UNIT 1

Solar Energy Technologies

Solar Radiation
Annual solar radiation on a
horizontal surface at the
equator is over
2000kWh/m
2
In Northern Europe this falls
to about 1000kWh/m
2
(per
annum)
The tilt between the sun
and the land reduces the
intensity of the midday sun
Ultraviolet 0.20 - 0.39
Visible 0.39 - 0.78
Near-Infrared 0.78 - 4.00
Infrared 4.00 - 100.00
Energy from the sun in the form of ultra-violet, visible and infra-red electromagnetic
radiation is known as solar radiation
Orientation
Flux of solar radiation incident
on a surface placed at the top of
the atmosphere, depends on
time t, geographical location
(latitude , longitude , and on
the orientation of the surface
Z
P
Horizon
Equator


z
is the declination of the sun
is the hour angle of the sun
is the angle between the incident
solar flux and the normal to the surface

E(t, , ) = S(t)cos (t , , )

S(t) is known as the solar constant
The solar constant is the amount of incoming solar electromagnetic radiation
per unit area that would be incident on a plane perpendicular to the rays,
at a distance of one astronomical unit (AU) (roughly the mean distance from
the Sun to the Earth).
Solar radiation spectrum for direct light at both the
top of the Earths atmosphere and at sea level
The sun produces light with a
distribution similar to what
would be expected from a 5525
K (5250 C) blackbody, which
is approximately the sun's
surface temperature


Radiation interacts with matter
in several ways:
Absorption
Transmission
Scattering
Reflection
Solar Quantities
The sun generates approximately 1.1 x 10 E20 kilowatt-hours every
second.
The earths outer atmosphere intercepts about one two-billionth of the
energy generated by the sun, 1.5 x 10 E18 kilowatt-hours per year.
Because of reflection, scattering, and absorption by gases and aerosols
in the atmosphere, only 47% of this, (7 x 10 E17 ) kilowatt-hours,
reaches the surface of the earth.
In the earths atmosphere, solar radiation is received directly (direct
radiation) and by diffusion in air, dust, water, etc., contained in the
atmosphere (diffuse radiation). The sum of the two is referred to as
global radiation.
The amount of incident energy per unit area and day depends on a
number of factors, e.g.:
Latitude
local climate
season of the year
inclination of the collecting surface in the direction of the sun.
TIME AND SITE

The solar energy varies because of the relative motion of the sun.
This variations depend on the time of day and the season.

In general, more solar radiation is present during midday than
during either the early morning or late afternoon.

At midday, the sun is positioned high in the sky and the path of
the suns rays through the earths atmosphere is shortened.

Consequently, less solar radiation is scattered or absorbed, and
more solar radiation reaches the earths surface.

The amounts of solar energy arriving at the earths surface vary
over the year, from an average of less than 0,8 kWh/m2 per day
during winter in the North of Europe to more than 4 kWh/m2 per
day during summer in this region.

The difference is decreasing for the regions closer to the equator.

The availability of solar energy varies with geographical location
of site and is the highest in regions closest to the equator.

Solar Corrections
[Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface
area in a given time.
It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter
(W/m2) per day.
In the case of photovoltaics it is commonly measured as kWh/(kWp y) (kilowatt
hours per year per kilowatt peak rating). ]
Direct normal solar radiation
is the part of sunlight that comes directly from the sun. This would
exclude diffuse radiation, such as that which would through on a cloudy
day. Iindication of the clearness of the sky.
Diffuse sky radiation
is solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface after having been scattered
from the direct solar beam by molecules or suspensoids in the atmosphere.
It is also called skylight, diffuse skylight, or sky radiation and is the
reason for changes in the colour of the sky.

