Technical Report: Proposal to implement Green-E Technology at SIT Campus@Punggol.
1. Background
This report is a response to propose a problem identified within Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) Punggol Campuson how emergent plants, Green-E, could generate electricity to help reduce the overall electrical consumption of the university campus. As the utility bill only shows the overall power consumption of the building, this includes the various systems such as HVAC, security, lights, fire alarm etc. Our team wanted to understand how the electrical energy is being used on a day to day basis by the students.
Based on an article, Wong(2019) from Channel News Asia, the new campus will be an autonomous campus and is constructed in the heart of the Punggol Digital District. This helps to integrate SIT’s teaching concept of applied learning to its students as well as a test-bed for projects, an suitable location for integrating and testing of new projects for professors and industries. The article also mentioned how the school will be a “living lab”, installing more than 10,000 sensors which monitors the temperature, ambient light and human presence data. By implementing this method, SIT Punggol will lead Singapore in becoming a regional hub for digital advancements and a school that enhances students skills and critical thinking.
The Plant-e has mentioned that the Green-E is a method that uses emergent plants which are partially submerged to the water such as common rush, flowering rush, and panic grass to generate electricity with a low voltage. This electrical energy can provide power to small appliances such as lights and charging plugs and tablets.
The plants will photosynthesize and through this process, it starts to generate electricity. During photosynthesis, the plant produces organic materials such as sugars and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. These organic materials will be transported throughout the plant but not all of these materials are used by the plant.
The Plan-e has mentioned that the unwanted organic materials will be excreted from the roots and be broken down by the bacteria in the soil. With this process of degradation, the waste products will release electrons and it will be collected in the anode of the electrode, a metal conductor that collects the electrons of the plant battery. The electrons will flow through the wire and it can be used as electricity. For a continuous flow of electrons, the cathode is needed. When it comes in contact with oxygen from the air, the process of degradation will repeat and thus the roots will release electrons. As SIT Punggol focuses on being a sustainable and eco-friendly campus and it aims to implement new and innovative technology, it is ideal for Green-E technology to be installed at the campus. It is a new campus where it focuses on renewable and innovative technology, making the campus sustainable and eco-friendly.
2. Problem Statement
However, Green-E is an innovative technology which utilizes green plants to generate electricity but SIT Punggol should implement this technology. The goal is to allow SIT Punggol to reduce the use of natural resources, which decreases the utility bill of the campus and move towards sustainable technology.
3. Purpose Statement
This report is to propose to SIT Punggol Campus on how Green-E could generate electricity to provide power supply at facilities such as libraries and discussion rooms for students to charge their personal devices.
4. Proposed Solution
It is decided to propose this idea to SIT Punggol campus as it is an ideal location for being the testing ground for new and innovative renewable technology. This proposal aims to recommend the use of Green-E plant technology as an innovative technology for the university campus.
Since the new campus will be bigger than the Dover campus, the overall electrical usage has been estimated roughly in Dover campus and use it as a gauge to determine the expected usage at Punggol campus. The power consumption was 320,119.41 kWh for April 2018 at the University Tower. This has shown a considerable high amount of electrical energy consumption in the expense of keeping up with the school’s demand for electricity. The building has facilities such as the library and discussion rooms for students.
During the peak hour, where the people in school are highly active using electricity, the power consumption was 263,976.42kWh. During the off peak hour, where there are fewer people in school, the power consumption was 56,142.99kWh. Even though the school has an inactive period, it still shows a high consumption rate of electrical energy being used.
As Green- E is able to generate 233.33 kWh per month. The use of the utility bill as a reference. (Refer to table 1) to calculate the difference in the cost if Green-E is installed.
Table 1: The calculation of the cost after Green-E is installed.
Difference: 55674.25 - 55591.67 = 82.58 SGD per month
Savings for the year: 82.58 SGD x 12 months = 990.96 SGD per year
This shows that by installing the Green-E technology, it helps to reduce the overall costs by $82.58 per month and accumulate to $990.96 per year in savings for the campus. As students may misuse the electricity in the school, Green-E technology will help the campus to lessen the power usage and increase in cost savings.
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