DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 0.5 KW SOLAR TREE FOR POWERING FARM SETTLEMENTS

Nigeria is a country faced with great challenges in the power sector. This is as a result of inadequate administrative and technical efforts in handling issues in this sector. Aforetime, the country has solely depended on grid electricity generation which has proven to be unstable for several decades. These and others, has made it imperative to introduce the use of renewable energy in addressing some of the electricity challenges facing the country. The sources of renewable energy which could serve as an alternative source of power include wind, solar, and biogas. These can also be combined together as an entity to form a hybrid renewable energy source. In this paper, a solar tree was designed and constructed to provide an alternative supply of electricity to farm settlements in Nigeria. This is achieved by generating electricity from a single or multiple number of solar panels connected with a charge controller, a battery bank for storage and an inverter circuit to supply electrical power. Depending on the electrical load demand and the applications coverage area, the solar tree rating and specification can be a single-phase or three-phase AC output