List of Solar Energy Project Ideas for Engineering Students

Solar energy is nothing but the radiant energy emitted by Sun. We may convert this solar energy into electricity either directly using photovoltaic (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP) with the help of lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight. This solar energy is mainly useful in solar street lights, auto solar irrigation systems, traffic junction signal lighting, etc. Many people are interested in utilizing this solar energy in real life also. As a result, engineering students are showing a lot of interest in doing projects on solar energy. So, here we are providing a list of solar energy project ideas that may be helpful for engineering students in completing their B.Tech successfully. These projects are mainly useful for ECE and EEE students.

Solar Energy Project Ideas for Engineering Students

There are different types of solar energy project ideas available for engineering students based on different categories like DIY, Arduino, LED, Battery, and Innovative Projects.

DIY Solar Projects for the Home

There are different kinds of DIY solar projects are available for our home requirements. But some of the DIY projects need special tools for their operation as compared with simple ones. The solar energy projects based on Do-it-Yourself are listed below.

• Bluetooth Speaker Design using Solar
• Off Grid-based DIY Solar System
• Stereo Cooler Charged by Solar
• PV Tracker using Solar
• Scare Mosquito using Solar
• USB Charger based on Solar
• DIY Phone Charger using Solar
• Battery Charger using Solar
• Solar Tracker Enabled by the Internet
• Moveable Solar Power Unit
• DIY based Movable Charging Station based on Solar
• Shrub based on Solar for Home
• DIY battery Charger based on LLI on or Lipo
• Solar Charging Station
• DIY Solar Panel for Home
• Solar System for Apartment
• Power Supply based on Solar Energy
• Solar Lamp based on Card Board
• Solar Light Bulb Design for Night-Time

Solar Arduino Projects

The list of solar Arduino projects for engineering students is listed below.

• Arduino Uno Powered by Solar Charged Battery
• MPPT Charge Controller using Arduino
• MPPT Solar Charger using Arduino – PV
• Solar Tracker based on Non-Optical
• Solar Powered Arduino
• Solar Tracker Panel with Dual Axis using Auto & Manual Mode
• Compost Monitoring Powered by Solar
• Solar Panel for Light Tracking & Servo Controlling
• Arduino based Smart Energy Monitor
• UPS Controller based on Solar
• Solar Radiation Measurement using Arduino
• Water Tank Regulator using Solar
• Energy Detector of Solar Panel & Light Intensity
• Arduino based Solar Boiler
• Arduino based Sun Tracker Turret
• Solar Charge Controller using MPPT & Arduino
• Arduino based Weather Station Powered by Solar
• Arduino based Solar Charge Controller
• Energy Meter using Arduino
• Weather Station based on Arduino & Solar

Solar Inverter Projects

The list of solar inverter projects for engineering students is listed below.

• Solar Inverter Project using SG3525
• Handy Solar Power Inverter
• Solar Inverter for Home
• Solar Inverter based on Quasi-Z-Source for Fed BLDC Drive
• Revolving Solar Inverter with Microcontroller

Solar LED Projects

The list of solar LED projects for engineering students includes the following.

• Home Lighting System Powered by Solar
• LED Lighting System Powered by Solar PV for a Class Room
• Solar LED-based Road Marker
• LED Street Lights using Solar Power

Solar Battery Projects

The list of solar battery projects for engineering students includes the following.

• Lipoly Charger using Solar Energy
• Lead-Acid-Battery based Regulator used for Solar Panel Systems
• Fans Powered by Solar Energy
• Handbag based on Solar Charging
• Charging System for Battery through Solar Energy with Microcontroller & C Programming
• Simple Solar Charger Circuit Design for Mobiles
• Solar Lantern
• Charging Indicator for Solar Battery
• DIY based Solar Boost Converter using MPPT Charge Controller
• Buck Converter based Battery Charger for Wind & Solar Energy Conversion
• Charger Circuit for Solar Window
• Energy Storage System for Battery & FPGA with Solar Cells

Innovative Solar Energy Projects

The innovative solar energy projects mainly include solar IoT projects, solar wireless projects,  the following.

