Standalone Solar Power Generation to Supply as Backup Power for Samara University in Ethiopia

Abstract

The increasing demand for energy, the continuous reduction in existing sources of fossil fuels and the growing concern regarding environment pollution, have pushed mankind to explore new technologies for the production of electrical energy using clean, renewable sources, such as solar Energy, wind energy, etc. Among the renewable energy sources, solar energy affords great potential for conversion into electric power, able to ensure an important part of the electrical energy needs of the people. Ethiopia generates most of its electricity from Hydro power plants on the Blue Nile. In 2011, over 96% of Ethiopia's electricity was from hydropower. Although Ethiopia is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources and has a potential to generate over 60,000 MW of electric power from hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal sources, currently it only has approximately 2,300 MW of installed generation capacity to serve a population of over 95 million people. The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity (MoWIE) set to generate 300MW from solar energy in GTP II period (2015/16 to 2019/20).. The Samara University is the only university surrounded by rich and untapped natural resources. The temperature of weather of Samara University, located in Samara, Afar Regional state, Ethiopia, varies from 30 0 C to 35 0 C from September to March and 40 0 C to 50 0 C from April to August. The average solar radiation is semera is nearly 7 kWh/m 2 /day. The objective of this paper is to design a system to extract solar power using PV array, to supply power for Samara University as backup power to main power supply. The power generated from solar energy will be used to supply during shut down of main power supply from grid.