Renewable Energy

Sources
An overview on Energy sources (15EE563)
Module 2 (a)
SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY
COLLECTORS
 Types of Solar Collectors, Configurations of Certain Practical
Solar Thermal Collectors, Material Aspects of Solar Collectors,
Concentrating Collectors, Parabolic Dish – Stirling Engine
System, Working of Stirling or Brayton Heat Engine, Solar
Collector Systems into Building Services, Solar Water Heating
Systems, Passive Solar Water Heating Systems, Applications
of Solar Water Heating Systems, Active Solar Space Cooling,
Solar Air Heating, Solar Dryers, Crop Drying, Space Cooing,
Solar Thermal Collector
 Solar radiation is energy in the form of electromagnetic
radiation from the infrared (long) to the ultraviolet (short)
wavelengths.
 A collector is a device for capturing solar radiation.
 A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing
sunlight.
Solar Thermal Energy Collectors: Solar collectors absorb
the incoming solar radiation, converts it into heat and then
transfers this heat to a fluid flowing through the collector. Some
Applications are:
1. Solar Water heating
2. Solar Space Heating
3. Solar Refrigeration
4. Industrial Process Heat Systems
5. Solar Desalination Systems
6. Solar Thermal Power Generation Systems

Stirling Engine: It is a heat engine operating by cyclic

compression and expansion of air or other gas, the working fluid at
different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of
heat energy to mechanical work.
Solar Collectors:
 General Classification of Collectors according to Application:

 Back-pass solar collectors

 Used to heat air; Glazed surface; May be integrated with thermal mass
 Concentrating solar collectors
 Best suited for clear skies; Steam production; Concentrates light at absorber
which can increase efficiency at high temperature
 Four forms: parabolic trough, parabolic dish, power tower, stationary solar
collectors
 Trombe Wall
 Thermal mass designed to radiate heat during the night; Glass to allow
sunlight through
 With added salt fillers stored energy changes from 200 cal/day to 80,000
cal/day
 Batch Solar Collectors
 Water heating; Glazed water collectors
 Solar cookers
 Liquid Solar Collectors
 Vacuum tubing
Types of Solar Collectors:
1.Flat Plate Collectors: It is divided into five important
parts:
a) Dark Flat Absorber of Solar Energy
b) Transparent Cover
c) Heat Transport Fluid(air, antifreeze, or water)
d) Heat Insulation Backing
e) Insulated Casing
Flat Plate Collector
1.Flat Plate Collector:
i. Flat Plate Air Collectors:
1.Flat Plate Collector:
ii. Flat Plate Liquid Collectors
 Types of Solar Collectors:

2. Concentrating Collectors:

Types:
a) Stationary Concentrating Collectors
b) Tracking Concentrating Collectors
Configurations of Certain
Practical Solar Thermal
Collectors:
 Flat Plate Collectors: Most common solar collector for solar water heating systems.
A typical flat plate collector is an insulated metal box with a glass or plastic cover and
a dark coloured absorber plate.
 Liquid Flat plate Collectors: These uses sunlight to heat a liquid that is
circulating in a ‘Solar Loop’.
 Air Flat Plate Collectors: Primary usage for solar space heating. Air collector
are typically less efficient than liquid collectors. Thermal energy collected from air
based solar collectors can be used for ventilation, air heating, space heating and
crop drying.
 Glazed Flat Plate Collectors: These are best suited for moderate temperature
applications where demand is around 30-70°C.
 Unglazed Flat Plate Collectors: Best suited for demand of less than 30°C and they
are not insulated.
 Unglazed Perforated Plate Collectors: Used for building ventilation air heating,
where collectors are perforated with small holes of a pitch of 2-4cm. Air passes
through holes in the collector before its drawn to the building to provide fresh
preheated ventilated air. Best application is Building Ventilation Air Heating System.
 Back- Pass Solar Collectors: A large solar absorber is used to heat the air.
Collectors are coated with a glaze which can be used to heat air for space heating.
 Batch Flat Plate Solar Thermal Collector: It is used for residential water heating
system, which are having the glazing that is similar to flat plate collectors and a
Reflector to concentrate the solar energy on the tank surface. Less costlier than batch
flat plate.
 Flat Plate Collectors with Flat Reflector: Its found that the addition of Reflector
on a collector can increase solar yield. The reflector increases the direct beam
radiation reaching the collector, as aperture is larger than absorber plate.
 Evacuated tube Collectors: These can achieve extremely high temperatures which
can be useful for industrial and commercial applications, bu expensive than fat plate
collectors
 Concentrating Collector:
 A concentrating solar collector is a solar collector that uses reflective
surfaces to concentrate sunlight onto a small area, where it is absorbed
and converted to heat.
 Concentrators can increase the power flux of sunlight hundreds of
times.
 This class of collector is used for high-temperature applications such as
steam production for the generation of electricity and thermal
detoxification.
 Concentrating collectors are best suited to climates that have a high
percentage of clear sky days.

