While low hole mobilities limit the current collection and efficiency of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic devices, attempts to improve mobility of the material directly have stagnated. Herein, we explore a method of utilizing nanostructuring of a-Si:H devices to allow for improved hole collection in thick absorber layers. This is achieved by etching an array of 150 nm diamet...

This study proposes the concept of the local heat loss coefficient and examines the calculation method for the average heat loss coefficient and the average absorber plate temperature. It also presents an exergy analysis model of flat plate collectors, considering non-uniformity in temperature distribution along the absorber plate. The computation results agree well with experimental data. The ...

Sb2(S1-x,Sex)3 compounds with tunable band gap values received considerable attention as solar absorber candidates for efficient thin film cells. However, the efficiency of Sb2(S,Se)3 cells is limited to less than 10.5 %. An investigation into performance contact/Hole Transport Layer (HTL)/ Sb2(S,Se)3/Electron (ETL)/contact has been carried out. The transformation photogenerated carriers in HTL...

Porosity is postulated to be one of the reasons for the low efficiency of tin sulfide-based devices. This work is a preliminary investigation of the effects of two film growth parameters deposition rate and substrate temperature on porosity. We employ the focused ion beam tomography technique to characterize and quantify porosity in tin sulfide thin films. We then generate 3D reconstructions of...

The shape of a solar collector is an important factor in solar-to-thermal energy conversion. Conical shape is one of the stationary and symmetric shapes that can be employed as a solar water heater. Flow rate of working fluid on the solar collector has an important effect on the efficiency of the collector. The present study is an experimentally investigated of the performance of the solar coni...

A solar absorption icemaker was designed. It is an intermittent system and uses Calcium Chloride and Ammonia as absorbent and refrigerant respectively. The single glazed collector/absorber/generator unit uses a plane glass sheet as the outer cover. Overall collector plate exposed area is 1.0m. A thermodynamic simulation of the icemaker has been performed in order to investigate the effect that ...

in this paper the design, implementation, and evaluation of an experimental-scale potato yield monitoring system is presented. the main objective of this research was to develop a method for accurate mapping of potato yield. at the first stage an instantaneous yield monitoring system was mounted on a potato harvesting machine. this system consisted of a weighing tray, two load cells, a shaft rp...

An investigation of heat recovery for power generation using an absorption-Rankine cycle with a low temperature waste heat source was conducted. In such a cycle, the condenser and boiler of a conventional Rankine system are replaced with an absorber and desorber. A recuperative solution heat exchanger is also incorporated between the absorber and desorber to minimize the external heat input. An...

Sub-surface irrigation (SUI) is a new water-saving irrigation technology. To explore the influence of SUI on soil conditions in a cherry orchard and its water-saving efficiency, experiments were conducted from 2009 to 2010 using both SUI and flood irrigation (FLI) and different SUI quotas in hilly semi-arid area of northern China. The results demonstrated the following: 1) The bulk density of t...