A Future Energy Harvesting Scenario for Georgia Tech Campus Using Photovoltaic Solar Panels And Piezoelectric Materials
Renewable and clean energy has always been the widely discussed topic. According to Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) 29 states have renewable energy standards that establish requirements for increasing clean energy usage and nine states have renewable energy goals. The questions of whether renewable energy harvesting is feasible, if it is, where are the potential places that we could establish harvesting sites and how much energy these sites are able to generate will be answered. The project will mainly discuss two types of renewable energy, which are solar energy and piezo energy. Solar energy harvesting is achieved by using photovoltaic solar panels, whose major function is to transform solar energy into electricity. In this project, the location of potential solar panel site will be discussed using ArcGIS technology. A high density of LiDAR cloud point data will be used to generate a DEM of the campus with an extremely high resolution (1 foot) which will be used for solar analysis. Other factors that might affect the location of solar panels like elevation, slope of the roof, orientation, radiation amount, etc. will also be included in this project. Piezoelectric material is a newly developed material that can harvest electricity using the pressure that has been put on it. The project will focus on roadway energy harvesting, which means the piezoelectric panels will be mostly put on the roadside to create electricity using pressure from the cars. GIS model will be created to make a road electricity generation map for the future purpose of study. At last, the project will create a future campus electricity harvesting scenario based on solar and piezo method as well as give a final result of total annual electricity harvesting amount if these two methods are utilized in the future.