Modeling, Simulation And Feasibility Study Of The Parabolic Dish System Under Malaysia Environment

The primilarily aim of this research is to carry out the fundamental investigation of the performance and feasibility of solar CSP, focusing on Parabolic Dish (PD) type in Malaysia environment. Three main components of the PD system that is under consideration, consists of the concentrator, the receiver, and the Stirling engine. By using a simulation approach and Matlab Simulink as the simulation tool; a background of the PD system is provided, along with a detailed description of the components model. Meanwhile, the performance for the three main components in PD system, is examined under three solar irradiance conditions that are low, medium and high. Besides that, the geometric design for the concentrator and receiver as well as the site location for this study is given through emphasis. Therefore, concentrator in PD system use reflective material with high efficiency to increase the PD concentrator efficiency, choose high value for the intercept factor to reduce loss for the solar intercept by the receiver and select a site with excellent solar irradiation in order to achieve high efficiency and as a result can produce high output power. Thus, by considering the highest Direct Solar Irradiance (DNI) and based on regions, five sites or locations has been chosen for this study. The site or locations with highest DNI in Malaysia are George Town at the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Meanwhile, other locations are Subang in central of Peninsular Malaysia, Kuantan on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Senai in the Southern part of peninsular Malaysia and Kuching located in East Malaysia. To accomplish the research objectives, the performance of the PD system under Malaysia environment and the output from each of the main components were analyzed. In addition, the feasibility study in terms of technical and economic are thoroughly investigated. This includes defining the characteristics and constraints, as well as the overall system performance in monetary term. The PD system are considered feasible if the PD system reaches 54,750 kW of yearly output power, capacity factor reach the value around 25 – 28% and the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) lies between RM1.72/kWh and RM 0.7522/kWh. However, the result of this research has shown that the system is technically feasible but not economically feasible. T he yearly output power, the annual energy and the capacity factor shows that the PD system in Malaysia are not capable of meeting the demand reliably. Thus, the new developed model for the 25kW PD system and the finding of this research can provide useful information for Malaysia regulators on the potential of CSP development in Malaysia or in other equator region countries

Development of Mobile App (P_Lab) for Enhancing the Student Understanding In Practical Work

Mobile applications which are also known as mobile apps is a software program which is developed for mobile devices such as smartphone and tablets. Recently, the development of mobile apps for the educational purpose has been expanding rapidly. It becomes as one of a powerful tool for transforming learning and for improving the quality of education, enhancing the student understanding, helping affirm as well as advance the relationships between educators and students. Among the incredible number of mobile apps, there are a large number of apps for educational purposes. However, there is still a lack of mobile apps which focus on enhancing student understanding in Practical Work (PW). PW is important and plays a central role in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It is because PW can develop hand on skill and at the same time as a bridging between theory and practice. However, most of the student cannot do well in PW because; students are not interested to read lab sheets, lack on preparation as well as lack on the understanding in theory which is related to PW. Therefore, P_Lab is developed with aim for enhancing the student understanding in the PW. P_Lab is a mobile app that is developed from AppMakr.com which is a do-it-yourself platform and the process requires less coding knowledge. To study the effectiveness of the P_Lab, pre-test, post-test and a questionnaire has been given to the Electrical Engineering student in Politeknik Melaka. Results showed that students made extensive use of resources provided from P_Lab, considered the P-Lab to be beneficial for enhancing their understanding in practical work, and found that it is easy to use with minimal support and training. An analysis showed a statistically significant increase in understanding scores for practical work-related questions after the introduction of P_Lab mobile app

Performance Comparison for Parabolic Dish Concentrating Solar Power in High Level DNI Locations with George Town, Malaysia

Parabolic Dish (PD), Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) generation has appeared as one of Renewable Energy (RE) that is efficient and trustworthy. As technology moves into commercialization, it is necessary to study the performance of PD system at various locations. Current literature on PD especially for tropical environment such as Malaysia and locations with Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) lower than 1500kWh/m2/year is still scarce and scattered. Most of the studies are focusing on the performance at location with DNI higher than 2100 kWh/m2/year. Therefore, this paper presents the performance of PD in tropical environment of Malaysia and four other locations such as; Thailand, Korea, Australia and United States of America (USA). System Advisor Model (SAM) was used to analyze the performance of PD for selection countries. The simulation result shows that the annual energy production for George Town in Malaysia is 21,845kWh, and shows areas of high DNI have high power output such as Phoenix, USA 184,189kWh; Canberra, Australia 121,536kWh; Bangkok, Thailand is 48,736kWh and Inch'on, Korea 45,450kWh

Development of Design Parameters for the Concentrator of Parabolic Dish (PD) Based Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) under Malaysia Environment

