Literature Review Of Autonomous Solar Power Systems
Due to the low availability of power supply in numerous regions, especially rural areas; some people opt for living autonomously without being dependent on the traditional power supplies. Thus, the term “off the grid” has been created. It is referred as “stand-alone power system”, and it is designed to assist inhabitants to get access to power sources without the support of remote infrastructure, such as an electrical grid.
The sources used for this literature review are selected Based on their a unique design that enhances the efficiency of the energy management in autonomous solar houses, called SMBPC, stands for stochastic model based predictive control, in "A Stochastic Model Based Energy Management System for Off-Grid Solar Houses” and “Risk-Conscious Design of Off-Grid Solar Energy Houses” both written by Hu. Hachem demonstrate how a roof design, tilt and orientation angle influence solar potential and energy performance in off-grid homes in "Design of Roofs for Increased Solar Potential BIPV/T Systems and their Applications to Housing Units”. Mohammadzadeh analyzed roof design’s impact on performance with statistics and equations, and by utilizing simulation modeling technology that assist engineers to grasp whether a specific part of a system will fail or not and under which circumstances. Kemp as well as Mandelli convey how essential building autonomous construction in rural area is. All of these articles focus on how crucial off-grid system is and the different methods adopted in order to obtain the maximum energy out of autonomous houses.
On the one hand, Hu, an assistant professor at Portland state university, presents that ensuring power accessibility and keeping up thermal comfort are the two most critical performance indicators in an autonomous house structure; however, investigation in an enormous renewable power system is required in order to keep up a steady thermal comfort level. Then, it represents the concept of stochastic model that highly contributes in being in charge of power storage in batteries, and allocating energy evenly in order to maintain stability between energy reliability and adequate thermal comfort (Hu, 2012). In another article called “Risk-Conscious Design of Off-Grid Solar Energy Houses”, Hu states that depending upon reinforcement generators or using a huge power storage network is vital to carry out off-grid status as ambient weather conditions and inhabitant needs represent some of the major challenges to sustainable houses performance. Consequently, he concludes that establishing a proper design weather file should be taken into consideration before constructing an off-grid residence. Then, he says that stochastic model should be implemented to minimize the possible risks when an energy management system is installed by distributing energy to distinct individual sections in the off-grid house during functioning (Hu, 2009).
On the other hand, Hachem, an assistant professor at Calgary university, demonstrates new methods in designing roofs and their application for the sake of rising solar potential. Then, he mentions the effect of each roof shape design, tilt and orientation angle either on energy performance or flexibility (Hachem, 2012). This article is related to another one written by Mohammadzadeh, He emphasizes how important the roof is in self-reliable construction development due to various reasons such as that roof design may result in minimizing energy consumption and producing energy as it is a priority to maximize the usage of all the construction spaces, involving the roofs. Hence, he presents a developed roof structure, so that its performance maximizes the performed functions. Some tests were made in order to find out the weather effect and design limits that greatly affect energy and performance, thus most of U. S. cities utilize energy simulations for unique roofs and conventional ones to compare and examine them (Mohammadzadeh, 2016).
Regarding Kemp, in his book “The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living”, he illustrates some of the reasons why and when an alternative source of electricity should be established. Then, he mentions The Renewable Energy Handbook that focuses on the uncommon needs of off-grid and rural energy independence (Kemp, 2005). Later on, he describes an off-grid house that minimizes the consumption of fossil-fuel energy built by William H. Kemp, an engineer and the author of this book. Similarly, Mandelli, an Italian author, initially started his article with addressing the importance of electricity supply to all societies, yet its distribution is not even throughout the whole areas as some of the rural regions confront low quality of the electric supply service (Mandelli, 2016). Thus, these poor areas should adopt off-grid system in order to have access to energy resources. Then, het comes up with an extensive framework to this issue and an analytical analysis of the literature based on the examination of 350 papers published from 2000 to 2014.
