The purpose of this paper was to compile a nationwide survey by state, on legislation designed to protect access to solar energy. Brief summaries of the information received are included. Land use planning techniques and tools such as zoning and subdivision regulations, as well as special solar zones and planned unit developments have been discussed as they relate to protection of solar access and solar energy use. This paper has distinguished between two types of solar energy systems, active and passive, and associated problems with each.Primary concerns for the users of solar energy systems have been the availability of solar energy and its access to the collector's surface. Solar energy is environmentally safe, however, access to solar energy can be a limiting factor to its use. Solar access protection methods vary with location. The differences in needs between rural and urban areas have been discussed.Increasing solar technologies indicate the need for communities to regulate solar access through innovative legislation. This paper with brief introductions to solar energy access protection techniques, and the state-by-state survey was prepared so as to provide the reader with a basic understanding of solar access protection and act as a guide to access protection methods. / Department of Urban Planning

Solar road panels are a technology that have the ability to revolutionize the way that roads are built and how electricity is generated. Strong incentives towards sustainable solutions in both of these fields have led to the design of innovative, multifaceted solutions, of which solar road panels are one of the most recent entrants. This research presents some initial analysis into the design of solar road panels from the perspective of Canadian pavement engineering. The hypothesis of this research was as follows: A specially designed modular panel can be constructed to withstand the structural and environmental loads on Canadian pavement structures while simultaneously generating electricity through embedded photovoltaic cells. Through a process that covers the design, construction, and analysis of the structural elements of a solar road panel prototype, this research evaluated the impact that solar road panels can have for Canada???s pavement infrastructure. Specific elements researched include the material selection for such a panel, the flexural response of the composite structure, how the panel will interact with traditional pavement and geotechnical materials while in use, and the change in performance of transparent layer materials as they are subjected to freeze-thaw cycling and scaling. The research found that the initial prototype design included a two 10-mm tempered glass pane transparent layers with a 12.7-mm GPO-3 optical layer and 19.1-mm GPO-3 base layer. The concept being that the glass would provide the rigidity required to protect the fragile solar cells while the fiberglass laminate has demonstrated performance as a traffic-supporting material in adverse conditions. Testing of this structure found that the performance was easily duplicated through finite element analysis, given that the material properties were assumed to be more rigid than the averages for tempered glass and GPO-3. Further finite element analysis demonstrated that the prototype solar road panel would not fail through traditional fatiguing methods, and in all cases on concrete, asphalt, granular, and subgrade bases the panels improved the performance characteristics of the structural base. The environmental conditioning of acrylic, glass, and polycarbonate specimens demonstrated that glass is the ideal material choice for the transparent layer for Canadian solar road panels. It proved to have the greatest freeze-thaw and scaling resistance of the three materials, and while the friction characteristic of the flat glass samples would not be suitable for driving on, avenues of research were identified that could improve this characteristic. In summary, the research conducted clearly proved the hypothesis; it is possible to build a structure that can house a photovoltaic system while supporting the structural and environmental loads that Canadian pavement are exposed to. The ideal panel would be constructed with a tempered glass transparent layer, GPO-3 optical and base layers, and the structure would be installed on a concrete structural base. The refinement of this design will be the scope for future research.

Uppsala kommun has acquired the land at Ulleråkerand the plan is that it should be the starting point forthe new southeast district. The area is supposed toinclude 8000 new homes. The idea is also that the areashould be a new modern energy-efficient district. Thisreport examines how much energy that could be savedby using a passive house integrated design instead oftodays standard. Simulations in Matlab regarding localenergy utilization has also been done. Calculationsshow that the passive house integrated designgenerates in a total energy saving of 49 per centcompared to the standard house. The local electricalproduction comes from solar cell panels placed on theroofs and facades and the installed power is 19.8 MW.The production covers 80.3 per cent of the totalenergy demand or 91.4 per cent of the electricaldemand per year. But the systems production ismismatched to the local demand for electricity.