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies has the ability to harness solar energy for producing the electricity. The development becomes increasingly important for economies in many countries, especially in the regions that is hot, dry and received excellent solar radiation. Meanwhile, among the CSP technologies, Parabolic Dish (PD) system has demonstrated a high thermal efficiency and the implementation of PD concentrator will result in sustainable energy generation with emission free operation. However, PD based CSP technology is still an emerging industry in Malaysia with no operation plant installed so far. It still needs thorough review before developing the PD technologies under the Malaysia tropical environment. Therefore a Matlab Simulink is used in this work to design the concentrator for the PD 1kW system under Malaysia environment. This paper elaborates the methodology utilized to develop the concentrator for the PD 1kW system and outlines the parameter that's used for increasing the efficiency of PD based CSP under Malaysia tropical environment. From the simulation result, it is suggested to used 3.7 meters for the concentrator diameter and aluminium as the reflective material for the concentrator. As a conclusion the size and the reflective material for the concentrator are essential. Therefore, it should be taken into account before developing the geometric parameters for PD concentrator under Malaysia environment

The Influence of Concentrator Size, Reflective Material and Solar Irradiance on the Parabolic Dish Heat Transfer

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) can meet the clean energy needs for power generation at a cost-competitive rate. Among the CSP technologies, Parabolic Dish (PD) has demonstrated the highest energy conversion efficiency. PD system produces electricity by using solar energy that is transferred from concentrator to receiver, to drive a Stirling engine and the generator. The concentrator in a PD system is used for focusing the solar radiation into the aperture of the receiver that is integrated in the Stirling engine. Stirling engine then converts the absorbed solar energy from the receiver into mechanical power by expanding the working gas in the cylinder. Then, the Stirling engine converts a linear motion into a rotary motion to turn the generator and produce electricity. This study is carried out to analyze the effect of the size, reflecting material and the solar radiation or Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) to the rate of heat transfer from the concentrator to the receiver in the PD systems. For this purpose, a Matlab Simulink was used, in which the different rate of DNI in George Town, Penang Malaysia were taken into account. The study showed that the rate of heat transfer for the PD systems depended greatly on the size, reflecting material and the DNI of the area. These results are useful to help a better understanding of the relationship between size and reflecting material to the rate of heat transfer for a PD system under different DNI level

A Review of Parabolic Dish-Stirling Engine System Based on Concentrating Solar Power

A solar thermal technology which is also known as concentrating solar power (CSP) uses thermal energy from the sun to generate electricity. The electricity generation from solar thermal can be produced with four technologies of concentrating solar systems which are parabolic trough, linear Fresnel reflector, solar tower, and parabolic dish-Stirling engine system. This paper reviews the parabolic dish-stirling based on CSP technology by taking into account the performance, the global performance, site for parabolic dish and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Generally, the parabolic dish applications have barriers in terms of the technology and the high capital cost compared to the others CSP technologies.

A Review of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) In Malaysian Environment

Malaysia has an abundance of solar energy. While the magnitude for average daily solar irradiations in Malaysia is around 4.21–5.56 kWhm−2, the sunshine duration is more than 2,200 hours per year. However, the focus on solar energy in Malaysia is mainly on the Photovoltaic (PV) panel to generate electricity. There is still lack of thorough investigation in implementing the solar thermal, such as the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in Malaysian environment. This paper reviews the CSP technology and the potential of developing CSP plant in the Malaysian environment by taking into account the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and a few geographical aspects

A Review Of Concentrating Solar Power (Csp) In Malaysia Environment

Malaysia has an abundance of solar energy. While the magnitude for average daily solar irradiations in Malaysia is around 4.21–5.56 kWhm−2, the sunshine duration is more than 2,200 hours per year. However, the focus on solar energy in Malaysia is mainly on the Photovoltaic (PV) panel to generate electricity. There is still lack of thorough investigation in implementing the solar thermal, such as the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in Malaysian environment. This paper reviews the CSP technology and the potential of developing CSP plant in the Malaysian environment by taking into account the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and a few geographical aspects

Study The Feasibility Of Parabolic Dish (Pd) From Several Prospective Criteri In Malaysia Environment

Promoting the use of Renewable Energy (RE) resources has become one of the top government agendas throughout the world. However, in order to develop RE such as Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in Malaysia, several key factors that affect the performance of this system should be thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this paper aims to study the feasibility of implementing Parabolic Dish (PD) based on CSP in Malaysia environment by evaluating the CSP technologies, Meteorological data, Direct Solar Irradiance (DNI), global Parabolic Dish development, sites selection, and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of the PD system. Therefore, an innovative development and research of Parabolic Dish CSP should be carried out with an in depth consideration on both technical and economic aspects to ensure that the Parabolic Dish technology development will be as matured as the other CSP technologies