The major challenges in sustainable and profitable agriculture are developing high-yielding crop varieties reducing losses. Presently, there significant losses due to weed/bird/insect/animal attacks. Among the various renewable energy sources, solar is utilized for different agricultural operations, especially plant protection applications. Solar photovoltaic (PV) devices present a positive app...

Efficiencies of large area n-type silicon solar cells with a screen printed rear side aluminum-alloyed emitter are mainly limited by their front surface recombination velocity. The front surface therefore has to be passivated by an effective passivation layer combined with a front surface field (FSF). In this work we investigate the influence of the front surface passivation quality and the bas...

Based on Electroluminescence (EL) theory, the solar cell detection system were built by the particular wavelength near-infrared CCD imaging device, which mainly included the camera obscura, computer imaging analysis software and constant current source, finally completed the near-infrared image detection of solar cells in a dark room. A number of the same batch of solar cells were divided into ...

Passive solar design is an economical way of using solar energy in buildings. The thermal behavior of the buildings within its environment over a period of time can easily be predicted using accurate and simple analytical tools. This provides designers the information necessary to satisfy the occupant’s needs, reduce peak cooling/heating power demands, reduce the size of air conditioning/heatin...

1. Project Goals The objective of this task is to refine and enhance the cost benefit analysis (CBA) associated with a FREEDM System deployment case. This objective will be met by addressing the following sub-tasks: i.Quantify and incorporate the costs associated with stranded assets as well as labor costs for removal of old equipment and installation of new equipment. ii. Refine the marginal v...

The depletion of fossil fuel resources on a worldwide basis has necessitated an urgent search for alternative energy sources to meet present day demands. Solar energy is a clean, inexhaustible and environment-friendly potential renewable energy option. A stand-alone solar photovoltaic cannot provide a continuous supply of energy due to seasonal and periodic variations. Therefore, in order to sa...

This paper presents an optimization method to design a solar water heating (SWH) system based on life cycle cost (LCC). A genetic algorithm is employed to optimize its configuration and sizing as the optimization technique. To ensure that the optimal solution obtained from the proposed method is a practical design, three constraint conditions, including the energy balance, solar fraction, and a...

Satellite communications, navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment all rely heavily on Wireless Technologies. Solar storms are predicted in the near future and this could have “devastating effects” on human technology as they can release particles that subsequently disable or permanently destroy computer circuits. Solar storms can vary in size and as a result can have different ...