Sunflower Inspired Solar Plant Design Devised

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, such as the Gemsolar and PS10 plants in Spain, use arrays of mirrors (or heliostats) to focus a large area of the Sun's rays onto a small area, where the concentrated light is converted to heat that is used to generate electricity. However, large areas are required to make CSP plants economically feasible which is not always a logical solution.

While CSP has gained popularity in recent years with numerous plants being built around the world, they require a large area to generate the amounts of electricity needed to make them economically viable. Taking inspiration from the sunflower, researchers have devised a more efficient design that would allow such plants to be constructed on a much smaller area. Researchers at  MIT and RWTH Aachen University in Germany have devised a nature-inspired design that occupies a much smaller area but at the same time captures more sunlight than the current CSP plants.

As the designs of heliostat layouts were reworked at MIT, researchers noted that the layouts functioned efficiently because of the spiral elements which were similar to the ones found in nature. By modifying the heliostat layout using numerical optimization to create a narrower layout, the model calculated that the amount of land required for the mirrors could be reduced by up to 10 percent without affecting their efficiency in reflecting light. After noticing that the resulting pattern had some spiral elements similar to patterns found in nature, the researchers (naturally) looked that way for inspiration.

Along with allowing for a compact layout, the sunflower pattern removed obstacles like blocking and shading by neighbouring heliostats. One such naturally-occurring pattern is the Fermat spiral, which is found in the spiraling pattern of florets in daisies and - fittingly - sunflowers. The Fermat spiral has long fascinated mathematicians who have found that each sunflower floret is turned at a "golden angle" of about 137 degrees with respect to its neighbor. According to the calculations made by the researchers, the florets on the sunflower head occurring in a natural Fermat spiral pattern tilt at an angle of 137°. This pattern helped eradicate the shading and blocking issue commonly faced by heliostats in most CSP fields.

MIT's Alexander Mitsos says laying heliostats out in such a spiral pattern could significantly cut the costs of CSP plants by reducing the amount of land and the number of heliostats required to generate an equivalent amount of energy.

Read More:

https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/gdm/news/12734

https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-01/sunflower-design-inspires-more-efficient-solar-power-plants/

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/10/floating-solar-panels-vision-of-future.html

Waste water treatment sites – a source of solar energy

Treating liquid effluent via evaporation has always been a highly effective, robust and simple method compared to other more conventional treatment systems. Governments are now turning to wastewater treatment plants as a potential site for installing solar systems. A 1.15-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) system installed at a wastewater treatment plant in the city of Dinuba, Calif. This was a joint partnership venture by Chevron and Toiga Energy.

Chevron Energy Solutions did construction and engineering. Tioga Energy financed the project and manage it. The company will sell energy produced from this venture at a fixed price for a twenty-year agreement. Tioga Energy is an expert in selling renewable energy under long-term agreements to commercial, non-government organisations and government. This agreement makes it possible for these institutions to avail renewable energy with no upfront capital.

Although this energy source is generally associated with the use of solar panels for direct conversion of solar radiation into electricity, thermosolar energy is a technology that exploits solar energy with a much greater yield. A thermosolar plant transforms the solar radiation it receives into thermal energy, which can be used directly in industrial processes that require heat, or also indirectly as an energy source of a conventional thermodynamic cycle to generate electricity.

The city of Dinuba is happy to have a landmark of solar energy that makes use of a wastewater treatment site. Tioga and Chevron have also recently worked together on a solar project in Hawaii.

To maximize the absorption of the solar radiation and minimize the losses due to emission or convection, several technologies have been developed. Although the systems that produce a higher yield are constructed with cylinder-parabolic collectors (CCPs), in recent years the use of systems that use flat segmented mirrors according to the Fresnel approach (Linear Fresnel Reflector – LFR) has grown in popularity. These systems, at the cost of a loss of a certain amount of concentration an effectiveness, nevertheless score points for simplicity, which means a reduction in costs.

Tioga has also played a leading role in developing the ‘Morris model’. This was a project done with the Morris County Improvement Authority located in New Jersey. This new model makes it possible for governments to issue low-interest bonds for financing renewable energy projects. Partnering with a third-party investor provides leverage for federal tax incentives.

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Floating Solar Panels Vision of The Future

Solar power companies in Southeast Asian that are competing for land with agriculture, industry and expanding populations have found an innovative alternative: placing floating panels in lakes, dams, reservoirs and the sea. Floating solar panels, an invention of its own kind is ready to add a new page in the history.

The platform has to be “more robust” than systems in reservoirs or lakes to withstand tougher conditions on the open sea, and to overcome barnacles that may grow on it. Despite these challenges, floating solar systems are growing quickly in Asia alongside those on the ground and on roofs.

