Utilization of Renewable Energy Technologies: School Buildings in Baghdad as a Case Study

Abstract

Recent attention has been focused on solar energy as a sustainable energy source that can be directly converted to electricity using solar panels. Renewable energy sources are becoming more important as a solution to provide clean energy. The power production of photovoltaic (PV) systems is directly proportional to the solar irradiance acquired. Consequently, these panels must be perpendicular to sun irradiation in order to collect the greatest amount of energy. This research aimed to provide a contemporary method for planning and constructing school buildings by analyzing the current condition of electricity consumption and the practicality of investing in renewable energy sources in school buildings. For this reason, a new school building under construction in the city of Baghdad with a total area of around 2000m2 was chosen, and one of the renewable energy sources (PV system) was installed to supply the electric power required to operate the school. The average monthly power usage of different energy users in the school building during January and July that represent various seasons is about (57.1 and 83.6) kWh, respectively. Two scenarios have been analyzed: fixed-angle as well as tracking PV systems that generate electricity at varying tilt angles. Also, the computation of each case's monthly energy output and the annual PV energy production (kWh) are presented. The results show that the annual production of the PV system within the exploited area of the roof of the school building is about (1181.3, 1239.3, and 1225.8) kWh at vertical axis and at inclined axis about(1243.1, 1233.8, and 1184.1)kWh in the case of fixed tilt angle(30°, 45°, and 90°), respectively. Also, the tracking PV system was better than fixed-angle PV systems for energy generation, where the energy output reached about 1284.9 KWh. Thus, school buildings can attain zero building energy consumption. Besides, additional installations of rooftop PV systems provide extra power to offset energy demands.