Design and cost analysis of an off grid solar grain mill

Abstract

OFF grid solar photovoltaic system turns solar irradiance into electricity to be used in remote areas without connecting to the national grid. Normally in those areas, they are using diesel engines in their daily activities which have negative effect on the environment. To reduce this effect of these thermal engines, this project designs a solar system that will replace those engines. An off grid solar grain mill provides the grain mill services to those people in remote areas far from national grid. The system under design uses the solar home system components such as PV modules, charge controller, batteries and an inverter as generation component and grain mill machine. It has the capacity of 10.8Kw where 7.5kW of them is used to run grain mill machine and the remaining is used for local community in lighting purpose. Design and simulation was done by use of MATLAB SIMULINK for solar system while for grain mill there is use of SOLID WORKS software. The research method includes site survey, data collection in different organization related to agriculture and energy sector and weather condition. As a result of the project, the system under design has been simulated via software and shown the ability to have the characteristics as the one of the national grids in running grain mill machine. The all system will provide the ways of getting services to people who don’t have the access to the electricity especially whose daily life is agriculture.