, brilliant innovation is required: less weight, less friction, efficient propulsion, a reliable solar energy store and finally, the production of electric energy."

With a "wave-piercing" design, the 24-foot-tall catamaran "slices" through the water instead of riding waves, which takes more energy.

Moreover, the catamaran has a surface area of more than 5,700 square feet, allowing for 825 modules that house the 38,000 photovoltaic cells. The crew can adjust how many cells are used by extending the length and/or width of the catamaran by several feet. Electricity from the sun powers four electric motors that propel the catamaran's two drive shafts.

Finally, a 13-ton lithium battery in the hull store enough electricity to run the catamaran for up to three days without direct sunlight. But the ride is slow, with only just enough power to keep the catamaran at around 7 knots (about 8 mph) during favorable conditions — slow by sailing standards.

And then there's the criticism of why bother with solar when there's a much cheaper renewable energy for shipping: the wind.

"Some people say, 'You have built the most unnecessary vessel in the world because it is running without an engine, but that's what people have done with sails for 3,000 years,''' Stroher told the Miami Herald. "They are right, of course. It's not my main purpose to have boats or ships run on solar but to show what renewable resources are able to achieve.'' 

Now a month since leaving Monaco, the Turanor PlanetSolar is expected to take another nine months to complete the around-the-world journey.

For its backers, each stop along the way is a chance to excite others about the possibilities.

"We want to motivate engineers and scientists to develop innovative technologies," said Domjan. "This is to show that visions are about to become reality."

World's First Solar Diesel Power Station

A town in Western Australia has officially unveiled a world-first - A solar diesel power station that stores energy in flywheel "batteries". Western Australian Mines and Petroleum Minister Moore officially opened Horizon Power’s Pippunyah Solar Diesel Power Station on Friday.

  

Located at Marble Bar in the eastern Pilbara region, the power station incorporates the largest single axis tracking solar farm in Australia, combined with the latest diesel technology and an innovative flywheel energy storage system.

  

The 1350kW Sun Power solar panels follow the path of the sun and produce a generating capacity of 1160kW. It's expected the solar farm component will provide up to 89% of the town's electricity needs during peak periods in summer.

  

The solar hybrid power station will save 1119 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year and save between 35-40 per cent diesel consumption per year (approximately 412,000 liters of fuel annually).

  

The station began powering the town of Marble Bar in May but the testing period was only completed at the end of July. Another station using the same technology is currently under construction at Nullagine, 88km south of Marble Bar and Horizon Power is also planning to build solar diesel power stations in the remote Aboriginal towns of Kalumburu and Yungngora (Noonkanbah)

  

The Pippunyah Solar Diesel Power Station project was supported by the Federal Government, through the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program (now replaced by the Solar Credits program).

Chui Solar Ship Aircraft

Chui (pronounced choo-ee) is the Swahili word for the leopard, respected for its combination of speed, agility, stealth, and strength. The Chui aircraft is equivalent of the pick-up truck, a vehicle synonymous with utility.

The Chui is Solar Ship aircraft. It is mid-size aircraft built for ISR and cargo markets. It features superior takeoff and landing capabilities; industry leading fuel-efficiency; lowest infrastructure requirements; highest endurance flight-time capabilities and can be specified as solar- or hybrid-powered.

Solar Ship Aircraft

Solar Ship aircraft is used to serve remote areas. Most of these areas have no roads. The Solar Ship is a hybrid aircraft, gaining lift from both buoyant gas and aerodynamics. Its wing-ship design allows for short take-off and landing (STOL), such as in a soccer field. This design also provides a large surface area for solar electric power, allowing long, self-sufficient range. The result is transportation without depending on things that often aren’t available in remote areas – fossil fuels, roads, or runways.

Nepal's first solar powered village

The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) brought solar electricity to the village of Pulimarang in collaboration with the Centre for Renewable Energy (CRE) in Kathmandu, a non-profit organization working to promote decentralized energy options for Nepalese rural electrification. With support from the Moriah Fund, solar home systems (SHS) were installed in sixty-five homes and a community center in Nepal's first solar powered village.

SolarCity - A National Clean Energy Service Provider

SolarCity, a national clean energy service provider, recently completed an 88-kilowatt PV system on the roof of the administration building at the Maui Highway Baseyard, and is working on a 16-kilowatt system on the administration building at the Ke'anae Highway Baseyard, as well as a 78-kilowatt system at Kahului Harbor that will help power lighting and air conditioning at the cruise ship terminal.

