Hybrid Renewable Energy Station

A Hybrid Renewable Energy Station (HRES), founded by Ali Hellany and Tosin Famakinwa, resulting from several years of work established a Living Lab used for Learning and Teaching (L&T) and Research activities. Since 2016, the station has grown from a few solar panels into a larger hybrid station.

The station is located in a fenced space in the Werrington South campus and is connected to the main power in the Bxb shed and includes:

• Solar PV panels: part of them are mounted on individual chassis that will allow the change of direction and angle of inclination, and the other part is mounted on a chassis that will allow the change
• Wind Turbine that is fixed at a high pole and a concrete slab
• A trailer that contains various inverters, switches, and batteries
• An underground power and data cable between the trailer and the Bxb shed
• Meter and switchboard in Bxb
• Room with two computers and various monitoring equipment in Bxb
• General area in the Shed to load the system with various electrical loads for research and teaching purposes
• Space to store various PV and electrical equipment
• The entire space is fenced, which is necessary to maintain the WH&S requirement and prevent tampering with the system.

Utilisation

The HRES station is utilised by approximately 62 interested groups including:

• Academic researchers (electrical group)
• HDR students (PhD and Meng students)
• Final-year project students
• Undergraduate students

Purpose and benefits

The HRES station has multiple uses including:

• Living lab for research and testing for academics and researchers
• Lab for final year students to practice their projects
• Lab and demonstration for students enrolled in related subjects
• Feeding the university grid with free energy

Links

The HRES station is linked to the following projects which are supervised by Ali Hellany and Tosin Famakinwa (School of Engineering) :

• Sustainable House project. This project is mainly run by volunteer students who have installed a model house in the Kingswood campus near Building R.
• IoT and power management of buildings, where the IoT system developed for the HRES project and Sustainable House will be included in the BMS box.

Future plans

The HRES installation will move to the Kingswood campus near Building R during 2024.

Related Action Plan Themes

• Resilience and Climate Change
• Sustainable Energy