Solar reflectors are one of the main components of concentrating solar power systems. With new products being developed, durability studies become a necessity for assessing the feasibility of commercial application. In this project, accelerated aging of three types of first-surface enhanced aluminum reflectors and one type of second-surface silvered thick glass mirror under damp heat conditions is studied. The project is conducted at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), in collaboration with German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Center for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT), Spain.
The study is centered on analyzing the effect of soiling on degradation of reflectors. In addition to conventional methods, space resolved specular reflectometry is utilized for comparative purpose. Damp heat test conditions are simulated in a climatic test chamber. Test is conducted with reference to International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 62108 10.7a: damp heat test guidelines. The reflector samples are artificially soiled with natural and synthetic test sands of varying composition. Reflector performance is assessed based on the reduction in monochromatic specular reflectance.
From the tests, a comparative assessment of the candidate reflectors is obtained. Aluminum samples suffered higher degradation than silvered glass mirrors. Aluminum reflectors with polymer top coat permanently retained soil residue. It is observed that presence of chlorides and organic components caused corrosion on all the types of reflectors tested. Surface roughening is the reason for performance deterioration in most of the cases. By comparing different reflectance measurement methods, the significance of total area of the measurement spot in the measurement procedures could be highlighted. It is suggested that for studies involving artificial soiling, the grain size of sand is to be factored in.
This thesis is a study on integration of photovoltaic generators into an existing diesel-unreliable grid connected system at the Lebanese village of Khiam. The main goal of implementing PV-diesel hybrid system is to reduce diesel consumption and the import of fossil fuel used in electricity power supply. Before designing the system, it is necessary to create a load profile for 120 households and pre-design the size of the PV generator, the capacity of storage system and inverter type/size selection. The load profile data is based on the average of monthly energy consumption gathered from Khiam village households.
Detailed simulations and financial analysis are performed with HOMER to compare different systems and their viability. The simulations include four different designs starting from the existing system, diesel generator with unreliable grid, followed by PV generator and unreliable grid, PV and diesel generator and ended with the complete hybrid system. Once the Hybrid system is determined a detailed design is done to optimize the lowest cost PV-diesel hybrid system. The final simulated PV-diesel hybrid system is suggested with a PV capacity of 270 kWp, existing diesel capacity with 200 kVA, an inverter output of 115 kW and battery bank nominal capacity is 1872 kWh. The system renewable fraction is 53% and the project life cycle is 25 years. The PV-diesel hybrid system is projected to produce electricity at a cost of 0.12 USD/kWh. This cost is significantly lower than the 0.26 USD/kWh paid to the diesel operator, as well as lower than 0.13 USD/kWh paid to the utility grid.
In addition, and according to the given information from the owner, an estimated diesel consumption of 104000 ltr/year, the simulation result shows diesel consumption at 40000 ltr/year. The reduced carbon dioxide production by 65%, from 776 to 272 tons per year, provides further justification for the PV installation in a commercial PV-diesel hybrid system.
p system, the second house provided a load profile for a normal human interactive load. The measured PV production from the 3.6 kWp PV system was compared to the PV production from a simulated 3.6 kWp system taken from PVsyst and System Advisor Model (SAM) and by using different weather data profiles for the simulations. The global irradiance values from the used weather profile data were compared to demonstrate the difference in its values and its effect on the simulated PV production. This comparison between the measured PV production and the simulated one was done because most of the PV simulation software does not take measured PV production as input but they simulate their own PV production based on their built-in weather data; including the software used in this study SAM. The first house with the automated load had an annual energy consumption of Ca. 3600 kWh / Year. The second house with its human interactive load had an annual energy consumption of Ca. 6000 kWh / Year. The load profile was taken as a whole and then divided to different types; heat pump, ventilation and remaining load which represents house hold services. The effect of the input load profile types and its temporal resolution was clarified; this effect came in consistency to what was concluded from the literature review. Different simulations were done varying battery sizes, voltage level, coupling method, dispatch algorithm and other parameter. Three different dispatch algorithms were used for the simulations; two are designed for peak shaving and are built-in tools in SAM while the third algorithm is called Target Zero and designed for maximizing self-consumption and self-sufficiency, it was found in a reference so it was executed in MS Excel. Each of the algorithms used was found to affect both the peaks and the self-consumption and self-sufficiency of the system after adding the batteries compared to before, one as a major effect and the other as a byproduct effect. The peak shaving results varied by varying the batteries and the dispatch algorithm used, for the peak shaving algorithms from SAM, a general decrease in peaks value was reached. For the Target Zero algorithm which optimizes on self-consumption and self-sufficiency, a decrease in the number of the peaks was reached. Both decreases happened by increasing battery sizes. For the self-consumption and self-sufficiency effect, an increase happened with its highest value for 7.2 kWh batteries and by using the three different algorithms. The effect of the load type was also demonstrated by comparing the simulations results for the heat pumps from both houses since both heat pumps were found to have the highest effect on the results. The study was concluded by emphasizing the added values of batteries when coupled to a behind-the-meter PV system. The study could have been more precise and added more information to this field if it had a 1 minute temporal resolution simulations, but patching one minute temporal resolution load profile takes a long time. Working with one minute load profile requires one minute weather profile for the PV simulation which is normally only commercial. Also, having a weather station installed at the house to measure the solar irradiance to be used in the simulation instead of using different weather profiles would have added more accuracy to this paper.
The solar PV modules are influenced by a variety of loss mechanisms by which the energy yield is affected. A PV system is the sum of individual PV modules which should ideally operate similarly, however, inhomogeneous soiling, mismatching, and degradation, which are the main focus in this study, lead to dissimilarities in PV modules operating behavior and thus, lead to losses which will be assessed intensively in terms of energy yield.
characteristics which result in different modules’ maximum power point (MPP) and thus, different currents generated by each PV modules which cause the mismatching. However, the weakest PV module current governs the string current, and the weakest string voltage governs the voltage.
the modules’ MPP. Hence, the overall performance of the PV plant is enhanced. On the other hand, the power optimizers add additional cost to the plant’s investment cost and thus, the extra energy yield achieved by utilizing the power optimizers must be sufficient to compensate the additional cost of the power optimizers. This is assessed by designing three systems, a reference system with SMA inverters, a system utilizes Tigo power optimizers and SMA inverters, and a system utilizes SolarEdge power optimizers and inverters. The study considers four different locations which are Borlänge, Madrid, Abu Dhabi, and New Delhi.
ers. The model’s inputs are obtained from PVsyst and the precipitation data is obtained from Meteoblue and SMHI database.
The economic model is based on the relation between Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) which will be used to derive the discount rate. Graphs representing the discounted payback period as a function of the feed-in tariff for different discount rates is created in order to obtain the discounted payback period.