Ke'anae Highway Baseyard construction is under way on a 16-kilowatt system on the administration building. Once completed, the installation will provide power to the administration building and detached garage.

SolarCity has also recently completed a 112-kilowatt photovoltaic system that will provide power for a wastewater treatment plant at the Kona International Airport on Hawai'i Island--the first of eight solar power systems the company is installing at Hawai'i's state-owned airports, harbors and highway baseyards.

On Hawai'i Island, SolarCity is also installing a 35-watt PV system on the design and lab building at the Hilo Highway Baseyard, and will put a 21-kilowatt system on the roof of the main terminal at the Waimea-Kohala Airport.

On Kaua'i, the company is installing a 56-kilowatt system atop the Lihue Airport's cargo building, while at the Lana'i Airport, construction is underway on a 117-kilowatt system on the airport terminal's roof. The state Department of Transportation also plans to develop solar power projects at seven other sites around the state, and those sites, combined with the eight SolarCity projects, will have the capacity to produce a total of 3.4 megawatts of electricity.

Net Metering at Domestic Level through PV System

A firm completed the installation of a 3.06 kilowatt solar electric (photovoltaic or PV) system on the home of St. Petersburg City Council Member Karl Nurse. Nurse expects his system will generate all of the electricity his home requires for about six months out of the year; thanks to efficiency improvements he’s made over the last decade. 

“I think of this as insurance to protect me from the rising cost of power. These panels are going to pay for themselves in about seven years, perhaps sooner depending on future electric rates,” said Nurse. 

Nurse will receive a 30% Federal Tax Credit and rebate from Progress Energy for purchasing his solar electricity system. He originally sought to apply for the Progress Energy rebate back in 2010, but could not get through. In 2011 he attempted again and made it to the waiting list. Luckily for him, funds from 2011 became available as others failed to meet shading requirements necessary for approval, and his rebate application was approved. The rebate of a $2 per watt is highly sought after and tends to run out quickly. According to their website, Progress Energy has allocated $1,000,000 per year towards residential PV incentives through the year 2014.
Firm installed nine PV Modules on Karl’s house and three on his garage. His system includes micro-inverters, which makes the conversion of sunlight into electricity more efficient. “I wanted to find a contractor who knew what they were doing, and firm is the largest and most experienced in our area,” said Nurse. Firm was able to increase the size of his system and decrease the cost using the latest technology available. 

A long-time advocate for renewable energy, Nurse spearheaded a program for the City of St. Petersburg that offers residents the opportunity to buy solar hot water heaters through a bulk-purchasing program. To date, about 400 residents have signed up for the program, which allows them to purchase solar water heaters at a discount price.
The City of St. Petersburg has made significant investments in renewable energy over the last two years. Earlier this year, the city installed 21 solar water heaters, which are expected to save approximately $20,000 per year on utility bills. Firm is also installing photovoltaic systems on recreation centers and park facilities throughout St. Petersburg through the Solar Parks Initiative.

Said Nurse, “The very best thing we can do for this country is become self-sufficient, and renewable energy is the cleanest way to do that.”

Indian Solar Plans - 2022

The Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdulla, informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) India is to create a capacity for generation of 1100 MW of grid connected solar power by 2013 and 20,000 MW by 2022. The overall investment may be approximately $40 billion for 20,000 MW of solar power projects. The current installed generation capacity of India is 205340.26 MW which includes 24832.68 MW generated through renewable energy sources. JNNSM aims at achieving 20,000 MW by 2022 thereby it will then constitute one-tenth of India's current installed power base. The total installed capacity in the country is likely to be more than 400 GW by 2022. Installed solar capacity then would be one-twentieth of the then India's total installed capacity. The share of renewable and particularly solar in country's energy mix would keep increasing and would certainly help in limiting reliance on coal and easing the power deficit. The Minister further said that against a target of 1100 MW of grid connected solar power by 2013, 1030 MW of solar power projects have been commissioned and connected to grid, these are under both Central and State initiatives.

Bangladesh's Solar Future

Bangladesh is struggling to generate the electricity needed to meet the demand of its 150 million people. Most Bangladeshis are not even connected to the national grid. Those who are, suffer from long and frequent power outages. Recently several suburbs of in the city of Chittagong went without electricity for four consecutive days. Local residents stormed the power supply building in protest. According to government calculations, the country needs 6,750 megawatts (MW) of electricity to meet the current energy demand but it can only supply 5,500MW. The shortfall means they are looking for alternative solutions. Authorities in Dhaka are now beginning to use solar energy. The panels are set to control traffic lights. Authorities say the system will reduce traffic jams and well-lit streets will protect people from getting mugged. Plans are underway to expand the project and make 10 per cent of Bangladesh's power supply green and renewable by 2020.

