Asian Conference on Energy, Power and Transportation Electrification (ACEPT 2016)

25 - 27, October 2016, Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Household Solar Plant for Singapore

Wu ZiAn

Asst Profressor Li King Ho, Holden

Nanyang Technological University

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Singapore
Zwu014@ntu.edu.sg

Nanyang Technological University

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Singapore
HoldenLi@ntu.edu.sg

AbstractWith the rising concern of the current

environmental issues, many renewable options of energy source
are developing rapidly. We believe in the near future; these
energy sources will be made affordable to everyone including the
people in the developing countries. Solar technology is one of the
renewable sources of energy which have made multiple
breakthrough since its first debut in the 1960s. This project aims
to optimize the usage of solar panels to generate energy
efficiently, especially in small living space in cities like Singapore.
By studying the Heliotropism, the seasonal movement of the
plants parts which response to the direction of the Sun, this
project also aims to formulate a movement pattern for the solar
plant suitable for windows or balconies of high rise buildings. It
will be carried out in a typical Singapore apartment household
setting near a window. The effect of solar tracking will be
studied. A Solar Plant was designed based of different
variations of leaves layout. A comparison in voltage generated
will then be made between a regular Solar panel and the Solar
Plant.
KeywordsSolar Energy, Solar cells, Heliotropism, Renewable
Energy

I. INTRODUCTION
In today world, electrical power production is one of the
main causes for Global warming by air pollution. [1]
Traditional methods of burning fossil fuels to produce
electricity mean polluting the air, water and earth. In order to
fulfil the demand of energy and growing population and not
cause pollution and other natural hazards, non-conventional
energy sources such as ocean tides, geothermal, sun and wind
energies are good options. In all these alternatives solar energy
has more advantages for the mankind i.e. Solar Energy is free,
inexhaustible and non-polluting. [2] Solar energy is most
advantageous for countries having very less space to produce
energy efficiently and having very large population density like
Singapore.
In this paper, the studies of Heliotropism in plants will be
incorporated into the design of the Solar Plant. Voltage
generation test will be run in random days of the month to
make a relative comparison between the Solar Plant and a
regular Solar panel.
Definition of Heliotropism
Heliotropism, also known as Solar tracking, is a type of
tropism, is the diurnal motion or seasonal movement of plants
parts (leaves) in response to the direction of the sunlight. It was

also known as phototropism in 1892, because the plant is a

responsive to the light rather than to the Sun. A chemical
known as Auxin, found in cells of the plant that are farthest
from the light source, reacts when phototropism occurs. This
leads to elongation of cells on the furthest side of the light
source in the plant which allows the plant to move. This
allows the plant to maximize the process of photosynthesis [3].
Photovoltaic conversion
Conversion of light energy to electrical energy occurs when
the solar radiation from the Sun falls on the solar cells (a semiconductor device), this is also known as photovoltaic
conversion. The solar cells consist of two types of semiconductor called p-type and N-type-type. When the junction
between two types are exposed to light, the excess of electrons
in the N-type will be able to break free from the junction as the
light energy (photons) is providing the energy. The excess
electrons then flow to the P-type where there is a shortage of
electrons. This is called photoelectric effect. Electrical current
stored in batteries are caused by the flow of electrons [4].
Application of the Solar Plant
The application of the Solar Plant is mainly for
household usage as it is designed to be portable and adjustable
to suit the needs of the user. Scaled up Solar Plant can be
applied to bigger vicinity such as the parks and even on roofs
of HDB (Housing Development Board) flats. The Solar
Plant is suitable for locations with small foot print such as
street lamps or corridor lighting and charging devices [5].
Advantages of Solar Plant

Less land requirement: As compared to the

traditional array Solar Panel system, the Solar Plant
is able to mount more solar cells for a given land.
Therefore, optimizing energy generation. [6]

Efficient energy generation: Since each leaves are

able to rotate and adjust to face the Sun, the Solar
Plant can generate energy more efficiently. [7]

Decorative: The Solar Plant has an artistic

appearance compared to the traditional Solar Panel,
which allows it to be a decoration in the household.

978-1-5090-6173-0/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE

This work is supported by the Nanyang Technological University Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus Program.

Disadvantage of Solar Plant

Higher cost due to the additional frame structure and

requires more maintenance. [8]

Hazardous: May be hazardous to birds and is prone

to lightning strike.
II. METHODOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

A. Materials & Equipments

Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Panels [9] with working
voltage of 0.5volts (0.5V) and working current of 80 miliAmpere (80mA) were produced by Jinshan Petroleum
Company (Shanghai, China) The Solar Panels are RoHS
(Restriction of Hazardous Substances, also known as LeadFree and as Directive 2002/95/EC, originated in the European
Union and restricts the use of six hazardous materials found in
electrical and electronic products) approved.
The ball and socket frame of the Solar Plant were
obtained from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes series (LEGO Iron
Man Set 4529 and LEGO Green Lantern Set 4528). These
parts are mainly made of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

Fig 2. Board-Leafed Mahogany leaves

Both the Solar Panel and Solar Plant consist of 9 Solar

Cells shown in Figures 3 and 4 respectively and are connected
in series. The advantages of connecting the cells in series for
this experiment are: 1. Voltage in the circuit will vary more
significantly to the Sun. 2. If any one of the cell were to fail,
the circuit will be open, thus eliminating the error of faulty
solar cells. 3. Series cells have a less complex circuit.