The main types of concentrating collectors are:

• parabolic dish collectors
• parabolic trough collectors
• power tower
• stationary concentrating collector
 Concentrating collectors are Categorized in many
ways:
1. Based on means of concentration: Reflecting or refracting
type of mirror – Fresnel Lens
2. Based on Reflecting surfaces used: Parabolic, Spherical,
Flat
3. Continuous or Segmented
4. Based on the formation of the image: Imaging or Non-
imaging
5. Imaging concentrator may focus on a line or at a point
6. On the basis of collector concentration ratio or operating
temperature range.
7. By the type of tracking.
Compound Parabolic
Solar Collector:
 These are non – imaging Concentrators.

Fresnel Lens
Evacuated type Collector
 Material Aspects of Solar Collectors:
The fundamental components of a flat-plate collector are the transparent
cover, the absorber with its coating, the casing and insulation material.
1. Absorber: Following are the absorber mainly utilized
a) All copper Plates with integrated water passage( Roll Band type)( Or Aluminium
too)
b) All Copper (Copper Tube on Copper Sheet)
c) Copper Tube or Aluminium Fin
d) Iron or Steel
e) Plastic ( Polymers)
Absorber coating
 The absorber coating has the task of absorbing as much of the incident sunlight
as possible and converting it to heat.
 It must not degrade under UV exposure, temperature up to 200° C, low to high
relative humidity level, must not fade or chalk or chip ad should not be
THICK.
 i.e. in the infrared, it is important that as little energy be emitted as possible.

