Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The proposal aims to improve research conditions in laboratories that are part of undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. These laboratories were built as part of a new agricultural science doctoral program at UPR-Mayagüez that will start on 2024. Increasing energy resilience at these laboratories will reduce the loss of research projects, data, materials and equipment, time and money due to the frequent electrical blackouts in Alzamora farm. Thus improving agricultural science education and research experience at UPR-Mayagüez. The objectives are:1) To determine the viability of installing solar panels, batteries and inverter for one or more laboratories at the Doctoral Building at Finca Alzamora, UPR-Mayagüez.2) To buy, and monitor the installation of solar panels, batteries and inverter for the one or more laboratories at the Doctoral Building at Finca Alzamora, UPR-Mayagüez.We will start by doing an energy and technical audit of the laboratories. With this information we will generate an Integrated Resource Plan. We will provide the information of the PV and battery system and a justification for the purchase to the Finance Office of Agricultural Experiment Station (AES-UPRM), and they will provide the information to an Auction Board of the University. The Auction Board will receive sealed bids from participants. The Auction Board will evaluate and determine the qualifications of the companies and determine best bid. After, the Auction Board will notify the selected company so they can start the process for the installation. The installed system will be also connected to the electrical grid, and function as a backup during power outages. This will improve both undergraduate and graduate teaching and research experiences in the laboratories, and support a new doctoral programs in agricultural sciences at UPR-Mayagüez.
Animal Health Component
45%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
45%
Developmental
45%
Goals / Objectives
The proposal goals are to improve research conditions in laboratories that are part of undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. These laboratories were built as part of a new agricultural science doctoral program at UPR-Mayagüez that will start on 2024. Increasing energy resilience at these laboratories will reduce the loss of research projects, data, materials and equipment, time and money due to the frequent electrical blackouts in Alzamora farm, at UPR-Mayaguez. Thus improving agricultural science education and research experience at UPR-Mayaguez. The objectives are:1)To determine the viability of installing solar panels, batteries and inverter for one or more laboratories at the Doctoral Building at Finca Alzamora, UPR-Mayaguez.2)To buy, and monitor the installation of solar panels, batteries and inverter for the one or more laboratories at the Doctoral Building at Finca Alzamora, UPR-Mayaguez.
Project Methods
MethodsThe first tasks that will be performed is to study the solar energy potential, the load profile of the laboratories, and the need for energy storage to guarantee that the installed project allows mitigating the effect of the rains in Mayagüez. The University of Puerto Rico has an auction procedure for purchases above $50,000. Under the supervision of the Sustainable Energy Center at the UPRM, we will start by doing an energy and technical audit of the laboratories. With this information we will generate an Integrated Resource Plan. We will provide the information of the PV and battery system and a justification for the purchase to the Finance Office of Agricultural Experiment Station (AES-UPRM), and they will provide the information to an Auction Board of the University. As a summary, the Auction Board will announce the auction in a local daily news source for at least two days and at least 10 days before the auction. The Auction Board will receive sealed bids from participants. The Auction Board will evaluate and determine the qualifications of the companies and determine best bid. After, the Auction Board will notify the selected company so they can start the process for the installation. The detail procedure is available in the Certification #30 (article#20) of the University of Puerto Rico. The link for Certification #30 is: (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.upr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Certificacion-30-2008-2009-Reglamento-de-Compras-Espanol.pdf)As an example on the capacity of the system that we might be able to acquire we included a recent quote based on an aerial photo of the Doctoral Building rooftop (included in the attachments) from a local company (Maximo Solar), a system of $180,000 can provide 41.97 kW PV and 60 KWh from lithium batteries. We estimate that a 10kW PV and 15 KWh can run at least one laboratory, considering that the laboratories have instruments that have high electrical consumption such as ovens, pumps and air conditioner. However, the solar production estimate from the quote does not consider that Mayagüez have afternoon rain showers during summer and fall months.The Sustainable Energy Center, directed by Professor Fabio Andrade, has studied the potential of solar energy for the UPR Mayagüez campus and the center knows that on average in Mayagüez there are five hours of solar energy that together with a battery system