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Green Technology for Disaster Relief and Remote Areas

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Conference

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Indianapolis, Indiana

Publication Date

June 15, 2014

Start Date

June 15, 2014

End Date

June 18, 2014

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Innovative Projects in Energy Education

Tagged Division

Energy Conversion and Conservation

Page Count

12

Page Numbers

24.656.1 - 24.656.12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--20547

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/20547

Download Count

763

Paper Authors

biography

Salahuddin Qazi State University of New York, Institute of Tech.

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Salahuddin (Sala) Qazi holds a Ph.D., degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology, Loughborough, U.K. He is a full Professor (Emeritus) and past chair in the School of Information Systems and Engineering Technology at the State University of New York Institute of Technology, Utica. Dr. Qazi has published several articles in the area of fiber doped amplifiers, wireless security, MEMS and photovoltaic energy. He has co-authored two books in the area of “Nanonotechnology for Telecommunications” published by CRC Press and a handbook of research on “Solar Energy Systems and Technologies” published by IGI Global. He also authored two chapters for these books. He is a member of ASEE and a senior life member of IEEE.

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biography

Farhan Qazi

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Farhan A Qazi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and MBA degree both from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He is currently working in Maryland at a federal job and is pursuing a doctorate in Information Assurance. Prior to that he worked at Lockheed Martin located at Syracuse, NY as a software engineer and at the New York Power Authority located in Marcy, NY, as a System Analyst. Farhan presented in the area of semantic web in health care system, data mining in health care and biometric authentication systems. He has also co-authored a chapter on “Wireless LAN security” for a handbook of wireless local area networks applications, technology, security and standards published by CRC Press Taylor & Francis group.

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Abstract

AbstractHurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, earthquakes and flooding are natural disasters that canhappen at any time anywhere. The electrical power is usually the first critically importantservice to be lost affecting homes, hospitals, schools, food stores and other vital services.In the aftermath of these disasters photovoltaic (solar electric) energy has the potential tohelp bring natural, reliable power to places devastated by these events. The earth surfacereceives an average of 120,000 Terawatt from the sun, (ignoring the energy being scatteredby the atmosphere and clouds) which would be sufficient to satisfy the energy requirementsof all human activities for more than one year in less than one hour. Photovoltaic (PV)power systems is an example of green technology which provide emission free electricityfueled by the sun which is reliable, secure, noise free and does not need refueling. It alsohelps to reduce consumption of fossil fuels in power plants, pollution and greenhouse gasemissions causing climate change.The new trend is to mount PV systems on trailers, move the energy supply to wherever it isneeded and redeploy as necessary. Mobile PV power systems are stand alone systemswhich have been deployed to provide electricity to power radio stations, health clinics,shelters and homes at the disaster sites before utility electricity is restored. These systemscan be assembled in a short time and can replace gasoline and diesel generators fortemporary power in many small applications with many advantages. Such systems can alsobe used for more than a billion people living at remote locations that have no access toelectricity. New community partnership are also emerging between citizens, utilities andgovernments to provide electricity at a reduced rate for small businesses, low-incomeutility customers, agricultural producers, and other people frustrated by shading, limitedroof space, not owning their home, or the high initial cost of ownership. These communitypartnerships or solar gardens essentially allows such people to "own" a portion of theenergy from a solar electric generating facility operated by an electric utility or other entityand have that energy credited toward their electricity bill similar to what would happen ifthey installed solar panels on their roof or property.The purpose of our paper is to review the use of mobile photovoltaic system to provideelectricity in the aftermath of disasters for emergency relief. It will also discuss theconcept of solar co-operatives and disaster resilience through solar gardens.

Qazi, S., & Qazi, F. (2014, June), Green Technology for Disaster Relief and Remote Areas Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20547

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2014 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015