At the start arrange a site visit and survey the complete site and landscape. Evaluate according to following methodology
- Understand client requirements and base case energy scenario, as well as the site specific structural and environmental scenarios
- Identify drivers and develop energy efficiency and renewable energy goals utilizing insight from the base case
- Select and prioritize criteria for differentiating between lighting and renewable technologies
- Assess existing energy schemes and renewable resources amply available at the project site
- Identify viable technologies that utilize available resources
- Match viable technologies to priority criteria
- Develop renewable energy project concepts and conduct evaluations of these concepts
In accordance to above methodology, we had the following choices:
Renewable energy: Wind, Solar PV, Wind-solar hybrid, Biomass gasification to electricity (waste from sewage, garbage and kitchen)
We Compared the pros-cons and narrowed down on Solar PV for renewable energy.
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Advantages
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Disadvantages
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Solar
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1. Solar energy as fuel is freely available
2. Long Life: 10% and 20% degradation in 10 years and 25 years respectively
3. No moving parts and hence does not produce noise and vibration
4. Low maintenance cost
5. Easy to install and minimum intervention to existing structure during mounting phase
6. Reduces the temperature of rooms (flat) below the roof
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1. No generation when there’s no sun ie. During night
2. Less generation during rainy season
3. Battery is required to run the load other than daytime
4. High initial cost (Rs. 100-120/Wp)
5. No wide usage in India
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Wind
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1. Wind energy is freely available
2. Electricity can be generated over wide range of wind speeds
3. Design Life: 20 years
4. Low initial investment(Rs. 50-60/W) as compared to Solar
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1. Need to be mounted at height and hence not suitable for places with height restriction such as near airport
2. Impacts the visual features of Building Elevation
3. Certain Minimum cut off wind speed (usually 3 m/s) is required for electricity generation hence low windy regions are not suitable
4. Generation is intermittent and seasonal
5. Turbine produces noise and vibration
6. Lower ie. 5 years standard warrantee
Higher maintenance cost
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Biomass
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1. Biomass (sewage & food waste) is freely available
2. Reliable because it can Generate electricity continuously (24 hours for 365 days operation) as long as biomass is fed
3. Design Life: 20 years
4. Lowest initial investment as compared to Solar & Wind (Rs. 40-50/W)
5. By products can be used as fertilizers
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1. Gasification to electricity is complex, technology intensive system and offers lower capacity factors
2. Needs a Isolated space for plant
3. Labor intensive as the waste requires sorting and conveying. Continuous monitoring is required to check input consumption cycles
4. Subject to constraint of feedstock availability and calorific values of sewage and food waste constituents
5. Higher maintenance of turbine generator system
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