Space Apps Challenge 2017

Opportunity:

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest direct normal irradiation (DNI) resources in the world. Saudi Arabia is planning for significant deployment for both photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) in order to harvest this high DNI and produce energy from a renewable, clean and sustainable source. This will help conserve hydrocarbon resources that are currently being consumed in significant quantities to generate electricity and desalinate seawater in the country.

Using current projection, electricity demand in Saudi Arabia is anticipated to grow from 40 GW up to 120 GW between years of 2010 and 2028. This will contribute to the projected increase in hydrocarbon use from 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (MBOE) per day to 8.3 MBOE in the same period. Water demand is also expected to grow based on increasing population and industrialization. A large share of the world desalinated water is produced in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia primarily using oil-fired thermal processes. Therefore, Saudi Arabia is planning to introduce renewable energy as part of the Kingdom’s energy mix in order to reduce the demand on exportable hydrocarbons, which is declared clearly in KSA vision 2030. Solar energy will be a key technology, due to the high DNI resource of an average 2200 kwh/m2 /y.

Problem:

Saudi Arabia is famous for its sun power at the daylight and huge deserts. However, the solar panels are rarely used by the people or the government because solar panels are not explained, reached or enabled for people. Therefore, a gap is established between people and solar power science. Therefore, our objective is to reduce this gap between solar panels and people through educating them in solar panels with a simple tool that is easy to use by all people. Then give them a detailed report about the all values, connect them to all local solar stores, choose the best offer and then finalize the deal with customers. Therefore, it is not just reducing the gap; it is enabling the solar usage at Saudi Arabia and the entire world. Finally, we educate people about solar panels by a motion graphics video.

Creativity:

The idea aims to raise awareness through educating people about their power consumption while simultaneously showing the user how good solar energy is for the environment and for the pocket. In addition, it shows how much space is needed for laying solar panels on, so the user can know how many panels he can utilize.

User Experience (Product):

The website is an interactive medium that is accessible to people from almost all countries, It has an algorithm that calculates for the price of electricity for different countries. And then based on how much electricity used, it calculates how many solar panels might be needed if a solar system is required.

User guide:

• log into our website and click Solar Advisor Calculator.
• Press each category (General, Kitchen, TV&Games and Electronics) button and an electrical equipment options will be shown.
• Choose the electrical equipment in the house.
• Click calculate then you get the outputs (Solar panels, Energy and Cost).

Sustainability:

Nasa does not need just a solution that drains money from them but they need a profitable, sustainable and effective solution. Therefore, our website is not just a solution it is a business where the user can request an offer for installing solar panels at his house and we will connect the client to our vendors to finalize the deal and then get a commission from the vendor. In addition, the website advertisements are a promising income. Also, our website can be developed from advising people to advising governments to shift the generation to solar panels through calculating solar panels output by areas.

Method:

Our team consists of 8 creative minds( 4 Research Engineers,2 Programmers and 2 Designers) that formed together and dedicated their time and effort to find solutions and help the planet.

We used to program our website the following Languages:

A.JavaScript B.HTML C.CSS D.Boot Strap

A.Brackets B.Photoshop C.Google Chrome.

Resources:

1.Resource of electrical load formulas http://ask-the-electrician.com/residential-electrical-load-calculation.html.

2.OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF SOLAR ENERGY IN SAUDI ARABIA, https://rratlas.kacare.gov.sa/RRMMPublicPortal/sit...

Biteable website video maker website.

Our challenges:

We tried to extract Solar data from Nasa's website but couldn't. Then, we contacted the supervisors they didn't find a data. So, instead of waiting Nasa to respond we extracted the data from Saudi Electric Company and google.

Future Work:

• Work with environmental API’s to abstract more accurate for better results.
• Simplify the design and add guide layout for more user – friendly experience.
• Give outputs that are more technical and economical from the calculator like payback period and power losses.

Website link:https://solargeeks.github.io/#calculator

Acknowledgement: to Rakan AlMalki for his contribution in the video as a camera man.