ALBERT

Description: Photovoltaic (PV) panels installation has become one of the major technologies used for energy production worldwide. Knowledge and competitive prices are the main reasons for the spread usage and expanded exploiting of PV systems. Accordingly, this creates several challenges for manufacturers and customers, mainly, the quality of PV panels to withstand environmental conditions during service lifetime. Hence, the quality of PV panels is a vital aspect. By thinking of PV power plants, it appears that some factors should be considered, like the developing microcracks (µcracks). An issue like that increases the chances of having power loss during the operation phase. Notably, µcracks develop in different shapes and orientations; the variation depends on what causes them. This study is a presentation and summary of data collected from different projects in Jordan to describe the effect of each µcracks shape on power loss, aiming to give decision makers an indication to decide whether to replace the faulty panels or not, depending on their own conditions and projects sizes. Hence, in this study, it was found that the µcracks have impacted power loss differently and recorded power reduction of percentages of 0.82–3.21% for poly-crystalline technology. Variation in power degradation depends on the module situation; whether it is stocked in facility or operated on-site. In the mono-crystalline technology case, the power losses varied between 0.55% and 0.9%, with the exception of some samples from both technologies that have effects other than microcracks, which affected power severely. Furthermore, a general overview is provided for µcracks before installation.

Description: The transport sector is a major consumer of energy, and thus a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The introduction of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has helped in mitigating some of the energy demands presented by the transportation system, though the electrical energy still needs to be secured through conventional and renewable resources. Searching for a new power source for vehicles has become necessary, due to incentives and policy initiatives to counter fossil greenhouse gas emissions. This study provides a new efficient Photovoltaic (PV) powered transportation system, which may be utilized instead of traditional public transportation systems. The main idea is to transform the transportation systems used by large campuses into green systems by deploying educated scheduling approaches and utilizing existing renewable energy infrastructures. The German Jordan University (GJU) campus was chosen as a case study. The presented work describes a comprehensive methodology to exploit the full capacity of the existing PV power plant coupled with the rescheduling of the transportation fleet to meet the energy availability and consumption demand. The proposed technique audits the existing renewable energy power plants for optimum operation. The results validate the efficiency of the proposed system and its ability to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to traditional transportation systems with an acceptable payback period.

Description: The world is currently experiencing major advancement in the electrification of both the industrial and commercial sectors. This is part of an effort to reduce reliance on combustible fuels, reduce emissions, integrate renewable energy systems and increase efficiency. Due to the complexity of modern circuits and systems, any circuit’s design should start with proper simulation and device selection, to reduce overall cost and time of prototyping, both of which require accurate and thorough device characterization. Wide bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices offer superior characteristics over conventional devices, including faster switching speeds, higher breakdown voltage, lower losses, and higher operating temperature. These properties call for special test circuits and procedures for accurate characterization. In this work, custom characterization circuits and fixtures, suitable for WBG devices are designed, tested, and described. The circuits measure several of the main characteristics of voltage controlled WBG power switches. Different technology devices were tested and characterized.

Description: Limited fuel resources and the huge negative impact on the environment from using fossil fuels have led to an urgency to utilize the most energy efficient solutions for public transportation. Environmentally sustainable solutions can deliver the same benefits of traditional systems, but without the negative impacts. The Bus Rapid Transit Project of Amman (Amman BRT) is used as a case study. Proposed measures include using electric buses instead of diesel ones, and installing elevated photovoltaic systems above buses parking and routes, in addition to using LED street lighting. The feasibility study of applying the proposed measures on the Amman BRT project showed that only 7.1 years is needed to payback the incremental investment throughout this transformation. Capital expenditure (CAPEX) is higher than the baseline buses, while operational expenditure (OPEX) is much lower, resulting in a 32% lower total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are reduced by 27,203.68 metric ton of CO2 per year and 408,055.26 metric tons for the 15-year lifetime of the project.

