6 Sarawakian

Kuching, Sarawak | You Are My Sunshine

Stay Until Night (S.U.N.) - A user-friendly mobile app to track and monitor solar panel performance

High-Level Project Summary

Solar energy system has become more prevalent in our community over the years. People on Earth are able to harvest solar energy more efficiently at an affordable price. However, to constantly monitor and maintain the performance of the solar energy system, users require a reliable tool that can provide them useful information about their solar panels. Our team introduced an user-friendly mobile app called S.U.N. (Stay Until Night), backed with NASA datasets. By simply inserting data at 2 steps, i.e.location and solar system configuration, users can be informed of their potential energy generation at their location and use the data to compare with their panel’s data.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KYQNf_gEVKAoqcm7_DCKhSgHD-o9ubsL/view?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://share.proto.io/PFU8Y8/

Detailed Project Description

4-mins video presentation(Download is required for higher resolution ): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JJWqxPSh8WyyxD3n6y0anoHJn6vVCsey/view?usp=sharing

S.U.N. mobile app:

https://share.proto.io/PFU8Y8/

Subject Matter Interest and Motivation:

Sun radiation is the cleanest and most abundant resource for our Earth. Each hour, there are 430 quintillion Joules of energy from the sun hitting the Earth. However, the total amount of energy that all humans use in a year is only 410 quintillion Joules. In other words, in just a single hour, the amount of power from the sun that strikes the Earth is more than the entire world consumes in a year. However, when looking at the global renewable energy share in Q1 2020, it only made up 28% of total energy consumption and solar energy is less than 9%.

In fact, the solar industry has made progress over the last two decades. According to IRENA’s 2019 report, the global capacity of installed solar power (2000-2018) has increased 43%. The total installed cost of solar PV has decreased drastically about 74% from 2010-2018.

Therefore, our team – 6 Sarawakian wish to identify the issues of solar energy system and do something to increase its penetration rate.

Problem Statement:

We have identified one issue around the tracking and monitoring of solar panel performance after installation. Some solar panels come with a complementary software/app to collect the real time output data of the solar panel. Users who have their solar panel installed rely only on the app alone to tell the performance; they lack another third-party source to check if their solar panel is working as expected and if it is worth the investment. Such data is not easily accessible and understood by the general public. Therefore, we infer this is one possible hindrance that people are less confident to invest in solar panels.

Our solution:

To address this issue, we introduce a user-friendly mobile app, named as Stay Until Night (S.U.N.) which is used to track and monitor solar panel performance using open satellite data source (NASA Power Project database).Users just need to provide three simple information which is their location, type of solar panel and the solar panel surface area. Then, S.U.N. app can generate important data about the location’s sunshine for the users to make necessary decision.

We call it a Super-app as it comprises a lot of useful features that can benefit all kinds of users. If you are a homeowner who already has a solar system in place, you can be benefited by our three main features which are “Your Sunshine”, “Historical Graph” and “Mood of the Day”.

“Your Sunshine” basically shows all the useful and easily-understood data generated by our app’s algorithm from the user’s input. This reliable data can act as a benchmark for the house owner to compare with the similar data in their existing solar app, to check the condition of their solar panel and if it requires repair or maintenance work.

“Historical Graph” displays the solar irradiance of the user’s location for the past 1 week, 1 month and 1 year.

“Mood of the Day” is a weather forecast feature which includes weather information at the user’s location, such as temperature, wind speed, rain, humidity, pressure and cloud cover. We believe this feature is vital for the users to plan their daily energy usage ahead as the total energy generated by their solar panel is strongly dependent on the weather condition.

Detailed description of the features are explained in the section “More about S.U.N. app”.

Future Scope:

While developing this project, we are inspired to extend the target users of the app. Not limited to those who already have a solar panel system, but also beneficial to those who are yet to have one but wish to know more about solar panels and intend to design their first solar system!

For example, students, architects, realtors etc.

Similarly, by providing the needed information, users also can obtain a rough estimate of how much solar power can be produced at their house. Through our “Smart Calculator” features, users are guided on the economic and environmental savings of their solar system. To explore further, users can connect to different OEM and manufacturers of solar panels using our “Catalogue” features. Users can compare between different solar panel and been guided by all the professional. This makes the process to install a solar panel in every house become frictionless.

In future, we will integrate the “Library” feature for the purpose to create awareness and improve knowledge about sunshine. Users can access different sources of information in the form of articles, interviews, and videos to understand more on the solar system. In future, users are also able to create discussions on the topic related to the solar system with their neighbors or friends through our “Chit-chat” corner.

