Week5: Options for Solar Panel

Week5:                                      Pros and Cons of Three Main Solar Panels
Currently, we have three main solar panels that are widely used throughout the world. There are monocrystalline silicon solar panels, polycrystalline silicon solar panels, and thin-film solar cells (Eric Rosenfeld).

1) Monocrystalline Silicon Solar:
(pros) efficiency of 15-20%, it has the highest efficiency of the different types of solar panels, a long life span, and produces the most efficient result under low light conditions.
(cons) it is the most expensive among the three types of solar panel

2)Polycrystalline:
(pros) cost less compared to monocrystalline silicon solar panels. efficiency of 13-16%
(cons) They require more space in order to produce the same amount of power output compared to monocrystalline.

3)Thin film:
(pros) they are aesthetically appealing due to the ability to bend. With small-area single-junction can give an efficiency at 22%. Cheaper than monocrystalline

(cons) thin-film solar cells degrade faster compared to polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar panels.

More options for Solar Panel:
Below diagram shows other options for solar panel. The more efficiency it is the more expensive it will be. For the Spartan Supwerway purpose,  monocrystalline panel is still the best choice. 
(Source  Professor Rongere, ME172)





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 13 and week 14: Fabricating the Prototype and Work on the Finite Element Analysis

Image
In these two weeks, I focused on building the prototype and finishing up the FEA for the solar rack. For building the prototype, I meet up with my team to fabricate the prototype and to figure out the best way to building the parts faster.  Below is the progress that I make so far on the hand-calculation drag coefficient and drag lift. These data will be implemented in ANSYS to run for the FEA in next couple days. Source: https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JFCMV_2016012909451497.pdf Wind analysis including cooling effects and lift prevention. D d = C d ⍴ V 2 2 A D l = C l ⍴ V 2 2 A Where D d is wind drag   D d , D l : drag and lift forces, C d , C l : drag and lift coefficient relatively, ⍴ is the density of air, V is velocity of wind which has V peak and V storm , and A is the reference area or cross-sectional area of the lowest point of calcul. Wind load calculation has to be calculated using the following values. ⍴ = 1.225 kg/m 3 , V could be replaced by V peak
Read more

Week 7 and 8: CFD Simulation and Updated Bill of Materials

Image
In the week 7 & 8, I focused on the Bill of Materials and CFD simulation. For the Bill of Materials, I figured out what components to buy such as charge controller, converter, transformer, and batteries. Since the motor from the Bogies team needs a power of 150W and run on DC voltage, it is necessary to have a transformer that can supply an exact power of 150W to the team. The updated Bill of Materials can be seen in Figure 1 below. Figure 1: Bill of Materials for added components For the CFD simulation, I was learning how to use the software and how to set up the boundary conditions to get the most accurate result. In the video, it showed my progress on learning CFD simulation. I expect to finish in week 9, so that I can use the result such as drag coefficient, drag force, drag lift, and lift force from CFD simulation to run the FEA. 
Read more

Week5 & 6: Water Gutter Design and Solar System Connections

Image
This week, I focused on the design of water gutter and finished the BOMs. For the water gutter, the main purpose is to collect the water and reuse it. In Figure1, a water gutter was designed so that it prevents leaves from falling into the gutter, which may cause the flowing of water gutter. This design will then be implemented with my ME106 project ( see Figure 2). Figure 1: A design for water gutter with helmet In Figure 2, I will use a turbidity sensor to sense the quality of water and an ultrasonic sensor to measure the water level inside a container. When the detected water is clean, a valve will be opened to let the clean water goes in while the valve for the dirty container remaining close. All the data will then be collected by using Matlab. Figure 2: A block diagram to show how the clean water will be collected  Also, I did some research and helped my partner completed the bill of materials. All the materials that we need for the project includes the extension wires,
Read more