Solar Energy Management System Project

This project distributes the power which is produced from renewable energy sources. Once the capacity & efficiency of the solar panel is increased, then designing the solar grid is possible to solve the electricity problems. This grid can distribute the electricity in the areas of urban & rural so that electrical problems can be solved. However, to maintain and store the energy of this system, it requires a huge inverter to store solar energy which is variable largely. So to overcome this issue, solar grids are designed and connected in parallel with the current grids by the management.

Solar Energy Project for Home

The solar energy project for home is designed to generate AC power to a home for providing the required power to operate appliances, gadgets, lighting systems, refrigerators, computers, mixers, ACs, fans, etc. The essential components used in this system are the solar panel, battery, inverter, and solar power system.

Whenever the energy from the sun falls on the solar panel, then the energy can be absorbed through the photovoltaic cells. The energy conversion from solar to electrical in the solar cells can be done with the help of silicon semiconductors using the effect of PV. The converted energy is in the form of DC so that it can directly charge the battery. The battery includes DC that is transmitted to an inverter to convert it into AC. Now the AC power is transmitted to the mains to provide the power to all the appliances in the home.

Water Purification using Solar Energy

There are different water sources available for drinking water in the world, but the available water in many areas is not pure, brackish, and saline. In the coastal areas like Gujarat, Kutch, the major problem is Salinity. So for water purification, there are different methods that are available in the market namely, sand filters, removal of fluoride, overturn osmosis plants, etc.

To overcome this problem, here is a system namely solar energy-based water purification system which works on the principle of reverse osmosis. This project uses renewable energy like solar energy. The main reason to use this energy is cheap, abundant, pollution less, etc.

In the power failure case, the water purifier system continuously works by using solar energy. This project uses 8051 microcontrollers to stop the overflow of water and this water purifier is applicable in the areas of rural and remote wherever the availability of electricity is not there and natural disaster places. By using this project, the salt content within the water can be reduced.

Solar Insect Robot

A solar-based insect robot is one kind of lightweight machine. This insect flies without using a power source. This robot has four wings that shake 170 times per second. The width of the insect wing is 3.5cms and the height is 6.5cms. This robot was invented at Harvard University by Noah Jaffer is & his colleagues.

The wings of solar insect robots are controlled through two plates. Once the current flow throughout them, then it bonds. The powered used by this insect is six small solar cells where each cell weight is 10 milligrams. These cells are arranged on the wings of the robot

Once the robot exposed to light, then the wings will start flapping. Generally, this robot flies for half of the second approximately before it goes away from the light. In the future, this project can be developed to fly the robot in the sunlight & integrate sensing mechanisms.

IoT based Monitoring System using Solar Energy

Power plants based on solar energy must be monitored to get the optimum output power. This system helps in recovering efficient output power while checking the faulty solar panels. This retrieves efficient output power from power plants while monitoring for faulty solar panels, dust on panels & connections because these issues will affect the performance of solar.
So this proposed system allows the monitoring system based on solar power using the internet from anywhere. This project monitors the panel constantly and transmits the output power towards the IoT system using the internet.

This project uses IOT Gecko for transmitting the parameters of solar power through the internet to the IOT Gecko server. Now with the help of an effective GUI, it displays the parameters of the solar power & gives an alert to the user once the output drops under the specified limits. So that monitoring of solar plants is very easy through remotely.

Dual Management System of Solar Panel using IoT

The proposed system namely a dual management system for solar panels based on IoT performs two tasks like solar panel theft prevention and an indication of maintenance through sensors & LinkIt ONE. By using this project will reduce the frequent visits & cost of transportation but increases the solar panel usage as well as efficiency.

Theft prevention can be achieved by using GPS as well as LinkIt ONE Board of GPRS using an accelerometer. If the solar panel turns then there is an activity that will be occurred so that there is a change within the value of axis in accelerometer. This will be detected through LinkIt ONE. So that the data can be processed and the GPS location of the panel can be tracked using the webserver & web app. Finally, an alert can be generated and send through an SMS or e-mail

Indication of maintenance can be achieved through voltage, dust, and sensors. Once the deposition of dirt on the solar panel enhances then the panel efficiency can be reduced, so this can be observed through LinkIt ONE with the values of the sensor. This data can be updated on the webserver so that the maintenance time on the panel can be viewed.

Wireless Charger using Solar Energy

This project is used to design a wireless charger based on solar energy. For that, a small solar panel can be arranged on the mobile phone to charge independently without wires. Once the mobile phone is exposed to sunlight then it starts charging.

