Modular Renewable Energy Systems for Refugee Households in Jordan

We are currently in a global refugee crisis, where over 89 million people in the world are
forcibly displaced. Especially in Jordan, there are millions of refugees living in shelters which
are not meant to last more than 5 years. The current shelters in refugee camps currently draw
electricity from the power grid, which is highly unreliable in Jordan and results in severe
rationing of the amount of electricity each household has per day. This is where Mawa Modular,
a company that is developing modular housing shelters in Jordan, comes in. Through our project
with Mawa, our main goal is to propose the design of a solar module that will be modular and
improve the energy reliability for shelters in refugee camps. In order to accomplish this, we
established a number of engineering requirements, including providing as much power as
possible with a $1,000 budget, creating a bracket that can easily mount various types of solar
panels, ensuring that our module withstands the expected modes of failure, and recommending a
battery option to store energy efficiently. Since the current refugee camps already draw
electricity from the grid, our system will be supplementary to the power they currently have and
integrate a battery to provide power when the sun is not shining. In order to accomplish our
goals, we first explored various mounting methods to attach solar panels onto the roof of Mawa’s
current design. We decided on a steel bracket with M10 through bolts that met all of our
requirements, and proceeded with various experiments and simulations to ensure the bracket
could endure various modes of failure. We did two force loading experiments and a
waterproofing test with the leg of the bracket, which proved that it meets our engineering
requirements and helped us determine Kwik Seal as the best sealant to water-proof the through
holes. In addition, we performed solar simulations to test the actual power generated by various
types of solar panels at different conditions and configurations. This analysis gave us quantitative
evidence to back up our chosen design and provided accurate readings for the power output we
would expect from our solar module in Amman, Jordan. Finally, we did research into various
types of batteries and recommended a lead-acid battery in a DC coupled system with an inverter,
as well as an MPPT charge controller. All in all, through exploring various mounting methods,
performing simulations on how different solar conditions affect power output, and researching
complementary batteries, we recommend to Mawa a solar module comprised of a 200W solar
panel, a mounting bracket at a fixed angle of 27 degrees, a Centennial 90Ah lead-acid battery, a
60A MPPT Outback Charge Controller, and an Enphase Micro-inverter. While the total cost of
this module is about $1,200, we estimate the prices to go down in mass production.