Development of a modular solar energy system by an EPICS in IEEE student team helps ensure
continuous electricity at an educational camp for the underserved in Râșnov, Romania.
In Romania’s mountain regions, educational camps provide vital resources, instruction, and healthcare for children, the elderly, and underserved communities. But at the campsite in Râșnov, a town located at the base of the Carpathian Mountains near the city of Brașov in central Romania, poor electric grid infrastructure caused intermittent access to electricity and frequent blackouts. Among the many impacts of this energy insecurity, the pump within the solar thermal system used to heat the camp’s water relied on a constant power supply and was inoperable during grid interruptions – a setback which impacted the camp community’s ability to cook, engage in hygiene, and participate in both onsite and offsite activities.
Finding this situation unacceptable, a team of students within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Transilvania University of Brașov embarked on an EPICS in IEEE project sponsored by IEEE’s Fischer Mertel Fund entitled “Modular Solar Energy System for Educational Outreach Camps – Romania.” Thanks to the team’s development of a modular solar energy supply system designed to drive clean energy generation and smart energy management and storage, the camp in Râșnov can now look forward to a renewable source of electricity that will continuously power the camp’s water pumps and also provide portable backup power for other energy-dependent educational activities.
A Smart Solution
“Our project aims to improve access to a reliable energy supply for a critical energy system within the camp, especially during the summer, when the local energy network becomes overloaded and causes the pump connected to the solar thermal panels to become inoperable,” shared Engineering Ph.D. candidate and Project Coordinator Laurențiu-Alex Mustață. “Our photovoltaic (PV) system will provide power for the pumps, serve as the primary energy supply for a secondary building at the camp, and also function as both a portable energy solution and a smart energy monitoring system.”
The team was comprised of 16 participants (four faculty members and 12 students, a number of whom are IEEE Student Members), and several IEEE members who additionally served as consultants and provided technical support to the project. Community partners engaged in the project included beneficiary NGO Asociația Gospel for Eastern Europe, which supports ill and disabled children, the elderly, and the poor, local high schools Colegiul Tehnic Remus Radulet Brasov, Colegiul National Dr. Mesota Brasov, and Colegiu Tehnic Mircea Cristea Brasov (which supported the team’s data collection efforts), PV design and installation firm J-Watt Distribution SRL, and transportation, logistics, and storage company L.K. Welt SRL.
According to Cristian-Leonard Mușuroi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Transilvania University of Brașov and the project’s Technical Lead, their system design integrates several technologies. Specifically, “the project uses photovoltaic panel technology together with rack-mounted solar inverters and battery storage systems and also incorporates a smart energy monitoring system with smart plugs and a smart algorithm for energy consumption predictions running on a Raspberry PI,” Mușuroi said.
Turning Technical into Practical
Despite challenges the team encountered related to currency fluctuations and additional operating and material expenses that arose during the project’s rollout, the students and their recipients are thrilled with the progress made so far.
“The camp community is very excited about our project’s implementation,” Mustață confirmed. “So far, our solar panels have been installed and are functional, and we’re currently testing our smart energy system and AI algorithm for energy prediction, so the project is close to being finalized.
While the new solar energy system holds great promise for operations at the camp, the project team also benefitted from a transformative learning experience that yielded a broad range of dividends.
“Our team members gained a variety of skills as the result of this project,” Mustață shared. ”On the technical side, we learned how to implement a full PV system — from mounting and electrical panel installation to safety testing and integration of an energy monitoring system. And on the professional side, we developed organizational and leadership skills through the scheduling of activities, distribution of tasks, and supervision of different stages of the project.”
In terms of their future activities, “we plan to perform periodic maintenance and functionality checks on the smart energy system and will develop annual reports sharing performance metrics on the system’s usefulness and energy output,” Mușuroi said. “We also plan to organize visits to the camp by student groups to explain PV system functionality and demonstrate its use for educational purposes.”
Looking ahead, “we hope this installation will be so well-received that it generates interest in a more extensive renewable energy system covering all of the electrical requirements across the entire camp,” Mustață said. “By popularizing the impact of this effort and educational opportunities available to students, we also hope that this project will encourage other EPICS in IEEE project applications in Romania.”
Based on their positive experience, the team recommends that other students seize the opportunity to participate in an EPICS in IEEE project.
“We strongly encourage others to apply for EPICS in IEEE funding if they have an idea that could help their community,” Mușuroi said. “For our team, this project was a unique opportunity to turn a technical idea into a real solution with practical impact, while also gaining valuable technical, teamwork, and management skills.”
“We’re especially grateful to IEEE’s Fischer Mertel Fund for their support and trust in our project,” Mustață added. “Their contribution helped make this idea a reality and gave us the opportunity to create something meaningful for the community that would have been impossible to achieve using only our own resources as students. We’re also extremely grateful for the way in which individuals from diverse backgrounds came together in a spirit of service and generously shared their time and expertise.”
For more information on EPICS in IEEE or the opportunity to participate in service-learning projects, visit https://epics.ieee.org/. “EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE” is an initiative which provides opportunities for students to work proactively with both engineering professionals, technological innovation, and local organizations/partners to develop solutions that address global community challenges.
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