The uneven (flow) resistance of branched pipes commonly causes local overheating and freezing in solar collector fields. In this paper, the resistance characteristics of the direct return flat plate solar collector field are studied using a numerical model. The accuracy of the model is verified with experimental data, and the maximum relative error is below 10%. A new evaluation index, the ratio of

A direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pump (DX-SAHP) system using R290 (propane) is studied experimentally. A Coriolis mass flow meter is employed to measure the R290 mass flow rate, and the artificial neural network (ANN) model is used to predict it. Based on numerous experiments, the 5 independent variables are chosen as the input parameters of the ANN model, including the ambient temperature, solar

This paper presents an experimental investigation of a photovoltaic-thermal solar collector (commonly known as PVT) that generates both electricity and heat from the same gross area. PVT solar collectors, in theory, achieve higher combined electrical and heat yields. Additionally, PVT enables a thermal coupling between PV cells and a heat transfer cooling medium. Electrical and thermal outdoor testing

The present review defines the state of the art of parabolic trough collectors and identifies the concepts in the framework of innovation’s requirements. These are the increase of operating temperatures and of the power plant’s overall efficiency, as well as the cost reductions of the solar field by eliminating components and the reduction of parasitic power consumption (Pitz-Paal et al., 2007). The

The albedo of the ground surface is an important factor in the cost-effectiveness of a bifacial photovoltaic (PV) system. To improve the availability of reliable albedo data, datasets of ground albedo and associated meteorological data were developed by using existing measurement network data and data measured by the PV industry. The measured datasets include time-series data as well as summary information

The carbon-based perovskite solar cells (C-PSCs) have attracted tremendous attentions due to the low fabrication cost and simple structure by omitting the hole transporting layer (HTL). However, the performance of C-PCSs is still lag behind those of conventional PSCs with HTL. In this work, an innovative C-PSC with a gradient doping absorber is proposed and explored by SCAPS simulation. The effect

Observation-based statistical models have been widely used in forecasting solar energy; however, existing models often lack a clear relation to physics and are limited largely to global horizontal irradiance (GHI) forecasts over relatively short time horizons (<1 h). Incorporating physics into observation-based models, increasing forecast time horizons and developing a model system for forecasting

The present study introduces an innovative method for fresh water and electricity generation in the isolated regions. This proposed system couples a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) unit with a membrane distillation (MD) unit. The CPV unit converts solar energy into electrical energy with conversion efficiency of about 40%. The rest is converted to thermal energy, which may cause cells degradation if

A prototype hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal (PV – T) solar dryer aided with Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC) is presented for drying of cassava slices under the meteorological conditions of Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India. Further the morphological, structural and physical properties of thin layer drying kinetics are studied and compared with natural sun drying. The designed dryer reduces the moisture content

Development of a BIPV system with appropriate azimuth and tilt angle on top of a suitable existing or new building in urban areas is a possible option to generate both electrical and thermal energies and also to create an additional living space. These azimuth and tilt angles are significantly influenced by the shadow of the neighborhood’s buildings. The relative height, plan orientation, plan area

Constructing the highly efficient and stable quasi-solid-state even solid-state devices is one of the most significant tendency in the field of quantum dots sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). Herein, highly efficient and stable quasi-solid-state (QS)-QDSCs devices were fabricated via synergistically combining the TiO2-sol interconnecting-modified photoanodes with alginate hydrogel (AH)-assisted electrolyte

Among the numerous proposals for concentrator design in concentrating photovoltaics, fixed-receiver linear Fresnel reflectors (with a fixed receiver and multiple mirror strips at ground level, rotating on multiple parallel axes) seem to have been quite neglected so far in the literature. In this work we present and discuss properties and possibilities of a fixed-receiver LFR for concentrating photovoltaics

Mixed halide perovskites with chlorine (Cl) content have received significant interest due to better charge transport properties and longer diffusion length compared to pure iodine-based perovskites. The superior properties of Cl-doped perovskites improve solar cell device performance, although the quantification of Cl composition in the perovskite films remain difficult to achieve. Hence, it is difficult

Thermochemical methane reforming to syngas is performed on a massive scale in the chemical industry, providing feedstock for many chemical processes such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol production. The high temperature process heat required for the endothermic reforming reaction could be supplied by conentrated solar energy, in a hybrid solar-fossil process. This can be achieved by re-designing conventional

In this study, polyacrylonitrile/polyindole and poly(glycidyl methacrylate)/polyindole composites are prepared by chemical polymerization by FeCl3 as an oxidant agent. Spectroscopic characterization of the polymers, and composites are investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques. The thermal properties of the prepared conductive polymer