Description: Brackish water desalination is widely used to supply fresh water; reverse osmosis (RO) desalination units are considered as the most widespread technology used for this purpose due to the advantage of low power consumption. On the other hand, renewable energy resource integration into the power systems is an important trend, which serves energy supply especially in rural areas and non-stable power supply places. RO units powered from Photovoltaic (PV) systems are considered one of the reliable solutions in places where both water and energy demands are issues to be improved. In this research, the idea of storing energy in water salinity is introduced and discussed to reduce conventional battery storage banks. This concept depends on changing the pressure of the RO unit based on solar profiles to get high distilled water at high solar radiation times (high pressure applied) and low distilled water at low radiation times (low pressure values). Then, the produced water is mixed to get an acceptable salinity in the produced water. This research was applied on a small-scale RO testing unit with a pressure that changed from 40 to 60 bar, and, as a result, the water conductivity changed from 1.7 to 1.1 mS/cm. This was the base line to investigate the possibility of curtailing the battery storage system of the selected plant. Following the variable pressure scenarios, energy storage capacity was reduced by a factor of 20%.

Description: Air conditioning is becoming increasingly important in the energy supply of buildings worldwide. There has been a dramatic increase in energy requirements for cooling buildings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This is before taking the effects of climate change into account, which will also entail a sharp increase in cooling requirements. This paper presents the potential of using a solar thermal absorption cooling system in Sub-Mediterranean Climate. Four sites in Jordan are now equipped with water-lithium bromide (H₂O-LiBr) absorption chillers with a total nominal capacity of 530 kW. The focus of the paper was on the pilot system at the German Jordanian University (GJU) campus with a cooling capacity of 160 kW. The system was designed and integrated in order to support two existing conventional compression chillers with a nominal cooling capacity of 700 kW. The system was economically evaluated based on the observed cooling capacity results with a Coefficient of Performance (COP) equals 0.32, and compared with the values observed for a COP of 0.79 which is claimed by the manufacturer. Several techniques were implemented to evaluate the overall economic viability in-depth such as present worth value, internal rate of return, payback period, and levelized cost of electricity. The aforementioned economic studies showed that the absorption cooling system is deemed not feasible for the observed COP of 0.32 over a lifespan of 25 years. The net present value was equal to −137,684 JD and a payback period of 44 years which exceeds the expected lifespan of the project. Even for an optimal operation of COP = 0.79, the discounted payback period was equal to 23 years and the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) was equal to 0.65 JD/kWh. The survey shows that there are several weaknesses for applying solar thermal cooling in developing countries such as the high cost of these systems and, more significantly, the lack of experience for such systems.

Description: To tackle climate change and secure energy supplies, many countries invest heavily on wind energy as it is a clean source and is becoming more cost effective with the technological advancement and increased capacity per unit installed. The investigation of the availability of wind resources is an essential step of any feasibility study of a wind farm project and is vital for securing financial resources. With this intent, the main aspects for designing a wind farm at Ajloun (north of Jordan) is investigated and wind energy potential is determined based on available wind data. Based on the site characteristic, the required infrastructure is highlighted, including the turbine array layout and the pattern of connections with the external transmission lines. The investigation of the feasibility of the project includes an appraisal of social and environmental consequences of constructing the wind farm project. The results show that the selected location for the wind farm is encouraging and has a promising profit potential. The findings estimate the annual electricity generation of the wind farm at 379659.51 MWh, with a breakeven selling point of around $30.03/MWh, at a highly competitive price. However, with an estimated selling price of $36.65/MWh on average, it will settle the interest rate demanded by the banks that have an internal rate of return of 7%. No major issues with geotechnical and environmental issues were identified with respect to the project.

Description: Power quality issues have recently become a source of major concern due to the large increase in load demand and the addition of various sources of disturbance at the distribution level. Power quality mainly refers to voltage quality. Sudden load variations can lead to a fall in the line voltage magnitude, creating what is called a voltage sag. Many solutions have been proposed and implemented for voltage sag compensation. Power electronics-based solutions such as grid-connected converters and AC/DC schemes are considered basic units for transient voltage fault ride-through capability. This paper describes a multifunctional intelligent bidirectional electrical vehicle (EV) charger that is able to charge the EV battery at different power ratings in addition to voltage sag compensation. The performance of the proposed system is verified and validated through MATLAB/Simulink simulations (R2020A). The proposed solution can effectively meet three main requirements: charging the EV battery at different power ratings, detecting the voltage sag event, and providing the required active and reactive power compensation for voltage sag compensation.