When you're working on a remote construction site in the blazing summer heat or the dead of winter, access to electricity isn’t just convenient—it’s essential. But what happens when you're miles from the nearest power grid? This is a reality for many professionals, and can greatly hinder efficiency, when they are unable to power their tools, complete paperwork, or have a climate controlled space for extreme weather.
When Zach Bitner, owner of Cedar Peak Trucking and sponsor of the Capstone team, first located to his work site in Vineyard, he was without electricity and was unable to easily connect to the power grid. To combat this problem, Bitner created a mobile office space out of a shipping container, complete with an array of solar panels above. He contacted BYU Capstone for help creating an automatic lift to raise the solar panels to take advantage of the sun’s tilt angle and generate more power.
The team that worked on this project, named Ra Power, after the Egyptian sun god, consists of one computer engineer, one manufacturing engineer, three electrical engineers and three mechanical engineers.
“We all know that we play a critical part in the team,” Mechanical Engineering senior Joseph Morrell shared. “There’s elements of each of our areas of study that no one of us is able to do all on our own.”
The Mechanical Engineers and Manufacturing Engineer of the project created two lifting mechanisms for the solar panel array. The solar panels weigh around 5,000 pounds, so the team had to find materials and create designs that could withstand the weight–a process involving extensive calculations and testing.
The Electrical Engineers worked on the wirings and the circuit to power the lifts, making sure that the lifts would always run in sync. They also programmed the controller to automatically lower the panels in cases of strong wind so that the array does not sustain any damage.
The team’s Computer Engineer, Preston Thomas, and Electrical Engineer, Carter Pollan, created an app that can raise and lower the solar panels.
The final version of the mobile power plant is a modified shipping container with a climate-controlled interior. The unit boasts 12,500 watts of bi-facial solar panels, meaning that the panels can collect electricity from each side, and has enough battery storage to run the average American home for over a full day without any sun. The solar panels are even able to retract for easier transportation between job sites or customers who are leasing them.
After two semesters of devoted work, and many prototypes later, the team was ready to put their efforts to the test. Weeks before the Capstone fair, the students saw their lifting mechanism work at full-scale, tilting the solar panels as desired.
Reflecting on the experience, Carter Pollan shared, “The most rewarding part of any project for me is when it works for the first time. When I actually saw the lift go up and come back down, I was like, ‘Yes! It works!’”
Sharing his experiences about the most rewarding aspect of the project, Austin Barlow added, “I think we have really, really good team unity, which I didn’t expect going into it. I always thought of myself enjoying working alone more and figuring out things myself, but our team really, I think, represented good unity. Everyone was always willing to jump in and learn something new. That taught me a lot about the value of being in a team, and it made me want to be in teams like that in the future.”
The students reflected on their experience working with Zach as well, remarking that his mentorship was another highlight of the project. “Zach was just super invested in us as a team, and I think the way he expressed confidence in us and gave us important tips made for a really good balance. We got very blessed with a good sponsor who was excited about the Capstone program,” Austin Barlow shared.
“The experience has been amazing for me. The team has been awesome–super responsive–just a great, great team to work with, and they’ve really nailed the deliverables that we’ve asked them to do,” Zach remarked.
The innovation of this project has the potential to bring clean, reliable energy wherever it is needed–no grid required.