Faculty mentor:
Dr. Haitham Abu-Rub
Dr. Dallia Ali
Dr. Atif Iqbal
Undergraduate researchers:
Morcos Metry
Mohamed Koleed
Elkansa Kousa
Asma Gouba
As a case study, the project examined the Texas A&M University at Qatar building due to the availability of the relevant data. A hybrid energy system that employs both solar photovoltaic and hydropower generation, together with power from the utility grid was proposed in this project to provide the Texas A&M at Qatar building with its power needs.
This project examined the feasibility of implementing solar panels on the roof of the building to supplement a portion of its power needs. Moreover, the flow of washing water together with any collected rainwater were utilized to generate electricity using hydropower generation system. DC/DC converters were used to step up and stabilize the voltage from the RES. The DC/DC converters were connected to a DC bus which was connected to a central inverter. The output of which was fed to an AC bus, which was connected to both the load and the grid. The project will also investigate the utilization of energy storage, which acted as an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) system, to ensure energy security for the building during accidental power shortages. Finally, a control unit was designed to monitor the energy flow between the renewable energy sources (RES), the storage, the grid and the load.
Throughout the year, work has been done on different assignments to help define the scope of this project. In this project, many studies were carried out including literature review that included a customer needs study and an ethnographic study, a detailed project design and development Process through a functional model, a process of concept generation and a process of concept selection, a detailed system design system and modeling was provided, experimental results were achieved and a conclusion that states the recommendations was completed.