Solar energy has come to the forefront as a scalable and largely underutilized renewable energy resource. The current cost of solar electricity, namely from photovoltaics, along with other logistics factors, has prevented the widespread adaptation of the technology. A key determinant of efficiency and cost for a solar cell is the current collector grid. This work presents the Collimated Aerosol Beam Direct Write (CAB-DW) system as a non-contact printing method that can achieve current collector grid finger widths of less than 10 μm which are amenable to decreasing both resistive and optical losses. The ability to produce high aspect ratio grid fingers, and deposit optimized grid structures on high efficiency SHJ solar cells using silver nanoparticle inks is also demonstrated. A decrease in shadowing and via profile modification of the grid fingers is presented, along with a study of aging and degradation of electrical properties within silver nanoparticle inks.

This thesis details potential design improvements by exploiting a new general grid model utilizing multiple wind and solar energy plants. A single renewable energy plant which relies on wind speed or solar insolation is unreliable because of the stochastic nature of weather patterns. To allow such a plant to match the requirements of a variable load some form of energy storage must be incorporated. To ensure a low loss of load expectation (LOLE) the size of this energy storage must be large to cope with the strong fluctuations in energy production. It is theorized that by using multiple renewable energy plants in separate areas of a region, the different weather conditions might approach a probabilistically independent relationship. The probability of energy generated from combined plants will then approach a Gaussian distribution by the central limit theorem. While maintaining the same LOLE as a single renewable plant this geographic separation model theoretically stabilizes the energy production and reduces the system variables: energy storage size, energy storage efficiency, and cumulative plant capacity. New generic weather models that incorporate levels of independence are created for wind speeds and solar insolations at different locations to support the geographic separation model. As the number of geographically separated plants increases and the weather approaches independence the system variables are reduced.

Thesis. 1978. M.Arch--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 204-208. / by Robert R. Brunkan. / M.Arch

