On July 11th, exciting good news came from Versailles, France, on the other side of the globe. The energy balance solution developed by Delta assisted the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) team in winning third place in the Energy Efficiency competition at the 2014 Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE). It was the best achievement by an Asian team in many years. During the 14-month-long project planning period, the Delta team demonstrated their corporate values of Innovation, Agility and Teamwork.
Solar Decathlon and its objective
The Solar Decathlon is a competition initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which sponsors experimental projects to find intelligent housing and living programs for sustainable social development in the face of climate change. The competition was first held in Washington DC, U.S., in 2002, and received a lot of attention from the academic and industrial sectors. Teams from Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other top universities have participated in the competition for many years. Starting from 2010, European countries joined and worked with the organizers to hold Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid, Spain.
The competition rules are simple and clear. It requires all participating teams to use solar power as their main source of power, working in conjunction with the Passive Technology of architectural design and Active Technology of system design. Teams need to complete construction of a building structure and system installation in ten days, and compete in ten contests within this period. The ten contests include Engineering and Construction, Energy Efficiency, Electrical Energy Balance, Comfort Condition, House Functioning, Communication and Social Awareness, Urban Design, Transportation and Affordability, Innovation, and Sustainability.
The 2014 SDE competition emphasizes "Ecological Energy Transitions". Examples include collective residential design that is able to reduce environmental impact, buildings which can combine to urban design, residential design and transport system architecture, as well as six key issues that can influence society, culture, and the environment. The competition was held from June 16 to July 14 at a well-known landmark next to Versailles.
Delta's presented system integration capabilities and brand image
In August 2013, with the introduction of Dr. Tsai from the Mission Critical Infrastructure Solution Business Unit (MCISBU), Vice President Yi Ping Lin of NCTU led a team to visit Delta to seek collaboration. He was jointly received by Vice Chairman, Mr. Mark Ko, Dr. Robert Lour of the System Integration Business Division, Assistant Vice President of Corp. Comm. Mr. Jesse Chou and Chief Brand Officer, Ms. Shan-Shan Guo. The NCTU team specifically pointed out that they had seen Delta's exhibition of the "Delta Sunshine Elementary School" at Computex Taipei last June which portrayed a complete picture of providing a smart green lifestyle with intelligent applications and system integration. This matched the design concept proposed by the NCTU team for participating in the 2014 SDE. Mr. Lin was hoping to invite Delta to join the team and provide the technical capability for Energy Balance and Environmental Control.
The NCTU team adopted the theme of Orchid House to provide an image of Taiwan's culture. The building is designed with clean energy sources and solves the urban heat island effect. In response to the climate change phenomenon, a rain water collection system was designed to recycle rain water, improving domestic water circulation systems and reducing the impact on the urban environment. This could also significantly improve illegal rooftop buildings commonly seen in Taiwan and reshape Taiwan's urban skyline.
After thorough assessment by Mr. Ko, Dr. Lour and other senior managers, the consensus was to participate in the competition to demonstrate Delta's building energy management application and, at the same time, strengthen the brand image of "Smarter. Greener. Together." in the EMEA region. The Brand Management Office (BMO) and SIBD then organized a technical team to cooperate with the NCTU SDE team.
Innovative products, cross-regional teamwork
After assessing the requirements and design of the NCTU team, SIBD proposed a solution consisting four systems: Solar Renewable Energy System, Environmental Control System, Energy Storage System, and Online Monitoring and Control Platform. In addition, team members were assigned to provide NCTU with the necessary system design and technical consulting. Weekly meetings on integration issues were held with NCTU team to provide the most comprehensive support, and at the same time perform seamless teamwork with other 3rd parties.
The competition sets a limit on using solar energy devices and power generation capacity to demonstrate the actual energy-saving results of current technologies. Delta's SIBD team evaluated all of Delta's energy storage solutions for reducing dependency on the power grid and enable better energy efficiency. The solution proposed by Delta's Poland technical team, BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), was found most suitable for this competition to complete the overall system design.
The Chief Technical Officer of the Poland team, Mr. Puczko, pointed out that by integrating high-efficiency Rectifiers, Micro PV Inverters and a Lithium Battery Pack, the BESS program balances the usage of solar energy, grid power, battery storage, and the power consumption of home appliances. The working principle is quite simple; it uses a Current Transformer (CT) to detect power consumption and when the power from solar energy and battery are together greater than the power consumed by home appliances, BESS sends the power back to the grid. Otherwise it retrieves power from the grid to supply power for home appliances.
This energy balancing solution also includes many energy saving systems, such as Delta's ventilation fans, AC pedestal charging post for electric vehicles (EV), and LED lighting applications. It uses programmable logic controllers (PLC), human machine interfaces (HMI), and other devices as important components of the subsystems.
The Environment Control System adopts Delta's programmable logic controllers DVP Series and human machine interface DOP Series, which were provided by the Delta industrial automation business group. They helped the system calculate environment parameters and control terminal devices, and showed high stability and reliability during testing and the competition.
Delta's strength internationally renowned
Facing the challenges of 19 teams from top universities around the world with many having European cultural and geographical advantages, Delta's team still demonstrated strong technical and organizational capabilities at the competition. SIBD colleagues arrived prior to the competition to get familiar with the onsite power infrastructure and working environment. Under the scorching sun and flying dust, the SIBD team did a thorough investigation and preparation, hoping to complete Delta's system installation in the shortest time possible.
To be eligible to participate in the competition, all materials and tools were to be prepared in a completely unfamiliar environment, and a fully functional house built within a short period of just ten days. At the same time, the team was required to pass three inspection tests for building structure, electrical system, and environment, health and safety (EHS). This "Mission Impossible" was completed with the collaboration of the NCTU team and Delta's team and was recognized as the first and only team among all 20 to apply and specify the date for power system inspection before the competition. By the 8th day of the competition (June 24), Delta passed the electrical systems inspection as the first officially approved team.
The organization's power system, electrical standards and inspections were led by a professional technician team from the global company Schneider Electric. Passing this company's inspection indicated that Delta's system had met and was approved on the basis of international standards.
Innovation, Agility, Teamwork
During the 14-month-long project period, the Delta team demonstrated Innovation, Agility and Teamwork in managing the project and overcoming all difficulties. When the Founder and Honorary Chairman, Mr. Bruce Cheng arrived at the site, he gave his thumbs up to the project team and offered his praise.
2014 SDE concluded on the 14th of July with the NCTU team winning a total of four awards. Among them, the Delta team was thoroughly involved in the Energy Efficiency category that received 3rd place. Not only did the team lead most of the European teams, it was also the best achievement of any Asian team, providing world-class recognition for Delta's efforts in green energy technology.