Autonomous Hybrid Power Generation System for Low-Power Applications as Public Lighting and Homemade Hydroponic Systems in Puerto Rico.

In recent years there has been an increasing use of NFT hydroponic systems, to supply a variety of freshly vegetables in homes (to help the local food safety), increasing accordingly electric power consumption in these homes. Similarly, the constant use of public lighting accounts for about 1.5% of the total energy generated by the AEE. Therefore, with the current economic crisis facing the country, it is imperative to explore alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal; natural resources available of our tropical environment, that will help to mitigate a possible increase in the cost of energy while providing clean energy and reducing our greenhouse gases emissions. The most affected by a possible increase in the energy cost would be the agro-industry. Also, an increment on cost of energy consumed by public lighting will be most likely passed to the customers of the AEE.
How could we help for these agro-industry not be affected by the increasing cost of energy, and the AEE to be more efficient with lighting public service? It is proposed to create an autonomous hybrid power generation system for low-power applications as public lighting and homemade hydroponic systems.
The proposed system is a combination of wind and solar energy transformation to electric energy for power generation. The wind energy is transformed using a wind turbine with a low speed electric generator (3-5 m/s) and will be rectified and stored in a battery bank. On the other hand, the solar energy is converted to electrical energy through solar cells that will be stored directly on the batteries bank with a capacity of up to 300W per 24h.
The system is programmed to work automatically isolated from the network. A sensor monitors two types of energy and simultaneously charge batteries and supply power to the load. It also, has the ability to supply power of the batteries if have not enough wind speed have and is night.

Author(s):

Hector L. Carrasco Rodriguez    
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Universidad del Turabo
Puerto Rico

Miguel A. Goenaga-Jimenez    
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Universidad del Turabo
Puerto Rico