Comparative Analysis for Solar Energy Based Learning Factory: Case Study for TU Braunschweig and BITS Pilani

Abstract

Now day's solar energy is widely used for replacing the conventional sources of energy for power generation. The electrical power could be generated from photovoltaic (PV) systems. With this approach, an attempt has been made to address the possibility to use solar energy systems for running a learning factory(s) (LF) in Technische Universität (TU), Braunschweig, Germany. For this, the energy consumption of each component of learning factory has been measured experimentally at various operating conditions like idle, loading, and unloading. The same analysis has been carried out for the components of LF at BITS Pilani followed by performing a comparative analysis. It is observed that the solar energy based LF system will works better in Pilani due to higher solar insolation and 300 number of sunny days. In the end, the economic analysis to replace the conventional system with solar system is carried out followed by assessment of carbon emissions of the LF components for two types of electricity. It was found out that the payback period comes out to be 15.7 years and 9.1 years for Pilani and Braunschweig respectively with 6-hours battery backup.