Providing Power with Renewable Energy
Alicia Massara, Chad Barrick, Charles Williams,
Joseph Rubaker, Sabrina Kosnik, and
Sarah Ingerick
Objectives
The objectives of the renewable energy kit for Gan-
non’s maintenance building is threefold:
Reduce their electricity bill
Show case Gannon’s engineering programs with stu-
dent design/run renewable energy project on one of the
focus points on campus
Provide an on-going platform for students’ engagement
and undergraduate research activities
Location
The site for our renewable energy kit is on the roof of
the maintenance building located on 314 Sassafras
Street on campus.
The maintenance department will be able to utilize the
electrical energy collected from both the solar panels and
the wind turbine. They will be able to:
Charge the batteries of their handheld
tools
Charge the rechargeable battery for
their electric golf cart
Station Overview
1.4kW solar-wind hybrid renewable energy station sys-
tem using solar and wind power.
The proposed hybrid renewable system consists of 1
kW solar panels (10*100W) and a 400W small wind tur-
bine.
The reason for choosing this hybrid style is, on aver-
age, there are 157 sunny days per year in Erie and the
city is also well know for being very windy
The two will complement each other nicely, because
on very sunny days it is often not windy and vice ver-
sa.
The graph below shows the average wind speeds in
Erie throughout the year (2016-2017)
As seen in the graph above, wind speeds average
around 10 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.
Why the Maintenance Building?
Showcases students’ engineering projects
The scale of the project is just big enough to cover
noticeable percentage of maintenance department’s
electricity bill
Manageable size of the project opens multiple future
projects for undergraduate students to get involved
It is a good place to promote renewable energy at
Gannon
Installation
The solar panels have already been installed on the
roof of the building
Budget
Budget Justification
The total estimated cost for installing the 1.4kW hybrid
renewable energy power system is around $3,000
Saving $300 a year means that after 10 years, this
station would be producing “free” energy for the knight
club; project evolution to a new location makes this
budget justification less clear
Funding
$1,500 from NSF S-STEM grant covers the main cost
of purchasing the system package.
$50 from Ms. Gretchen Fairley
$1,500 from SGA (Student Government Association)
covers the remaining purchases (i.e. turbine mount,
electrical wiring)
Future Educational Opportunities
While becoming a new focal point to campus, it can al-
so serve as a great starting point for multiple projects
for Engineering and Computer Science, such as:
Automatic solar tracking system: future students could
design a system that would be able to rotate and posi-
tion the solar panels to track the sun to produce the
most energy
A real-time monitoring system: students could design a
system that would be able to measure how much elec-
tricity the system is producing as well as if any mainte-
nance is needed
With the help of the maintenance crew, the mainte-
nance building can be utilized and turned into a real-life
platform for some very intriguing projects in these fields.
https://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/12/intermittency-of-wind-and-solar-is-it-only-intermittently-a-problem/
Item name Quan-
tity
Brief specs
Wind turbine generator 1 Rated power 400W, rotor diameter
1.2 meter
Turbine hybrid controller 1 Can connect to solar panel & wind
generator, 12/24V DC
Poly solar panel 10 100W each, 26.16*39.3*1.37 in
Pure sine wave inverter 1 1500W, 110/220V AC
Item Vendor cost funding source Paid
Solar-wind hybrid system package
Eco-worthy $1,505 NSF S-STEM grant yes
Storage batteries Trojan $700 Solar grant, SGA yes
Roof mount and extra wiring $500
Gannon physical plan-ning donation of ma-terials yes
shipping/handling $300
total $3,005
Top Related