More about S.U.N. App:

Home page (Step 1 - Location input)

Home page requires users to input their location, latitude and longitude. Users can also choose to pinpoint their location through the map. The application will calculate the amount of solar radiation based on the location provided.

System Configuration (Step 2 - Solar Panel System Input)

The second step requires users to input the solar system area, module type, array type, tilt and azimuth. First, solar system area is the size of the solar panel installed and it can be calculate based on as follows:

Size (kW) = Array Area (m²) x 1 kW/m² x Module Efficiency (%)

Second, there are three module types, which are standard (polycrystalline solar panel), premium (monocrystalline solar panel) and thin film solar panel. User can input their module type so that the system will take the particular module efficiency to calculate the results. Besides, for the array type, user can input either fixed (ground mounted) or fixed (roof mounted). In addition, the tilt and azimuth are used to calculate the efficiency of solar’s particular direction.

After users have inserted all the input, they can proceed by clicking the “Result” button.

Under the ‘Result’ tab, after inputting the date, it shows “Your Sunshine” data: Total energy generation, Average solar irradiation, Average sun hour.

The total energy generation can be calculated by use the formula:

E = (A)(F)(R)

E = Energy (kWh)

A = Total solar panel Area (m^2)

F = Solar panel efficiency(%)

R = Annual average solar radiation (kWh/m^2/day)

Then, users can scroll down to view and analyse the “Historical Graph” of solar radiation against the time period (Options: Year, Month, Week). They may gain information such as highest and average solar radiation in the selected time period.

Forecast tab:

Users can use the ‘Forecast’ function to find out the weather for forecasting: temperature, humidity, cloud, wind based on the current date - a.k.a. “Mood of the Day”.

Catalogue tab:

Catalogue is a function to allow users to find different types of solar panels available in the market. In the Catalogue, users can click the ‘see details’ to look at the properties of each solar panel model. Besides, they may use the catalogue to compare the advantages and disadvantages among the models and decide which solar panel is more suitable.

Library tab:

Library is a function to allow users who are new to solar panels or students to learn more about the theory behind the solar system This may include science articles, video, news on government solar energy programs etc.

Summary:

This app enable users to:

Avoid the hassle to browse a huge volume of scientific data sets
Generate quick and useful result in just 2-step data input
Obtain reliable third-party source as benchmark to their existing solar panel apps
Make necessary decision and plan ahead for energy consumption

We believe through our SUN app, solar energy harvesting can be switched from passive to active. With the reliable, easily-understood data, users will be more confident to create meaningful conversation with the solar specialists as well as the larger community.

Space Agency Data

1.What data? What parameters can be used?

Normal condition solar radiation data from NASA Power is used in this project. Its parameters is kWh/m^2/day which means the total solar radiation shines on a meter square area in a day.

2.How do you use it?

It can be used to estimate the solar powered electricity generated within a certain surface area in a day when the team has the data.

3.How does it inspire your project?

At the beginning of this challenge,I had a curious mind on how to predict or estimate the amount of solar powered electricity generated in a day? After I understood the nasa solar radiation per meter square per day data.I was inspired and connected the link between electricity generated and the Nasa data. However, the data is quite hard to read and it is not user-friendly to the public. Therefore, our team has come up with a solution to make the Nasa data visualised and easier to be used by the public.

Hackathon Journey

Describe your SpaceApp experience

Happy and excited when the project is going to be completed.
Through the SpaceApp challenge, I have learned a lot such as teamwork, using Proto. Io to prototype an app
Quite challenging because we are a newly formed team which needs to work virtually for this challenge.

2.What did you learn?

I learned how to use Nasa data as a reference to the solar power electricity generated.
I learn the Solar Irradiation data provided by Nasa website and also learn how to use Proto.Io to prototype the app.
I learn the great fighting spirit from all my young teammates. Everyone is ready to expand their comfort zone to learn new software and new knowledge.

3.What inspires your team to choose this challenge?

The estimation of solar panel electricity.
More and more rural areas of Sarawak tend to rely on solar energy because electrical supply is difficult to reach the rural areas.

4.What was your approach to develop this project?

Discuss and divide the work among the members
Use Proto. Io to prototype our app

5.How did your team resolve challenges?

Do their best in their tasks
Brainstorming
Build a timetable and allocate tasks based on each of the member’s skillsets.

6.Is that anyone you want to thank and why? Acknowledgment

Thanks to the tutors and all the team members, they gave me the support and cleared my doubts before and during the hackathon.
Thanks to all of my teammates for doing their best jobs.
Thanks for the workshop organized which allows all the participants to get to explore new software.