List of Solar Energy Project Ideas for Engineering Students

 

Solar energy is nothing but the radiant energy emitted by Sun. We may convert this solar energy into electricity either directly using photo voltaic (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP) with the help of lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight. This solar energy is mainly useful in solar street lights, auto solar irrigation system , traffic junction signal lighting etc.

Many people are interested in utilizing this solar energy in real life also. As a result, engineering students are showing lot of interest in doing projects on solar energy. So, here we are providing a list of solar energy projects which may be helpful for engineering students in completing their B.Tech successfully. These projects are mainly useful for ECE and EEE students.

5 Solar Energy Projects Ideas:

• Solar Powered LED Street Light with Auto Intensity Control
• Sun Tracking Solar Panel
• Solar Power Charge Controller
• Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System
• Solar Energy Measurement System

1. Solar Powered LED Street light with auto intensity control:

LED based street lights owing to their high efficiency and ease of intensity control are now frequently replacing the conventional HID based street lamps. This project defines a LED based light system which is power from a solar power source and their intensity can be controlled such that they are switched on with maximum intensity only during the peak hours. The output from solar panels is stored during day time, in batteries and at night this battery is used to power the LEDs.

Here in this project, an array of LEDs are used to represent the street lights. A charge controller unit is used to sense abnormal conditions like over charging, overload and low charging conditions and accordingly control charging of the battery. The DC power stored in the batteries is used to power the array of LEDs through a switch arrangement. The intensity of the LEDs are controlled or varied after particular time intervals by providing varying duty cycle pulses to the switch from the microcontroller. Thus using PWM technique, the solar power is supplied to the LEDs to vary their intensity.

2. Sun Tracking Solar Panel:

This project defines a way for mounting of solar panels so as to receive maximum radiation from the sun. Here an active tracker system is used where the panel is placed on the shaft of a motor and the motor is given proper rotation such that the panel is always oriented at 90 degrees to receive the maximum sunlight.

Here a dummy solar panel is used for demonstration purpose. The panel is placed on the shaft of a stepper motor. The microcontroller is programmed so as to provide signals to the driver IC such that the motor gets a rotation of 0 to 180 degrees at every equal interval to track the sunlight. At a certain period, the stepper motor is given 90 degree rotation so as to receive the maximum light.

3. Solar Power Charge Controller:

One of the essential parts of a solar power system is the charge controller which is used for controlling the charge to the battery. As we know, in a solar power system, the solar energy collected by the panels is stored in batteries in order to be used at night times. Also this DC power is converted to AC power using inverters. Here a system is designed to attain the control of charging of the battery.

Here comparators are used to sense any abnormal condition like over charging, low voltage or overload conditions and accordingly give output to control the charging of battery. A reference voltage is set using a potential divider arrangement. Incase of overcharging, the indication is given by the glowing of LEDs and the current from the panel is bypasses through the transistor. Incase of low battery voltage and over load, the load switch is made to be in off condition and the supply to the load is cutoff. Thus the charging and discharging of the battery is controlled.

4. Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System:

Irrigation is artificial supply of water to areas with scant rainfall or water supply. It is often required to control the supply of water by sensing the moisture content in the soil. This project defines a way to achieve this by using a pump which is powered by solar energy, so as to overcome the frequent unavailability of mains supply and controlling the switching of the pump motor based on the sensor input which senses the moisture content in the soil.

5. Solar Energy Measurement System:

This system is used to monitor different parameters related to the solar panel like temperature, light intensity, voltage and current and display the parameters on a LCD display.

Here 4 sensors are used to sense the different analog parameter, i.e. temperature, light, voltage and current. These parameters are sensed using sensors for each parameter. The output from the sensors are fed to the input pins of the PIC microcontroller with inbuilt 8-channel ADC with 4 of its channels being used. The output from the sensors is then accordingly displayed on the LCD display in digital form.

Look at the few more solar energy based project ideas mentioned below.

• Solar Powered Motor
• Solar Water Heater
• Remote Control Plane
• 3D Solar Cells
• Sterling Engine Generator
• Solar Cooker
• Solar Powered Mobile Charger
• Solar Toy Car
• Solar Powered Refrigerator
• Beam Circuit Solar Engines
• Steam Engine Powered by Sun Light
• Solar Turbine Generator
• Solar Powered Path Finding Vehicle
• Solar Powered Generator
• Solar Powered Bicycle
• Solar Powered Bag
• Solar Insect Robot
• Solar Powered Automatic Rain Operated Wiper
• Solar Powered Air Conditioner
• Solar Energy based Water Pumps
• Solar Energy based Water Purification System

We hope the above projects list is helpful to engineering students in getting better idea about what type of solar energy projects may be chosen in final year engineering.

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