The main advantages of this project are, it doesn’t use any wire for charging and energy can be conserved. This energy is very famous because of the abundance as well as free energy. So customer’s electricity bills, as well as money, will be saved. This energy is very clean as well as generates no dangerous waste similar to other resources of power generation.

Wireless Power Transmission using Solar Energy

This project is used to transfer energy in the form of electrical from one place to another without a connection using solar energy. The proposed system uses a solar panel for providing a renewable energy source. The solar panels charge the light energy into electrical & finally it is stored in the batteries. This stored energy can be used by the transmitter and transmits this energy in the form of electromagnetic waves from a transmitter to the receiver using an inductor. The electromagnetic waves which are received from the transmitter are decoded to its actual form and generate the same voltage when the voltage is applied at the transmitting side.

Solar Energy based Detection of Forest Fire

Most of the disasters that occur in the forest are fire accidents that affect the environmental impact. The main intension of this project is to detect the fire in the forest. The proposed system uses two modules namely the MAM (monitoring area module) & the FAM (forest area module). These two modules are divided into five modules again like sensors, serial communication with Zigbee, harvesting of solar energy with MPPT, web server based on PC. The first 3 modules come under the forest area type module. These modules are connected and arrange in the forest and the webserver is developed for area monitoring.

The result of this system reveals different sensors used & the temperature sensor develops the levels of security in the surrounding areas of forests. The efficiency can be improved to 85% & the webserver can reduce the cost & weight of the whole system

Future solar energy projects include the following.

• Docking System based on Solar Power
• Beacon Projects based on Solar Energy
• Harvesting Project based on Solar Energy
• Solar Energy based EVS Project
• Genesis based on Solar Energy Project
• Solar Project based on Trade Wind Energy
• Solar Energy based Crescent Dunes
• Vaccine Refrigerators Powered by Solar
• Solar Cookers/Solar Ovens
• Solar Powered Charger for Cell Phone
• Solar Paint
• Solar Tents
• Solar-Powered Bike Locks
• Solar Powered Backpacks
• Solar Fabric
• The path for Solar Bike in the Netherlands
• Train Tunnel Powered through Solar in Belgium
• Floating Solar Farm in the Maldives
• Airport Powered by Solar in India
• Carousel Powered by Solar in the United States
• Nation Powered by Solar in Tokelau
• Solar Park in Benban, Egypt
• Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China
• Solar based Cochin International Airport, India
• Chernobyl – Solar Plant
• Sungrow – Solar Farm in Huainan, China
• Solar Star in California
• Tindo Bus Powered by Solar in Adelaide, Australia
• Solar Power Project for Canal in Gujarat, India
• The First PV Road in Worldwide, Jinan, China
• Renewable Energy Project in Tokelau
• Solar Impulse
• Arco Solar in California

Solar Projects for Engineering Students

Solar projects for final year engineering students mainly include solar microcontroller projects are discussed below.

Solar Powered LED Street Light with Auto Intensity Control

LED-based street lights owing to their high efficiency and ease of intensity control are now frequently replacing the conventional HID based street lamps. This project defines a LED-based light system which is power from a solar power source and their intensity can be controlled such that they are switched on with maximum intensity only during peak hours. The output from solar panels is stored during day time, in batteries and at night this battery is used to power the LEDs.

Here in this project, an array of LEDs are used to represent the street lights. A charge controller unit is used to sense abnormal conditions like overcharging, overload, and low charging conditions and accordingly control charging of the battery. The DC power stored in the batteries is used to power the array of LEDs through a switch arrangement. The intensity of the LEDs is controlled or varied after particular time intervals by providing varying duty cycle pulses to the switch from the microcontroller. Thus using the PWM technique, solar power is supplied to the LEDs to vary their intensity. Please refer to this link to know more about Solar Powered LED Street Light with Auto Intensity Control

Sun Tracking Solar Panel

This project defines a way for mounting of solar panels so as to receive maximum radiation from the sun. Here an active tracker system is used where the panel is placed on the shaft of a motor and the motor is given proper rotation such that the panel is always oriented at 90 degrees to receive the maximum sunlight.

