The Training of Renewable Energy Systems : Undergraduate Studies

As in all over the world, interest in usage of renewable energy sources has increased in Turkey. Due to intersection of universities leadership on the research and the technology field with the renewable energies innovative feature, it is convenient to provide these provide renewable energy trainings in higher education. To provide practical training to have qualified personnel, new laboratories are required to be established in this field. Therefore, it is becoming extremely important to provide practical training in the field of renewable energy at undergraduate and postgraduate level in universities. In this study, practical working example is provided the scope of has been established in technical equipment of the renewable energy laboratory within Marmara University Faculty of Technology Electric Electronic Engineering Department. This study intends to provide guidance to further studies in renewable

Abstract-As in all over the world, interest in usage of renewable energy sources has increased in Turkey.Due to intersection of universities leadership on the research and the technology field with the renewable energies innovative feature, it is convenient to provide these provide renewable energy trainings in higher education.To provide practical training to have qualified personnel, new laboratories are required to be established in this field.Therefore, it is becoming extremely important to provide practical training in the field of renewable energy at undergraduate and postgraduate level in universities.In this study, practical working example is provided the scope of has been established in technical equipment of the renewable energy laboratory within Marmara University Faculty of Technology Electric Electronic Engineering Department.This study intends to provide guidance to further studies in renewable energy education.
Index Terms-Engineering education, Power engineering education, Renewable energy sources, Vocational training.

I. INTRODUCTION
NERGY needs of countries is increasing due to the improvement of life quality and technological development [1,2].Besides, public awareness on the environmental impact of fossil fuels formed and environmental incentives of governments has increased the interest in renewable energy sources [3,4].Concordantly, new energy policies of many countries are directed to the use of clean and renewable sources [1].As a result of the growing encouragement and technological development in the field of renewable energy, requirement for more research and technical people has emerged as a growing need [5].Engineering education plays a crucial role in meeting this need in the whole education system [6].
Development of theoretical and practical concepts in engineering training is based on practical experiments.[7].In this context, undergraduate and graduate levels of renewable energy education, besides the technical information students to gain the creative and innovative features, it is possible with practical work [8].
The present study highlights the importance of supporting students with the application of theoretical knowledge in the field of renewable energy.In Marmara Universtiy Technology Faculty founded a RES (Renewable Energy Sources) laboratory for the undergraduate and graduate students to be able to conduct practical work.The technical equipment and the examples of applications in the said laboratory are presented in detail.

II. RENEWABLE ENERGY EDUCATION IN THE WORLD AND TURKEY
Education is vital in social development and energy is key to sustainable development [9,10].Increased sensitivity about energy security of countries, supporting policies and decreasing energy costs have increased the integration of renewable energy systems to the power system.100 GW of renewable energy capacity has been added to power system in the last three years worldwide [11].
As is the case in all development processes, this rapid progress has created the need for qualified personnel.To meet the need, diversified training programs have emerged [10].In the world, renewable energy education at undergraduate level includes various courses and research programs [12].However, graduate programs have a priority compared to undergraduate program in renewable energy education [13].
Today, there are no private programs at undergraduate level in the field of renewable energy [10].However, graduate programs on renewable energy sources are offered, and shortterm training programs are also available.In addition, associate degree programs are offered in the United States and a large number of vocational courses are available in many European countries [13].Increasing the usage of renewable energy sources in Turkey is inevitable for the following reasons [1]:  Import dependency (more than half of its energy),  Limited fossil energy sources,  Rapidly growing energy consumption,  Increased environmental awareness,  Advantages of geographical position for the usage of renewable energy sources.

E
In Turkey, 4% of electricity generation was provided from renewable energy sources of the country in 2014; and the utilization of renewable energy sources for the purpose of electrical energy generation is promoted by the related laws and regulations [14].This field has steadily increasing number of advantages and incentives and accordingly education on the field should be offered in line with the following aims [1]:  To increase public awareness and introduce basic concepts through short-term courses at college level and media,  To meet the need for trained field staff with certificate and diploma courses,  To meet design, development and evaluation needs with the bachelor's degree in the field of energy engineering,  To train scientists and engineers with graduate courses for sustainable development of technology.However, renewable energy education in Turkey is mostly offered at the tertiary level [15].Although graduate training has focused on renewable energy sources, elective courses are rapidly increasing in the related departments.In addition, vocational courses are offered for field staff [16].

III. LABORATORY SCOPE AND EXPERIMENTS
In the laboratory, experiments are planned to explain scientific and engineering fundamentals of renewable energy based electricity generation.Cognitive experiences of the students are supported by psychomotor experiences for persistent skills development using laboratory equipment.Wind and solar energy test equipment are used to recognize wind and solar components in the power systems.During the selection process of the test equipment, their specific qualities such as their usability for different applications and adaptability for new technologies are taken into consideration.Therefore, test equipment is convenient for graduate level trainings.For scientific researches, the laboratory is equipped with professional solar simulator (Fig. 1).In the simulator, AM 1.5 solar spectrum intensity can be obtained from a circle of 16 cm in diameter with 300W ceramic xenon lamp.Also, ambient temperature change is only 3-4 0 C. So, it can be used to explore solar cells and their characteristics.At the same time, age related efficiency changes and power quality effects for grid connections of photovoltaics can be examined under simulated real conditions.As a power quality study, the effects of harmonics generated by electronic inverter can be examined for grid connection.In addition to graduate level studies, undergraduate level experiments which can be carried out in solar equipment (Fig. 2  In the wind energy test equipment, 0-12 m/s wind speed can be supplied (Fig. 4).On the other hand, the distance between fan and wind turbine can be changed to increase wind speed.Different wind turbines with suitable dimension blades and turbine simulators can be tested.So, graduate level studies for the determination of optimum load conditions, blade design, pitch angle control, blade faults and electrical faults of generator can be realized.In addition to these studies, wind energy experiments for undergraduate level are listed below and necessities of them are explained.For measurements from test equipment a Matlab/Simulink program is generated (Fig. 5).Data of wind and solar energy test equipment rigs are transferred to computer through data acquisition card.This measurement type is preferred because of its feasibility.The students can also practice the basics of data acquisition and signal processing techniques.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Solar simulator  Temperature effects on photovoltaic panel output voltage: Photovoltaic panel surface temperature is increased incrementally and photovoltaic panel output voltage is measured and analyzed. Inverter output voltage-Load type correlation: Under the fixed light intensity, inverter output voltage is measured and analyzed using power quality analyzer for different load characteristics (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 .
Fig. 3. Data acquisition and measurement instruments  Wind speed measurements: This parameter is very important to determine the area to install a wind turbine/farm.The measurement of wind speed is performed with this experiment to teach anemometer usage, possible measurement errors and the parameters which affect wind speed knowledge. Wind speed-wind turbine cycle correlation: Cut-in and cutoff speeds, tachometer usage and vibration measurement qualifications are introduced to the trainees in this education program.