Ecosense installed Renewable Energy Lab at Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad

Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad (IIT Dharwad) is an autonomous premier Science and Technology Institute established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in 2016 under the mentorship of IIT Bombay. Academic activities at IIT Dharwad commenced in July 2016 with B.Tech. course being offered in three core branches, namely, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

Ecosense supplied “Renewable Energy Lab” to Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Dharwad.

1. Wind Energy Training system

Wind Energy Training System is a scaled down version of actual standalone Wind Turbine power plant. This system facilitates the students with working and configurable model of wind turbine. This system gives the insight about individual components and consequences of changing the operating points of any wind turbine defined in terms of wind speed and pitch angle. Students can learn concepts like I-V characteristic, cut-off, cut-in speed etc.

This system is developed such that it can work inside a closed laboratory with an artificial wind generating unit, which makes it weather proof. User can access and utilize the system capability at any time of the day without worrying about the actual climatic conditions. This system uses a big fan mounted on top of an Induction motor, the speed of which can be controlled by a Variable Frequency Drive. User can control the speed of motor which further controls the Wind speed using the Variable Frequency Drive. The variable wind speed prompts Wind Turbine to convert Wind Energy into Electrical energy and outputs three phase electrical output. The three-phase electrical output is connected with a three-phase rectifier which converts electrical output from AC to DC. The DC output is then further connected to a Charge controller and Battery. A DC load can be connected at Charge controller output. The Battery is further connected to a home inverter which provides clean useable AC electricity.

2. Solar Thermal Training System

Solar Thermal Training System is a small model of real time water heating system and can be used for the characterization and different heat transfer analysis. Different aspects like efficiency, overall heat loss coefficient and heat removal factor and their corresponding calculations can be demonstrated with the help of this system. Special feature of this system is to perform experiments with different wind speeds, different fluid temperatures and different flow speeds.

This system can be divided in three parts viz. main collector system, measuring unit and artificial light unit. Main Collector system consists of a Flat Plate collector with temperature, flow and pressure sensors to measure temperature, flow and pressure of fluid. Measuring unit consists of a measurement panel displaying different parameters and Artificial light unit/ heat generating unit is a Halogen lamp panel to uniformly illuminate the flat plate collector inside a Lab.

Artificial Light facilitates a user to do his/her work without depending on climatic changes in the environment.

Modular and scalable design of the system allows user to move the system in and out of lab easily and conduct experiment with artificial lights as well as actual sunlight. Using the system, a user will be able to study and understand working and operation of a flat plate collector water heating system and its two modes of operation.

The system helps students in practical understanding of various technical parameters such as Overall heat loss coefficient, heat removal factor and efficiency at different varying input parameters like radiation, wind speed, inclination angle etc. The system has inbuilt sensors which measure parameters like pressure, temperature and flowrate placed at different locations in the system. The system has a datalogging device which automatically records and saves all the readings.

3. Thermal Energy Storage system with Solar Concentrator training system for water heating.

The thermal energy storage (TES) can be defined as the temporary storage of thermal energy at high or low temperatures. The TES is not a new concept, and at has been used for centuries. Energy storage can reduce the time or rate mismatch between energy supply & demand and it plays an important role in energy conservation. Energy storage improves performance of energy systems by smoothing supply and increasing reliability. For example, storage would improve the performance of a power generating plant by load levelling. The higher efficiency would lead to energy conservation and improve cost effectiveness. Some of the renewable energy sources can only provide energy intermittently. Although the sun provides an abundant, clean and safe source of energy, the supply of this energy is periodic following yearly and diurnal cycles; it is intermittent, often unpredictable and diffused. Its density is low compared with the energy flux densities found in conventional fossil energy devices like coal or oil-fired furnaces. The demand for energy, on the other hand, is also unsteady following yearly and diurnal cycles for both industrial and personal needs. Therefore, the need for the storage of solar energy cannot be avoided.

Customisation for IIT Dharwad

For IIT Dharwad, we did a customisation at the water heating end. Instead of heating water from immersion rod the water supplied to PCM is heated vis a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector system making it a Solar Thermal Energy Storage System.

Demonstration of Equipments Conducted

Engineers of Ecosense conducted a detailed demonstration of the systems. The demonstration and training session was joined by faculty members and students of the department focussing on how to get the best results from the system.

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