 Absorber coatings with high absorbance α in the solar spectral range (0.3 -
2.5 μm)
 A low emittance ε in the wavelength range 2.5 - 50μm are termed "selective
coatings".
Sputtering- deposit (metal) on a surface by using fast ions to eject particles of
it from a target
 2. Glazing:
 ONE or more sheets of glass material used as transparent
covers.
 Functions:
1. It must reduce convective losses from the absorber plate.
2. It must suppress Radiative heat losses from the absorber plate.
3. It must protect the absorber from the elements and from excessive UV
exposures. A glazing material must be resistant to UV radiation
Transparent cover materials
 The transparent cover has the dual task of admitting the solar radiation to the
collector and reducing the heat loss from the collector.
 The opacity of the cover in the spectral range of heat radiation leads to a "greenhouse
effect" in the collector simultaneously protects the absorber against convective heat
losses and wind.
 Glass and plastic materials are often used for the collector cover.
 The advantage of glazing is its proven long-term stability with regard to optical and
mechanical properties.
3.Insulating materials
 Mineral wool and glass wool are often used as
insulating material.
 If polyurethane or polystyrol foam is used, it must
always be protected against high temperatures by a
covering layer. It has to be taken into consideration,
that the stagnation temperatures of good selective
coated collectors can reach temperatures as high as
200°C.
 Even simple collectors with black painted absorbers
reach stagnation temperatures of about 140°C. The
backside insulation of the collector has to resist these
temperatures.
Casing
 For the casing basically aluminium, steel and
polymeric materials are used. For roof
integrated collectors wooden casings are also
used.
 The typical casing of a flat plate collector
consists of a frame made of an extruded
aluminium profile and a back plate out of either
aluminium or weather proof steel. In order to
reduce weight and costs back plates out of
plastics become more and more common.
Losses
Fresnel Solar Thermal Collectors:
 It provides highest temperature with good efficiency.
 They are made by bending a sheet of reflective material into Parabolic shape
 A metal black tube covered with a glass tube to reduce heat losses , is placed along
the focal line of the receiver.
 Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) technology relies on an array of linear mirror strips
that concentrate light on to a fixed receiver mounted on a linear tower.
 These are cheaper when compared to parabolic glass reflector.
 Drawback is the avoidance of shading and blocking between adjacent reflectors
leads to increased space between reflectors.
Parabolic Trough
 Parabolic Troughs are devices that are shaped like letter “U”
 A parabolic trough concentrates sunlight along a spatial gradient
into a linear focal point
 A fluid acts as a thermal sink as it passes through tubes along the
focal point
 Parabolic troughs are used to generate electricity but are
susceptible to seasonal changes
Industrial Parabolic Trough
Cylindrical Trough Solar
Collectors:
 A high rim of cylindrical trough would have a focal plane not a focal line.
 To avoid dispersed focus, cylindrical troughs would have designed with low rim
angles in order to provide an approximate line focus.
 Advantage of cylindrical mirror geometry is that it need not track the sun in any
direction as long as some means is provided to intercept the moving focus.
Parabolic Dish
 A parabolic dish or solar furnace is a large reflector that concentrates
thermal energy into a single focal point.
 It uses a Dual axis Sun Tracker.
 It is a point focus collector that tracks the sun in two axes
 Concentrating solar energy onto a receiver located at the focal point of
the dish.
 The dish structure must track fully the sun to reflect the beam into the
thermal receiver.
 The focal point can contain a Stirling Engine to generate electricity or
the energy can be focused and used in industrial processes
 On a small scale, a reactor can be used in the same way a solar oven is
used.
Research Solar
Furnace in France