The amount of extra energy yielded by the Tigo and the SolarEdge systems is dependent on the soiling accumulated on the PV modules. Relative to the reference system, 6.5 % annual energy gain by the systems utilizing the power optimizers in soiling conditions, up to 2.1 % in the degradation conditions, and up to 9.7 % annual energy gain at 10 % mismatching rate. The extra energy yield is dependent on the location, however, the Tigo and the SolarEdge systems have yielded more energy than the reference system in all cases except one case when the mismatch losses is set to zero.
The precipitation pattern is very influential, and a scare precipitation leads to a reduction in the energy yield, in this case, the Tigo and the SolarEdge systems overall performance is enhanced and the extra energy gain becomes greater.
however, during the plant’s lifetime, the SolarEdge system could become more efficient than the Tigo system which is referred to the system’s sizing ratio. The degradation of the system or the soiling accumulation decreases the irradiation and thus, a slightly oversized PV array become suitable and deliver an optimal power to the inverters.
all systems payback within less than 10 years.
reference and the systems utilizing power optimizers, respectively.
mismatching simulations at 10 % mismatchrate.
The cost of installation of photovoltaic (PV) systems is a substantial fraction of the total cost of the project and the same is increasing with reducing cost of PV modules. This study essentially deals with the cost of installation of rooftop PV systems and presents a cost model for it, based on data collected for more than 700 projects of different capacities, roof types, circumstances, and locations in Sweden. The presented cost model shall give reasonably accurate estimations about the costs associated with the main elements of the process of rooftop PV systems installation, such as labour, shipping, equipment, travel, and accommodation, for different situations as a function of few important variables such as system capacity, roof type, distance to the installation location, etc. The weighted share of cost of the different elements of the cost model out of the total cost of installation was determined. Several relationships between different elements and variables were examined to find relationships that can help to better understand the process of installation and to develop the cost model. The variations in time required per unit system capacity have been examined for several processes of rooftop PV systems installation, to investigate about potential for reduction in the time and thus the cost due to economies of scale.
Timber walls are known to be an energy efficient component in the building envelope.
degree of insulation of the timber wall component.
impact on the environment and are more “environmentally friendly”.
way, the building sector can actively work to reduce the environmental impact.
study lifespan was estimated to be 50 years.
Awareness of climate change has resulted in enormous challenges for developed and developing countries. The frightening truth about our environmental situation has led to investigations of the causes of these changes and to obstruct these sources gradually but quickly. The alarming increase of average temperature of the earth has caused much worry around the world. Gas emissions in the atmosphere greatly affect the environment, where CO2 emissions is one of the most serious factors contributing to the global warming potential. As the building sector emits 40% of global energy use and one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, engineers must be educated to choose the best materials that lead to reducing CO2 emissions. This means selecting materials that have less negative impact on the environment and are more “environmentally friendly”.
This study shows how much CO2e emissions are released into the atmosphere from a wooden structure villa that consists of two stories, a storage and a garage, with a total area of 229.6m2. The results of this case will be compared to a second case, where the external wooden siding is replaced with brick veneer. This result of this comparison provides us with a guideline in for how the selected materials impact the environment, illuminating the importance in choosing the right materials according to their CO2e emission levels. In this way, the building sector can actively work to reduce the environmental impact.
To achieve these goals, this study performed via life cycle assessment LCA methodology by using the One-Click LCA program. LCA is identified as a technique to assess the environmental impact and resources used through a product’s life cycle. This study utilized the LCA methodology (cradle to grave), which means starting from the extraction of raw materials, to product production, manufacturing, product usage and its end of life. The study lifespan was estimated to be 50 years.
The results of the study verify that the wooden villa is more environmentally friendly than the villa made of brick, where carbon dioxide equivalent emission can be reduced to more than half by utilizing wood. Implementing the life cycle assessment study to any building aids in making the decision to choose the right materials for building according to CO2e emission. And in this way, the environmental impact caused by the building sector will be greatly reduced.
This thesis was aimed at studying the possibility of integrating solar energy in to an existing aluminium smelter in the Kingdom of Bahrain owned by Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA). The smelter was powered by its own in-house natural gas fed power plants. ALBA was chosen as the subject of the study for of two reasons. Firstly, the power station at ALBA was similar in technology to those powering the national grid. Secondly, the nominal power of ALBA was not dissimilar to that of the national grid. This meant that the techniques and technologies investigated were useful in the context of the national grid as well. A literature review was initially conducted to better understand how the current aluminium smelters work, what the possibilities were for introducing solar energy and what has been done previously. The study used publically available information to deduce the energy consumption of the ALBA smelter on an annual basis. For the year 2011 this was found to be in the order of 15.2TWh when ALBA had 2,249MW of nominal plant capacity installed and had consumed about 132MMBCF of natural gas. With the planned pot-line 6 expansion an additional 1,792MW capacity would be added with the corresponding additional gas use and increased energy output. The completion of pot-line 6, scheduled for Q1 2019, would also make ALBA the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter. This energy demand information was then used with PVSyst and System Advisor Model simulation software. The aim was to determine what photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) energy plants capable of meeting ALBA’s needs would be in terms of power, energy outputs and land usage. Although powering a modern aluminium smelter is possible with today’s solar technology, the area of land required would be very large. It was deduced that using PV fixed tilt arrays, a PV plant of 9.2GWp would be required to deliver the annual energy requirements of ALBA covering a theoretical land area of some 200km2. Utilising CSP plants of central tower and concentric heliostat design would need about 358km2 whereas parabolic trough collector technology would need about 240km2. However a CSP plant utilising linear Fresnel collectors would need about 105km2 of land area. These contiguous land areas are not available in the Kingdom of Bahrain and so alternatives would have to be studied for locating such plants. Another issue would be to find a robust and reliable storage technology to power the plant during the evenings and other times of low solar resource. It was found that the existing roof areas of ALBA’s pot-lines and cast house would be sufficient to house a PV plant of 6.5MWp utilising standard 250Wp PV modules. This would be larger than the largest plant currently installed in the country which stands at 5MWp developed by Bapco. The plant would produce some 9.7GWh of energy per average year and could be utilised by ALBA. Alternatively, the PV plant could be connected directly to the national grid and thus provide another source of income to ALBA whilst helping in the national drive for harnessing renewable energy. It should be noted that there are more suitable roof areas available at ALBA meaning that the PV plant size could be larger and if more powerful modules are used, the nominal plant capacity would also be increased delivering more annual energy. Due mainly to time constraints, it was not possible to investigate some areas that were highlighted during the course of the study. These included plant costs, energy storage options, modelling and simulating CSP derived heat injection into gas power turbines, water usage requirements and mitigation techniques and the technologies for maintaining the collectors clean and reflective in the harsh desert climate of the country. These are all areas for further work.