In recent years there has been an increasing trend in the provision of central heating and split vapour compression air conditioning systems to domestic dwellings in Cyprus. To minimise their economic and environmental impact, this study examines the feasibility and economic viability of energy conservation measures and the feasibility of the application of solar driven LiBr-water absorption system for space conditioning. Initially, the study compares through simulation, the heating and cooling requirements of domestic dwellings constructed in Cyprus during the last century. The simulations required values for the thermal conductivity of local building materials, like the hollow brick and mud and straw block. These were not available, and measurements were performed on a machine specifically purchased for the project to establish these values for the first time. These material properties will be of value to building services engineers in Cyprus and the Middle East for the more precise determination of building heating and cooling loads. Evaluation of the internal conditions resulting from the various types of constructions indicated that the traditional and insulated modem houses, could maintain indoor temperature in winter between 16°C and 20°C, but in the summer temperatures exceeded 36°C. The use of natural and mechanical ventilation could reduce slightly the maximum indoor summertime temperatures, but not to a level that could provide thermal comfort. Window gains are an important factor in domestic building energy requirements, and significant savings can result when extra measures are taken. The savings in cooling energy demand for a well-insulated house may be as high as 24% when low-emissivity double glazed windows are used compared to clear double glazed windows giving a pay-back period of 3.8 years. Other factors investigated are the effect of overhangs, shape and orientation of buildings and thermal mass. The results show that the roof is the most important structural element of domestic dwellings in the Cypriot environment. For good thermal performance, the roof must offer a discharge time of 6 hours or more and have a thermal conductivity of less than 0.48 W/m-K. Life cycle cost analysis has shown that measures that increase the roof insulation pay back in a short period of time, between 3.5 to 5 years. However, measures taken to increase wall insulation pay back in a longer period of time, approximately 10 years. The only natural energy resource abundantly available in Cyprus is solar energy, which could be used to power a low energy active cooling system based on the absorption cycle. To facilitate investigation of the feasibility of the application of solar driven absorption systems for domestic cooling, a 1 kW LiBr-water absorption-cooling unit was designed and constructed. The unit was used to determine experimentally the heat and mass transfer coefficients in the heat exchangers of absorption systems. In certain cases these were found to differ considerably from values obtained from heat and mass transfer correlations published by other investigators. The experimentally determined heat and mass transfer coefficients were employed in the design and costing of an 11 kW cooling capacity solar driven absorption cooling machine which, from simulations, was found to have sufficient capacity to satisfy the cooling needs of a well insulated domestic dwelling. Economic analysis has shown that for such a system to be economically competitive compared to conventional cooling systems its capital cost should be below C£ 2000. This drawback can be balanced by a lower total equivalent warming impact being 2.7 times smaller compared to conventional cooling systems.

The byproducts of human engineered energy production are increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations well above their natural levels and accompanied continual decline in the natural reserves of fossil fuels, necessitates the development of green energy alternatives. Solar energy is attractive because it is abundant, can be produced in remote locations and consumed on site. Specifically, thin-film silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) solar cells have numerous inherent advantages including their availability, non-toxicity, and they are relatively inexpensive. However, their low-cost and electrical performance depends on reducing their thickness to as great an extent as possible. This is problematic because their thickness is much less than their absorption length. Consequently, enhanced light trapping schemes must be incorporated into these devices. Herein, a transparent and conducting photonic crystal (PC) intermediate reflector (IR), integrated into the rear side of the cell and serving the dual function as a back-reflector and a spectral splitter, is identified as a promising method of boosting the performance of thin-film silicon-based PV. To this end a novel class of PCs, namely selectively transparent and conducting photonic crystals (STCPC), is invented. These STCPCs are a significant advance over existing 1D PCs because they combine intense wavelength selective broadband reflectance with the transmissive and conductive properties of sputtered ITO. For example, STCPCs are made to exhibit Bragg-reflectance peaks in the visible spectrum of 95% reflectivity and have a full width at half maximum that is greater than 200nm. At the same time, the average transmittance of these STCPCs is greater than 80% over the visible spectrum that is outside their stop-gap. Using wave-optics analysis, it is shown that STCPC intermediate reflectors increase the current generated in micromorph cells by 18%. In comparison, the more conventional IR comprised of a single homogeneous transparent conducting oxide film increases the current generated in the same cell by just 8%. Moreover, the benefit of using STCPC IRs in building integrated photovoltaics is also presented.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are of interest because the technology offers a significant opportunity to reduce the overall costs of solar energy. OSCs can be very inexpensive to produce given that they rely on non-commodity materials and can use existing manufacturing techniques that are not labour- and capital-intensive. In this research, a financial model, named TEEOS (Technological and Economic Evaluator for Organic Solar), is developed and is used to determine financial indicators, such as simple payback period. These indicators are used to determine technical objectives for the OSCs. Two sample cells are evaluated in Toronto, Canada using historical data. The results show that the cell with a higher efficiency and wider absorptive wavelength range produces a payback period of approximately nine years, while the other cell has a payback period well over 45 years. Stochastic modeling techniques are also used to better replicate electricity price and weather fluctuations.

