Solar Energy Research Institute

Institut Penyelidikan Tenaga Suria | Solar Energy Research Institute

Photovoltaic

1. Bulding Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)

Photovoltaic technologies have significant long term potential to provide sustainable energy for the world’s needs. Photovoltaic are silent, clean in operation, highly reliable, low maintenance, and extremely robust, with expected lifetime of at least 20 or 30 years. They are also very modular, and can be adapted for many locations or easily extended. Solar electricity can also displace fossil fuel use with many environmental benefits. The energy involved in the manufacture of the panels can be quickly overtaken by the energy produced by the photovoltaic panels. One of the most attractive applications is the use of photovoltaic on buildings, commonly known as Building Integrated Photovoltaic or BIPV. Studies on BIPV include strategies for the long term cost reduction and innovative architectural integration in buildings.

 

2. Solar Hydrogen Production System

Electrolysis is the most developed technology for producing hydrogen from water, which can be operated by means of solar energy. Hydrogen has been regarded as the future fuel. The product of combustion of hydrogen is water, which can be recycled to produced hydrogen by means of electrolysis. Hydrogen can be converted directly into electricity in fuel cells, modified IC engines run on hydrogen and power plants can use steam, which is produced in hydrogen steam generators, during peak load periods. Even airplanes are being developed to run on liquid hydrogen, which is especially advantageous because of its high energy content by weight. Hydrogen would be collected, stored and distributed both gaseous and liquid as a pollution free fuel that can be converted into other energy forms at high efficiencies. The main components are the photovoltaic panel, the energy storage batteries, voltage regulator, electrolyzer and hydrogen storage tank.

SolarHydrogenProduction1   SolarHydrogenProduction2

3. Solar Hydrogen Eco House

Energy systems of future will have to be cleaner and much more efficient, flexible, and reliable than they are today in order to ensure Malaysia’s energy security and environmental viability. Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable form of energy that can be used in mobile and stationary applications and is the answer to satisfying many of our energy needs while reducing (and eventually eliminating) carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up more that 90% of all matter. The solar hydrogen eco-house combines the low energy architectural features such shading, daylighting and passive air movements with a solar hydrogen production system. These combinations will pave way to a futuristic sustainable, environment friendly, and bioclimatic residential dwellings. Sunlight hits the photovoltaic panels, which convert solar energy into electricity. This electricity will be use to run an electrolyzer that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen gas is vented to the atmosphere and the hydrogen gas is stored in a storage tank. The hydrogen can be use to run a fuel cell, cooking stove, and boiler for the absorption air conditioning system. The photovoltaic panel generates electricity and delivers to the grid if the hydrogen tank is full or none of the above apparatus in operation.

SolarHydrogenEcoHouse

4.  Photovoltaic 1.2 kWp Water Pumping System

The system was a joint project with NEDO of Japan. It consists of solar PV array, inverter and pumping/motor set. The PV array is built up of 28 PV modules arranged in four rows connected in parallel, each row containing seven modules connected in series. The pump/motor is the submersible type designed for long service. Data collected are solar radiation, ambient and water temperature, array output data, inverter output data and performance data such as water flow rate, discharge head and pumped water volume. The overall system performance was 8 %.

PhotovoltaicWaterPumping

5. Low Cost Single Axis Automated Sunlight Tracker

Sunlight tracker is the device used in tracing the movement of the sun where it always faces perpendicularly to the sun. Solar (heating/PV) modules or arrays, mounted with this sunlight tracker, are to obtain the optimum radiation from the sun to maximize the output power. A low cost single axis automated sunlight tracker that tracks the solar radiation with better accuracy is constructed. The design of this tracking system is very simple with less maintenance requirement. Moreover, it is able to support even heavier and larger surface area solar modules (PV & heating), irrespective of the size of the tracker.

SunlightTracker1

6. Solar Car

The UKM solar car has a rated photovoltaic panel capacity of 750 W. The research in solar car applications includes the aerodynamics of the body, material with high strength and light weight, energy management and control systems, and chasis design. The car have entered several solar car tour and managed to obtain top ten positions in the two races that it participated.

SolarCar