In the community of Ludvika, a Renewable Energy Emergency Microgrid (REEM) has been defined to provide back-up power during crisis situations. An Energy Storage System (ESS) was designed to support the main loads of the Microgrid in the first working hours. Additionally, the ESS will start-up the hydro power station, which will replace the power supply from the battery after the set-up period. However, the necessity of understanding the operation of the major components, such as the photovoltaic (PV) system and the ESS, of the REEM in normal conditions is imperative.
This study analyses a variety of scenarios to evaluate how the renewable energy of an isolated system can be managed. Alternatives for increasing self-consumption of PV power and reduce feed-in power in the REEM are investigated. All the solutions consider the complete system design and an additional economic analysis for supporting the decision-making. The results show that selling the energy to the grid is the best economic solution, followed by the distribution of energy. However, the difference of 0.5 % in the total net present cost (TNPC) makes the distribution system, including the ESS, an option to be considered. In the upcoming years, changes on the amount of energy produced by the PV system or increasing the battery capacity usage in normal operation can become more feasible.
In this study the distributed generation of renewable energy, primarily photovoltaic power, and consumption of energy within a geographically dispersed smart grid or ‘virtual micro grid’ is simulated using a model based around the HOMER Pro software with the aim of gaining insight into the economic and environmental performance of the system under different assumptions about the configurations of the generators and the presence of low carbon technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. Demand side response for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions was also investigated as part of this.
As well as simulating the system within HOMER, the study involved constructing a representative load profile for 200 domestic consumers and other loads using existing data, implementing a model for demand side response, using a range of detailed technical and environmental data to configure the HOMER model, and creating custom plotting tools. These features were connected in a data analysis pipeline written in Python included as part of the submission.
The study found that to improve the environmental and economic performance of the system increasing the amount of renewable generation should be prioritized over other measures, such as demand side response. PV was the easiest to add due to lower upfront costs (compared to battery storage systems and mid-scale wind turbines) and lower financial and regulatory overheads. Carbon emissions were found to be minimized for around 3.5kW of PV per household in this scenario. Including a single mid-scale wind turbine was found to have the potential to greatly increase renewable penetration, and reduce carbon emissions and the cost of energy due to the complementary nature of PV and Wind power production. Battery storage at low penetrations was found to have little impact, but can make a large impact at high penetration but at significant financial expense.
A range of battery products was also investigated for their suitability for use within the project and future schemes and were evaluated by locating them in the Renewable Fraction/LCOE plane.
The inclusion of low carbon technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles was found to have some negative impact on the performance where only PV is present in the smart grid with little evidence that it can make better use of the renewable power due to poor matching with the available PV generation.
This thesis investigated application of the heat recovery ventilation using an exhaust air heat pump and a roof top photovoltaic (PV) system for a group of three multi-family houses located in Ludvika, Sunnansjö. The buildings in the existing condition have mechanical ventilation and a centralized heating system consists of a pellet boiler as the main source and an oil boiler as back up.
Exhaust air heat pump (EAHP) has been known by the previous relevant researches as an effective solution to promote the energy efficiency in the buildings. Furthermore, reduction in PV cost has made the PV as a financially viable option to be contributed in supplying electricity demand.
In this respect, this thesis aimed to calculate the potential of energy saving in the case study using the combination of EAHP and PV. For this purpose, the buildings and the proposed energy system were simulated to enable the comparison of energy demand before and after the renovation. The simulation was gradually progressed through several phases and each stage created the prerequisites of the next.
Since the buildings were relatively similar in terms of boundary conditions, one of the buildings were initially modeled and the concluded space heating (SH) demand was extrapolated to the three buildings scope. The simulation of the building was done using 3dimensional thermal model offered by Trnsys3d. The primary results were also calibrated against the available annual fuel consumption data. In the second phase, a pre-developed TRNSYS model of the energy system was completed using the result of previous step as the total SH demand as well as the estimated domestic hot water (DHW) consumption from a stochastic model. This simulation produced the electricity demand profile of the heat pump when the heat pump provided the total heat demand. Subsequently, the electricity consumption of the flats and operational equipment were estimated using stochastic model and available monthly measurement, respectively.
Since the feasibility and optimal placement of 74 𝑘𝑊 PV modules offered for these buildings had been already examined by the author in another study, the final simulation were performed in an hourly basis considering PV production and total electricity demand; i.e. EAHP, flats consumption and operational equipment.
The results of the simulation showed that 21 % of total electricity demand during a year could be supplied by the proposed PV system even without any electrical storage, whereas 74 % of total yearly PV production is consumed by the local loads. The results also proved that removing old inefficient oil boiler and supplementing the pellet boiler with the combination of EAHP and PV could mitigate the annual purchased energy (including electricity and pellet) by approximately 40 % compared to the current condition.
The PolySMART demonstration system SP1b has been modeled in TRNSYS and calibrated against monitored data. The system is an example of distributed cooling with centralized CHP, where the driving heat is delivered via the district heating network. The system pre-cools the cooling water for the head office of Borlänge municipality, for which the main cooling is supplied by a 200 kW compression chiller. The SP1b system thus provides pre-cooling. It consists of ClimateWell TDC with nominal capacity of 10 kW together with a dry cooler for recooling and heat exchangers in the cooling and driving circuits. The cooling system is only operated from 06:00 to 17:00 during working days, and the cooling season is generally from mid May to mid September. The nominal operating conditions of the main chiller are 12/15°C.
The main aims of this simulation study were to: reduce the electricity consumption, and if possible to improve the thermal COP and capacity at the same time; and to study how the system would perform with different boundary conditions such as climate and load.
The calibration of the system model was made in three stages: estimation of parameters based on manufacturer data and dimensions of the system; calibration of each circuit (pipes and heat exchangers) separately using steady state point; and finally calibration of the complete model in terms of thermal and electrical energy as well as running times, for a five day time series of data with one minute average data values. All the performance figures were with 3% of the measured values apart from the running time for the driving circuit that was 4% different. However, the performance figures for this base case system for the complete cooling season of mid-May to midSeptember were significantly better than those for the monitoring data. This was attributed to long periods when the monitored system was not in operation and due to a control parameter that hindered cold delivery at certain times.
Peréz de la Mora, N.
The Solar Heat Integration NEtwork (SHINE) is a European research school in which 13 PhD students in solar thermal technologies are funded by the EU Marie-Curie program. It has five PhD course modules as well as workshops and seminars dedicated to PhD students both within the project as well as outside of it. The SHINE research activities focus on large solar heating systems and new applications: on district heating, industrial processes and new storage systems. The scope of this paper is on systems for district heating for which there are six PhD students, five at universities and one at a company. The initial work concentrated on literature studies and on setting up initial models and measurement setups to be used for validation purposes. The measurements have been used for validating simulation models, including those used for extending the capabilities of the planning tool Polysun to simulate smaller district heating systems. Some results of these studies are presented in the paper. The PhD students will complete their studies in 2017-18.
