Solar Industry Industrial Talk's Reflection
Description
On October 17th, I had attended an industrial talk organized by School of Electrical Engineering at Lecture Hall 4, P19, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The industrial talk was conducted by one of experienced technical engineer, Ms Shabnam Parween Binti Mohd Salim from Plus Solar System Sdn. Bhd. Based on the company itself shows that the topic we hearing during the industrial talk was about “Introduction to Solar Industry
Thoughts/Feelings
At first, when I heard about the topic we are going to discussed, I was very excited because solar was one of the newest and latest technology used in engineering industry. Solar system has a bright future if someone were to invest because it is one of the renewable energies and give a lot of benefit to the user. In her talk, she tells us more detailed about what is solar and how the future will be when solar is used
In one of her introductions, she mentions that woman is not so welcoming by any employer in the engineering field due to the manpower. During her job interview, she was rejected at first due to the gender difference. However, she did not give up and proved to the employer that woman also can be in an engineering industry. She asked the employer to give a chance for a month and dared to be fired immediately if she failed to impress the employer. Later, she successfully proved them wrong and there she is right now, one of the experienced engineers in the latest industry, the solar industry.
Evaluation/Analysis
The talked are given based on answering some popular question such as “What is photovoltaic (PV) Solar System and why?”, “What are the key components of solar system of PV System?” and “What is Plus Solar doing as a Turnkey solution?”.
From what I understood, PV Solar System is the conversion of sunlight into electricity using semiconducting materials which is PV modules. Most of the installation of solar are done in three ways, first is used in large scale, known as ground solar system. The second is the rooftop mounted which are very common in Malaysia and last but not least, floating system, which solar are being installed while floating on a lake.
Beside explaining about solar, Ms. Shabnam also explained to us the problem facing from the perspective of commercial and industrial, when they are buying the electricity from Tenaga National Berhad. One of it, they consume a lot of energy for manufacturing causing high energy bill. Due to the high usage electricity, they were also facing maximum demand penalty. Besides that, they also had to pay huge corporate tax to the government and even some has limited cash flow problem. By installing the solar, the company can solve all the previous problem they are facing and have extra benefits for them. For instance, installing solar will make them as a green technology supporter, hence getting a double tax incentive from Malaysian government and achieving a green building element.
Between first subtopic and second subtopic, we had an opportunity to learn the latest policy to support solar system. There are two policies regarding solar that has been provided by our major government, which are self-consumption and net-energy metering (NEM). Self-consumption policy is when electricity generated are only for their own usage. This means the excess electricity generated cannot be exported back into the grid by selling or any means. The second policy, NEM, allows electricity customers who wish to generate their own electricity from on-site generation to pay only for the net energy they obtain from the utility. Hence, we can conclude the government is encouraging any individual, commercial or industrial consumers to install solar PV in order to reduce the cost of electricity.
Then, the second section started where major components for PV solar system are divided into two part which are installed above the roof and installed below the roof. For the components above the roof are PV module, Mounting Structure, Weather Station and Lightning Arrestor while the components below the roof are Inverter, DC/AC Combiner Box, PC AC MSB and Monitoring. From the component stated, Ms. Shabnam explained some of the component used. The inverter is determined by the power of the solar PV. Small plant used string inverter because the power used usually 100kW and below while huge plant uses central inverter due to the high-power usage of 1MW and above. Solar system has their monitoring system called source application. The system can be used to see a recorded amount of electricity generation and detect any failure in the solar plant because the system is Real-Time monitoring. Lastly, she explained about solar mounting structure type, such as tile roof, metal roof and ballast. Ballast is something new for me as it is installed on a flat roof but the solar panel can be changed into any specific angle.
Last but not least, Ms Shabnam explained to us what is Plus Solar can be as a turnkey solution. There was a lot discussion regarding Pus Solar company but the main point was three important element of the solar project which are project development, EPC (stand for Engineering, Procurement and Construction), and operation and maintenance.
Conclusion
Nowadays, almost every source of electricity is slowly dissipated. Therefore, new society are moving into new era where they depend on renewable energy such as solar, wind and etc. These technologies to generate electricity are very strategic, cost reduction and can never be replenished. Hence, it is very important for the society to expose to the new energy generator so they can enjoy the benefits of it.
I hope solar system could be replacing the current generator as it could help a lot to the economy. By making solar as a main generator, we can conserve other electricity generator such as petroleum and coal while achieving United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Action Plan
In the future, I will join other industrial talk to increase my knowledge in engineering field, especially in solar. Industrial talk help me to see a clear view from an engineer perspective. Beside the, I can share the knowledge I gain with my friends and relatives, hence increasing my soft skill and my confidence level in public.