Parabolic dish solar

thermal collector
 Parabolic Dish- Stirling Engine
System:
Major parts of Parabolic Dish Stirling system engine system are:
1. Solar Dish Concentrator: parabolic dish systems that generate electricity from a
central power converter collect the absorbed sunlight from individual receivers and
deliver it via a heat transfer fluid to the power conversion systems. The need to
circulate heat transfer fluid through out the collector field raises design issues such
as piping layout, pumping requirements, thermal losses.
2. Power Conversion Unit: It includes thermal receiver and the heat engine. The
thermal receiver absorbs the thermal concentrated beam of solar energy converts it
to heat and transfer the heat to the heat engine. A thermal receiver can be a bank of
tubes with a cooling fluid circulating through it. The heat transfer medium usually
employed as the working fluid for an engine is hydrogen or helium. Alternate thermal
receivers are heat pipes where in the boiling and condensing of an intermediate fluid
are used to transfer the heat to the engine. The Stirling heat engine are the most
common type of heat engines used in dish- engine system.
3. Tracking System: A parabolic dish system uses a computer to track the sun and
concentrate the sun rays on to a receiver located at the focal point in front of the
dish. In some systems, a heat engine, such as Stirling engine, is linked to the
receiver to generate electricity. Parabolic dish system can reach 1000°C at receiver,
and achieve the highest efficiencies for converting solar energy to electricity and
small power capacity range
Working of Stirling or Brayton
Heat Engine
 The array of mirrors are focuses the sunlight, the
concentrated sunlight then heats up the working fluid
to temperatures of around 750°C within the receiver.
 The heated working fluid then used in Stirling or
Brayton heat engine to mechanical power via
rotational kinetic energy.
 The hot compressed air is then expanded through a
turbine to produce rotational kinetic energy, which is
converted to electricity using the alternator.
 A Recuperator is utilized to capture waste heat from
turbine to preheat the compressed air.
 Solar Collector Systems into
Building Services:
 Main Components of Building heating system are :
 Air Handling unit: A fan and two motor- driven Dampers.
 Heat Storage unit (Rock Bed)
 Temperature Control systems
 Solar Collectors
 Depending on the position of dampers A & B, three modes of system operation can
be achieved:
 Dampers A & B open: Normal Day heating mode.
 Dampers A open & damper B Closed: used whenever heat is collected but no
space heating required at same time. Fan blows the solar heated air through the rock
bed for thermal storage.
 Damper A is Closed & damper B Open: Used during cloudy periods or during
night. The return air from the building is now pulled through the rock bed, where it
picks up the heat. The auxiliary furnace is activated automatically if temperature is
insufficient to meet the demand.
Solar Water heating Systems:
GENERAL WATER HEATING SYSTEM:
Mainly two Parts are there:
1. A Solar Collector
 Commonly used collectors are Flat Plate Collector.
 It consists of a thin, flat, rectangular box with a transparent cover that faces
SUN mounted on the roof of a building.
 Small tubes run through the box and carry the fluid (– water or other fluid)
to be heated
 The tubes are attached to absorber plate, which is painted with special
coatings to absorb heat.
 The heat builds up in the collector, which is then passed to the fluid passing
through the tubes.
2. Storage Tank
 The tank holds the hot water.
Types of solar water heating
system:
1.The Active System: Commonly used, Rely
on the pumps to move the liquid between the
collector and the storage tank.
2.The Passive System: These rely on the
gravity and tendency for water to naturally
circulate as it is heated.
 Active Solar water heating
systems:
 Parts of Water Heating system:
1. Collectors to acquire capture solar energy
2. Circulation system to move a fluid between the
collectors to a storage tank.
3. Storage Tank
4. Backup heating system
5. Control system to regulate the overall system
operation.
 Active Space Heating:
 Main Parts:
1. Air Distribution System
2. Hydronic system with radiators
3. Hydronic System with in-slab heat
 Passive Solar water heating
systems:
 A passive solar water heating systems uses Convection or household water
pressure to circulate water through a solar collector to a storage tank or to
the point of use.
 Parameters for installations : South Facing Non –shaded location with the
collector tilted at the angle of our latitude.
 Types of Passive water heaters:

