Energy efficiency using Distributed Generation; Cafeteria of Engineer Faculty Campeche, Mexico

In the present work, an integral design of the cafeteria located at Faculty of Engineering of Autonomous University of Campeche is carried out. Four scenarios of Photo Voltaic (PV) generation have been studied. A 14 PV modules arrangement of 440 each, with azimuthal angle of 180º and a slope angle of 15º; the other is similar to the previous, but the slope angle was 19.85º. The following was a 24 PV modules arrangement of 440, with an azimuthal angle of 218º and a slope angle of 15º. The last arrangement consists of 24 PV modules arrangement of 440, with azimuthal angle of 218º and a slope angle of 19.85º. Where all of them are associated with the economic aspect to obtain greater efficiency of the plant with minimum recovery time. The free software System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been employed. Complete seasonal analysis has also been performed considering Gran Demanda Media Ordinaria en México (GDMO de CFE in Mexico) within the period January 2020 to March 2021. The best results are energy generation 17,570 kWh. Capacity factor 19%. Energy performance 1,671 kWh/kW. Performance relation 0.74. Leveled cost 5.39 ¢/kWh. And return on investment in 0.6 years. The GD-PV plant prevents the emission into the atmosphere of 778.85 kg of CO2 equivalent.

Design of a Photovoltaics Stand-Alone System for a Residential Load in Bunaken Island Using HOMER

The purpose of this study is to design a Photovoltaics (PV) stand-alone system for a residential load in Bunaken Island using HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources). Bunaken Island, the case study location, is a popular tourist spot in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. This island is facing the issue of limited access to electrical energy from the grid. The design and techno-economic analysis in Bunaken island leveraged HOMER software. This software was developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Furthermore, the results suggested that the techno-economical PV stand-alone system in Bunaken Island could be developed as alternative energy to support electricity as energy security issued for Indonesia.

Performance Enhancement Analysis of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine by Vortex Trapping Cavity

A wind turbine blade has the particularity of containing twisted and tapered thick airfoils. The challenge with this configuration is the highly separated flow in the region of high twist. This research presents a numerical investigation of the effectiveness of a Vortex Trapping Cavity (VTC) on the aerodynamics of the National renewable Energy laboratory (NREL) Phase VI wind turbine. First, simulations are conducted on the S809 profile to study the fluid flow compared to the airfoil with the redesigned VTC. Secondly, the blade is simulated with and without VTC to assess its effect on the torque and the flow patterns. The results show that for high angles of incidence at Rec=106, the lift coefficient increases by 10% and the wake region appears smaller for the case with VTC. For wind speeds larger than 10 m/s, the VTC improves the torque by 3.9%. This is due to the separation that takes place in the vicinity of the VTC and leads to trapping early separation eddies inside the cell. These eddies roll up forming a coherent laminar vortex structure, which in turn sheds periodically out of the cell. This phenomenon favourably reshapes excessive flow separation, reenergizes the boundary layer and globally improves blade torque.

Stated Preference Analysis of Automated Vehicles among California Residents Using Probabilistic Inferences

As technology advances, improvements in the way people travel also occur. In 2017, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a travel survey in California to understand residents’ perception of several aspects of mobility. This study used the data collected by NREL to understand various factors associated with safety perceptions and acquisition of automated vehicles among California residents. Bayesian networks (BNs) were used to learn the probabilistic interrelationships between aspects of automated vehicles. The predicted probabilities for safety concerns about vehicles with full driving automation (FAVs), purchase of vehicles with auto-drive assistance, and purchase of FAVs were determined after learning the BN structure and parameters from the data. The study found a strong relationship between the acquisition of automated vehicles and vehicles with auto-drive assistance. The BN model predicted that residents who are interested in purchasing vehicles with auto-drive assistance also have about 95% likelihood of purchasing FAVs. Moreover, ridesharing, number of vehicles in the household, housing type, and plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) ownership are among other factors playing a great role in the acquisition and safety perception of automated vehicles. Residents who are currently participating in ridesharing and living in apartments are more likely to purchase vehicles with auto-drive assistance. Residents who either own a PEV or have three or more vehicles are more likely to have safety concerns about FAVs. Additionally, residents who do not have safety concerns about FAVs have about a 45% likelihood of purchasing them. These results could provide valuable user opinion information for vehicle developers and other stakeholders.

