An approach towards a sustainable urban city - utilization of existing rooftop solar energy panels by making use of DC appliances

Abstract

As with the growing GDP, developing market economy of Bangladesh is raising question on energy sustainability. Although having the infinite possibilities of harnessing solar energy, it could not be utilized properly as 90% of the urban rooftop solar panels are idle. The proposed system can work with the existing rooftop solar panels by using them as the source for powering the DC appliances of the apartments and store the excess energy in the 48V battery bank for later use. National grid connection is also kept as a backup source for powering the appliances when solar irradiance is unavailable and the batteries are all drained up. The reason of being exceptional of this project is use of DC appliances instead of converting the DC solar energy into AC which is inefficient and at the same time costly. This project successfully shows that those idle rooftop solar panels can utilized in the most effective and efficient ways while saving money and contributing to the nation’s energy sustainability.