The byproducts of human engineered energy production are increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations well above their natural levels and accompanied continual decline in the natural reserves of fossil fuels, necessitates the development of green energy alternatives. Solar energy is attractive because it is abundant, can be produced in remote locations and consumed on site. Specifically, thin-film silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) solar cells have numerous inherent advantages including their availability, non-toxicity, and they are relatively inexpensive. However, their low-cost and electrical performance depends on reducing their thickness to as great an extent as possible. This is problematic because their thickness is much less than their absorption length. Consequently, enhanced light trapping schemes must be incorporated into these devices. Herein, a transparent and conducting photonic crystal (PC) intermediate reflector (IR), integrated into the rear side of the cell and serving the dual function as a back-reflector and a spectral splitter, is identified as a promising method of boosting the performance of thin-film silicon-based PV. To this end a novel class of PCs, namely selectively transparent and conducting photonic crystals (STCPC), is invented. These STCPCs are a significant advance over existing 1D PCs because they combine intense wavelength selective broadband reflectance with the transmissive and conductive properties of sputtered ITO. For example, STCPCs are made to exhibit Bragg-reflectance peaks in the visible spectrum of 95% reflectivity and have a full width at half maximum that is greater than 200nm. At the same time, the average transmittance of these STCPCs is greater than 80% over the visible spectrum that is outside their stop-gap. Using wave-optics analysis, it is shown that STCPC intermediate reflectors increase the current generated in micromorph cells by 18%. In comparison, the more conventional IR comprised of a single homogeneous transparent conducting oxide film increases the current generated in the same cell by just 8%. Moreover, the benefit of using STCPC IRs in building integrated photovoltaics is also presented.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are of interest because the technology offers a significant opportunity to reduce the overall costs of solar energy. OSCs can be very inexpensive to produce given that they rely on non-commodity materials and can use existing manufacturing techniques that are not labour- and capital-intensive. In this research, a financial model, named TEEOS (Technological and Economic Evaluator for Organic Solar), is developed and is used to determine financial indicators, such as simple payback period. These indicators are used to determine technical objectives for the OSCs. Two sample cells are evaluated in Toronto, Canada using historical data. The results show that the cell with a higher efficiency and wider absorptive wavelength range produces a payback period of approximately nine years, while the other cell has a payback period well over 45 years. Stochastic modeling techniques are also used to better replicate electricity price and weather fluctuations.

The increasing price of fuel and energy, combined with environmental laws and regulations, have led many different energy producers to integrate renewable, clean energy sources with non-renewable ones, forming the idea of energy hubs. Energy hubs are systems of technologies where different energy forms are conditioned and transformed. These energy hubs offer many advantages compared to traditional single-energy sources, including increased reliability and security of meeting energy demand, maximizing use of energy and materials resulting in increasing the overall system efficiency. In this thesis, we consider an energy hub consisting of natural gas (NG) turbines for the main source of energy— electricity and heat— combined with two renewable energy sources—wind turbines and PV solar cells. The hub designed capacity is meant to simulate and replace the coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station with NG-fired power plant. The generating station is integrated with renewable energy sources, including wind and solar. The hub will also include water electrolysers for hydrogen production. The hydrogen serves as an energy storage vector that can be used in transportation applications, or the hydrogen can be mixed into the NG feed stream to the gas turbines to improve their emission profile. Alkaline electrolysers’ technology is fully mature to be applied in large industrial applications. Hydrogen, as an energy carrier, is becoming more and more important in industrial and transportation sectors, so a significant part of the thesis will focus on hydrogen production and cost. In order to achieve the goal of replacing the Nanticoke Coal-fired Power Plant by introducing the energy hub concept, the study investigates the modeling of the combined system of the different technologies used in terms of the total energy produced, cost per kWh, and emissions. This modeling is done using GAMS® in order to make use of the optimization routines in the software. The system is modeled so that a minimum cost of energy is achieved taking into account technical and thermodynamic constrains. Excess energy produced during off-peak demand by wind turbines and PV solar cells is used to feed the electrolyser to produce H2 and O2. Through this method, a significant reduction in energy cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are achieved, in addition to an increased overall efficiency.

This study examines two of the reasons that prevent people from taking part in green electricity programs: trust concerns that these programs may raise, and lack of benefits that come with visibility of participants’ involvement. While the current literature takes notice of their influence, in this study it was decided to investigate both factors in more detail. In particular, with the help of a survey, the study focused on the reactions of electricity consumers to the proposition of participation in green electricity programs in a controlled setting, in which levels of trust concerns raised and benefits of visibility provided by the programs could be varied. The study was conducted in Oakville, an affluent southern Ontario (Canada) suburb. The results are based on 160 received responses to 500 questionnaires that were sent out by mail. While the results of this study point towards the conclusion that both factors have an influence on participation in green electricity programs, their relative strength cannot be estimated by these results. One can, however, claim that the combined influence of trust concerns and benefits of visibility is quite strong. This research shows that at a 95% confidence level, willingness to participate in a program that proposes paying premium for electricity from solar panels installed on a participant’s roof (low trust concerns, high benefits of visibility) is 30% + 19.3% higher than willingness to participate in a program that proposes paying premium for electricity from undisclosed solar farms (high trust concerns, low benefits of visibility). Additional data about trust concerns, appreciation of benefits of visibility, and concerns about installation of solar panels on one’s own roof, provided by the survey, are also presented in the text. In conclusion, it is recommended that future research should more clearly separate the strength of influence of trust concerns from the influence of benefits of visibility on green electricity program participation. It is also important to study which features of these programs make them more trustworthy and visible. An important implication of this study for policy makers and green electricity proponents is to concentrate on allaying trust concerns, and enhancing benefits of visibility when designing policies or drafting plans for green electricity programs. The creation of an independent green electricity program certification system and a greater accent on the local presence of such programs is suggested.