Solar Energy Articles
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Concentrating Solar Power Global Outlook 09 - Why renewable energy is hot
What is CSP? CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) systems produce heat or electricity using hundreds of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays to a temperature typically between 400 and 1000ºC. There are a variety of mirror shapes, sun-tracking methods and ways to provide useful energy, but they all work under the same principle. Individual CSP plants are now typically between 50 and 280MW in size, ...
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Efficiency stimulus will lower energy bills, says federal report
Depending on your position, the federal stimulus money is either a jobs builder or a national budget buster. The Energy Information Administration offers another take. In a recent analysis, the EIA finds that stimulus money should reduce what consumers and businesses pay to heat, cool and light buildings. The federal agency this month updated its annual energy outlook to compare how energy ...
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Power management policies and control of hybrid electric vehicle
With increasing concern over the environment and ever-stringent emission regulations, the use of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is being investigated as an alternative form of transportation. A hybrid vehicle combines the advantages of an electric drive and an internal combustion engine. This paper proposes the necessary hardware and software needed for an effective control of the electrical part ...
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Policy oriented review for photovoltaics introduction in the EU
In order to continuously monitor its targets towards a 'green Europe', the European Commission has set up a project to enhance the availability, completeness and quality of data regarding new energy technologies (NET), energy end-use efficiency (EEE) and energy research and technology development (RTD). The scientific reference system (SRS) established in the framework of this project was ...
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Exergetic performance evaluation of a single solar air heater with N sub collectors arranged in series or parallel configuration
The energy and exergy efficiency of the solar air heater (SAH) collector array consisting of a number of sub-collectors (N) arranged either in series or in parallel configuration have been evaluated for various values of collector aspect ratio (AR), mass flow rate per unit collection area (G) of the SAH collector array and N either in series or in parallel configuration for a given total ...
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Vector control of current regulated inverter connected to grid for wind energy applications
Connecting variable speed wind turbine connected to the grid requires a proper control of the inverter to improve the power quality for the system. The vector control of an inverter connected to the grid is presented. The proposed control technique implies a hysteresis current controller in the inner loop. The complete control system has been developed, analysed, and validated by simulation ...
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Charting economic climate
The economic climate affects our day-to-day lives. Work activities are intricately interconnected with social well-being which in turn effects family harmony and trickles on down to impact personal wherewithal. Still, 'climate' is what it is. There is nothing any of us alone can do about it. At the same time, however, how we think about it tends to shift the reality we experience day to day. ...
By Special-Lite
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Wind farms benefting the region
Wind farms as close as Benton and White counties—and others around the world—are boosting Tippecanoe County’s economy by at least $20 million a year, reports Jody Hamilton, director of economic development for Greater Lafayette Commerce. “From land title searches to construction labor and turbine components, businesses in Greater Lafayette are enjoying new revenues, and that figure doesn’t ...
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Closing the door on building new coal-fired power plants in America
Community opposition, legal challenges, and financial uncertainty over future carbon costs are prompting companies to rethink their plans for coal. Since the beginning of 2007, 95 proposed coal-fired power plants have been cancelled or postponed in the United States--59 in 2007, 24 in 2008, and at least 12 in the first three months of 2009. This covers nearly half of the 200 or so U.S. coal-fired ...
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Solution concepts for the production of biogas
With its products that go to form part of biogas plants, it is not only a significant pioneering role that Hofstetter Umwelttechnik AG in Switzerland deserves. The company in Berne also adopts a leading position on the worldwide market for utilizing biogas. Hofstetter products – the socalled flares and compressor stations – are designed both for fermentation plants for biomass and for plants for ...
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Federal energy stimulus: The check is in the mail
Energy efficiency companies waiting for federal stimulus money probably feel like they are being told, “The check is in the mail.” It is supposed to arrive, but when?The federal government will channel a large pot of the money through state agencies, so it is wise to keep an eye on announcements by governors and state energy offices. States must apply by May 12 for $3.1 billion in what is known ...
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Comparison of performance prediction of solar water heaters between Artificial Neural Networks and conventional correlations
The aim of this study was to develop a predictive method for heat transfer coefficients in solar water heaters and their performance evaluation of such heaters with different materials used as heat collectors. Two approaches have been used: conventional method and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to predict the performance of solar water heaters and to compare these two approaches. This ...
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Genetic Algorithm optimisation of stand-alone Photovoltaic energy systems
This article presents the methodology for calculation of the optimum size of a Photovoltaic (PV) system. Long-term data of PV radiation were used to calculate the average power generated by a PV generator for every hour of a typical day in a month. A load of a typical house in the south of Algeria (desert area) was used as a load demand of the system. For a given load and a mixed multiple ...
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A new type of solar concentrator employing a cone-cylinder combination
Most conventional solar thermal radiation concentrators have some sort of symmetry which allows them to concentrate solar thermal energy for their operation. We report a new system that utilises the symmetry of a cone and a cylinder combination to simulate the concentration of solar radiation on a ring containing a fluid (water). A halogen lamp is used as the source of radiation to simulate solar ...
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Solar water cost and feasibility of solar water heating system
The present research work has been carried out on 1,000 litre installed capacity solar water heating system, at Jijau Hostel, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University (PDKV), Akola, Maharashtra, India. The main objectives were to evaluate various costs and benefits involved in the solar water production. The costs of hot water production per litre with comparison to electrical energy were ...
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Development of optimum solar irradiation energy model for Iran
In this article, an optimal model for calculating the total solar irradiation is represented for Iran. Eight irradiation models are analysed based on the meteorology information of 22 synoptic stations. Afterwards, accuracy of these methods is compared using standard error criteria. Hence, Daneshyar and Modified Daneshyar are introduced as the most precise methods. Then, a new coefficient is ...
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Night operation of solar chimney power system using solar ponds for heat storage
An alternative method of heat extraction from salt gradient solar ponds to solar collector is investigated with the aim of night operation for solar chimney power system. Some details of the combined power system integrated with solar ponds and solar chimney power system are also provided. Using a developed mathematical model, theoretical analyses are carried out to investigate the performance of ...
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Rural electrification by photovoltaic solar energy in Algeria
The economic and social development in Algeria in the last years has been in need of continues increasing in demand of electricity, especially in the isolated countryside. Solar energy represents a significant potential in Algeria, the country receives more than 3,000 hour of sunshine per year with a high level of radiation. The average of daily solar irradiation is from 5 to 7 kW hour m−2 the ...
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Performance of a solar drier with and without heat storage material for copra drying
An indirect forced convection solar drier integrated with heat storage material was developed to test its performance for copra drying. The drier consists of a solar flat plate air heater integrated with a sensible heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a centrifugal blower. The experiments were carried out with and without the integration of heat storage materials. Sand mixed with aluminium ...
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Evaluation of environmental factors and equipment configuration on efficiency of a solar soil water collector
The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of environmental factors and equipment configuration on the recovery of soil water using a solar collector. The recovery of water from soil is difficult, since the energy requirements are very high. Solar energy provides a solution to this problem, especially in countries with high solar radiation. In the current study, it was found that the amount ...
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