This report describes the optimised solar and heat pump systems developed in the MacSheepproject as well as the simulation results for these systems. Four systems have been developed by four different development groups, each with one private company participating. The development groups have chosen different types of systems as well as different target loads for their systems, which give a wide coverage of the potential markets. The aim of the project was to achieve a 25% performance increase compared to state of the art systems, while being cost-competitive compared to the state of the art.Two reference state of the art solar and heat pump systems have been defined, modelled,and simulated to derive benchmark electricity demands and SPF values for the boundary conditions that were defined for the MacSheep project. The reference systems usedtheground (boreholes) orair as a heat source for the heat pump. The chosen boundary conditions were the climates of Zurich and Carcassone, arealistic DHW load,and two buildings, one representing a modern low energy building (SFH45) and one representing an existing building (SFH100). These reference systems and boundary conditions were defined within the first year of the project, and are used throughout the project.New components were developed for the MacSheepsolar and heat pump systems and these developments are reported in the reportsof work packages 3 –6. Component models have been programmed and validated with laboratory measurements.In this report, simulation results for the four MacSheep systems arecompared to the relevant reference system in order to quantify the expected performance increase. These simulations include the component models with their validated parameters and performance obtained from phase 3 of the project.In addition, the costs of the systemswere estimated. The key performance indicator for the final system developments was defined as a figure for electric savings (25%) compared to the state of the art at competitive (i.e. comparable) cost. Therefore, cost-savings that were achieved for some of the components that were developed were allowed to be compensated by increased cost for other components or increased collector areasin order to show the project's achievements in the light of the defined key performance indicator.At present, the updated simulations show electric savings of 17%, 24%, 26%, and 30%, respectively, for the different developments and the different target heat loads.Threeof these systems will be built and tested during 2015,using the whole system test method that was further developed within the MacSheep project (see report D2.3 for more details). The results from these tests will give benchmark energy used of these systems both for the test sequence itself but also on an annual base. In addition, the simulation models described in this report will be verified against the measurements and then used for annual simulations for otherboundary conditionsthan the once that are represented in the test sequence.
Institut für Solartechnik SPF Hochschule für Technik HSR.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Energy Technology. IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme.
This report contains a suggestion for a simple monitoring and evaluation guideline for PV-diesel hybrid systems. It offers system users a way to better understand if their system is operated in a way that will make it last for a long time. It also gives suggestions on how to act if there are signs of unfavourable use or failure. The application of the guide requires little technical equipment, but daily manual measurements. For the most part, it can be managed by pen and paper, by people with no earlier experience of power systems.The guide is structured and expressed in a way that targets PV-diesel hybrid system users with no, or limited, earlier experience of power engineering. It is less detailed in terms of motivations for certain choices and limitations, but rich in details concerning calculations, evaluation procedures and maintenance routines. A more scientific description of the guide can be found in a related journal article.
National electrification plans for many countries with a low level of electrification promote the implementation of centralized and decentralized electrification in parallel. This paper explores different ways of utilizing an established off-grid PV-diesel hybrid system when the national grid becomes available. This is a rather unique starting point within the otherwise well-explored area of rural electrification. With particular focus on the impact of blackouts in the national grid, we evaluate the economic viability of some alternatives: to continue to use the off-grid micro-grid, to connect the existing micro-grid with or without battery backup to the national grid, or to use the national grid only. Our simulation results in HOMER demonstrate that with a grid without blackouts, there are few benefits to maintain the existing system. Low grid-connection fees, low tariffs and low revenues from selling excess electricity to the grid contribute to this result despite the fact that the system does not carry any investment costs. With a grid with blackouts, it is beneficial to maintain the system. The extent of blackouts and the load on the system determine which system configuration is most feasible. The results make clear the importance of taking blackouts in the national grid into consideration when possible system configurations are being evaluated. This is rarely quantified in studies comparing different electrification alternatives, but deserves more attention.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Energy Technology. KTH.
the work towards increased energy efficiency. In order to plan and perform effective energy renovation of the buildings, it is necessary to have adequate information on the current status of the buildings in terms of architectural features and energy needs. Unfortunately, the official statistics do not include all of the needed information for the whole building stock.
This paper aims to fill the gaps in the statistics by gathering data from studies, projects and national energy agencies, and by calibrating TRNSYS models against the existing data to complete missing energy demand data, for countries with similar climate, through simulation. The survey was limited to residential and office buildings in the EU member states (before July 2013). This work was carried out as part of the EU FP7 project iNSPiRe.
The building stock survey revealed over 70% of the residential and office floor area is concentrated in the six most populated countries. The total energy consumption in the residential sector is 14 times that of the office sector. In the residential sector, single family houses represent 60% of the heated floor area, albeit with different share in the different countries, indicating that retrofit solutions cannot be focused only on multi-family houses.
The simulation results indicate that residential buildings in central and southern European countries are not always heated to 20 °C, but are kept at a lower temperature during at least part of the day. Improving the energy performance of these houses through renovation could allow the occupants to increase the room temperature and improve their thermal comfort, even though the potential for energy savings would then be reduced.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Energy Technology. Mälardalens högskola.
Exploiting solar energy technology for both heating and cooling purposes has the potential of meeting an appreciable portion of the energy demand in buildings throughout the year. By developing an integrated, multi-purpose solar energy system, that can operate all twelve months of the year, a high utilisation factor can be achieved which translates to more economical systems. However, there are still some techno-economic barriers to the general commercialisation and market penetration of such technologies. These are associated with high system and installation costs, significant system complexity, and lack of knowledge of system implementation and expected performance. A sorption heat pump module that can be integrated directly into a solar thermal collector has thus been developed in order to tackle the aforementioned market barriers. This has been designed for the development of cost-effective pre-engineered solar energy system kits that can provide both heating and cooling.
This thesis summarises the characterisation studies of the operation of individual sorption modules, sorption module integrated solar collectors and a full solar heating and cooling system employing sorption module integrated collectors. Key performance indicators for the individual sorption modules showed cooling delivery for 6 hours at an average power of 40 W and a temperature lift of 21°C. Upon integration of the sorption modules into a solar collector, measured solar radiation energy to cooling energy conversion efficiencies (solar cooling COP) were between 0.10 and 0.25 with average cooling powers between 90 and 200 W/m2 collector aperture area. Further investigations of the sorption module integrated collectors implementation in a full solar heating and cooling system yielded electrical cooling COP ranging from 1.7 to 12.6 with an average of 10.6 for the test period.
Additionally, simulations were performed to determine system energy and cost saving potential for various system sizes over a full year of operation for a 140 m2 single-family dwelling located in Madrid, Spain. Simulations yielded an annual solar fraction of 42% and potential cost savings of €386 per annum for a solar heating and cooling installation employing 20m2 of sorption integrated collectors.