It is great to know that such a kind of creation is another step to clean energy. The cost-effective prototype of floating and rotating solar panels is installed on the lake of Colignola in Italy where sunrays bouncing on the surface of panels can be collected for the production of electricity.

Rosa- Clot, a professor at Florence, and his team are very excited about their new invention, which is attracting many international buyers because of floating flower-petal-like panels. He proudly expressed his feelings about his new project by saying, “You are standing on a photovoltaic floating plant which tracks the sun. It’s the first platform of its kind in the world!”

While floating panels are more expensive to install, they are up to 16 percent more efficient because the water’s cooling effect helps reduce thermal losses and extend their life. With such an amazing design and international attention, they now look forward to revolutionizing solar power industry.

The standard solar plants have many limitations because they capture lots of valuable agriculture land, cover up the entire buildings as well as much energy is lost in overheating. The floating plants have resolved such issues.

Colignola costs approximately 48,000 euros ($ 63,000) with an estimated price of around 1600 euros per KW including installation. The flat panels are winged by reflectors and sit on raft-like structures which are anchored to the lake bed with a pylon.

Southeast Asia is particularly well suited for floating panels because of the scarcity of land and because they can be easily installed in the region’s many hydropower dams, where they can use existing transmission systems.

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How can Single-Axis Solar Trackers improve your project’s Return on Investment (ROI)

A single-axis solar tracker positions the panels towards the sun capturing maximum solar energy during the day. Tracking arrays are designed to literally follow solar position at every minute, hour, and day of the year – without requiring manual adjustment.

Gain in Energy Production from Single-Axis Solar Plants

In traditional Solar PV fixed-tilt Plants, the power output follows a bell curve throughout the day, it gradually increases until peaking at noon, then returns to decrease. Whereas, in single-axis Solar PV Plants, we approach the maximum power from early in the morning and this production is maintained until late afternoon. Hence, seeing a performance gain of approximately 25% (Energy Sage, 2019) as compared to the fixed PV installation.

Unlike fixed-tilt traditional Solar PV Plants, single-axis tracking systems require more space per module to allow for the rotation of the PV modules and to eliminate all possible shadowing. However, the latest innovation in the industry is to optimize site design by adjusting the array layout to accommodate greater modules unique to its specific latitude and vertical tilt angle.

10 MW Single-Axis Solar Power Project for Eni Pakistan

For the 10 MW Eni Bhit Gas Field, horizontal single-axis trackers have been used. Motors and gear trains, through an astronomical clock controller, power these. This is Reon’s first integrated Solar Powered Project for the Oil and Gas sector that shall help Eni shut down one of its gas turbines during the day. The single-axis panels have been installed with wind and precipitation sensors that can immediately detect any unusual weather changes while taking its angle to a 0-degree tilt to minimize the impact of heavy rain or wind.

The use of solar trackers is increasing in photovoltaic plants because it allows a significant increase in energy production; hence, improving project profitability. Tracking systems tend to cost more than the fixed-tilt PV Plants but the 25% increase in energy yield could significantly help bring the cost down.

The article is originally published on:

How can Single-Axis Solar Trackers improve your project’s Return on Investment (ROI)

In The Spotlight Solar Energy and Green Energy Practices

Today’s Eco-friendly environment is very encouraging for the innovations and investments in solar energy sector.

It continues to generate interest in the field of research and innovations for renewable energy all around the world. But, the US and Europe remain the big players in research and implementation!

In some of the states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts in the US, the health systems and hospitals who are in quest of reducing energy consumption and become more energy efficient are granted state subsidies.

This has eventually helped them save money, reduce or eliminate energy costs, reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and lessen their impact on global warming.

While homes, health systems and hospitals follow green energy and solar energy practices, new sustainable buildings and automobiles accomplish new ways to reduce the utilization of existing fuels such as oil or gas.

More and more buildings, houses are now being equipped with solar panels while automobiles are adapting the innovations such as photovoltaic plates that are being widely used to convert solar energy to electricity to power them.

The self-storage facility industries have started using energy-saving methods like motion-sensor lights within storage units, hallways and along driveways to save electrical energy and money as well.

Developments and improvements in manufacturing, demonstrations on how technology helps to manage the demand for electricity in fast-growing markets are taking the utilisation of renewable energy such as solar power to the next level!