<p>Water has been heated with the sun has almost as long as there have been humans, but itis not until recently that more advanced and effective solar water heating systems havebecome common, and they are still gaining ground. Through the years new systems andnew solar collectors have been developed. In Kosovo, however, not much attention hasbeen paid to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and solar water heatingsystems is a new concept.The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo is working on a projecton sustainable development in Dragash Municipality in southern Kosovo. A solar waterheating system has recently been installed at the hospital in Dragash, as part of the UNDPproject. The system is a pilot project, to see how well solar energy can be used in thisarea.The existing solar water heating system at the hospital in Dragash was examined andevaluated. The possibilities of using the fundamental principle of the solar water heatingsystem at the hospital on residential houses in Dragash were looked into. Six prototypesof average residential houses in the village of Brod and Dragash Town were created. Thesolar collector size and storage needed to meet the demands for the six house prototypeswere calculated. Information on the incoming solar irradiation for each hour of a year wasobtained from the online service SoDa Solar Radiation Data. The total annual incomingsolar radiation for one square meter was calculated.The environmental, social and economic effects of solar water heating in Dragash wereconsidered and discussed. Rough economic calculations were made on the effects ofinstallation of solar water heating systems.The solar water heating system at the hospital in Dragash is a good pilot project, and islikely to work satisfyingly. The annual output effect of the system is approximately 7 400kWh. The fundamental principle needs to be altered to work on residential houses. Thesolar collector needs to be of a cheaper kind, and the collector and storage tank can be ofsmaller dimensions.Solar water heating can contribute to Kosovo’s work toward sustainable environmental,social and economic development focusing on hot water supply. Kosovo has sufficientsolar radiation for solar water heating systems to work in a satisfactory way. The outputeffect for a solar water heating system in Dragash is around 390 kWh/(m2∙year) with atotal efficiency for the system of 30%. If the solar water heating system replaces heatingby electricity the annual savings can be 31 €/m2 solar collector. The biggest obstacles forthe use of solar energy are the public’s lack of knowledge on solar water heating andenvironmental problems connected to energy, as well as economy.The work done in this thesis is a good foundation for future research on solar energy inKosovo. It can be extended and elaborated with more thorough economic calculations,since economy is an important factor in the future for solar energy. Only roughcalculations were made in this thesis, since it has a technical approach. More extensiveresearch could also be done to evaluate the possibilities of using solar water heating forspace heating.</p> / <p>Varmvatten har värmts med hjälp av solen nästan så länge det funnits människor, men detär inte förrän nyligen som mer avancerade och effektivare solvärmesystem har blivitvanliga, och de blir allt vanligare. Genom åren har nya system och nya solfångareutvecklats. I Kosovo däremot har inte mycket uppmärksamhet ägnats åt att ersätta fossilabränslen med förnyelsebara energikällor, och solvärme är ett nytt koncept.FN:s utvecklingsprogram (UNDP) i Kosovo arbetar med ett projekt med målet hållbarutveckling i Dragash kommun i södra Kosovo. Ett solvärmesystem har nyligeninstallerats på sjukhuset i Dragash, som en del av UNDP:s projekt. Systemet är ettpilotprojekt för att se hur bra solenergi fungerar i det här området.Det befintliga solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset i Dragash undersöktes och utvärderades.Möjligheterna att använda grundprincipen för solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset påbostadshus i Dragash undersöktes. Sex prototyper för genomsnittliga hus i byn Brod och iDragash centrum togs fram. Solfångararean och ackumulatortanksvolymen som krävs föratt klara behoven för de sex husprototyperna beräknades. Information om solinstrålningenför varje hus erhölls från SoDa Solar Radiation Data. Den totala solinstrålningen på enkvadratmeter beräknades.De miljömässiga, sociala och ekonomiska effekterna av solvärme i Dragash diskuterades.Ekonomiska överslagsberäkningar gjordes på effekterna av installation av solvärme.Solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset i Dragash är ett bra pilotprojekt, och är sannolikt attfungera tillfredsställande. Den årliga energi som systemet kan ge kommer att vara ungefär7 400 kWh. Grundprincipen behöver ändras för att fungera på bostadshus. Solfångarnabehöver vara av en billigare typ, och storleken på solfångare och ackumulatortankbehöver vara mindre.Solvärme kan bidra till Kosovos arbete mot hållbar miljömässig, social och ekonomiskutveckling med fokus på varmvattenbehov. Kosovo har tillräcklig solinstrålning för attsolvärmesystem ska fungera tillfredsställande. Med en totalverkningsgrad på 30 % för ettsolvärmesystem kan systemet ge ungefär 390 kWh/(m2∙year). Om systemet ersätteruppvärmning med el kan de årliga besparingarna bli ungefär 31 €/m2 solfångare. Destörsta hindren för användning av solenergi är allmänhetens brist på kunskap om solvärmeoch miljöproblem kopplade till energi, samt ekonomi.Arbetet i detta examensarbete är en bra grund för fortsatta studier om solenergi i Kosovo.Arbetet kan vidgas och utvecklas med mer ingående ekonomiska beräkningar, eftersomekonomi är en viktig faktor i framtiden för solenergi. Endast överslagsberäkningar gjordesi detta examensarbete, eftersom det har ett tekniskt förhållningssätt. Mer omfattandestudier kan också göras för att utvärdera möjligheterna ätt använda solvärme föruppvärmning av bostäder.</p>

Based on the author's MA thesis (84 leaves, University of British Columbia, 1982). / Includes bibliographical references. Also issued online.

