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E-Cycle: An offgrid solution for rural electrification

Publication Type : Conference Paper

Thematic Areas : Wireless Network and Application

Publisher : IEEEXplore

Source : GHTC 2016 - IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference: Technology for the Benefit of Humanity, Conference Proceedings, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., p.507-513 (2016)

Url : https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85015165937&doi=10.1109%2fGHTC.2016.7857327&partnerID=40&md5=a0aefe9f9e634f6fe60928cd86eb6f35

ISBN : 9781509024322

Keywords : Bicycles, Complete system, Cycling process, DC generators, Design and Development, Electric utilities, Innovative methodologies, Lighting, Rate-of-energy, Rural areas, Rural electrification, Rural households, Solar cell arrays, Solar concentrators, Solar panels, Sporting goods

Campus : Amritapuri

School : School for Sustainable Futures, School of Engineering

Center : Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA)

Department : Sustainable Development, Electronics and Communication

Year : 2016

Abstract : Statistics show that more than 18,452 villages in India are still unelectrified with more than 890,000 rural households having no access to lighting at all. Since the current electrification schemes are not affordable for rural households, the major challenge was to develop an affordable solution that can be easily used by the villagers. Bicycles are extensively used by villagers. The annual demand for bicycles in India is 2.5 million bicycles per year. In this paper, we propose an innovative methodology to generate and store energy produced during the cycling process and use it later for lighting rural households. We also have integrated a solar panel into our system to allow energy to be generated while the bicycle is not in use but is outdoors during the daytime. This paper describes the design and development of an Energy Cycle (E-Cycle). The complete system was tested extensively to understand the amount of energy generated with respect to the bicycling speed, duration of cycling, etc., as well as the rate of energy produced from the solar panel during cycling and non-cycling periods during varying weather and seasonal conditions. Results show that one bicycle is capable of generating energy for lighting a rural house for 18-20 hours per day. © 2016 IEEE.

Cite this Research Publication : S. Amritanand, Divya P., Gosh, U. G., and Vinod, T., “E-Cycle: An offgrid solution for rural electrification”, in GHTC 2016 - IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference: Technology for the Benefit of Humanity, Conference Proceedings, 2016, pp. 507-513.

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