Here a dummy solar panel is used for demonstration purposes. The panel is placed on the shaft of a stepper motor. The microcontroller is programmed so as to provide signals to the driver IC such that the motor gets a rotation of 0 to 180 degrees at every equal interval to track the sunlight. At a certain period, the stepper motor is given 90-degree rotation so as to receive the maximum light. Please refer to this link to know more about Sun Tracking Solar Panel

Solar Power Charge Controller

One of the essential parts of a solar power system is the charge controller which is used for controlling the charge to the battery. As we know, in a solar power system, the solar energy collected by the panels is stored in batteries in order to be used at night times. Also, this DC power is converted to AC power using inverters. Here a system is designed to attain the control of charging of the battery.

Here comparators are used to sense any abnormal condition like overcharging, low voltage, or overload conditions and accordingly give output to control the charging of the battery. A reference voltage is set using a potential divider arrangement. In the case of overcharging, the indication is given by the glowing of LEDs and the current from the panel is bypasses through the transistor. In case of low battery voltage and overload, the load switch is made to be in off condition and the supply to the load is cut off. Thus the charging and discharging of the battery are controlled. Please refer to this link to know more about Solar Power Charge Controller

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System

Irrigation is an artificial supply of water to areas with scant rainfall or water supply. It is often required to control the supply of water by sensing the moisture content in the soil. This project defines a way to achieve this by using a pump that is powered by solar energy, so as to overcome the frequent unavailability of the mains supply and controlling the switching of the pump motor based on the sensor input which senses the moisture content in the soil. Please refer to this link to know more about Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System

Solar Energy Measurement System

This system is used to monitor different parameters related to the solar panel like temperature, light intensity, voltage, and current and display the parameters on an LCD display.

Here 4 sensors are used to sense the different analog parameters, i.e. temperature, light, voltage, and current. These parameters are sensed using sensors for each parameter. The output from the sensors is fed to the input pins of the PIC microcontroller with inbuilt 8-channel ADC with 4 of its channels being used. The output from the sensors is then accordingly displayed on the LCD display in digital form. Please refer to this link to know more about Solar Energy Measurement System.

Renewable Energy Projects for Electrical Engineering Students

Solar energy is one kind of renewable energy. The list of renewable energy projects includes the following.

Solar Tracking System Design

The project solar tracking system is mainly designed with a microcontroller. This project is mainly used to improve PV generation system performance.

Water Pump System Design using Solar Power

The proposed system like a water pump system using solar energy is used to provide water supply for the irrigation systems.

Automatically Operated Wiper through Rain & Solar Power

The project automatically operated wiper using rain and solar energy is used to design a system to operate the wiper of any automobile by detecting the rain automatically. This project is designed with a solar panel so that battery can be charged. So the entire project can be supplied through battery power.

Electric Bicycle Design Operated through Solar Energy

The designing of an electric bike can be done with the help of a solar panel to charge the battery. The proposed system works with battery power using the solar panel. Furthermore, this battery power can be used for different applications to supply power like a glow up the lamps, etc.

Night Lamp Design using Solar Power

The proposed system is used to design a night lamp using solar power. This lamp mainly turns ON/OFF during the sunrise and sunset. In sunrise, it charges the battery, and during sunset; it uses the battery power for powering the LED lamp.

Pedestal Lighting System Powered through Solar Energy

The proposed system namely a pedestal lighting system based on solar energy is designed with high powered light-emitting diodes. The energy from the solar panel can be stored within the battery. This battery power can be utilized in the night time to glow up the pedestal lighting system.

Steam Engine Powered by Solar Power

The proposed system namely steam engine powered through solar energy is used to design a reciprocating engine that is operated with solar energy. Once the solar energy falls on the metal tube then it converts the water into steam.

Path Finding of Vehicle using Solar Power

The proposed system namely path-finding of the vehicle using solar energy is used to design a robot vehicle to follow the required lane through avoiding obstacles while tracking the lane.

Controlling of Industrial Boiler

The proposed system is designed to control the heating element within the industrial boiler. The heating element can be detected by detecting the temperature depending on the necessity. The solar panel used in this system provides the heating requirement for boiling.

Solar Powered Multipurpose Robot

This project is used to design and develop the robot that digs the soil, puts the seeds, close the mud & sprinkles the water. This robot works with a battery that is powered by solar energy. At present, autonomous robots in the field of agriculture are increasing.