Of the total light removed from the direct solar beam by scattering in the
atmosphere (approximately 25% of the incident radiation when the sun
is high in the sky, depending on the amount of dust and haze in the
atmosphere), about two-thirds ultimately reaches the earth as diffuse
sky radiation.
Global Horizontal Radiation
total solar radiation; the sum of direct, diffuse, and ground-reflected
radiation;
however, because ground reflected radiation is usually insignificant
compared to direct and diffuse, for all practical purposes global
radiation is said to be the sum of direct and diffuse radiation only.
SUN PATHS DIAGRAM
Sun path diagrams are a convenient way of representing the
annual changes in the path of the Sun through the sky on a
single 2D diagram.
Their most immediate use is that the solar azimuth and altitude
can be read off directly for any time of the day and month of
the year.
There are quite a few different types of sun path diagrams,
however, we will only examine two main forms.
The Stereographic Diagrams
Stereographic diagrams are used to represent the suns changing
position in the sky throughout the day and year.



Azimuth lines and Altitude Lines.
Data lines and Hour lines.
CYLINDRICAL DIAGRAMS:
A cylindrical projection is simply a 2D n position in Cartesian
coordinates.



Extraterrestrial characteristics of Radiation
The energy in solar irradiation comes in the form of
electromagnetic waves of a wide spectrum.
Longer wavelengths have less energy (for instance infrared)
than shorter ones such as visible light or UV.
Intensity and Energy
For the purpose of solar power, the most significant
measures are the intensity and energy delivered one
measure at a point in time, the other over a period of time.
At a point in time
Irradiance [W/m
2
]: The intensity of solar radiation hitting
a surface, which is the sum of the contributions of all
wavelengths within the spectrum, expressed in units of
Watts per m
2
of a surface.

Power [W]: Momentary total irradiance incident on a
particular area.
Over a period of Time
Energy per unit area [kWh/m
2
]: Energy per unit area is a
measure of irradiance incident on a surface over a period of
time. It is often expressed

Surface Orientation
As sunlight is smoothly distributed over whole areas, a mere figure for
intensity is never sufficient without knowledge of the orientation of the
surface in question. Typically, the orientation of a surface is described by
the zenith angle, the angle between the sunbeam and the normal of the
area. If the surface area is not perpendicular to the sunbeam (i.e. zenith
angle is not zero), a larger area is required to catch the same flow as the
cross section of the sunbeam.
If I0 denotes the intensity on a surface with the sun in its zenith, the
intensity, I, on an area where the sun is observed under the zenith angle
(see figure) the intensity is reduced to



Values for range from 0 to 90. Turning the face of the area away from
the sun means less energy is flowing through that area.

Mean intensity on horizontal surface on earth without atmosphere
Assuming the atmosphere has no impact on the incoming light, we can
easily calculate a mean intensity on earth by dividing the total irradiance
on the cross section of the earth by its surface area.

Radiation on tilted surface
In addition to direct beam and diffuse light, a tilted surface will also be
struck by rays reflected off the ground.
Accordingly, the radiation on a tilted surface has three components:

Beam Radiation
If RB denotes the ratio of the average daily beam radiation on a tilted
surface to that on a horizontal surface, then the direct beam part can be
written as


RB is a pure geometric parameter, dependent on the horizontal tilt, surface
azimuth, declination angle and latitude.
Diffuse Radiation
Assuming an isotropic distribution of the diffuse radiation over the
hemisphere, the diffuse part is only dependent on the horizontal tilt angle
and the diffuse radiation of the horizontal surface:
This takes into account that the tilted slope sees only a portion of the hemisphere.
Reflected Light
The energy of the reflected light is dependent on the grounds ability
to reflect, a property which is expressed by the albedo factor .
The albedo ranges from 0.1 (asphalt paved road) to 0.9 (snow). Given
the albedo, the reflected term can be calculated from:
Albedo Factor ()
Lawn 0.205
Untitled Field 0.26
Naked Ground 0.17
Weather-beaten concrete 0.3
Asphalt 0.15
Fresh snow 0.85
Old snow 0.58
ALBEDO FACTOR FOR VARIOUS SURFACE
The reflected light itself has parts of diffuse and parts of direct light.
Radiation on tilted surface in relation to horizontal surface
It can be shown with the help of the above formulas that tilting up a
surface can increase the irradiance incident.