Current, Voltage & Resistance Measurements

During PV system installation, many times you need to take measurements for current, voltage and resistance values using your Digital Multimeter (DMM). For correct measurement and safety purpose, following procedure should be adopted for:

Current Measurement

• Put on personal protective equipment (PPE) such as insulating gloves and safety glasses.
• Verify that you can safely place the meter's clamp around the conductor you want to measure. 
• Set the meter's dial to read the appropriate range of current.
• Zero the meter reading.
• Open the meter's clamp and place it around a single conductor.
• Read and record the current value from the meter.
• Remove the meter from the conductor.

Voltage Measurement

• Put on PPE.
• Make sure the circuit breakers are in the off state.
• Make the location where you want to take the voltage measurement accessible by removing the lids to the proper boxes, opening circuit breaker covers, or accessing the connectors on the back of the modules.
• Place the black meter lead in the connection point labeled Common on the meter.
•  Place the red meter lead in the connection point labeled V on the meter.
• Set the meter's dial to read  the appropriate range of voltage.
• Place the black lead on the negative terminal of the PV module.
• Place the red lead on the positive terminal of the PV module.
• Read the voltage measurement on the meter's screen.
• Switch the meter leads on the PV module and note the presence of the negative symbol.
• Remove the leads from the module and pull them from the meter.

Resistance Measurement 

• Put on PPE.
• Switch the AC and DC circuit breakers to the off state to remove any power source present.
• Make the location where you want to take the continuity measurement (continuous two terminals of conductor) accessible.
• Pace the black meter lead in the connection point labeled Common on the meter.
• Place the red meter lead in the connection point labeled omega (ohm).
• Set the meter's dial to read the circuit's resistance.
• Place the black lead on the first connection point.
• Place the red lead on the second connection point.
• Read the resistance measurement on the meter's screen or listen for the alarm that indicates a low-resistance connection.
•  Remove the leads from the modules and pull them from the meter.

Grid Direct versus Battery Backed PV Systems

Grid Direct PV System

A Grid Direct PV System is battery less system in which inverter is automatically control the flow of electricity from the PV array to the utility grid. This type of PV system contains:

• A PV array with racking
• A junction box to get the wires in the building.
• A DC circuit breaker
• An inverter
• An AC circuit breaker
• A meter to record the energy produced by your PV system
• A utility interconnection inside the Main Distribution Panel (MDP).

Battery Backed PV System

A battery backed PV system can be utility interactive or stand alone. Both utility interactive and stand alone PV systems use the following parts:

• A PV array with racking
• A charge controller
• DC circuit breaker
• A battery bank
• An inverter
• AC Load Center
• AD circuit breaker
• An MDP with overcurrent protection
• DC Load Center
• Fuel Engine Generator for backup

Net Metering

Net Metering which is when the utility (electricity bill) has to credit the system owner with retail rates for PV generated energy within some limits, makes utility interactive PV systems a reality. Under net metering, the utility is required to pay the system owner retail energy rates for every *kiloWatt-hour (kWh) of energy put into the grid, meaning the system owner is credited at the same rate at which she is charged. The catch comes when the system generates more energy that its owner can consume. Each utility has its own way of handling this situation; it can credit the account or take the credit itself. Do you know what is the case in your country? Are you familiar with Feed-in Tariff (FIT)?

*One kWh is equal to one unit of electricity meter connected to your house.

Components that Make PV System

PV Modules: are the source of power in a PV system. They produce DC electricity.

PV Racking hold the PV array to the location where you want to place your PV modules.

PV modules and PV panel are used interchangeably. But if you want to be precise then:

A module is a single unit consisting of PV cells.
A panel is a group of modules fastened and wired together.
An array is consists of all the modules and racking components that give you DC electricity. 

Battery Bank: is used for energy storage. Multiple batteries can be connected together to achieve specific voltage and desired energy capacities. Two most common types of batteries are:

1. Sealed Batteries: These batteries are sealed and require minimum maintenance by the end user. These batteries are often presented as maintenance free batteries but actually they are not. Although they are sealed, still they need your attention.
2. Flooded Batteries: These batteries have flooded container and require maximum maintenance by the end user.

