A Conceptual Design of Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Powered Corridor Lighting System with IoT Application

Electricity consumption keeps rising every year as the world’s population and economic expansion increase. Conventional energy sources such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas continue to be the most widely used energy sources on the planet. They are used in heating, power generation, and as motor fuel. However, fossil fuels are not a suitable source of energy in the long run since they are depleting rapidly. The conventional energy system is incapable of managing and monitoring energy usage. Most of the research that has been done in the past has been on energy monitoring systems, especially on simulation models where the results obtained do not always match the real-time measurements. Hence, the initial investment in creating solar energy with an IoT system is crucial in order to overcome this issue. This paper is going to present the conceptual design of a sustainable solar photovoltaic (PV) powered corridor lighting system with IoT application. The overall system consists of six major components, which include a solar PV array, an inverter with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), battery storage, load (corridor lighting system), utility supply, and monitoring system. The inverter with MPPT is used to select the types of input for the load, either in PV mode, battery mode or utility mode. There are three switching methods to turn on the load in this design: either via IoT mode, bypass mode, or photocell mode. IoT mode requires internet technology to operate, while bypass mode is performed manually by the users according to their needs. On the other hand, photocell mode will operate based on the ambient light intensity. The proposed design is expected to have positive impacts on the environment, especially on energy usage and sustainability issues.