The thermal performance of an evacuated tube solar air collector with inserted baffles (ETSACIB) was investigated experimentally and analytically investigated under the indoor solar thermal simulator. The effects of the operating parameters such as flow rate, inlet air temperature, baffle length and solar insolation on the thermal behaviour of ETSACIB system were analyzed. Experiments were performed

Solar energy is greatly recommended as a source of renewable energy in wide range of in-house applications to large power plants. Photovoltaic (PV) panels utilized for absorbing solar energy have some limitations: low efficiency, large occupied space and high dependency on environmental conditions. Panel surface temperature is one of the main conditions affecting PV panels. High temperatures would

Formation of intermediate band in environmentally stable and wide band gap semiconductor, CuAlS2, have been studied towards potential, low cost and efficient thin film solar cell material. We investigate the effect of sustainable low-cost dopant (Sn and Fe) in CuAlS2 film by means of density functional theory within the modified Becke-Johnson approximation for the calculation of electronic and optical

Hybrid renewable polygeneration systems are regarded as key solutions for the sustainable energy supply of buildings. While solar heating and cooling comprises a wide range of technologies, there has been limited research on the combined production of power and cooling only, with little or no heat demand. This study designs and analyzes a hybrid solar–biomass ORC-based polygeneration system from energy

In this study, a hybrid drying system incorporating a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) solar collector and an electric auxiliary heater was developed to make advances in sustainable tomato drying. The proposed dryer was designed to operate in a combined mode with solar energy as the prime source of energy, and the auxiliary unit was only used in the cases with the absence of solar radiation or

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted significant interest in the scientific community in recent years due to their advantages such as low fabrication cost, facile fabrication and capability to increase the DSSC performance. Up to date, there are a lot of efforts that have been performed to enhance the DSSC performance by introducing compact layers (CLs) and light scattering layer (LSLs)

Cu2ZnSnS4 chalcogenide semiconductor is a very promising absorber material for solar cells and no longer fulfilled its realistic goals due to the possible challenge of defect-free fabrication, non-optimized buffer layer alignment and device configuration. In this article, we proposed a new planner structure defined as (SnS/CZTS/TiO2/ITO) using Ni and Al as a back and front contact materials, respectively

Floating photovoltaics (FPV) is a relatively new concept for the PV community. The operating environment of FPV systems is different from that of conventional PV systems and offers the potential advantage of higher energy yield. Consequently, there is a rapid increase recently in both the installed and planned capacity of FPV systems worldwide. However, there exists a lack of knowledge and data about

The receiver is one of the critical elements in central tower concentrating solar power plants, which use molten salt as heat transfer fluid. Gradients in the incident flux, a consequence of the natural variability of the solar resource on the earth’s surface, and temperature limits must be considered in the operation of the system, due to corrosive phenomena caused by the interaction between the metal

Floating solar energy is an industry with great potential. Farms can be installed on lakes, reservoirs or offshore. Numerous projects are under study or have been realised. This study presents three reference cases for floating solar farms, with adapted environmental data: a small lake (2.5 MWp – Mega Watt Peak - island), a large lake (7.5 MWp island) and offshore (2.5 MWp island). Mooring is one of

From tandem solar cell we expect a wide absorption range due to different bandgaps of the subcells, higher open circuit voltage Voc and finally better photo conversion efficiency η than single junction solar cell. The main drawback of it is a current limitation i.e. the short circuit current Jsc of whole structure is equal to smaller Jsc of both subcells. However, even two subcells with very good photovoltaic

This paper presents a review of windows filled of water-based liquids which absorbs solar radiation and will be referred to herein as water-based windows (WBWs). These liquids have spectrally-selective and high thermal capacity properties for optical and thermal performance improvement. A WBW relates to windows that features transparent, semi-transparent, colorless or colored visual performance. Its

PbS colloidal quantum dot solar cells (CQDSCs) employ ZnO electron transport layer have achieved high efficiency. However, there is nearly no efficient and batch production method to balance the charge separation and recombination within the device, which is one of the most obviously barrier to a satisfactory conversion efficiency. Here, a n+-n double-layered ZnO electron transport layer (DETL) is

East Java Province is one of main producers of cabya (Piper retrofractum Vahl) fruit in Indonesia. The fruit has huge utilizations and economic potential, but lack in postharvest process investigation. Traditional open sun drying by farmers has deficiency, e.g. unpredictable weather and longer process. In the present study, the indirect forced convection solar dryer was used to dehydrate the cabya

In a commercial parabolic trough solar power plant (PTSPP), the solar field (SF) is large-scaled and consists of hundreds of parabolic trough collector (PTC) loops. The PTSPP performance is determined by an appropriate operation strategy of the SF, which is implemented by adjusting the outlet temperature, the flowrate, and the flow distribution through the valves and pump to make the PTSPP output cost-effective

