A Case Study on Renewable Energy Sources, Power Demand, and Policies in the States of South India—Development of a Thermoelectric Model

Vijayaraja Loganathan, Dhanasekar Ravikumar, Rupa Kesavan, Kanakasri Venkatesan, Raadha Saminathan, Raju Kannadasan, Mahalingam Sudhakaran, Mohammed H. Alsharif, Zong Woo Geem and Junhee Hong
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Vijayaraja Loganathan: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sri Sairam Institute of Technology, Chennai 600044, Tamil Nadu, India
Dhanasekar Ravikumar: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sri Sairam Institute of Technology, Chennai 600044, Tamil Nadu, India
Rupa Kesavan: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur 602117, Tamilnadu, India
Kanakasri Venkatesan: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sri Sairam Institute of Technology, Chennai 600044, Tamil Nadu, India
Raadha Saminathan: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sri Sairam Institute of Technology, Chennai 600044, Tamil Nadu, India
Raju Kannadasan: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur 602117, Tamilnadu, India
Mahalingam Sudhakaran: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pillaichavadi 605014, Pondicherry, India
Mohammed H. Alsharif: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
Zong Woo Geem: Department of Smart City & Energy, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Korea
Junhee Hong: Department of Smart City & Energy, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-29

Abstract: This work aims to perform a holistic review regarding renewable energy mix, power production approaches, demand scenarios, power policies, and investments with respect to clean energy production in the southern states of India. Further, a thermoelectric-generator model is proposed to meet rural demands using a proposed solar dish collector technology. The proposed model is based on the idea of employing a parabolic concentrator and a thermoelectric (TE) module to generate electricity directly from the sun’s energy. A parabolic dish collector with an aperture of 1.11 m is used to collect sunlight and concentrate it onto a receiver plate with an area of 1.56 m in the proposed TE solar concentrator. The concentrated solar thermal energy is converted directly into electrical energy by using a bismuth telluride (BiTe)-based TE module mounted on the receiver plate. A rectangular fin heatsink, coupled with a fan, is employed to remove heat from the TE module’s cool side, and a tracking device is used to track the sun continuously. The experimental results show considerable agreement with the mathematical model as well as its potential applications. Solar thermal power generation plays a crucial part in bridging the demand–supply gap for electricity, and it can be achieved through rural electrification using the proposed solar dish collector technology, which typically has a 10 to 25 kW capacity per dish and uses a Stirling engine to generate power. Here the experimentation work generates a voltage of 11.6 V, a current of 0.7 A, and a power of 10.5 W that can be used for rural electrification, especially for domestic loads.

Keywords: renewable energy resources (RESs); power policy; thermoelectric power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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