Solar-powered House: SUSU Professor Proves Efficiency of Green Energy at South Urals

For more than 30 years now Professor Evgeny Solomin from the SUSU Department of Electric Power Generation Stations, Networks and Supply Systems has been working on “green energy”, improving solar batteries and engineering wind-driven power plants, which are installed even in the Arctic Region. Professor Solomin is confident that efficient use of natural renewable energy is no longer a matter of the future, it is a modern day reality. For instance, his own house is powered by solar batteries. 

On the territory of his own household Evgeny Solomin installed several solar batteries. These supply electricity for a pergola, where he can easily plug in heater units or any other appliances. Four solar panels are used for that. 

The capacity of each of the four modules is 250 W, what totals in 1 kW. The idea was that “solar electricity” would be used in the pergola only, but it turned out to be generated in such big amounts that part of it was used for power supply of the house. For now, the share of green energy is not that big in the professor’s house — 10-15%. Then again, it is not that little, especially if we take into consideration the opinion that using solar batteries in the Chelyabinsk Region is absolutely inefficient. 

Another station in the scientist’s household supports the boiler room – in case the central power supply is cut off. Then one accumulator will give six hours of the control system operation, and the house will not freeze over. By the way, Professor Solomin thinks that it is better be on the safe, so if both gas and electricity supply are cut off, it would be possible to use petrol-driven generator, and if there is a lack of fuel, a wood-fired boiler is available. “I’m not scared of the Apocalypse,” jokes the physicist. 

“We have a gas-fired boiler here. The probability that gas will be cut off is small, unlike that with electricity. And people do not give a thought to the fact that the control system is powered by electricity, in that case the boiler will not work either. Meanwhile, all the systems are equipped with a special alert system, which sends off a short message or performs automatic redial if, say, the pressure drops or exceeds the normal value, or if the temperature fluctuates out of the standard limits,” says the professor. 

Another development of the engineer is automatic outdoors grill. Obviously, solar-powered as well. “I kept slightly burning shashliks,” makes a helpless gesture Evgeny Solomin, “so I had to come up with something.”

“There actually is a special device for grills which you can buy, but we’ve somewhat improved it. It can be connected to the automatic grill, and the skewers will rotate on their own. But again, there can be big slices and small ones. The small ones will burn at the low speed of rotation, that is why we made the speed adjustable. Currently we’re working on automatic recognition of the size of slices,” shares Professor Solomin. “This system is charged by the system unit where the storage batteries are located, which in their turn are charged by the solar module. That is, the system is completely off-grid. 

The members of his family are not only all in favour of the environment-friendly approach of the father, but they even ask him to engineer something extraordinary. It was how a “solar” chapel appeared in the backyard.”

As for the complete switching to “green energy” for the cottage’s power supply, it will happen soon. Though, it would not be a hundred percent transition. 

“My calculations show that we will need twice as more panels and accumulators than we have in the pergola for that. But the thing is that last autumn, for instance, it was cloudy, and we practically saw no sunshine. Ideally we should have both wind-driven and solar-power stations,” explains the scientist. 

It is worth to mention scientific developments of Evgeny Solomin. Together with his team he created a number of high-performance wind-driven power plants, which were sent to be used in various countries around the world: most of them were left in Russia, and several units are being operated in the USA, Japan, and the Arctic Region. 

Wind-driven Power Plant in the USA

Speaking again of the solar batteries, we should note that according to Professor Solomin, a station which could supply power for the entire house will pay off in about seven years. Moreover, they cost less year after year, so it is possible that more and more people will be able to switch to the alternative energy of renewable resources, which do not rob from nature.

Adapted from hornews.com
You are reporting a typo in the following text:
Simply click the "Send typo report" button to complete the report. You can also include a comment.