Solar Cooling System used UAE

In UAE, electrical energy is used for different types of equipment in buildings is high due to extremely high ambient temperatures, humidity in summer periods. To overcome this problem, here is a system namely solar cooling system. This system provides power to air conditioning applications. By using this system, electricity bills can be reduced and energy can be conserved.

Designing of Solar Powered & Operated Gate

In this project, the gate is designed to operate with solar energy. This system includes a battery that can be charged with solar energy. Every component used in this system can be designed to supply the function for gate opening. Once the button is pushed on the remote controller, then the gate opens for 8 seconds.

Solar Radiation Tracker to Get Highest Solar Energy

A possible approach to enhance the solar system efficiency is sun tracking. This tracking system controls the solar panel movement so that it is connected in the way of the sun.

Solar panels convert the energy from solar to electrical. This solar tracker project provides an affordable as well as the reliable technique of connecting a solar module through the sun to enhance its output. So by using this project, maximum electricity can be obtained.

Nano Solar Cell-based PV System Design

This project is used to design a PV system with the help of nano solar cells. When the electricity generation is expensive from the light, then this project provides the cost analysis of the photovoltaic system using nanotechnology.

Designing of Embedded System for Removing of Dust on Solar Panel

There are different factors that affect the performance of solar panels like dust and shadowing, so due to this reason, the maximum output energy cannot be generated. This project designs an embedded system to remove the dust on the solar panel so, maximum output can be generated.

Prevention of Soil Erosion through Sustainable Phytoremediation Method

This project is used to monitor the PH value as well as soil moisture with the help of a solar panel as a power source. Therefore it guards the erosion of soil.

Solar Energy based Production of Fresh Water from Sea

The proposed system is used to desalinate seawater using solar energy. So by using this project, freshwater production from the seawater can be done through solar energy.

Electrification of Village using Solar Energy

This project is used to provide an electric supply to the village using solar energy. So that electrical energy can be conserved.

Solar Bag

The solar bag project is used to charge different devices through a power bank which is removable.

Parabolic Solar Oven

A solar oven with a parabolic shape project is used to boil 1 liter of water within 15 to 20 minutes of time duration & this oven can cook rice for three people in 50mins. By using this oven electrical energy can be conserved.

Lawn Mover using Solar Energy

The proposed system namely lawn mover using solar energy is designed to move the lawn grass using solar energy.

Flexible Calling System using GSM for the Workers of Coal Mining

This project helps the coal mine workers to contact with a centralized control room in disaster situations or even at power failure situations because of the solar energy usage for working of the circuit.

Electric Fence used in Rural Agriculture based on Solar Energy

Electric fences are realistic & reasonable solutions for the production of the maximized field. This project is used to help the farmers in their farmlands, fields. This system can be designed with a solar panel for battery charging.

Solar Engine with Beam Circuit

This system is used to design a simple robot. This robot can be operated by using solar energy for driving the actuator system. The solar panel is placed on this system mainly charges the capacitors by using solar energy, then capacitors release their energy to make the robot drive.

Portable Radio Powered by Solar Energy

The proposed system namely Portable Radio Powered by Solar Energy is a simple Do-It-Yourself project. This project is used to design a portable radio using solar power instead of discharging batteries.

Few More Solar Energy Project Ideas

The list of some more solar energy project ideas is listed below.

• Solar Powered Motor
• Solar Water Heater
• Remote Control Plane
• 3D Solar Cells
• Sterling Engine Generator
• Solar Cooker
• Solar Powered Mobile Charger
• Solar Toy Car
• Solar Powered Refrigerator
• Beam Circuit Solar Engines
• Steam Engine Powered by Sun Light
• Solar Turbine Generator
• Solar Powered Path Finding Vehicle
• Solar Powered Generator
• Solar Powered Bicycle
• Solar Powered Bag
• Solar Insect Robot
• Solar Powered Automatic Rain Operated Wiper
• Solar Powered Air Conditioner
• Solar Energy based Water Pumps
• Solar Energy based Water Purification System

Thus, this is all about an overview of solar energy project ideas based on various categories such as DIY, LED, Arduino, Battery, and Innovative Projects. We hope the above projects list is helpful to engineering students in getting a better idea about what type of solar energy project idea may be chosen in final year engineering. Here is a question for you what are the main advantages of solar energy?