In the present study, a low-cost solar fruit and vegetable dryer was designed, constructed, and tested for small-scale production, especially in households. An optimizing procedure was performed to convert a typical widely-used direct cabinet dryer into a new indirect dryer using experimental data and numerical simulations. Several well-designed experiments accompanied by CFD simulations using finite

Flexible III-V compound thin film solar cells are promising candidates in the applications of Internet of Thing, electronics, civil, automotive and aerospace. In this study, theoretical, numerical and experimental methods are employed to investigate the mechanical reliability of the GaAs thin film solar cells with polymer film encapsulation. Experimental investigation by uniaxial tensile testing has

This article shows how coalitional model predictive control (MPC) can be used to maximize thermal power of large-scale solar parabolic-trough plants. This strategy dynamically generates clusters of loops of collectors according to a given criterion, thus dividing the plant into loosely coupled subsystems that are locally controlled by their corresponding loop valves to gain performance and speed up

Blocking-layer are very important for the overall efficiency improvement in perovskite solar cells, PSCs. This layer must be thin enough to allow the light to reach the perovskite layer and have low electrical resistance for electron flow to the external circuit and, at the same time, inhibit recombination processes on the FTO surface. In this work, the preparation of the TiO2 compact layer by the

Multiple fuel use, incorporated within the concept of fuel stacking is prevalent in households at the beginning and mid-way in their ascension up the energy ladder. However, households cannot fully let go of their traditional energy sources presenting inherent policy complexities and contradictions within energy transition theories. Empirical insights into the determinants of clean energy transitions

Thermal conductivity plays an important role in energy storage when the materials are charging and discharging. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the evolution of thermal conductivity up to 600 °C in different concretes. Moreover, the thermal conductivity was measured during thermal fatigue cycles when temperature ranged between 300 and 600 °C, simulating the operation conditions

One effective measure for building energy reduction is to pigment coatings on building exteriors. Conventionally, most coatings are designed using single particle types. Due to the limited particle optical features, these coatings usually perform well in one performance (e.g., thermal aspect) but poorly in another (e.g., aesthetic aspect). Thus, in practice they may not be able to meet the user-required

A novel semi-transparent building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) laminate was developed and introduced in this paper. It was produced by cutting standard mono-crystalline silicon solar cells into small strips and then making electrical connections between each strip before laminating the cells between two layers of glass. The overall energy performance and energy saving potential of the BIPV insulated

We used, and present, robust methodologies to measure the shortwave (S) and longwave (L) spectral radiative properties (reflectivity (ρ), transmissivity (τ) and absorptivity (α)) of nine plastic films and quantified their effect, when used as mulches, on soil heat flux density (G), net radiation (Rn, above the films) and soil temperature (Ts2cm, 2-cm depth; Ts10cm, 10-cm depth) in comparison to a control

A novel solution processed SiO2 coating is investigated for use as an interface layer between the substrate and Mo back contact for making CIGS solar cells on flexible SS foils. Prior to deposition of Mo, a ~ 1 μm thick SiO2 layer is applied on commercially available SS foils using an economical non-vacuum dip coating method. CIGS absorbers as well as complete CIGS solar cells having the structure

The Space Solar Power Satellite (SSPS) is a promising project to solve the energy crisis on earth. In this paper, a secondary concentrator design of an updated SSPS-OMEGA concept is proposed aiming at the problems existing in original SSPS-OMEGA concept, such as high power transmission through power brush, thermal management of the photovoltaic (PV) cell arrays and special requirements for the concentrator

In solar engineering, many simulations require the computation of averages over a year of quantities such as the efficiency of solar plants. In the case of stationary quantities, i.e., that do not depend on the past history but only on the present conditions, time averages can be replaced by averages over the solar position, which are much faster to compute. Through a suitable choice of coordinates

The present paper examines the hypothetical and empirical effects of geometrical parameters via transverse ribs on the back of a jet-impingement solar air heater absorber plate. MATLAB software environment was utilised to develop and solve equations on the steady-state energy balance. Moreover, verification of the performance was done through indoor experiments by employing a solar simulator. The range

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are considered among the most promising alternatives to Si-based solar cells, owing to the ongoing rise in their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). While TiO2 has been widely used as an electron transport layer (ETL) in the n-i-p (regular) type PSCs, series of its disadvantages, including limited bulk electron mobility and photocatalytic character, restrict further

Perovskite Solar Cells (PSC) have been elicited much interest within the photovoltaic industry due to their many performance advantages. One of the effective ways to enhance the Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of PSCs is to minimize light and electrical losses. To this end, we have focused on the use of nanostructured light absorbers in PSCs and have simulated these structures to understand their