For More:

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/10/how-can-single-axis-solar-trackers.html

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/10/solar-energy-tulip-flower-power_2.html

https://www.reonenergy.com/how-can-single-axis-solar-trackers-improve-your-projects-return-on-investment-roi/

Performance Evaluation of Solar Plants using I-V Curve Tracer

I-V curve tracing offers a quick and reliable method for assessing the true performance of Solar PV modules and traditional string inverter systems. The technique is especially utilized by Solar PV installers for real-time module monitoring and performance evaluation.

How does it work?

I-V Curve Tracing is a method of electrically testing the PV module and photovoltaic array and ensuring that it performs at optimum level. This test can be conducted at any time during the manufacture, installation, commissioning, performance and troubleshooting phase to ensure productivity. A device, called the I-V Curve Tracer can be installed for this purpose, which measures current and power as a function of voltage. This test can be applied on individual strings and the captured results can be compared to expected results for any variation.

I-V Curve tracing helps in determining the optimum combination of current and voltage to maximize yield as illustrated in the figure below. The red line depicts maximum output achieved through the best combination of current and voltage whereas the dotted line shows reduced output which may be a result of several factors such as a module mismatch, soiling, and more.

What are the Benefits Of I-V CURVE TRACING?

Some key benefits of I-V Curve Tracing include:

·        Lower risks during startup and commissioning

·        Thorough system performance baselines

·        Effective and expedited troubleshooting

·        Better performance modeling

·        Detailed testing reports and analytics

·        Reduced system downtime

I-V Curve Tracing can also help in detecting module faults such as shading, soiling, series resistance and module mismatch. Immediate identification of these issues can allow technicians to make timely array layout adjustments, repairs and warranty claims.

I-V Curve Tracing is currently one of the most comprehensive methods of testing PV modules and strings to regulate and optimize the performance of each array in the PV system.

The article was originally published on:

Reon Energy - Performance Evaluation of Solar Plants using I-V Curve Tracer

Innovative Duplex Solar Panel Technology

Birds Eye Energy, a green energy company with a strong focus on R&D, has developed an innovative duplex solar panel. The two-in-one solar panel developed by co-founders of Birds Eye Energy. Praneeth Pillarisetti and Harsha Vardhan Reddy generates electricity and heats water, occupying only 170 square feet on the terrace, leaving more space for more panels. Praneeth and Harsha have plans for further innovations, which includes incorporating micro-concentrators within solar panels, negating the need for large mirrors to focus the sun rays on to the panel, for industrial use.

For the past decade, some of the sharpest minds working in energy research at IIT Madras and CSIR-CEERI, Chennai have been involved in creating novel energy solutions to meet customer needs.

Praneeth, BTech in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and Masters in Renewable Energy Systems from the University of Florida recalls that the model was initially a 10×15 cm designed for academic demonstration, and they had to do further R&D to make the product viable. The solar panel converts 35% of the solar energy into electricity as opposed to 15% to 18% by traditional solar panels despite taking up the same amount of roof space. For traditional panels, about 85% of solar energy is wasted as heat, so the Birds Eye panels are up to 2 times efficient compared to the former.

Harsha, Praneeth’s batchmate at IIT Madras, studying Bio-technical Engineering before pursuing MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, added that they looked at improving the quality of panels and the heat exchanger such that the panels would last for 15 to 20 years and heat exchanger for 25 years, without frequent maintenance or replacement.

The Indian power sector is set to grow by 600% over the next 30 years, and developers of new and innovative green energy technologies like those behind Birds Eye Energy will look to cater to the growing market of Indian consumers.

Meanwhile, the co-founders have also applied for three patents for the technology used to develop and design the duplex solar panels.

For More:

https://www.thebetterindia.com/197633/hyderabad-startup-solar-panels-heat-water-produce-electricity-innovation-india/

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/10/clean-solar-cells-from-agriculture.html

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/09/cheap-solar-panels-invented-by-ucla.html

Solar Energy Tulip Flower Power

A garden of flowers that produce- rather than consume- energy sounds unreal, but that is the concept behind AORA's innovative solar plant. An odd, bright yellow tulip-shaped tower rises above the dry strip mountains of Andalucia in Southern Spain.  Surrounded by a sea of solar panels reflecting the sun’s light, this tower is a gas turbine solar thermal station launched by an Israeli company, AORA Solar in the Platforma Solara de Almeria solar research and development park.

AORA, a pioneer of distributed solar thermal technology (DST) based in Israel, set up their first solar "garden" in Kibbutz Samar in the south of Israel in 2009 on a 2300sq metersplot of land. Since it was first switched on four years ago, the plant of yellow tulips has been generating 100kw of power per hour for the grid. But that was only the beginning. Its next plant is located about 35 kilometres from the waterfront city of Almeria in the town of Tabernas. 