The actual amount depends on numerous factors such as latitude, day in
the year, albedo and clearness index as well as both the tilting angle and
the surface azimuth.

FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR THERMAL ANALYSIS
Types of collectors
Stationary
Sun tracking
Thermal analysis of collectors
Performance
Applications
Solar water heating
Solar space heating and cooling
Refrigeration
Industrial process heat
Desalination
Solar thermal power systems
Types of solar collectors
Flat-plate collector
Flat-plate Collectors
Schematic diagram of an evacuated
tube collector
Evacuated tube collectors
Stationary collectors
Concentrating
Flat plate collector with flat
reflectors
Sun rays
Flat reflector
Flat plate collector
Sun tracking collectors
Concentrating
Schematic of a parabolic trough
collector
Schematic of a parabolic dish
collector
Parabola
Sun rays
Receiver
Two-axes
tracking
mechanism
Thermal analysis of collectors
Useful energy collected from a
collector
General formula:


by substituting inlet fluid temperature (Ti) for the
average plate temperature (Tp):


Where F
R
is the heat removal factor

( ) | | | |
i o p a p L t c u
T T mc T T U G A q = = to

( ) | |
a i L t R c u
T T U G F A q = ) (to
Collector efficiency
Finally, the collector efficiency can be
obtained by dividing q
u
by (G
t
A
c
).
Therefore:
(

=
t
a i L
R
G
T T U
F n
) (
to
Overall heat loss coefficient
The overall heat loss coefficient is a complicated
function of the collector construction and its
operating conditions and it is given by the
following expression:
U
L
=U
t
+U
b
+U
e
(for flat plate collector)
i.e., it is the heat transfer resistance from the
absorber plate to the ambient air.
Concentration
The concentration ratio (C) is defined as the ratio of the
aperture area to the receiver/absorber area, i.e.:


For flat-plate collectors with no reflectors, C=1. For
concentrators C is always greater than 1. For a single axis
tracking collector the maximum possible concentration is
given by:


and for two-axes tracking collector:


r
a
A
A
C =
) sin(
1
max
m
C
u
=
) ( sin
1
2
max
m
C
u
=
where
m
is the half acceptance angle limited by the size of the suns disk, small
scale errors and irregularities of the reflector surface and tracking errors.

Maximum concentration
For a perfect collector and tracking system
C
max
depends only on the suns disk which
has a width of 0.53 (32). Therefore:
For single axis tracking:
C
max
= 1/sin(16) = 216
For full tracking:
C
max
= 1/sin
2
(16) = 46,747
Concentrating collectors
The useful energy delivered from a concentrator is:

Where n
o
is the optical efficiency given by:


And A
f
is the geometric factor given by:


( )
a r L r a o b u
T T U A A n G q =
( ) | | ) cos( ) tan( 1 u u to
f o
A n =
(
(

+ + =
2
2
48
1
3
2
f
W
f W h W A
a
a p a f
Concentrating collectors efficiency
Similarly as for the flat-plate collector the
heat removal factor can be used:


And the collector efficiency can be obtained
by dividing qu by (G
b
A
a
):

( ) | |
a i L r a o b R u
T T U A A n G F q =
(

|
|
.
|

\
|

=
C G
T T
U n F n
b
a i
L o R
Note C in the denominator
PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR
COLLECTORS
The thermal performance of the solar collector is
determined by:
Obtaining values of instantaneous efficiency for
different combinations of incident radiation, ambient
temperature, and inlet fluid temperature.
Obtaining the transient thermal response characteristics
of the collector (time constant).
Determining the incidence angle modifier.
1. Collector Thermal Efficiency
In reality the heat loss coefficient U
L
in previous
equations is not constant but is a function of
collector inlet and ambient temperatures. Therefore:

Applying above equation we have:
For flat-plate collectors:

and for concentrating collectors:

) (
2 1 a i L R
T T c c U F + =
| |
2
2 1
) ( ) (
a i a i t R a u
T T c T T c G F A q = to
| |
2
2 1
) ( ) (
a i r a i r a o b R u
T T c A T T c A A n G F q =
Flat plate collector efficiency
Therefore for flat-plate collectors the
efficiency can be written as:


and if we denote c
o
=F
R
and
x=(T
i
-T
a
)/G
t
then:
t
a i
t
a i
R
G
T T
c
G
T T
c F n
2
2 1
) ( ) (

= to
2
2 1
x G c x c c n
t o
=
Concentrating collector efficiency
For concentrating collectors the efficiency
can be written as:


and if we denote k
o
=F
R
n
o
, k
1
=c
1
/C, k
2
=c
2
/C
and y=(T
i
-T
a
)/G
b
then:
b
a i
b
a i
o R
CG
T T c
CG
T T c
n F n
2
2 1
) ( ) (

=
2
2 1
y G k y k k n
b o
=
Incidence Angle Modifier
Flat-plate collectors
The above performance equations assume that the sun is
perpendicular to the plane of the collector, which rarely
occurs.
For the glass cover plates of a flat-plate collector, specular
reflection of radiation occurs thereby reducing the ()
product.
The incident angle modifier is defined as the ratio of at
some incident angle to at normal radiation ()
n
:



For single glass cover, a single-order equation can be used
with b
o
equal to -0.1 and b
1
=0
( ) ( )
2
1
1
cos
1
1
cos
1
1
|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
u u
ot
b b k
o
Efficiency equation by considering
incidence angle modifier
With the incidence angle modifier the
collector efficiency equation can be
modified as:
t
a i
t
a i
n R
G
T T
c
G
T T
c k F n
2
2 1
) ( ) (
) (

=
ot
to
Incidence Angle Modifier
Concentrating collectors
For off-normal incidence angles, the optical efficiency
term (n
o
) is often difficult to be described analytically
because it depends on the actual concentrator geometry,
concentrator optics, receiver geometry and receiver optics
which may differ significantly.
Fortunately, the combined effect of these parameters at
different incident angles can be accounted for with the
incident angle modifier. It describes how the optical
efficiency of the collector changes as the incident angle
changes. Thus performance equation becomes:
b
a i
b
a i
o R
CG
T T c
CG
T T c
n K F n
2
2 1
) ( ) (

=
ot
Typical Schematic of SEGS plants
Parabolic Trough System
Parabolic trough collectors
Parabola detail
Receiver detail
Central receiver system
Tower detail
Heliostat detail
Central receiver-1
Central receiver-2
Central receiver-3
Central receiver-4
Central receiver-5
Central receiver-6
Central receiver-7
Central receiver-8
The largest solar thermal-electric installation of its kind in
the world, the Luz project in Californias Mojave Desert, has
a peak output of some 350 megawatts and occupies several
square kilometers of land
Parabolic Trough
Solar Dish
Stirling Energy Systems, solar dish technology is the worlds most efficient
device for the conversion of solar energy to grid-delivered electricity,
nearly twice as efficient as any alternative solar technology.
Plant Locations
Direct normal solar radiation
Land Ownership
Road Access
Local transmission infrastructure
capabilities and loadings
State-level policies and regulations

Economic and Environmental Benefits
Creation of jobs for both construction and
operation
Increase in state and local tax revenues
Increase in gross state output
Market Development
The Southwest CSP has set a goal of
achieving 1,000 MW of CSP systems in the
southwestern US by 2010.
US DOEs goal is to develop 30,000 MW of
new clean and diversified generation by
2015.
SolarPaces plans to deploy 5,000 MW of
CSP by 2015.
Residential Applications
Solar Heating
Solar Cooling
Solar Hot Water
Solar Lighting