The main aim of this project is to develop an ESES lab on a full scale system. The solar combisystem used is available most of the time and is only used twice a year to carry out some technical courses. At the moment, there are no other laboratories about combisystems. The experiments were designed in a way to use the system to the most in order to help the students apply the theoretical knowledge in the solar thermal course as well as make them more familiar with solar systems components. The method adopted to reach this aim is to carry out several test sequences on the system, in order to help formulating at the end some educating experiments. A few tests were carried out at the beginning of the project just for the sake of understanding the system and figuring out if any additional measuring equipment is required. The level of these tests sequences was varying from a simple energy draw off or collector loop controller respond tests to more complicated tests, such as the use of the ‘collector’ heater to simulate the solar collector effect on the system. The tests results were compared and verified with the theoretical data wherever relevant. The results of the experiment about the use of the ‘collector’ heater instead of the collector were positively acceptable. Finally, the Lab guide was developed based on the results of these experiments and also the experience gotten while conducting them. The lab work covers the theories related to solar systems in general and combisystems in particular.

Water has been heated with the sun has almost as long as there have been humans, but itis not until recently that more advanced and effective solar water heating systems havebecome common, and they are still gaining ground. Through the years new systems andnew solar collectors have been developed. In Kosovo, however, not much attention hasbeen paid to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and solar water heatingsystems is a new concept.The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo is working on a projecton sustainable development in Dragash Municipality in southern Kosovo. A solar waterheating system has recently been installed at the hospital in Dragash, as part of the UNDPproject. The system is a pilot project, to see how well solar energy can be used in thisarea.The existing solar water heating system at the hospital in Dragash was examined andevaluated. The possibilities of using the fundamental principle of the solar water heatingsystem at the hospital on residential houses in Dragash were looked into. Six prototypesof average residential houses in the village of Brod and Dragash Town were created. Thesolar collector size and storage needed to meet the demands for the six house prototypeswere calculated. Information on the incoming solar irradiation for each hour of a year wasobtained from the online service SoDa Solar Radiation Data. The total annual incomingsolar radiation for one square meter was calculated.The environmental, social and economic effects of solar water heating in Dragash wereconsidered and discussed. Rough economic calculations were made on the effects ofinstallation of solar water heating systems.The solar water heating system at the hospital in Dragash is a good pilot project, and islikely to work satisfyingly. The annual output effect of the system is approximately 7 400kWh. The fundamental principle needs to be altered to work on residential houses. Thesolar collector needs to be of a cheaper kind, and the collector and storage tank can be ofsmaller dimensions.Solar water heating can contribute to Kosovo’s work toward sustainable environmental,social and economic development focusing on hot water supply. Kosovo has sufficientsolar radiation for solar water heating systems to work in a satisfactory way. The outputeffect for a solar water heating system in Dragash is around 390 kWh/(m2∙year) with atotal efficiency for the system of 30%. If the solar water heating system replaces heatingby electricity the annual savings can be 31 €/m2 solar collector. The biggest obstacles forthe use of solar energy are the public’s lack of knowledge on solar water heating andenvironmental problems connected to energy, as well as economy.The work done in this thesis is a good foundation for future research on solar energy inKosovo. It can be extended and elaborated with more thorough economic calculations,since economy is an important factor in the future for solar energy. Only roughcalculations were made in this thesis, since it has a technical approach. More extensiveresearch could also be done to evaluate the possibilities of using solar water heating forspace heating. / Varmvatten har värmts med hjälp av solen nästan så länge det funnits människor, men detär inte förrän nyligen som mer avancerade och effektivare solvärmesystem har blivitvanliga, och de blir allt vanligare. Genom åren har nya system och nya solfångareutvecklats. I Kosovo däremot har inte mycket uppmärksamhet ägnats åt att ersätta fossilabränslen med förnyelsebara energikällor, och solvärme är ett nytt koncept.FN:s utvecklingsprogram (UNDP) i Kosovo arbetar med ett projekt med målet hållbarutveckling i Dragash kommun i södra Kosovo. Ett solvärmesystem har nyligeninstallerats på sjukhuset i Dragash, som en del av UNDP:s projekt. Systemet är ettpilotprojekt för att se hur bra solenergi fungerar i det här området.Det befintliga solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset i Dragash undersöktes och utvärderades.Möjligheterna att använda grundprincipen för solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset påbostadshus i Dragash undersöktes. Sex prototyper för genomsnittliga hus i byn Brod och iDragash centrum togs fram. Solfångararean och ackumulatortanksvolymen som krävs föratt klara behoven för de sex husprototyperna beräknades. Information om solinstrålningenför varje hus erhölls från SoDa Solar Radiation Data. Den totala solinstrålningen på enkvadratmeter beräknades.De miljömässiga, sociala och ekonomiska effekterna av solvärme i Dragash diskuterades.Ekonomiska överslagsberäkningar gjordes på effekterna av installation av solvärme.Solvärmesystemet på sjukhuset i Dragash är ett bra pilotprojekt, och är sannolikt attfungera tillfredsställande. Den årliga energi som systemet kan ge kommer att vara ungefär7 400 kWh. Grundprincipen behöver ändras för att fungera på bostadshus. Solfångarnabehöver vara av en billigare typ, och storleken på solfångare och ackumulatortankbehöver vara mindre.Solvärme kan bidra till Kosovos arbete mot hållbar miljömässig, social och ekonomiskutveckling med fokus på varmvattenbehov. Kosovo har tillräcklig solinstrålning för attsolvärmesystem ska fungera tillfredsställande. Med en totalverkningsgrad på 30 % för ettsolvärmesystem kan systemet ge ungefär 390 kWh/(m2∙year). Om systemet ersätteruppvärmning med el kan de årliga besparingarna bli ungefär 31 €/m2 solfångare. Destörsta hindren för användning av solenergi är allmänhetens brist på kunskap om solvärmeoch miljöproblem kopplade till energi, samt ekonomi.Arbetet i detta examensarbete är en bra grund för fortsatta studier om solenergi i Kosovo.Arbetet kan vidgas och utvecklas med mer ingående ekonomiska beräkningar, eftersomekonomi är en viktig faktor i framtiden för solenergi. Endast överslagsberäkningar gjordesi detta examensarbete, eftersom det har ett tekniskt förhållningssätt. Mer omfattandestudier kan också göras för att utvärdera möjligheterna ätt använda solvärme föruppvärmning av bostäder.