The new technology developed by the company encompasses of 52 heliostat solar panels that move along with the sun, reflecting the sunlight to be collected by a solar receiver. In front of the group of solar panels, is a 35-meter tulip shaped tower with a solar receiver and a gas turbine that captures the incoming sunlight transmitted by the panels. Facing each tulip from the ground are 50 solar panels that focus the sun's rays into the "bulb" of the flower made of solar receivers, where the air is heated to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius. Fitted inside the "bulb" are 100kw gas turbines that turn thermal energy into electric energy.

In a single hour, each flower tower is able to generate 100 kilowatts of electricity and 170 kilowatts of heat energy as a byproduct. The heat energy can be used for other purposes like desalination and cooling.

AORA's solar system can operate in various locations and conditions "as long as it's not too hot and humid", says CEO Zev Rosenzweig. Unlike other solar power plants that use steam or oil when transferring energy from solar radiation to the turbine, AORA's smart system uses pressurized hot air. A compressor pressurizes the air by volume (e.g. one cubic meter). The amount of energy that can be transferred by the reflected solar heat depends on the mass of the air that is compressed and sent to the solar receiver. When the air is hot, its density decreases and after compression, the volume contains less mass. As a result, the energy transfer to the turbine is lower than when the air is cool. Furthermore, the tulip tower is supported by a small diesel fuel tank, which serves as a backup during cloudy weather and nighttime, enabling it to work round the clock even in unpredictable weather.

To overcome this weather condition, a very fine water mist (in amounts much smaller than other solar systems) is sprayed into the air ahead of intake. When the mist evaporates, it takes the energy out of the air and leaves it more dense. However, if the relative humidity of the ambient air is too high, like in Dubai, where it can reach 98%, the system simply doesn't have enough "material" to work with. But these conditions are rare and are, therefore, not a setback for AORA's expansion plans.

AORA chief technology officer Pinchas Doron said that soon there would be much more “power flower” facility towers throughout Spain and around the world. The company will continue to strive to increase the heat output by adding an absorption chiller to the system, which will convert the hot air to cool air.

Related Articles:

https://issuu.com/solarenergy-reonenergysolution/docs/clean_solar_cells_from_agriculture_wastes

https://www.reonenergy.com/commercial-industrial-c-i-segment/

https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/09/solar-energy-and-green-energy-practices.html

Clean Solar Cells from Agriculture Wastes

Many farmers already produce renewable energy by growing corn to make ethanol. It’s  big news for everybody that solar cells can be created from agriculture wastes such as cut grass and dead leaves, which have been proved by Andreas Mershin, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An increasing number of farmers and ranchers are now adding to their incomes by harvesting the wind that blows across their land to make electricity. And new options are becoming available.

Renewable energy and farming are a winning combination. Wind, solar, and biomass energy can be harvested forever, providing farmers with a long-term source of income. Recalling high school biology classes, he said that you must remember a process known as photosynthesis, where plants use to turn sunlight into energy. Mershin has discovered a process that extracts the photosynthesizing molecules, called Photosystem I, from plant matter. Photosystem I contains chlorophyll that is the protein responsible for converting photons to a flow of electrons.

Biomass energy is produced from plants and organic wastes—everything from crops, trees, and crop residues to manure. Crops grown for energy could be produced in large quantities, just as food crops are. The plant’s molecules are spread on a glass substrate that is covered in a forest of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide “sponges”, after striking by sunlight the panels both the titanium dioxide and the new material absorb light and turn it into electricity, and the nanowires carry the electricity away.

While corn is currently the most widely used energy crop, native prairie grasses such as switchgrass or fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow are likely to become the most popular in the future. These perennial crops require less maintenance and fewer inputs than do annual row crops such as corn, so they are cheaper and more sustainable to produce.

The electricity produced by such a process has a very low efficiency of 0.1%, which has the capacity to light a single LED light. In order to illuminate the entire house, the efficiency of 1 or 2% is needed. Mershin said that the team will concentrate on increasing the efficiency of such cells. Basic difference between the conventional photovoltaic cells and these green photovoltaic cells are that the layer of silicon has been replaced by the suspension of photosynthesizing molecules, which appear like an electric nanoforest.

The options that make the most sense for you depend on your local renewable resources, energy markets, and the types of support available from federal and state government. A growing number of states are requiring electricity companies to provide some power from renewable sources, creating new markets.

Related Article:

https://www.greenjournal.co.uk/2019/06/solar-energy-clean-or-harmful/

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_environmentally_friendly_to_produce_and_recycle_PV_panels

https://www.reonenergy.com/our-projects/