At noon on February 13th, emergency photovoltaic energy storage power equipment assembled by students from Sino-German College of Applied Sciences， Tongji University was delivered to the storage center located at No.8 Jinwen Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. It would be sent to the earthquake-stricken area in Turkey on a special plane by Turkish Airlines together with other relief materials donated from China. Pointing to the box labeled "earthquake humanitarian relief", Tongji student volunteer BAI Haoran said: "our efforts eventually paid off."

The emergency photovoltaic energy storage power equipment ready for delivery

On February 6th, strong earthquakes occurred in Turkey and Syria. Seven junior students, including BAI Haoran and ZHANG Wanlin, of building electrical and intelligent engineering from Sino-German College of Applied Sciences learned from the call for relief materials released by the Turkish Embassy in China that the earthquake-stricken areas were in urgent need of mobile power supply. With no hesitation, they decided to make good use of their knowledge of new energy photovoltaic and energy storage to make a set of emergency photovoltaic energy storage power equipment. They took action right away. They set up a research and development team for "Emergency Photovoltaic Energy Storage Power Equipment for Disaster Relief" and started to work overnight.

Students working overnight

The disaster was an order, and time was life. At that time, the new semester had not started yet; and most of them had not returned to school. After group discussion, it was decided that they would form two groups: an online group and an offline one. The offline group consisted of two students based in Shanghai where Tongji University was located. They were responsible for the purchase and assembly of accessories. Students in the online group were responsible for providing design suggestions and writing equipment instructions and specifications on the package in Chinese and English. They were also responsible for communicating with people from Turkey.

Due to time constraints, the students in the offline group selected the equipment configurations at the manufacturer and purchased some supporting components in the electronic market near Jiading Campus. Considering that the disaster relief equipment should be as portable and convenient as possible, the students discussed for a long time the power, capacity, size, and other parameters of photovoltaic and battery following an analysis of the local sunshine conditions and disaster relief needs in Turkey.

Eventually, they decided to make a foldable and lightweight photovoltaic module that contained a lithium battery with high energy density and fast charging and discharging capacity, and a power supply integrating energy storage and power conversion control. LED lighting and standard interface adaptable to local electrical appliances in Turkey were equipped with quick plugging and unplugging aviation plugs. The system adopted a design of modular integration, by which electricity could be generated by photovoltaic and civil charging or on vehicles. Each module can be used alone or in sets, which can meet the requirements of flexibility and portability in rescue sites.

The foldable lightweight photovoltaic module

The student efforts received positive responses. When the students encountered some technical difficulties, their teachers offered help. An international student from Turkmenistan who was proficient in Turkish came to help with the language. She translated the Turkish version of the instructions for the emergency power box. The instruction in Turkish would be much more convenient for local rescuers to understand and use the emergency power supply equipment.

Instructions in Turkish on the emergency power supply equipment