3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Edición Especial Special Issue Noviembre 2020
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ROADSIDE VERTICAL SOLAR-WIND ENERGY TOWER
Mirsad Hyder Shah
Student, Technische Universitat Dortmund.
Dortmund, (Germany).
E-mail: Itsmirsadhyder@yahoo.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2476-5887
Gasim Othman Alandjani
Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering Department. Yanbu University College, Yanbu
Industrial City, (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
E-mail: Alandjanig@rcyci.edu.sa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0321-7013
Recepción:
01/09/2020
Aceptación:
29/09/2020
Publicación:
13/11/2020
Citación sugerida Suggested citation
Hyder, M., y Othman, G. (2020). Roadside vertical solar-wind energy tower. 3C Tecnología.
Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. Edición Especial, Noviembre 2020, 51-63. https://doi.
org/10.17993/3ctecno.2020.specialissue6.51-63
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ABSTRACT
Fossil fuels and Nuclear power is responsible for about 82% of the current Energy Production
in the US. While a small part is still being met by renewable energy sources, engineers are
working hard on nding new sources of Energy. Another approach to the global clean
energy crisis is that instead of looking for a new energy source, we should become Energy
Ecient. Road power generation is a new technology where the wasted energy of a moving
vehicle can be extracted and converted to useful work done. This paper presents such a
technology which when employed at the corner of a road can send power directly to the
grid or run streetlights depending on the mode of operation. This is done by constructing a
Savonius Wind Turbine and then converting the wasted wind energy produced by a moving
vehicle. In addition, a solar panel can also be placed on the top of the turbine and produce
more energy. A microcontroller decides how Energy is to be sent to the grid or stored to be
used for street lighting load. While the power production may vary depending on the trac
and conditions of the city, the S-rotor and solar panel have a maximum voltage of 19.1 V
and 19.65 V respectively.
KEYWORDS
Savonius rotor, Inverter, Solar Panel, Wind turbine, Road Power generation, Charge
Controller.
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1. INTRODUCTION
The need of alternate energy sources is not a debate but a necessity in this modern era.
The demand of clean and aordable energy sources led to the breakthrough of renewable
energy sources (Shah, Alandjani, & Asghar, 2020). Such is the scope of renewable energy
sources that Road Power Generation (RPG) Technologies are being researched upon. One
of the technologies involves extracting the wind gushes produced by nearby vehicles. The
rotor design is a challenging design and many dierent types of rotors can be employed.
2. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH
This paper discusses an experimental work done to harness the wind energy produced by
moving vehicles on a road and extracting the solar potential with a solar panel along with it.
This is achieved by designing a Savonius wind turbine and placing a mono-crystalline solar
panel together. The system takes input from both renewable energy sources and voltage
sensors provide voltage values to the Arduino. This Microcontroller is programmed with a
code which will be discussed later. The extracted voltages are sent to a nearby grid in the
day and at night are used to power streetlights.
When the solar panel is operational, the voltages are sent to the MPPT (Maximum Power
Point Tracking). This MPPT is connected to a reference battery which powers it. The
MPPT stabilizes the voltages from the solar panel and charges the main battery. The power
from the battery is then provided to the inverter which then converts DC to AC and sends
it to the grid or streetlight as necessary.
When the wind turbine extracts the wasted wind potential from nearby vehicles, power is
generated by the PMDC generator. The voltages from the PMDC generator are provided to
the Buck/Boost converter which are either bucked or boosted depending on the situation.
This DC power will then charge the battery and converted to AC by the inverter for any
load.
The Vertical solar wind energy tower is a power generation unit which harnesses the wind
potential of moving vehicles and the solar potential of the sun. It has the following parts:
3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Edición Especial Special Issue Noviembre 2020
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2.1. SOLAR PANEL
After careful observation and survey of the site where the power generation unit is to be
installed; it was decided that a mono crystalline solar panel will be used. Since the selection
of a solar panel depends upon heat tolerance and since the average temperature in Karachi
usually remains in between 27-30°C, the choice made was the best available.
Figure 1. Graph of average temperatures in Karachi. Source: (Climate-Data.Org, n.d.).
2.2. S- ROTOR
A detailed discussion on the design and construction of Savonius rotor has been discussed
in Shah and Alsibiani (2020).
2.3. INVERTER
An inverter is a circuit that changes DC to AC. The following components were used in its
construction:
• IC CD4047, Transistor 2N3904, eight tip 35C transistors, Diodes, Transformer,
Capacitors and Resistors.
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2.4. GENERATOR
A generator is required to convert the rotational motion of the wind turbine into Electrical
Energy. The specications of the Generator are as follows:
• Rated Power: 1hp
• Rated Speed: 1650 RPM
• Rated Voltage: 18 VDC
• Pole: 2-4
• Current: 4.8 Amp
Figure 4. PMDC Generator.
2.5. CHARGE CONTROLLER
A charge controller is needed since the voltages produced by the generator are unstable.
