Solar Energy Harvesting Using Radio-Controlled
Aircraft 2023-01-5017
As the world faces a climate crisis and ozone depletion, it is essential to turn
our attention to renewable energy sources. Fossil fuels used in the automobile
and aviation industry generate huge amounts of air pollution damaging the
environment. Pollution generated by this industry contributes to 2.1% of all
human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Renewable energy usage has surged in the
last five years to a great extent. Solar energy is one of the most widely used
and available sources of energy. Solar photovoltaics accounted for 3.6% of
global electricity generation, and it remains the third largest renewable
electricity technology behind hydropower and wind. To generate energy through
solar, solar panels are used. But the problem with solar panels is that their
efficiency is low and a large number of panels are required which take up a huge
amount of space on land. The area of land used for solar goes to waste. Hence,
this paper aims to solve the problem by developing a solar-powered aircraft to
generate energy using solar. We designed different radio-controlled (RC)
aircraft models and analyzed the performance of the aircraft using solar sheets,
solar panels, and solar cells on the model. We calculated the energy/power
required to power the aircraft and which configuration provides the best
results.
Citation: Divakar, A., Anekar, A., Rambhiya, R., and Rane, R., "Solar Energy Harvesting Using Radio-Controlled Aircraft," SAE Technical Paper 2023-01-5017, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4271/2023-01-5017. Download Citation