Solar Photovoltaic System (SPV) is one of the growing green energy sources having immense penetration in the national grid as well as the off-grid around the globe. Regardless of different solar insolation level at various regions of the world, SPV performance is also affected by several factors: conversion efficiency of PV cell technology, ambient temperature and humidity, soiling and seasonal/weather patterns. The rise in PV cell temperature and soiling is found to be detrimental issues regarding power plant performance and life expectancy leading alterations in the levelised cost of energy (LCoE). In this paper, authors present a short glance about factors affecting the performance of photovoltaic modules and re-discuss their usability in cleaning intervention decision-making models. With some highlights on the essence of cleaning to mitigate the soiling issues in PV power plants, this paper presents the existing cleaning techniques and practices along with their evaluations. The need for an optimal cleaning intervention by using advanced scientific tools rather than by visual inspection is drawing the attention of PV experts. The authors finally suggest a schematic of a decision-making model which involves the use of probable parameters, data processing techniques and machine learning tools. The implementation of data science and machine learning in a solar PV panel cleaning system could be a remarkable advancement in the field of renewable energy.
With the increasing demand for renewable energy, solar photovoltaic technology is being a topic of concern. However, due to the accumulation of dust and dirt over the panel surface, the performance of the photovoltaic system degrades to a noticeable number. To address this issue: a fully automated, cost worthy and efficient system needs to be invented. This paper presents the design and fabrication process of a prototype able to clean the panel surface. The prototype of this system comprises of a cleaning robot and a cloud interface: the cleaning robot is mobile and able to clean the entire solar array back and forth, with its separately driven cleaning rotatory brush; whereas, the cloud interface is a human-machine interface featuring the distant monitoring and control of the robot. Additionally, to notify the performance of distantly placed solar farm, a sensing unit consisting of sensors was added to this system. Furthermore, to add an automatic cleaning feature, a month-long data of totally clean and dusty panel was processed with regression analysis, and the developed regression model was programmed into the sensing unit. The sensing unit added with the regression model is named as an autonomous unit, as it predicts the suitable time for cleaning action. According to the system evaluation done on a demonstration PV module, it was found that the designed system can clean dry dust accumulated over the panel’s surface. Moreover, by attaching the metal rail tracks on a long solar array, the system seems to be implementable on a large scale solar farm.
Nepal is a Himalayan country with its 83% of its geography being composed of hills and mountains. Around 22% of the Nepalese population is not receiving electricity through the national power utility and is forced to identify alternative approaches to electrification. The Micro/Mini-Grid (MG) system is one of the promising approaches in terms of cost, reliability and performance for rural electrification, where electrification through national power utility is not techno-economically feasible. However, various issues must be identified and considered during the implementation of MGs in a rural community. In this paper, numerous technical, social and management issues are identified and discussed relating to the implementation and operation of reliable and stable MGs in the Himalayas. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific work that presents a comprehensive review of Himalayan MGs and their associated elements. This article reviews the available research articles, project documents, and Government reports on MG development, from which a clear roadmap is constructed. From the comprehensive study, it is observed that the existing MGs are not adequately designed for the specific area, considering the local resources and local information. Based on the identified issues, some practical and efficient recommendations have been made, so that future MG projects will address the possible problems during the design and implementation phase.
Nepal houses many traditional and cultural sites rich in historical cultural diversity. These sites are also economically important to the nation. These monuments show the culture and the living beliefs of the communities; hence, people from all over the world are attracted to such place to observe the beauty and to feel the spirit and the conservational perspectives behind these articulated edifices. In today’s context, artificial light is a basic necessity for human activities and has been used in various applications: one such application being night-time illumination of historical sites and monuments. Most of the historic monuments in Nepal were constructed during the 15th to 18th century and are designed to incorporate oil-based wick lamp as the light source. Recently with the availability of modern luminaires and lack of technical expertise and scientific approach, most of the historic sites are being filled up with uneven, exaggerated, and inappropriate illumination. This inappropriate illumination practice may lead to negative consequences that may create disturbance to human and the surrounding environment. Scope of this paper is to identify the special needs for illuminating cultural and heritage sites with Pagoda-style architecture and introduce a methodology for a case study in Nepal. As a first step, this paper analyzes lighting malpractices in the temples of Nepal at different geographical locations and cultural values. As a next step, a prototype LED luminaire that enhances the unique type of architecture of Nepalese heritage sites was built, installed, and demonstrated in one of the temples. The work presents the design process of the lighting system and the results of a new lighting installation. The study also discusses possible problems that may arise while designing lighting for cultural and heritage site and provides recommendations on considerations to be taken during the design.
Nepal houses several architecturally and culturally rich heritage sites and monuments. These sites are recognised globally and are of immense importance to the local and worldwide audience. The majority were constructed during the 15th to 18th century and were designed to incorporate oil or fat-based wick lamps for lighting. The intervention of modern electric lighting in these structures should be carried out without conceding cultural values, visual perception, and traditional outlook. However, in most sites, there are no lighting or unscientific lighting interventions which are inappropriate, unsurpassed, exaggerated, and unpleasant. The light source spectrum is an essential factor in enhancing the natural appearance, increasing luminance, reducing degradation of artefacts by photochemical action, and reducing power consumption. The study aims to characterise the white light spectrum for its appropriateness to enhance the optical parameters by observing the spectral reflectance of the building materials of these sites. The experiment uses RGB tunes LED light source to obtain white light of different SPD and CCT. Building materials from Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Tripureshwor Mahadev temple and light SPD with CCT in the range of 1735 to 7669 K were used for the study. The study thus makes recommendations for an appropriate spectrum of light sources for Nepal’s heritage sites and monuments based on the experimental findings.
Hybrid Power System (HPS) is an energy system with combination of different regenerative energy sources like Solar, Wind, Geo-Thermal, Biomass and several others to achieve energy sustainability. This paper investigates the feasibility of grid connected and stand-alone hybrid energy system to meet electric load requirement of a community or organization, by utilizing the available resources. Potentiality of different energy sources like solar, wind, bio-gas, etc. along with currently used energy sources is studied thoroughly by taking a case study of Kathmandu University central campus, located at Dhulikhel, Nepal. Technical and economic analysis of on-grid and off-grid hybrid system is performed to get optimum model that supply continuous energy to the end user. Furthermore, the possibility of net metering with national utility has been analysed. The main objective of this study is to identify the suitable energy mixed model, that provide the sustainable energy supply to the university, and recommend the possible energy generators to be added for fulfilling the continuously increasing load demand. The load profile of several years of the University is taken into consideration for forecasting the power demand. The findings of the research show that system when adopted to hybrid system can meet up to 55% of the load by renewable resources. Maximum renewable fraction is found to be 0.603 and maximum renewable penetration of 812%.
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