and an energy management may be able to mitigate the effect of the rains that arrive in Mayagüez every afternoon. One of the first tasks that will be performed is to study the solar energy potential, the load profile of the laboratories, and the need for energy storage to guarantee that the installed project allows mitigating the effect of the rains in Mayagüez.Therefore, we might be able to supply back up energy for at leastthree laboratories, including some extra energy since some of the laboratories that are in use are fully equipped with fridge and other equipment that require a constant supply of energy. The number of impacted laboratories will depend on the average energy consumption of the laboratories and the actual amount of rooftop available for solar panel installation. Different software for design will be used for example PV Watt Calculator by NREL, HOMER Energy software, and local data available in the UPRM microgrid lab. The building rooftop area is approximately 300 m2. The installed system will be connected to the local power network and will be only used as a backup during power outages. Dr. Fabio Andrade (CO-PI) will verify that the contracted company complies with local and University codes for the system installation. Also, he will verify and monitoring that the system is working properly for the duration of the project and will storage the energy data of the laboratories.EffortsThe solar photovoltaic and energy storage system in the laboratories of the Zamora farm will be used as pilot projects and case studies in the different courses that Professor Andrade teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. Summary of these experiences will be included in the annual reports and final report. We will also do surveys to the students using the laboratories to determine the benefits for teaching and research of having a PV and battery system in the laboratories. The surveys will be conducted during student visits to the laboratories and at the end of each semester to student that use the laboratories regularly. Finally, we will publish at least one publication at the Journal of Agriculture of the UPR with the data collected.Students from Electrical Engineering will have access to solar generation data, battery energy data and laboratory consumption data and will be able to propose improvements to the existing project, allowing the university community to be taught how this equipment is designed and maintained.The efforts include:1. Surveys (e.g. Google forms) to all the students using the laboratories to determine the benefits of having a PV and battery system for teaching and research. The surveys will be conducted during student visits to the laboratories for students that visit the laboratories on occasions, and at the end of each semester for student that use the laboratories regularly. The data collected in surveys will be analyses and included in the annual reports and final report.2. The solar photovoltaic and energy storage system in the laboratories of the Zamora farm will be used as pilot projects and case studies in the different courses that Professor Andrade teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. Students from Electrical Engineering will have access to solar generation data, battery energy data and laboratory consumption data and will be able to propose improvements to the existing project, allowing the university community to be taught how this equipment is designed and maintained.3. We will present the results of the project in open house in the Doctoral Building. We will include local news entities to promote the results and showcase the opportunities that we are providing students by increasing the continuity of the teaching and research.4. We will also write a newspaper letter describing our experience in the project and promote this kind of project for other teaching and research laboratories in Puerto Rico.5. We are proposing to reach out to the organizers and participate in an annual agricultural event that is held in the UPR-Mayagüez every year, 5 Dias en Nuestra Tierra. In this event people from the whole island visit the Campus, including many students from K-12. We are proposing to participate with a presentation every year to showcase our project as a sustainable alternative to improve the teaching and research of agricultural sciences in Puerto Rico. If possible, we will try to include visits to the laboratories as part of the event.6. We will publish at least one manuscript with the student survey data at the Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico.7. The collected survey data will be made available at an Agricultural Experiment Station database for the access of the general public.8. We will generate videos and information for websites. One of the website that we could be used is a website from my laboratory: https://www.uprm.edu/soil-health/.EvaluationCurrently the laboratories are having power outages weekly. This limits the hours that teachers and students are performing teaching and research in these laboratories. Through surveys we will record the hour usage of the laboratories three months before installation and after installing the system for the duration of the proposal. Student usage will prove that the PV and battery backup system will increase the learning opportunities to study agricultural sciences for minority students in Puerto Rico.