Gas-driven sorption heat pumps (GDSHPs) exhibit possibilities in the reduction of energy use and environmental impact of heating systems that utilise natural gas. By utilising renewable thermal energy from the environment, that is, air, ground or water sources, significant reduction of primary energy use can be achieved. However, high cost, low coefficient of performance (COP) and large volume per unit thermal power produced have limited the proliferation of GDSHPs. In this work, exploiting the benefits of reversible chemical reactions in sorption systems, with no internal moving parts, noise, vibration and maintenance-free reactor design, two novel modular prototype sorption components were developed and evaluated experimentally. They were designed to operate as part of an intermittent cycle GDSHP to deliver heat directly to a load or to a stratified hot water store. Prototype 1 was an ammonia-salt basic sorption unit while prototype 2 was an ammonia-salt resorption unit both employing proprietary composite sorbent materials. Test results showed that the prototype 2 reactor produced a specific heating capacity of 46 W/litre at a temperature lift of 50°C yielding a COP of 1.38. Prototype 1 demonstrated higher heating capacity of 73 W/litre at a temperature lift of 70°C but exhibited lower COP of 1.10. Given its higher COP but lower temperature lift, prototype 2 could be employed in a GDSHP designed for moderate heating demands or where a ground source heat exchanger is employed as the low temperature heat source. In the case where a higher temperature lift is required, for example, for an air-source GDSHP unit then the prototype 1 design would be more applicable.
Gas-driven sorption heat pumps (GDSHP) show significant potential to reduce primary energy use, associated emissions and energy costs for space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) production in residential applications. In this study a bivalent system was considered, characterised by the integration of a novel modular sorption heat pump component and a condensing boiler. The modular heat pump component, or sorption module (SM), has been developed in two types: Type A and Type B, either of which could be integrated into a bivalent GDSHP system. The Type A sorption module had a functioning principle based on a solid chemisorption cycle, while Type B operates under a resorption cycle. To investigate the applicability of each SM type, a bivalent GDSHP system with a Type A SM (GDSHPA) and one with a Type B SM (GDSHPB) were evaluated. Simulations of year-round space heating loads for two single family houses, one in New York and the other Minnesota, were carried out and the seasonal gas coefficient of performance (SGCOP) for each GDSHP system calculated. The impact of the ratio of the design heating capacity of the SM compared to the peak heating capacity of the bivalent GDSHP was studied. Results show that SGCOP was not significantly affected for SM design heating capacity ratios greater than 66% of the peak GDSHPA design capacity in Minnesota, and 21% for GDSHPB. In New York, the ratios were 55% and 35% for GDSHPA and GDSHPB respectively.
Sorption heat pumps are employed in various heat-driven cooling and heat pumping applications. These heat pumps may be driven by solar energy, natural gas, biogas, geothermal energy or waste heat. Given that a plethora of heat sources and sorption materials can be exploited for different applications, various sorption heat pump modules have been developed. The sorption modules are pre-engineered sorption components for increased ease of sorption system development, improved cost effectiveness and reduced system complexity for various applications. However, in the design of sorption modules, component and system modelling and simulation are useful in the process of determining the optimal candidate of several possible sorption working couples for a given application. A test platform has been developed and a test methodology devised for the rapid characterisation of the transient behaviour of the sorption modules. The testing apparatus was used to derive various model parameters to be used for validation of a dynamic sorption module component model. The test method was analogous to that employed for dynamic testing and performance modelling of electrochemical accumulators (i.e. electric batteries) given the similarities between them and sorption modules (also known as thermochemical accumulators). The model parameter identification was based on various heating and cooling power performance parameters as a function of state of charge (SoC) of the sorption modules. A 7-step procedure was used to characterise the performance of the sorption modules based on experimental data. A reference performance for charge and discharge of the sorption modules was measured followed by several measurements at ‘off-reference’ conditions. Performance curves for ‘off-reference’ conditions were then correlated to reference conditions to generate performance curves that describe the transient cooling and heating power delivery of the sorption module at any point within the test range. Results showed that the discharge performance of the sorption modules could be predicted within a reasonable margin of error with a test run sequence of 39 cycles.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Energy Technology. Mälardalen University.
Given the environmental benefits of utilizing free thermal energy sources, such as waste heat and solar energy for cooling purposes, many developments have come about in thermally driven cooling. However, there are still some barriers to the general commercialization and market penetration of such technologies that are associated with system and installation costs, complexity, and maintenance. In efforts to overcome these limitations, a novel absorption heat pump module has been developed and tested. The module comprises a fully encapsulated sorption tube containing hygroscopic salt sorbent and water as a refrigerant, sealed under vacuum, and within which there are no moving parts. The absorption module consists of two main components, one that alternately functions as an absorber or generator and other that alternates between the roles of evaporator and condenser. The module therefore operates cyclically between a cooling delivery phase and a regeneration phase. Each module has a significant energy storage capacity with cooling delivery phases ranging from 6-10 h in length with temperature lifts between 16 degrees C and 25 degrees C. The modules are optimized for integration directly into a solar thermal collector, for roof or facade installation, for daytime regeneration and night-time cooling delivery. Collector integrated modules would be completely modular maintenance-free absorption heat pumps with similar installation requirements to standard solar thermal collectors. This article describes the test method and performance characteristics of the individual absorption modules.
Currently the use of solar energy for heating and cooling isn't widespread. In order to reduce primary energy consumption in the built environment along with improving the thermal performance of the current building stock, retrofit solutions are required to utilise renewable energy. Using solar energy to reduce primary energy consumption is seen as a possible solution. With the precipitous fall in the prices of crystalline solar photovoltaic modules, utilising this technology to reduce electrical energy consumption for cooling is an attractive solution. Recently, a sorption module integrated collector has been developed in order to improve cost-effectiveness and simplify solar thermal heating and cooling systems. A techno-economic analysis has been performed to evaluate solar photovoltaic cooling and solar thermal cooling systems for residential renewable energy retrofit. The analysis is based on potential energy and cost savings according to simulated heating and cooling loads under climatic conditions of Madrid, Spain. Simplified models were used to determine heating and cooling demands and the solar energy contribution to heating and cooling loads. Additionally, given the sorption collector's unique capacity to store solar energy thermally and provide cooling at night an analysis has been carried out to identify the combined benefit of solar-assisted heating and cooling via photovoltaics during the day and solar sorption at night. For system sizes between 5m(2) and 20m(2) solar fractions between 16% and 64% could be achieved which translated to annual energy cost savings between (sic)153 to (sic)615. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Energy Technology. SaltX Technology, Hägersten, Stockholm; Mälardalen University.