After enjoying one week in the Swedish Lapland, the idea of providing energy to one of those isolated cabins in the far landscape caught our attention. Nowadays, there still exist many dwellings, usually located in rural isolated sites, which have no easy access or even no possibility to get connected to the distribution and transport electricity grids. This situation may cause some inconvenience to the owners, therefore, the interest in finding new alternatives for supplying electricity. Such a problem requires specific solutions, including the development of electrification programs in those countryside isolated spots. Thus, the present project intends to perform a study which would provide the proper electric system to a summerhouse in the North of Sweden. Regarding the current European environmental politics and considering the rural location of the dwelling of study, the project will focus on various renewable alternatives to reach the above mentioned goal. In fact, Sweden has the greatest share of renewable energies in all European Union countries with a fixed goal of reaching 50% of its total energy production by renewable sources by the year 2020. For the present moment, Sweden already accounts for 9.4 GWh on solar energy production and 3.5 TWh on wind power production by the end of 2010. Therefore, the study will build on these alternatives as they represent two of the most extensively developed renewable possibilities in the country. Thereby, the first objective of the project was to determine a concrete location considering both our initial idea and the possibility of obtaining the wind speed and solar radiation data. A plot located 20 km to the north of Lulea was finally chosen. Then, once having the necessary baseline data comes the sizing of the different alternative: stand alone wind turbine system, stand alone PV system and a hybrid system combining wind power with the support of an electric generator. No option including grid connection is taken into consideration due to the lack of accessibility. Finally, it is performed an economic study of each alternative that would lead to a clear conclusion of which is the most appropriate choice in the study case. Economic criteria will therefore be the most significant factor when choosing the optimum alternative. However, environmental issues would also be taken into account. As no traditional electrification is studied, the economic analysis will not refer to the obtained monetary savings regarding to the grid connected option but will be performed by comparing initial investments. After all, it is concluded that the studied dwelling will be electrified by a hybrid system combining wind power with an electric generator. The system includes a 20 kW wind turbine and a diesel fueled generator with 8 kW power service. The generator will provide the required energy to the house during those days when the wind resource is not capable to cover the demand. Therefore, the lack of electricity supply will be avoided. Regarding investment costs of the chosen alternative, the hybrid system accounts for 20,729€ investment, which corresponds to about 40% the total price of both solar and wind stand alone systems. . Considering environmental criteria, the hybrid system only requires 23 diesel liters to be burned during the six summer months. Therefore, emissions due to combustion are relatively low and not considered as damaging. So, the chosen alternative meets both economical and environmental requirements.

