Incorporating Virtual Reality into the Teaching and Training of Grid-Tie Photovoltaic Power Plants Design

Abstract

The current difficulty in obtaining financial resources to acquire equipment for training personnel and the requirement of well-trained engineers in the industry looking toward sustainability, creates an opportunity to innovate in teaching tools, such as the proposed in this article, where a virtual world is projected, integrating the planning and design of a photovoltaic power plant (PV). The user can interact while immersed in the virtual scene as if the PV system were already installed, illustrating technical characteristics of selected equipment and its installation details, while the user is interacting with didactic activities focused on visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning. This paper summarizes an initiative within the teaching−learning context, which aims to show the advantages of using modern tools, such as virtual reality, to achieve teaching goals in a renewable energy course.

Keywords

• virtual training
• virtual reality
• teaching innovation
• virtual photovoltaic planning
• educational technology