Gas-driven sorption heat pumps (GDSHP) show significant potential to reduce primary energy use, associated emissions and energy costs for space heating and domestic hot water production in residential applications. This study considered a bivalent heating system consisting of a sorption heat pump and a condensing boiler, and focuses on the optimal heating capacity of each of these components relative to each other. Two bivalent systems were considered: one based on a solid chemisorption cycle (GDSHPA), and one based on a resorption cycle (GDSHPB). Simulations of year-round space heating loads for two single family houses, one in New York and the other Minnesota, were carried out and the seasonal gas coefficient of performance (SGCOP) calculated. The sorption heat pump’s design heating capacity as a fraction of the bivalent system’s total heating capacity was varied from 0 to 100%. Results show that SGCOP was effectively constant for sorption heat pump design capacity greater than 41% of the peak bivalent GDSHPA design capacity in Minnesota, and 32% for GDSHPB. In New York, these values were 42% and 34% for GDSHPA and GDSHPB respectively. Payback period was also evaluated based on postulated sorption heat pump component costs. The fastest payback was achieved with sorption heat pump design capacity between 22–44%.
This report shows the study performed at Taipei National University of Technology in Taipei to evaluate the performance of a solar air conditioning system. The performance is evaluated under Taiwan climate conditions. The research is performed under summer weather conditions. No influence is done on these conditions. A solar air conditioning system currently available on the market is used. No changes are made to the system.
The work to be done is divided into different phases in order to guide the process. First, a literature research is done to find similar research done on this topic and to gain a basic understanding of the topic. Then several measurement plans are made to investigate different parts of the system.. Measurements are done. It is tried to developing a computer model in order to be able to simulate the system performance.
The overall objective was to gain knowledge about a solar assisted air-conditioning system and develop a model to simulate the system. Initially a list of research questions was made in order to quantify ‘gaining knowledge’ about the system. The plan was to answer them by using measurement data and creating a model to perform simulations. There are measurements done in this report, however due to too many ‘unknowns’* it is difficult to draw conclusions from them. A lot of research questions are still open and they are also not included in this report. It is also not succeeded to make a working model of a solar assisted air conditioner.
It is succeeded in making a model to predict the performance of the evaporator. This model is currently within 11% accurate.
Due to the short period that some photovoltaic technologies have taken part on the solar energy market, it is crucial to evaluate the long term stability of solar cells belonging to those technologies in order to ensure a minimum lifetime of their performance. Accelerated degradation tests are thus carried out to achieve such goals.
The present study analyzes the encapsulation effects on co-evaporated manufactured Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) solar cells under damp heat conditions, consisting in 85 °C and 85 % relative humidity, during an approximated period of 1000 hours. The experimental procedure has been carried out at Solliance Solar Research facilities.
Since the encapsulation packages play a critical role as a protection to achieve long term stability of the solar cells and modules, several packaging structures and materials has been taken into study. Thus, eighteen types of mini modules were manufactured including different combinations of encapsulants, front sheet foils, thin film protective barriers and CIGS cells from different manufacturers. The design of these mini modules and the manufacturing process to obtain them is also presented in this work. Various characterization techniques were carried out in order to acquire the required information about the solar cells and encapsulants performance along the damp heat degradation process.
The results exposed that encapsulation packages including thin film barriers between the encapsulant and the front sheet foil allowed a longer solar cell lifetime due to their remarkable protection against moisture ingress. Moreover, the degradation of the molybdenum layer included in the CIGS cells was found as principal cause of efficiency decrement and end of performance of solar cells protected by regular encapsulant and front sheet foils. Some other findings in relation with the evaluated components are shown along the present study.
Hollow fibres have been studied as the substitute for metallic materials due to the advantages such as light weight, corrosion resistant and low cost in heat and mass transfer applications. A novel polymer hollow fibre liquid desiccant dehumidification system, in which a cross-flow hollow fibre module (fibre inside diameter=1.4mm) serves as the dehumidifier, is presented in this paper. This novel hollow fibre integrated liquid desiccant dehumidification system can be used in an air conditioning system to provide a comfortable indoor environment for hot and humid area. Compared with other conventional liquid desiccant dehumidifier, the polymer hollow fibre has a very small diameter which leads to significantly increased surface area. Moreover, the porous feature of the hollow fibre module can help to eliminate any liquid desiccant droplets carryover into the process air. As a less corrosive and more environmental friendly working fluid, aqueous potassium formate (KCOOH) solution has been selected. The dehumidification performance of the proposed system were analysed experimentally under the conditions of incoming air temperature in the range of 30°C to 45°C. The variations of dehumidification sensible and latent effectiveness, moisture removal rates were studied by varying the incoming air velocity from 0.65 m/s to 4.5m/s. With the various values of incoming air relative humidity in the range of 55% to 75% and the solution concentrations between 36% and 62%, the experimental obtained latent effectiveness are in the range of 0.25 to 0.43 and the sensible effectiveness are in the range of 0.31 to 0.52, which is in a satisfactory agreement with the empirical correlation of effectiveness-NTU in the literature.
Due to the advantages of light weight, corrosion resistant and low cost, hollow fibres have been studied as the substitute for metallic materials. A novel hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system, in which the hollow fibre module constitutes as the humidifier and the evaporative cooler, is proposed. This novel hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system will provide a comfortable indoor environment for hot and dry area. Moreover, the water vapour can permeate through the hollow fibre effectively, and the liquid water droplets will be prevented from mixing with the processed air. In order to avoid the flow channelling or shielding of adjacent fibres, the fibres inside each bundle were made into a spindle shape to allow maximum contact between the air stream and the fibre. The cooling performances of the proposed novel polymer hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system were experimentally investigated under the incoming air temperature in the range of 26 °C to 32 °C and relative humidity of 25%–35%. The effects of air velocities on the cooling effectiveness, heat and mass transfer coefficients, specific water consumption and pressure drop across the polymer hollow fibre module were analysed. Two sets of experimentally derived non-dimensional heat and mass transfer correlations were summarized, which could be favourable for the future design of polymer hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system.
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Forest and Wood Technology.
Universita degli Studi della Tuscia.
The main objective of this work package was to investigate generic control strategies, generic fault-detection and on-line diagnosis algorithms that may apply to the developed prototypes of solar and heatpump systems within MacSheep. The results should lead toimproved reliability and/orincreased energy savings for the end-userthrough new controller features. The use of DHW consumption forecast was identified as a promising control strategy and a simple yet reasonably effective algorithm to get the water tapping behaviourof the userwas developed. Viessmannimplemented the ideas of this approach in an ICT solution for their controller to provide statistical tapping informationto the user who can then set the period when hot waterthatis expected to be used. The operationalstrategy based on DHW consumptionforecast for one hour was not implemented since the potential gains are small (~2%) and there is ahigh user discomfort risk in the case of an inaccurate forecastPrevious studies have shown that solar overheating of the building led to gas savings with solar gas combisystems. Using a similar strategy on the MacSheep reference system did not lead to significant savings, due to strong interactions between space and DHW heating and a higher share of HP operation time for DHW charging of the store, which has a lower efficiency.Another smart control strategy was investigated forvariable electricity pricesusing overheating of the building and/or the DHW volume of the store.The main conclusion of the study is that the combination of the two algorithms led to cost savings for the Austria (Graz) and France (Chambery) with both theSFH45 and SFH100 buildings.Since only the share related to user consumption varies during the day while the grid and transmission costs are usually constant, thecost savings were small, far below 1%.Among the proposed fault detection algorithms for solar and heat pump systems, detection of wrongly connected tubes in the solar collector loop was found interesting by Viesmmann and Regulus. It was implemented and tested in their respective prototype controller. Regulus also implemented the detection of wrong order phase connections in its heat pump prototype as well as threshold tests on abnormal temperature and pressure evolution.