To stabilize/buck/boost the voltages the charge controller is needed. The function of the
Charge controller over here is to supply constant output while the input is varying due to
dierent wind speeds generated by vehicles. It consists of the following components:
• NE555 timer, IC7805, Diodes, Relay, Resistors, Transistor 2N2222 NPN,
Capacitors
Figure 5. Hardware of Charge Controller.
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2.6. MICROCONTROLLER
Since the integration of both the power sources has not been carried out, only one source
of energy can be stored in the battery, while the other must be sent to the grid for sale.
For this obstacle the microcontroller is programmed with a basic code whose Algorithm is
discussed below:
• From the time 9:00 A.M to 5 P.M the power output of solar panel is sent directly
to the grid, while the output of the wind turbine is stored into the battery.
• If the weather is cloudy, the solar panel will not be able to extract any power from
the sun and hence a message will be sent to the grid notifying no power output
per hour.
• In the meantime, the wind turbine captures the gushes of wind from nearby
vehicles and will store its power into a battery.
• At 6 P.M the nearby streetlights will be powered from all the wind energy collected
in the 12 Hours of its operation.
• At 6 A.M, all the remaining power of the battery is sent to the grid for sale.
3. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF UNIT
Figure 6. Block Diagram of System. Figure 7. Hardware of System.
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4. CALCULATIONS
The power of a wind turbine can be calculated by:
Torque:
Over Lap Ratio:
Swept Area:
Height of the turbine is 1.24m
Diameter of the turbine is 0.375m
Over Lap Ratio:
Overlap distance is 0.0381m
Diameter of the turbine is 0.375m
3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Edición Especial Special Issue Noviembre 2020
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Aspect Ratio:
Rotational Speed:
Where,
Power
sWhere,
ρ = density of air = 1.225
A = swept area
v = wind speed
C
p
= coecient of power
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5. RESULTS
The results of the project have been discussed below:
In Figure 8, the resultant waveform of a square wave was obtained. The square wave
inverter converts solar DC power to AC power. This type of inverter is simpler in design
and more ecient than a sine wave inverter.
Figure 8. Waveform of Oscillation of Inverter.
In Table 1, the results for the wind turbine have been shown. The velocity of the wind was
measured using an anemometer which was placed right in front of the rotor. The wind
made the rotor move as intended. However, the maximum wind velocity that could be
simulated was 5.4 m/s. On the Beaufort Scale, such a wind speed has a Beaufort number
of 3 and is considered as a Gentle Breeze only. But due to the rotor being lightweight it was
easily rotated, and enough Revolutions were generated.
Table 1. Results of Wind Turbine.
WIND SPEED m/s
RPM
VOLTAGES
4.1
200
14.91V
4.5
241
17.0V
4.9
253
18.17V
5.1
265
18.64V
5.4
302
19.1V
In the Table 2, the results of the solar panel are discussed. By placing the solar panel
throughout the day and measuring the solar panel output using a multimeter following
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open source voltages were obtained. Since the panel was directed at a 90 degree angle at the
peak hour (12:00 p.m.), the maximum voltage output of 19.65V was obtained.
Table 2. Results of Solar Panel.
TIME
VOLTAGE
8:00 a.m.
10V
10:00 a.m.
15.46V
12:00 p.m.
19.65V
14:00 p.m.
19.34V
17:00 p.m.
14.62V
20:00 p.m.
0.0V
Since the weather and trac may vary and aect the power output, only the results which
are denite have been discussed in this paper. In addition both the Energy sources do not
have a common storage system and may be lethal if constructed in the wrong way.
6. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses the construction of a Road Power Generation unit, which when placed
along a roadside can be considered as a green energy source. The mechanical system consists
of a Savonius Rotor which captures the wasted energy produced by a moving vehicle and
converts it into useful work done. Moreover, a solar panel converts the light energy from
the sun to generate electricity through the Photovoltaic Eect. The project demanded
designing and manufacturing of a wind turbine with solar energy tower. A wind turbine is
essentially a vertical axis wind turbine specically of the Savonius type. Research has been
going on VAWT in order to study their performance parameters and introduce them in
the market as a competitor to the conventional horizontal axis wind turbine (Menet, 2004).
Furthermore, RPG units are the future of smart cities.
REFERENCES
Al-Kayiem, H. H., Bhayo, B. A., & Assadi, M. (2016). Comparative critique on
the design parameters and their eect on the performance of S-rotors. Renewable
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ecfe7f09-5a99-3d0f-b5da-d7693769036a
3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme. ISSN: 2254 – 4143 Edición Especial Special Issue Noviembre 2020
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Climate-Data.Org (n.d.). https://en.climate-data.org/asia/pakistan/sindh/
karachi-992367/
Menet, J. L. (2004). A double-step Savonius rotor for local production of electricity: a
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Shah, M. H., & Alsibiani, S. A. (2020). Design and construction of Savonius Rotor. 3C
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