An important precaution that need to be handle for batteries as all batteries (maintenance free too) release gases.  Batteries should be kept inside a protective container that vents to the outside to avoid the possibility of gasses buildup and an explosion.

In PV system a Battery Monitor should be connected to batteries to keep track of their charging levels.

Charge controllers: The primary function of charge controller is to control the charge coming out from the PV array. Charge controllers have different features, technology and sizing options. 

Inverters: Inverters are used to convert DC power produced by PV array or stored by the battery bank into the AC power used in homes and businesses. An inverter can be as small as the 100W unit to as big as few megawatt unit.

For PV system two types of inverters are used:

• Utility-Interactive
• Stand-Alone

Loads: Loads are all the pieces of electrical equipment that you use in your home or in your offices. You can have either DC load or AC load. In some cases you have both loads. For users who have both loads their PV system should contain load center that intelligently handle this situation.

Protection: Protective equipment should also be used to avoid electrocution. Your PV system should provide the features like overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, undervoltage protection, thermal protection etc.

Solar Resource

In order to design or install PV systems, one should take care of the following important terms:

Solar Resource is defined as the amount of solar energy received at a particular site.

Azimuth describes the position of the sun and the PV modules in terms of how many degrees the sun or the PV array is from north.

Irradiance describes how intense the sunlight is at a particular moment in time.

Irradiation refers to the quantity of solar energy received for a given amount of time. One day is a typical time frame.

Solar Window refers to the portion of the sky where the sun appears at a particular location on earth. The solar window varies based on your latitude. 

Tilt describes the number of degrees that the PV modules are off of the horizontal surface.

A PV system's location on the earth has a definite effect on the overall performance and system installation effort.

Solar Volts

Welcome to Solar Volts Blog. This blog is active, full of knowledge and practical tips and tools. This blog is about solar energy and Photovoltaic (PV) systems. 

Photovoltaic systems can use sun to power people electricity needs. Its operating principle was first discovered in 1839 by a French physicist named A. E. Becquerel. In 1950, Bell Labs developed first practical PV module that was used in space application. After 1970, people start charging their batteries using these modules. Now PVs are used in industry as well as in homes. 

One important point that all of us should remember that PV systems are not the right answer for all applications because:

• The sun cannot provide you the twenty four hours of energy. 
• The area required for PV system installation is comparably very large with other systems that provide power. 

There are two main types of PV systems:

1. Grid Direct PV Systems
2. Battery Backed PV Systems

Grid Direct PV Systems: These systems are directly connected with the utility grid. They are also know as utility interactive. They send power back to the utility grid when the user is idle (no power consumption). For most of the people in developed countries who have utility power do not face power outage. If accidentally, power breakdown occur, it is generally of short duration. 

Battery Backed PV Systems: These systems are either connected with the national utility grid or disconnected with it. Therefore these systems are known as utility interactive in former case and independent stand-alone in later case. In case of stand-alone PV system, no power is sent back in utility grid. These systems are used for off-grid or offline applications. For storage of solar energy, batteries are used. These batteries provide us backup of energy during night.

Any PV system consists of following essential components:

1. PV Modules, commonly know as Solar Panels
2. Solar Charge Controllers (optional)
3. Battery Bank
4. Inverters
5. Safety Devices

PV Modules are units that we have to place in the sun to produce electricity. These modules generate variable voltage and variable current depending on the availability of sun. Number of these modules can be connected together to form PV Array.

Solar Charge Controllers are used in stand-alone PV systems. They are used to charge batteries. They control voltage and current generated by PV module at required levels. 

Battery Bank is used to store energy produced by PV array. Batteries store solar energy in the form of electrical energy. The output of the battery bank is Direct Current (DC). Whenever we use battery bank we need to define the following parameters:

• The amount of energy the user needs daily.
• The amount of solar energy that's available for charging. 
• The temperature at which the batteries are placed.

Inverter takes DC and convert it into the Alternating Current (AC). It is necessary as most of the appliances or loads in home or industry need AC. In terms of power, inverters convert DC power (stored in battery) into AC power (used by appliances). 

Safety Devices provides safety. Safety is one of the most important consideration in designing, handling and installation of PV systems. The first thing is the best choice of wires. Wires have to carry current and suffer huge temperature as well as other environmental effects. Other safety devices include circuit breakers, over-voltage protectors, under-voltage protectors and Ground Fault Protectors (GFP) etc.

All these components connected together intelligently and effectively using proper design skills can fulfill your electricity needs for at-least fifteen years and more! Is it cool?