The newly adopted energy efficiency directive (2012/27/EU) highlights the importance of energy efficiency in reaching the Union’s 2020 targets. The directive commits member states to defining national energy efficiency targets (art. 3), achieving yearly energy savings of 1.5% of the annual energy sales through the energy efficiency obligation scheme (art. 7), and providing a long-term strategy for the building sector that aims at a 3% refurbishment rate for public buildings (art. 4+5). Buildings currently account for 40% of energy use in most countries, putting them among the largest end-use sectors.
This report takes a closer look at the best practices for implementing increasing energy efficiency in different regions and countries in Europe. The final aim is to identify some policy tools to be suggested to the region of Dalarna (Dalarna having been chosen as the pilot county in Sweden) as a means of implementing energy efficiency in the building sector. The final objective is to give analysts and decision-makers a better analytical foundation to explore future policy development in the area of buildings to be proposed and tested at the regional level in Dalarna and later at the national level in Sweden.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of the biggest PV system located in Oslo, Norway. The PV system has a capacity of 130 kW, it started operations in 2014 and it is located on the rooftop of a nursing house managed by the municipality. The analysis was done by making four different comparisons that lead to have a more detailed overview. The comparisons were from the energy production from different years, months and days; the performance ratio from different subsystems; the modeled energy output vs the actual energy output and lastly a relative degradation from different subsystems.
The thesis was conducted in Kjeller, Norway at the Institute for Energy Technology facilities. Data was collected from two different monitoring systems, the first was from an onsite weather station and the second was from the energy production monitoring system. After collecting all the data, the production comparison from different years, days and months was performed. A performance ratio analysis was done in order to know how well the PV system was performing. The software HelioScope was used to simulate a model of the PV system and the results of the simulation were compared to the real energy output. A degradation analysis without irradiance data proposed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was implemented to compare the degradation rate between different subsystems.
The production analysis comparison within subsystems demonstrates that some identical subsystems produce more energy than others. For the performance ratio analysis, the results showed that the PV system has a good performance ratio despite of the shading some PV modules receive. The simulation of the model in HelioScope showed some discrepancies for the winter months while for summer months it was more accurate. Finally, the degradation analysis was not possible to demonstrate actual results, but the methodology was implemented.
An experimental characterisation of a pre-commercial spiral wound permeate gap membrane distillation module was carried out to test its performance at different operating conditions for the purpose of seawater desalination. The experimental setup consisted of a flat plate solar collector field indirectly coupled to the permeate gap membrane distillation module via an inertia tank. The operating parameters varied were the condenser inlet temperature (from 20 °C to 30 °C), evaporator inlet temperature (from 60 °C to 80 °C) and seawater feed flow rate (from 200 l/h to 400 l/h). Within this operational boundary, it was found that the maximum permeate/distillate flux was 4.135 l/(h∙m2) which equates to a distillate production/flow rate of close to 21.3 l/h. The maximum potential distillate production rate is expected to be significantly higher than this value though as the maximum manufacturer specified feed flow rate is 700 l/h and the maximum evaporator inlet temperature is rated at 90 °C. Both these parameters are positively related to the distillate production rate. The minimum specific thermal energy consumption was found to be 180 kWh/m3.
A mathematical model of the overall system was developed, and experimentally validated, to mathematically describe the coupling of the membrane distillation module with a solar collector field. The effectiveness of internal heat recovery of the membrane distillation module was found to be an accurate and simple tool to evaluate the thermal energy demand of the distillation process at a given set of operation parameters. The mathematical model was used to further investigate the experimental findings and provide insights into the operational dynamics of the membrane distillation module. It was also used to determine some external conditions required for steady state operation, at a given distillation operating point, such as the minimum solar irradiation required for operation and the auxiliary cooling required in the solar collector loop for maintaining steady state conditions.
Finally, general guidelines are provided toward better operational practices to improve the coupling of a solar thermal collector unit/field with a membrane distillation system using a storage tank or inertia tank.
level of limitations called Gold level.
compensated by replaced additional mineral wool insulation.
ventilation meets certification principals easily.
An energy auditing tool (PHPP) was evaluated against a dynamic simulation tool (TRNSYS) and used for the assessment of energy conservation measures in a demo case study. The comprehensive comparison of useful heating and cooling demands and loads included three building types (single-, multi-family house, and office), three building energy levels (before renovation and after renovation with a heating demand of 45 and 25 kWh/(m²·a)) and seven European climates. Dynamic simulation results proved PHPP (monthly energy balance) to be able to calculate heating demand and energy savings with good precision and cooling demand with acceptable precision compared to detailed numerical models (TRNSYS). The average deviation between the tools was 8% for heating and 15% for cooling (considering climates with a relevant cooling load only). The higher the thermal envelope quality was, i.e. in case of good energy standards and in cold climates, the better was the agreement. Furthermore, it was confirmed that PHPP slightly overestimates the heating and cooling loads by intention for system design. The renovation design of a real multi-family house was executed using PHPP as energy auditing tool. Several calculation stages were performed for (a) baseline, (b) design phase, and (c) verification with monitoring in order to calculate the corresponding heating demand. The PHPP model was calibrated twice, before and after the renovation. The necessity for tool calibration, especially for the baseline, was highlighted increasing the confidence with respect to a number of boundary conditions. In this study, PHPP was tested as an energy auditing tool aiming to be a versatile and less error-prone alternative to more complex simulation tools, which require much more expert knowledge and training.
Energy auditing can be an important contribution for identification and assessment of energy conservation measures (ECMs) in buildings. Numerous tools and software have been developed, with varying degree of precision and complexity and different areas of use.
This paper evaluates PHPP as a versatile, easy-to-use energy auditing tool and gives examples of how it has been compared to a dynamic simulation tool, within the EU-project iNSPiRe. PHPP is a monthly balance energy calculation tool based on EN13790. It is intended for assisting the design of Passive Houses and energy renovation projects and as guidance in the choice of appropriate ECMs.
