DESIGN OF HYBRID SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM FOR THE APPLICATION OF TRAIN LOCOMOTIVE POWER SOURCE FOR THE AALRT AND ETHIO-DJIBOUTI ROUTES

Abstract

The scarcity and environmental effect of the nonrenewable
energies and the abundance and opportunities
of renewable energies lead to the development of a
hybrid solar system with diesel and electric sources.
This research has considered a PV solar cell to design a
hybrid solar system for the railway train traction system.
In this study, the widely known Angstrom correlation
has been used to compute the daily radiation and
energy utilization on the Ethio-Djibouti railway route.
The data which has been used in the computation covers
from 3 to 5 years sunshine hour data that was collected
by the Ethiopian National Metrology Agency Service.
This has been compared with the calculated value.
Based on the technical proposal of the ERC; Box type,
YZ25G, DFN7G and AALRT, tram train cars had been
selected for the installation of solar panels at the top
roof surface area of the car. To compute and to model
the hybrid solar system, MATLAB, CATIA, Microsoft
Visio and Microsoft Excel software were used. The
amounts of solar energy generated for the traction, reduction
of carbon emission and cost levelization of the
system have been included in the research. The generated
energy may cover 4.455 to 356.9% of required energy
based on the sunshine hour duration, types of car
and configuration;, Therefore, the excess energy shall
be sent to the main grid for other purposes to reduce the
wastage. For all selected trains, it was calculated that a
total number of 2011 panels with a total of 30 years’
service and life cost of 56,764,325bir will be required.
Considering the minimum energy production and maximum
configuration, the cost return time may be 12
years. Therefore, it will operate for 18 years with profit.
The reduction of carbon emission which is found based
on the amount of fuel consumed ranges from 214.63 kg
to 6845.85 kg and 107.313 kg to 3447.02 kg per trip for
freight and passenger transportation respectively. The
research generally shows the possibility of application
of solar energy through the selected route and the best
solution for sustainable energy supply which helps the
overall economic development and environmental protection
in the country.