Design of a Portable Demonstration Unit of Solar Power Systems for Analog Electronics Courses

This paper presents a practical approach to improving the knowledge and awareness of solar power systems by using a demonstration unit in an analog electronics course. The unit aids instructors in teaching an introductory-level laboratory experiment focused on solar power harvesting and storage and enables instructors to bring in a functional system into labs or classrooms for upper-class undergraduate electrical and computer engineering students. The unit can be used to demonstrate many of the aspects of solar power systems, helping instructors address sustainability and renewable energy issues. Solar power systems based on photovoltaic (PV) cells have been successfully deployed as renewable energy sources. They have become one of the promising technologies, providing a sustainable energy source as many natural resources are depleting. Due to the importance and wide acceptance of this technology, a demonstration unit has been developed to introduce solar power systems to students at various stages in their education. The approach to improving the students’ knowledge of solar power systems is to integrate students’ knowledge and experiences with basic electric circuits acquired from their first electronics course and to enhance their learning about new technologies through hands-on experiments in labs or classroom demonstrations. The unit would help students better understand renewable energy by teaching them how to obtain environment-friendly energy from sunlight. It will provide students with an opportunity to apply their knowledge in science and technology to solve a real-world problem. The unit includes a custom-designed light fixture consisting of thirty (30) high-power LEDs as an optical energy source, two 1-watt solar panels as the energy harvesting devices, a fixture for adjusting the solar panel angle, a battery charge controller, voltage and current meters for measuring power, a variable resistor and switches for measuring the I-V characteristics of the panel, and a sealed lead-acid battery as energy storage. The overall size of the unit is 21 x 17 inches (533.4 x 431.8 mm) and it would be setup at students’ lab stations or on a cart for the instructor in a class. It would enable any instructor to easily adopt the solar power demonstration unit as a lab and classroom instrument in their analog circuit courses. This paper includes a complete wiring diagram, part numbers and vendor lists, procedures for experiments and demonstration, and measurement data. After all lab experiments have been completed, the students submit a lab report, which includes objectives, results/discussion, and conclusions. All twenty-one junior students have successfully completed the lab. The survey results have shown that they found the lab and demonstration unit beneficial in their understanding of solar power systems.