PHPP was compared against the transient simulation software TRNSYS for a single family house and a multi-family house. It should be mentioned that dynamic building simulations might strongly depend on the model assumptions and simplifications compared to reality, such as ideal heating or real heat emission system. Setting common boundary conditions for both PHPP and TRNSYS, the ideal heating and cooling loads and demands were compared on monthly and annual basis for seven European locations and buildings with different floor area, S/V ratio, U-values and glazed area of the external walls.
The results show that PHPP can be used to assess the heating demand of single-zone buildings and the reduction of heating demand with ECMs with good precision. The estimation of cooling demand is also acceptable if an appropriate shading factor is applied in PHPP. In general, PHPP intentionally overestimates heating and cooling loads, to be on the safe side for system sizing. Overall, the agreement with TRNSYS is better in cases with higher quality of the envelope as in cold climates and for good energy standards. As an energy auditing tool intended for pre-design it is a good, versatile and easy-to-use alternative to more complex simulation tools.
This thesis was aimed at validating an Excel tool developed by Energicity Company. In addition, to study a commercial software that can be used to design a solar mini-grid system for the company.
A 9.9 kW solar mini-grid in Bekwai, Ghana was used as a case study. Weather data from Meteonorm and component specification was used as input parameter for the simulation works.
HOMER pro and PVsyst commercial software were selected to validate the Excel tool. Each software was also explained in detail.
The validation was done by comparing input parameters and simulation results of the Excel tool with the selected commercial software. The process was divided into two main parts. The first part was, comparing the mathematical model, and the PV array electricity production of the software used as an input to the Excel tool, which was SAM, with HOMER pro and PVsyst. The second part was comparing the final simulation result of both tools, including the Excel tool.
The comparison result shows that the difference in the mathematical model for the diffuse irradiation in each software leads to a difference in the electricity production at the PV array output. Even though the difference is not significant for a small scale mini-grid system, the difference can cause a wrong estimation for critical loads, where a higher percentage of availability is required.
The DC losses at the PV array has a notable impact on estimating the electricity production. PVsyst considers more loss parameters than SAM and HOMER pro. As a result, the simulation result of the PVsyst shows lower electricity production at the output of the PV array compared to the others. This indicates as PVsyst is a more conservative software model.
The loss in the battery has another significant impact on estimating the energy delivered to the load. The battery model for each tool was different. The Excel tool uses higher battery loss percentage. Due to this, the energy served to the load by the Excel tool was lower than HOMER pro and SAM. HOMER pro’s estimation of the battery loss was almost equal to the Excel tool. The battery loss estimated by PVsyst was lower than all models. However, there were uncertainties in the input parameters of the battery, because of most of the parameters provided by the battery manufacturer was not compatible with the input parameters required by PVsyst.
girls’ secondary school that is located in a rural area in northwest Tanzania. The original motivation behind this study was the rapid degradation of the installed battery bank within less than 3 years. The PV system was installed before the actual operation of the school, so the study aimed to answer a very pressing question which is "What is the actual load profiles in the school?". There was a high need to identify the actual school load profiles to enable several concerned social actors to evaluate the system and to decide for future extensions. Therefore, the study aimed to analyse the implementation of electricity in the school by creating actual load profiles, analysing the system performance versus the users’ needs and evaluating the sustainability and utilization of implementation.
to seek further understanding of the users’ consumption behaviours. It thus included a 1-month of field work in June 2018 during which participant observations and semi-structured interviews together with load measurements were carried out so as to create load profiles that are considering the patterns and deviations in users’ behaviours. During the field work, 2/3 of the students were in holidays so the taken measurements corresponded to the school at 30 % capacity. That is why the study also included 4 days of inverter data logging after the 1-month field work by the technical head of the school to overcome the limitations in held measurements.
The observations showed that the actual installed system was slightly different from the documentation. In addition, the local installation practices are not fully appropriate from the technical point of view, and are affected by local social norms, as will be discussed. Besides, the participant observations and held interviews with relevant social actors showed that the daily behaviours of energy users do not exactly follow the school daily routine. Consequently, the social study was important to create actual effective load profiles. The observations and responses from interviews together with measurements were used to categorize the school loads into 29 different units. Those units can be used for current load prioritizations and for future load extrapolations. The created load profiles also represent a useful addition to load databases used by energy researchers who work on similar rural electrification projects.
After the field work, several characteristics were calculated by Microsoft Excel such as apparent power consumptions, active power consumptions, battery bank state of charge, load power factor and PV generated energy. The characteristics were used in calculations evaluating the energy balance in the system. The results of held calculations showed that lighting during dark hours accounted for on around 78 % of the logged daily apparent energy use, as it has a low a low average power factor of 0.28. It also showed that some loads if time-bounded, they will significantly decrease the daily energy consumption. The calculations were also used to run PVSyst simulations to evaluate the system sizing which resulted in the recommendation that either the array size should be doubled, or the apparent energy consumption should be decreased to half.
≥0.8 for example) or by installing a capacitive compensation for power factor correction. In addition, it was recommended to quantify the school loads according to their priority or importance and to regulate observed time-unbounded loads such as "pumping water" and "ironing". Lastly, the study discussed how generated electricity is utilized in the school and what opportunities for women empowerment have become potentially possible with the provision of electricity.
This thesis work aimed to develop solar Photovoltaic (PV) powered smart street post. The post was set to serve on highways for wild animals’ detection and warn vehicles of possible crossings. The main aim was to design reliable standalone PV system via PVSyst software and experimenting four different PV technologies including a bifacial module under. Another aim was to select and develop the hardware and software terms of the smart street pot. Radar sensor and analog to digital (A/D) data acquisition (DAQ) card were set to be used for the motion detection. RF wireless communication module was used for communicating with nearby posts to send data and trigger warning light emitting diodes (LED) sign. A Raspberry Pi microcontroller was programmed to control the operation of the street post through processing the signal from radar sensor and communicating with nearby posts.
The PV system design included generation of street post’s daily profile, sizing and selection of the components of the system including the module, battery, charge controller and power stage circuit. The later was designed to provide suitable voltage level and interface for the loads connected. PVSyst model was built and set to be located in Ulm, Germany. The design parameters were set, and different set of orientations were tested for each module.
The simulation results showed bifacial module delivered a reliable PV system in case of south and south-east orientation and achieved better performance in other orientations in comparison to the other PV modules implemented. Due to limitations in PVSyst software the results provided had an overall uncertainty of 5%.
The microcontroller was able to process the data from the radar sensor and DAQ card and perform fast Fourier transform (FFT). However, further processing of motion detection was complex to be included in the thesis work. The radar sensor and DAQ card provided signals with uncertainty of ± 3.4 mV. The RF wireless communication module transmitted signal over various ranges up to 150 m with time delay of 500 ms.
the existent heat generation plants.
owned by the municipality, for installing a solar thermal collector field.