1.Batch System:
 It consists of one or more metal tanks painted with a heat absorbing black
coating and placed in an insulating box or container with a glass or plastic
cover that admits sunlight to strike the tank directly.
 System uses existing house pressure to move water through the system.
 Each time a hot water tap is opened, heated water from the batch system
tank is removed and replaced by incoming cold water.
 The tank is present outside, there may be loss of heat during night, which
can be minimized by insulating the tank well
Thermosiphon Systems:
 It uses Flat plate collectors and a separate storage tank that
must located higher than the collector.
 The storage tank located above the collector receives heated
water coming from the top of the collector into the top of the
storage tank.
 Colder water from bottom of the storage tank will be drawn into
the lower entry of the solar collector to replace the heated water
that was thermosiphoned upward.
 The storage tank may or may not use a heat exchanger.
 More complex and costlier than batch system.
 Antifreeze can be used in the system eliminating freeze up.
Applications of Solar Water Heating
Systems:
1.Hotels: Bathing, kitchen, washing, laundry applications.
2.Dairies: Ghee production, cleaning, sterilizing, pasteurisation
3.Textiles: Bleaching, Boiling, Printing, Dyeing, curing, ageing,
finishing.
4.Breweries and distilleries: Bottle washing, Boiler feed
heating.
5.Chemical/Bulk drugs units: Fermentation of mixes, boiler feed
application
6.Electroplating or galvanizing units: Heating of plating baths,
cleaning, degreasing applications.
7.Pulp and paper industries: Boiler feed applications, soaking
of pulp.
 Active Space Cooling:
 Significant Space heating or water heating can be
accomplished with same equipment used for the Solar
Cooling System.
 Active Solar Absorption Cooling system is shown in the
diagram in which (T) represents the sequence of Flow.
 Heat from the Solar Collectors separates a low boiling
refrigerant in a generator that receives the pressurised
refrigerant from an absorber.
 Solar heat can be used in the evaporation stage of the
cycle.
Solar Air Heating:
 Solar heated air can be used for drying most crops that require warm air.
 Existing commercial drying operations can be converted to utilize solar
heat by installing our system to remove heat from the building’s metal
roof or wall.
 Remove the heat from under the metal panels, add the duct and connect
the ducts to intake of drier fans.
 The system removes the heated air from underside of the panels and
passes the sir to the drying chamber.
 Simple sensors are installed in the air flow and use thermostatic controls
to turn off the incoming air flow when temperature is not high enough for
solar heating.
 Solar air collectors can be divided into two categories:
1. Unglazed air collectors or transpired (YET TO BE REVEALED) solar
collectors – used primarily to heat ambient air in commercial, industrial,
agricultural and process applications.
2. Glazed Solar Collectors- Recirculation types that are usually used for space
Solar Dryers:
 Advantages:
1. Solar dryers are economical
2. The drying process is most hygienic and eco-friendly
way.
3. Low operation and maintenance cost.
4. It can last longer (15-20 years minimum with
maintenance)
 Limitations:
1. Drying can be performed only in Sunny days.
2. Solar drying process is slow.
3. Solar dryers can be utilized only for drying at 40°C-
50°C
Crop Drying:
 Controlled drying is required for the various crops and products such as grain,
coffee, tobacco, etc.
 The main principle of operation is to raise the heat of the product, which is usually
held within a compartment or box, while at the same time passing air through the
compartment to remove moisture.
 The flow of hot air is towards upside as its lighter, while drawing cooler air is from
below.
 The Size and shape depends on product.
C:\Users\sony-pc\Desktop\JUnk\res\LEARN AND GROW !! CROP DRYING PROCESS BY S
OLAR COLLECTORS!.mp4
Space Cooling:
 Evaporation: The refrigerant absorbs heat from the indoor air
as it evaporates, leaving chilled air or water behind.
 Absorption: The vapour is absorbed into another liquid, called
the absorber. This step improves the speed and efficiency of
evaporation by preventing the refrigerant from condensing,
which would release heat back into the system and counteract
the cooling that just took place.
 Separation: The mixture of refrigerant and absorber is heated
until the refrigerant evaporates out of the absorber fluid. This
is the most energy-intensive step of the whole process, and it
is how air conditioners can use hot water to make cold air. The
hot water for Step 3 can be produced by renewable sources.
 Condensation: The refrigerant is pumped through a
condenser, which returns it to liquid form. Heat is released
during the condensation process, and this heat must be vented
to the outdoors. The liquid refrigerant returns to Step 1.
 Solar Cookers
 Solar cookers or ovens are primarily used in developing nations as a
primary method for cooking using passive solar heat to cook primary
meals
 Insulated box that collects solar radiation enhanced by reflectors
attached to each side
 Basic Principles:
1.Concentrating Sunlight
2.Converting Light to heat
3.Trapping Heat
4.Greenhouse effect
Solar Cooker:
 Types :
1. Solar Cooking Boxes
2. Reflector Cookers
3. Solar Steam and Convection Cookers
Solar Oven in Nepal
Solar Ponds

