The photovoltaic power plant of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of East Sarajevo has produced more than 90 megawatt-hours of electricity for its needs in the past five years, which has achieved significant electricity savings annually, said Marko Ikić, senior assistant at this higher education institution.

"If we take into account that today's price of megawatt-hour of electricity is between 200 and 250 euros, then it is clearly visible what is the profit of the production itself, i.e. the energy we received from our photovoltaic power plant for our complex," Ikić said, adding that the annual production of their solar power plant is between 18 and 19 megawatt-hours, depending on the weather conditions.

He stated that it is a photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 15.9 kW in peak / a measure of solar energy in the photovoltaic industry for describing the rated power of the unit/ consisting of 60 semi-crystalline modules and which was put into operation in October 2017.

Ikić pointed out that the Faculty annually has significant electricity savings, which can be seen from the bill, especially in the summer period, when part of the building is air-conditioned and when there is a high consumption for cooling rooms, and therefore the share of electricity consumed decreases with the electricity produced in the solar power plant.

According to him, electricity produced from the solar power plant of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering covers five to 10 percent of the annual consumption, and that percentage would have been much higher if the UNDP project, which was approved before the coronavirus pandemic, had been implemented.

Ikić explained that this is a project of warming up buildings, according to which it was supposed to improve the faculty building spire energetically, i.e. to change the exterior joinery and façade, and expressed hope that it will be implemented in the coming period.

"This would make electricity consumption much lower, and the share of electricity production would be significantly higher than mentioned. This would sooner reach the desired realization in terms of production and consumption of electricity of our building," he pointed out.

Ikić pointed out that the Faculty of Electrical Engineering plans to expand its photovoltaic power plant in the future, i.e. that it has a larger capacity, which would go on the concept that all their consumption can be provided from the production of its solar power plant, which is located on the roof of the faculty building.

Speaking about the prevalence of the construction of photovoltaic power plants in the Republic of Srpska and BiH, he said that a great growth has been recorded, due to the energy crisis in the past year, which has affected the entire world, including the Western Balkans, so that schemes and incentives are being made, in order to maximize the installation of installations of these photovoltaic systems in the region.

According to him, a lot of the private sector invests in such a form of renewable energy sources, because they have seen the benefits in saving electricity and lower prices of electricity they buy for their production capacity.

"There are many advantages, the first is that a renewable resource of electricity is used, there are no harmful emissions of gases as with fossil fuel power plants, it does not require a lot of maintenance, and the life span of this power plant is between 20 and 25 years, so the costs of such a system are reduced to almost to a minimum," explained Ikić.

He said that investing in a photovoltaic power plant is profitable if the investment is repaid within eight to 10 years, and added that it can be faster, if electricity is more expensive on the market.

"The investment is welcome, and since there has been an increase in the need for electricity in the world, it must be worked on to produce as much as possible, because we spend more, so that any investment in such a system will pay off eventually," said Ikić.

Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Slobodan Lubura said that a group of researchers from this faculty was among the first in the region to start dealing with photovoltaic systems, and added that this higher education institution even before this solar power plant installed a small experiment, which is still used for laboratory exercises to students and was for internal use, as it is now.

"In addition to this photovoltaic power plant, we at the Faculty, with the equipment obtained with several international projects in which the Faculty of Electrical Engineering actively participates, continue our activities in the direction of storing energy obtained from the Sun, through photovoltaic panels," Lubura pointed out.

According to him, a plan is underway to expand research on the power supply of isolated or autonomous systems such as cottages, systems in agriculture, where we have electricity networks, and where solar power systems that are independent and that work a little differently than they do today can come in handy.

"Appropriate actions have been taken to investigate such power options. These are small systems, from 500 to 1,000 watts, but which can meet the needs of users to power the electricity of pumps, refrigerators and lighting in cottages," Lubura explained.

He stated that such a power plant with other components will soon be tested at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, so that the institution can offer a conceptual design for the project according to the request of the interested person.

According to him, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering has the capacity to respond to any inquiry related to the conceptual design for photovoltaic systems, and today's trend of installing photovoltaic power plants is only one segment, and there are more.

"The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, in cooperation with the municipalities, has actively engaged in the development of preliminary designs that would be the basis for local communities, so I hope that soon a photovoltaic power plant will be installed at an elementary school in East Ilidža", said Lubura and added that this higher education institution is ready to help all institutions in the implementation of projects related to photovoltaic power plants,  But also on other issues.

He stressed that the storage of energy from photovoltaic power plants is the next thing that will have to be worked on.

"Researchers from this faculty are already making certain steps, to predict what awaits us after all these installations. I think that with all relevant institutions dealing with energy – electric power industry, regulatory agency, independent system operator and others, we will make a project, where we can see what awaits us after all the installations," Lubura pointed out.

Lubura and Ikić concluded that the energy sector is changing, that the mass use of solar power plants will give some new challenges to electricity distribution companies, how to modernize the operator area with such decentralized energy sources.

 SOURCE: SRNA