CircuitDigest teamed up with DigiKey and organized the World Energy Challenge 2023 contest to see innovative, eco-friendly, and sustainable electronic projects. This contest motivated all engineers and makers from India and ASEAN countries to build sustainable projects by leveraging the wide range of components available with Analog Devices, Microchip Technology, STMicroelectronics, Raspberry Pi, and Espressif Systems. This challenge encouraged participants to build and submit projects related to green energy, energy optimization, sustainable energy, energy storage, smart grids, green transportation, sustainable agriculture, recycling, and waste management.
Over its six-month period, the contest received 313 participants with 26 final qualified submissions, making it difficult to select the top three projects. So, without further ado, here are the winners of the contest.
1st Prize: Wireless Sensor Network for Environment and Energy Monitoring by Srinivasan M
This project aims to effectively monitor different parameters such as crop health, temperature, humidity, soil health, and energy consumption of equipment used. By collecting this data, you can optimally use the resources, which in turn saves energy. While the concept might sound simple, the project's complexity lies in choosing the right components to keep the cost low and make this project scalable.
2nd Prize: 250-Watt Solar Driver Circuit with Compact Footprint by Sourav Gupta
Out of different Solar harvesting topologies, like MPPT, PO, MPP, the major challenge is to harvest energy in small space with high current density. In this World Energy Challenge 2023, the participant accepted the challenge to create a circuit that could produce up to 250-watt Energy from a solar panel grid within a 42mm x 26mm Space which is 1.65 inches x 1 inches which is pretty small. Also, this circuit is not limited for a particular type of battery, instead, this small, miniature circuit could charge Lead Acid battery/ Lithium Phosphate, LiFePO4, Lithium Polymer etc.
3rd Prize: Multipurpose Solar Smart Plant Using ESP12E by Rajesh
With this solar plant, you can detect/monitor the environmental conditions which include atmospheric levels of carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide through your smartphones and computers. In addition, you can monitor light intensity, temperature, and humidity. This plant has inbuilt lithium-ion batteries that automatically recharge using solar energy, also it has a deep sleep mode, so you don't have to care about power issues.
Visit the contest page to look at all the amazing projects and runner-ups.