 Fresh water
floats on top
of salt water
 Solar heating
of the brine
raises its
temperature
to 85°C
(185°F)
 A Rankin
Cycle engine
turns a
generator to
drive the
utility grid
with up to 70
This El Paso solar pond is run by the Univ. of Texas
kW
 Module 2(b)
SOLAR CELLS
 Components of Solar Cell System, Elements of
Silicon Solar Cell, Solar Cell materials, Practical
Solar Cells, I – V Characteristics of Solar Cells,
Efficiency of Solar Cells, Photovoltaic Panels,
Applications of Solar Cell Systems.
 Solar Cell
 It is an electrical device that converts the energy of light into
electricity by photovoltaic effect.
 They are made of Semiconductors.
 Photovoltaic effect was found by Edmund Becquerel in 1839.
 Solar cell are easy to install, operate, maintain
 Solar cell are long lasting, reliable.
Components of Solar Cell System: It includes
a) Solar panel
b) One or more batteries
c) A charge Controller for stand alone system and
d) An Inverter for grid connected system
e) Wiring
f) Mounting hardware or framework
Solar Cell Materials:
 Silicon main basic material used as its availability and suitability.
 The absorption coefficient of a material indicates how far the light
can penetrate the material before it is getting absorbed.
 Absorption co-efficient depends on :
(i) Material making up the cell
(ii) Wavelength of the light being absorbed.
 The band gap of the material is the minimum energy needed to move
an electron from its bound state within an atom to free state.
 The electrons starts conducting in free state involved in Conduction.
 The lower energy band are called “Valence Band”
 The higher energy level where an electron are free to move are
called “Conduction Band”.
 The band gap is the energy difference between Conduction and
Valence Band.
1. Silicon: Subtypes are
i. Mono Crystalline or Single crystal Silicon ii. Multi-
Crystalline Silicon

iii. Poly Crystalline Silicon iv.

Amorphous Silicon
1.Thin Film: Thin Film technology has made solar cells extensive use of
following materials:
i. Rooftop or Solar Shingles
ii. Roof Tiles

Simple Thin Film Silicon

iii. Building Facades iv. Glazing for

skylights or Atria
 P-N junction solar cells.mp4
 Solar cell animation.mp4
 Solar energy - Solar photovoltaics
- Photovoltaic effect (3D animation).mp4
Practical Solar Cell:
1. Crystalline Silicon Cells: Very much used at market, to reduce the cost often
made in multi crystalline material. Efficiency is about 18%.

2. Amorphous Silicon Cells: They are cheaper made of amorphous thin films.
3. Cadmium Telluride and Copper Indium Diselenide: Thin film modules with
cheaper in cost and can achieve good efficiency.

4. High Efficiency Solar Cells: Formed from Gallium Arsenide, Indium Phosphide or
other. Used to Power Satellites under high intensity concentrated sunlight.
Elements of Solar Cell:
1. Substrate:
• It is unpolished p-type of wafer referred as p region base
material.
• Thickness of wafers used are of 180-300μm
• Resistivity are of 1-2Ωcm, Doping should be 5x10/cm3 to
1x10/cm3.
• Wafer can be single crystalline or multi-crystalline.
2. Emitter:
• It involves the doping of silicon with pentavalent impurities
like Phosphorus, Arsenic, antimony.
• Doping is done by process of diffusion.
• The junction depth are of 0.2-1μm.
• This are also known as n-type diffused layers
Elements of Solar Cell:
3. Electrical Contacts: Electrical connection between semiconductor material and
external electric load
a) Back Contact:
• It is a metallic conductor covering back.
• It usually consists of layer of aluminium or molybdenum material.
b) Front Contact:
• When light falls on solar cell a current of electrons flow over the surface.
• The maximum current can be collected if contacts are placed over the
surface of a solar cell, which can be done with a grid of stripes or metal
fingers.
• To improve the conversion efficiency, the shading effect must be reduced.
c) Anti-Reflecting Coating:
• These are applied to reduce surface reflection and maximize the efficiency.
• When a thin film of Nano coating of anti-reflection coating of silicon
dioxide (SiO2) and titanium dioxide(TiO2) is applied, which can increase
efficiency by 3-4%.
I-V Characteristics of Solar Cell:
Photovoltaic Panels(Series & Parallel
Arrays):
Applications Of Solar Cell:
1.Solar Water Pumps
2.Solar Vehicle
3.Solar Lanterns
4.Solar Panels
5.Solar panels on Spacecraft
6.Grid-connected Photovoltaic Power Systems
7.Cathodic Protection Systems
8.Electric Fences
9.Remote Lighting Systems
10.Telecommunications and Remote Monitoring Systems
11.Rural Electrification
12.Water Treatment Systems