This Thesis project is a part of the research conducted in Solar industry. ABSOLICON Solar Concentrator AB has invented and started production of the prospective solar concentrated system Absolicon X10. The aims of this Thesis project are designing, assembling, calibrating and putting in operation the automatic measurement system intended to evaluate distribution of density of solar radiation in the focal line of the concentrated parabolic reflectors and to measure radiation from the artificial source of light being a calibration-testing tool.On the basis of the requirements of the company’s administration and needs of designing the concentrated reflectors the operation conditions for the Sun-Walker were formulated. As the first step, the complex design of the whole system was made and division on the parts was specified. After the preliminary conducted simulation of the functions and operation conditions of the all parts were formulated.As the next steps, the detailed design of all the parts was made. Most components were ordered from respective companies. Some of the mechanical components were made in the workshop of the company. All parts of the Sun-Walker were assembled and tested. The software part, which controls the Sun-Walker work and conducts measurements of solar irradiation, was created on the LabVIEW basis. To tune and test the software part, the special simulator was designed and assembled.When all parts were assembled in the complete system, the Sun-Walker was tested, calibrated and tuned.

Concentrated solar power systems are expected to be sited in desert locations where the direct normal irradiation is above 1800 kWh/m2.year. These systems include large solar collector assemblies, which account for a significant share of the investment cost. Solarreflectors are the main components of these solar collector assemblies and dust/sand storms may affect their reflectance properties, either by soiling or by surface abrasion. While soiling can be reverted by cleaning, surface abrasion is a non reversible degradation.The aim of this project was to study the accelerated aging of second surface silvered thickglass solar reflectors under simulated sandstorm conditions and develop a multi-parametric model which relates the specular reflectance loss to dust/sand storm parameters: wind velocity, dust concentration and time of exposure. This project focused on the degradation caused by surface abrasion.Sandstorm conditions were simulated in a prototype environmental test chamber. Material samples (6cm x 6cm) were exposed to Arizona coarse test dust. The dust stream impactedthese material samples at a perpendicular angle. Both wind velocity and dust concentrationwere maintained at a stable level for each accelerated aging test. The total exposure time in the test chamber was limited to 1 hour. Each accelerated aging test was interrupted every 4 minutes to measure the specular reflectance of the material sample after cleaning.The accelerated aging test campaign had to be aborted prematurely due to a contamination of the dust concentration sensor. A robust multi-parametric degradation model could thus not be derived. The experimental data showed that the specular reflectance loss decreasedeither linearly or exponentially with exposure time, so that a degradation rate could be defined as a single modeling parameter. A correlation should be derived to relate this degradation rate to control parameters such as wind velocity and dust/sand concentration.The sandstorm chamber design would have to be updated before performing further accelerated aging test campaigns. The design upgrade should improve both the reliability of the test equipment and the repeatability of accelerated aging tests. An outdoor exposure test campaign should be launched in deserts to learn more about the intensity, frequencyand duration of dust/sand storms. This campaign would also serve to correlate the results of outdoor exposure tests with accelerated exposure tests in order to develop a robust service lifetime prediction model for different types of solar reflector materials.