Development of a Smart Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Hybrid Renewable Mini-grids

Hybrid renewable mini-grids have emerged as a viable solution for providing reliable, environmentally friendly electricity to remote communities. An affordable and grid-quality supply of energy can open new possibilities for socioeconomic progress. As part of a joint project between South Africa’s Eastern Cape province and Germany’s state of Lower Saxony a Photovoltaic (PV) hybrid mini-grid is developed in the municipality of Upper Blinkwater in Eastern Cape for a rural community of 70 households with 90 percent living off of social grants and no access to the main national grid. The aim of this work is to develop a smart Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF) for hybrid renewable mini-grids by integrating cutting-edge technologies in a scalable platform of replicable solutions towards connecting the mini-grid with diverse stakeholders with enhanced observability of both generation and consumption profiles. The MEF provides the opportunity to streamline the flow of real-time energy data (generation, consumption, and storage) from the system to generate accurate and high-resolution data-driven load profiles for rural households. Simultaneously, the interrelation between energy access and social development will be studied and analyzed

Blue- and red-shifts of V2O5 phonons in NH3 environment by in situ Raman spectroscopy

A layer of ~30 nm V2O5/100 nm-SiO2 on Si was employed in the in situ Raman spectroscopy in the presence of NH3 effluent from a thermal decomposition of ammonium acetate salt with the salt heated at 100 °C. When the layer is placed at 25 °C, we observe a reversible red-shift of 194 cm−1 V2O5 phonon by 2 cm−1 upon NH3 gas injection to saturation, as well as a reversible blue-shift of the 996 cm−1 by 4 cm−1 upon NH3 injection. However when the sensing layer is placed at 100 °C, the 194 cm−1 remains un-shifted while the 996 cm−1 phonon is red-shifted. There is a decrease/increase in intensity of the 145 cm−1 phonon at 25 °C/100 °C when NH3 interacts with V2O5 surface. Using the traditional and quantitative gas sensor tester system, we find that the V2O5 sensor at 25 °C responds faster than at 100 °C up to 20 ppm of NH3 beyond which it responds faster at 100 °C than at 25 °C. Overall rankings of the NH3 gas sensing features between the two techniques showed that the in situ Raman spectroscopy is faster in response compared with the traditional chemi-resistive tester. Hooke’s law, phonon confinement in ~51 nm globular particles with ~20 nm pore size and physisorption/chemisorption principles have been employed in the explanation of the data presented.A Akande acknowledges CSIR National Centre for Nano- Structured Materials for PhD Studentship position (project number HGER27S and HGER50S) and the National Research Foundation through KIC150917142805 travel grant.http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727am2019Physic

Influence of V and Mn doping on the electrical transport properties of A Cr +1.2 at.% Ga alloy

M.Sc.Impurity resonance scattering effects are investigated in the Cr-Ga alloy system. This system has a triple point on its magnetic phase diagram where the paramagnetic (P), incommensurate (I) and commensurate (C) spin-density-wave (SDW) states co-exist. Alloying Cr with the nonmagnetic nontransitional element Ga affects the magnetic properties of Cr in a very unique way. In order to investigate the presence of resonant impurity scattering effects in binary Cr-Ga alloys, electrical resistivity measurements were carried out in the temperature range between 6 K and 85 K. The results of the investigation show: • A nonmonotonic increase in the residual resistivity of the Cr-Ga system with an increase in the Ga content, due to the presence of resonant impurity scattering of conduction electrons. • A low-temperature resistivity minimum observed in some of the Cr-Ga alloys, taken as further evidence for the presence of resonant impurity scattering effects on the conduction electrons. The impurity resonance scattering effects on the electrical resistivity of a Cr + 1.2 at.% Ga alloy, doped with V and Mn to tune the Fermi level through the impurity level, are also investigated. The investigation was complemented by thermal expansion and velocity of sound measurements in the temperature range 77 K to 450 K for the Cr + 1.2 at.% Ga alloy only. This specific Ga concentration was chosen to allow for studying resonant scattering effects in both the ISDW and CSDW phases of the system. This is possible because concentration of 1.2 at.% Ga is just above the triple point concentration. Doping with Mn to increase the electron concentration (eA) drives the alloy deeper into the CSDW phase region of the phase diagram, while doping with V, on the other hand, will drive the alloy towards the ISDW phase region. The results of the study are summarized as follows: • Two relatively sharp peaks, attributed to resonant impurity scattering effects, are observed in the curve of the residual resisitivity as a function of dopant concentration in the ISDW phase of the ternary (Cr0.988Ga0.012)1-xVx and (Cr0.988Ga0.012)1-yMny alloy systems. v • At 0 K the (Cr0.988Ga0.012)1-yMny alloy system transforms from the ISDW to the CSDW phase at y ≅ 0.0032, giving a CSDW phase for y > 0.0032. A peak is observed in the residual resistivity at about this Mn content. This peak can then either be ascribed to a jump occurring in the residual resistivity when the CSDW phase is entered from the ISDW phase or to resonant scattering effects. The conclusion is that the peak is rather related to the latter effect. • The resistivity as a function of temperature of the above two ternary alloy series show well-developed or weak minima at low temperatures for some of the samples. This is taken as further evidence of the influence of impurity resonant scattering effects on the resistivity of these alloys. • The resistivity and thermal expansion coefficient of the polycrystalline Cr0.988Ga0.012 alloy of the present study behaves anomalously close to the ISDW-CSDW phase transition temperature and warrant further investigation. The concentration-temperature magnetic phase diagram of the (Cr0.988Ga0.012)(Mn,V) alloy system was constructed from the magnetic transition temperatures obtained from electrical resistivity measurements. Theoretical analysis of the phase diagram was done using the two-band imperfect nesting model of Machida and Fujita. The results show: • A triple point at (0.21 at.% V, 225 K) where the ISDW, CSDW and P phases coexist on the magnetic phase diagram. • The curvature of all three theoretically calculated phase transition lines in the region of the triple point is of the same sign as that observed experimentally. • The theoretical fit is very good for the ISDW-P and ISDW-CSDW phase transition boundaries, while there is some discrepancy for the CSDW-P phase transition line. This may be attributed to the fact that the theory is one dimensional and that it does not include electron-hole pair breaking effects due to impurity scattering and also not effects of changes in the density of states due to alloying.Dr. A.R.E Prinsloo Prof. H.L. Albert

Effect of Accelerated Thermal Ageing on the Selective Solar Thermal Harvesting Properties of Multiwall Carbon Nanotube/Nickel Oxide Nanocomposite Coatings

Varying amounts of dispersed multiwalled carbon nanotubes in NiO have been used to develop composites that absorb the solar energy very well but lose very little through emission. Determination of absorptance, αsol, and emissivity, εther, from such selective solar absorbers shows that the optimum efficiency of 71% can be attained when about 10 mg of MWCNTs are composited with NiO. One such absorber was subjected to thermal ageing tests. The performance criterion (PC) limit for passing the test when simulated for 25 years is (−Δα+0.25Δε)≤0.05. It was found that the typical absorber had a PC value of −0.01. This value is much better than the passing limit. Raman spectra of the typical absorber before and after the thermal ageing test showed a reduced intensity in the D and G bands of disordered and graphitic carbon, respectively but an enhancement of the NiO bands indicating loss of carbon atoms due to thermal ageing tests. Simple equations are derived determining the proportion of carbon atoms that are lost and the proportion of carbon atoms that remains in the absorber; both of these are in agreement with the original carbon composition before the thermal ageing test. It is reported that the typical absorber will retain 63% of the carbon after 25 years