Wooden Leaves were bought off shelf from

ART.FRIEND and were modified to fit the Solar Panels.
Soldering machine ANTEX Xs25 (240Volts, 25Watts) was
used to connect wires to the Solar Panels.
B. Sensors and monitoring unit
MT-32 Digital Multi-meter was used during the experiment
to measure the amount of voltage produced.
C. Set-up
The Solar Panels were tested individually to ensure the
reliability of the performance. Under normal Sun lighting
condition, each panels can generate about 0.4~0.6 voltages. 18
Solar Panels were randomly selected from the working batch
for the experiment to ensure a more disperse properties.
Solar Plants frame was assembled based on the leaf
orientation of the Board-Leafed Mahogany, commonly found
tree in Singapore as shown in Figure 1 and 2.

Fig 3. Solar Panel

Fig 4. Solar Plant and its tilt at different time of the day

Fig 1. Board-Leafed Mahogany Tree

The experiment was carried out in a household

environment, by the window side. From the window, direct
sunlight is available from 0600hrs to 1730hrs, else the Sun

will be partially block by the HDB (Housing Development

Board) flats nearby. The experiment will be carried out from
0830hrs to 1830hrs, voltage reading will be recorded every
half an hour interval.
The Solar Panel is positioned using the step contour of the
window frame, 20-degree incline, facing outwards. The Solar
Plant is placed a distance away from the Solar Panel,
ensuring that it will not block off any of the sunlight directed
to the Solar Panel. The leaves of the Solar Plant will be
adjusted perpendicularly to the Sun prior to the 30 minutes
interval measurement. Exact position of the leaves can be
pre-determine with references to the Sun Charts as shown
below. [10] However, due to the limitation of equipment,
adjustment of leaves was done manually based visual and a
little help of a projector.

During the hottest time of the day, between 1100hrs

1330hrs, the difference between the two voltages produced are
small as compared to the rest of the day. The main reason for
this phenomenon is due to the position of the Solar Panel, as it
is placed at an optimum tilt to harvest the maximum amount
of Solar Energy during noon. In order to harvest the most
Solar Energy, it is ideal to tilt the solar panel towards the
direction when the Sun is the strongest which is during the
noon period. While a tracking system has the ability to follow
the raise of the Suns light intensity without loss.
Figure 5 below illustrate the ideal full power should a
tracking and a stationary Solar device varies. As the stationary
Solar panel is designed to optimize the harvesting of Solar
Power, it will yield the maximum power during the hottest
part of the day (12pm to 2pm). A tracking Solar Panel on the
other hand is designed to optimize Solar energy production
throughout the day within every single solar cells.

Fig 6. Ideal Percent Full power throughout the day

Fig 5. Singapore - Sun path diagram

III. RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION

Weather condition is one of the key element for Solar
Energy, thus it is necessary to keep track of the weather when
carrying out the experiment. The voltages recorded are plotted
against the time they are recorded. The values are plotted in
Figure 6,7 and 8. Cloud cover percentage was also recorded by
obtaining the estimated values from hourly nowcast and
forecast. [11]
From the result, it is clear that the Solar Plant has the
ability to generate more voltage most of the time throughout
the day. during cloudy condition, the voltage produced by the
2 samples were very similar, which could be mainly due to the
intensity of the sunlight which is omnidirectional and uniform.
This phenomenon was also observed during evening time
when the Sun starts to set and the intensity of the sunlight is
also omnidirectional and uniform.

Fig 7. 12 June 2016, voltage generation comparison

conventional array of Solar Panel. Solar Plant can be scaled

up to be install in parks and roofs of HDB flats and high rise
apartments to aid in green energy generation for lightning
purposes. The Solar Plant is a solar artwork which combines
artistic and sustainable energy technology. Since the angle of
the sunlight is not consistent, conventional array solar panel
become less efficient. The Solar Plant can be further improve
to self-track the light intensity by electrical means.

Fig 8. 19 June 2016, voltage generation comparison

With the development of Nano-technology, Solar Botanics

artificial leaves [12] can be used to replace the convention solar
cells which further improve the efficient of the Solar Plant.
With the aids of Robotics, the leaves of the Solar Plant can
react automatically in real time situation to ensure the leaves
are at the maximum efficiency at all time..
REFERENCES
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[3]
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[5]

Fig 9. 26 June 2016, voltage generation comparison

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

In this paper, measurements of the voltage produced by two
different Solar model (Solar Plant and Solar Panel) were
plotted against time. Although the experiment was not able to
produce the ideal graph as shown in Fig 6, due to the effect of
clouds. However, by doing a relative comparison between the
voltage produced by the Solar Panel and Solar Plant at a
specific date and time, the results gathered clearly showed that
at any time, the Solar Plant was able to produce more amount
of voltage (up to 3.2% on 26-June-2016, 1730hr). Thus, with
proper calibration and automated Solar Tracking technology,
more power can be generated as compared to the conventional
Solar Device.
In summary, to fulfil the increasing demand in energy
consumption and making use of the limited land space, the
Solar Plant is an ideal alternative for small foot print energy
source, which can provide more energy as compared to the

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