Wind Turbine Multi-Fault Detection based on SCADA Data via an AutoEncoder

Nowadays, wind turbine fault detection strategies are settled as a meaningful pipeline to achieve required levels of efficiency, availability, and reliability, considering there is an increasing installation of this kind of machinery, both in onshore and offshore configuration. In this work, it has been applied a strategy that makes use of SCADA data with an increased sampling rate. The employed wind turbine in this study is based on an advanced benchmark, established by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of USA. Different types of faults on several actuators and sensed by certain installed sensors have been studied. The proposed strategy is based on a normality model by means of an autoencoder. As of this, faulty data are used for testing from which prediction errors were computed to detect if those raise a fault alert according to a defined metric which establishes a threshold on which a wind turbine works securely. The obtained results determine that the proposed strategy is successful since the model detects the considered three types of faults. Finally, even when prediction errors are small, the model is able to detect the faults without problems.

Caracterización de hogares para el desarrollo socialmente inclusivo de la energía solar residencial en Argentina mediante el empleo de métodos de clustering

Se propone la realización de un análisis de composición socio-económica y energética de los hogares argentinos, con el objetivo de generar información que sirva para la definición de políticas de desarrollo en energía solar con una óptica de inclusión y desarrollo social. Para ello, se aplicaron métodos de clustering y análisis de grandes datos, en particular k-means, two step cluster, y análisis de factores principales, a una base de datos construida a partir de datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, Secretaría de Energía de la Nación, Ente Regulador Nacional del Gas, Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment y National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Como resultado, se evidencian hogares con problemáticas similares con respecto al acceso a los energéticos y otros derechos básicos, el impacto del costo de la energía y el recurso solar disponible. Estas agrupaciones han sido mapeadas al nivel de radio censal, la unidad geográfica y de análisis más pequeña del censo argentino. Así, se concluye con la definición de perspectivas de acción para el desarrollo energético y socialmente inclusivo de cada una de las agrupaciones de hogares, tanto rurales como urbanos.

Influence of Clumps-Weighted Moorings on a Spar Buoy Offshore Wind Turbine

The spar buoy platform for offshore wind turbines is the most utilized type and the OC3 Hywind system design is largely used in research. This system is usually moored with three catenary cables with 120° between each other. Adding clump weights to the mooring lines has an influence on the platform response and on the mooring line tension. However, the optimal choice for their position and weight is still an open issue, especially considering the multitude of sea states the platform can be exposed to. In this study, therefore, an analysis on the influence of two such variables on the platform response and on the mooring line tension is presented. FAST by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is used to perform time domain simulations and Response Amplitude Operators are adopted as the main indicators of the clump weights effects. Results show that the clump weight mass is not as influential as the position, which turns out to be optimal, especially for the Surge degree of freedom, when closest to the platform.

Optimal Tilt Angle For Getting Maximum Energy Produced By Pv Panel By Utilizing Clear Sky And Array Performance Models

In this paper, we analysed and implement clear sky and array performance models to achieve maximum electrical energy produced from the photovoltaic (PV) panel. The selected models just not only include location dependent parameters but also include environmental factors such as Linke Turbidity (include aerosols, absorption due to assorted gases, Rayleigh scattering), cloud cover, albedo, perceptible water vapour. 250 W PV panel was used as a reference to check the output electrical energy in a given location by inputting the latitude and longitude of a location. It is concluded that 27° facing south is the optimized tilt angle for every locations having latitude at north direction and longitude at east direction. By taking the example of location Nagpur India (21.14° N, 79.08° E), a difference of only 0.35 % is reported when comparing the computed electrical energy with actual electrical energy that have been acquired by using pyranometers, pyrheliometers and illuminance meters installed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). So, a good approximation of electrical energy can be computed by combining clear sky and array performance models.