0196-8904/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2011.11.011 ⇑ Corresponding authors. Tel./fax: +86 551 3607367 E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Gang), j Heat-pipe photovoltaic/thermal (HP-PV/T) systems can simultaneously provide electrical and thermal energy. Compared with traditional water-type photovoltaic/thermal systems, HP-PV/T systems can be used in cold ...

This paper evaluates the performance of a grid connected hybrid system. The hybrid system consists of a Photovoltaic (PV) array and a Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Two operation modes, the unit-power control (UPC) mode and the feeder-flow control (FFC) mode, can be applied to the hybrid system. The objective of the paper is to coordinate the two control modes and determine the ref...

System efficiency and cost effectiveness are of critical importance for photovoltaic (PV) systems. This paper addresses the two issues by developing a novel three-port DC-DC converter for stand-alone PV systems, based on an improved Flyback-Forward topology. It provides a compact single-unit solution with a combined feature of optimized maximum power point tracking (MPPT), high step-up ratio, g...

Indium oxide (In2O3) thin films annealed at various annealing temperatures were prepared by using spin-coating method for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The objective of this research is to enhance the photovoltaic conversion efficiency in In2O3 thin films by finding the optimum annealing temperature and also to study the reason for high and low performance in the annealed In2O3 thin films...

Concentrating photovoltaics offer a way to lower the cost of solar power. However, the existing paradigm based on precise orientation of large-area concentrator modules towards the Sun limits their deployment to large, open land areas. Here, we explore an alternate approach using high-efficiency microcell photovoltaics embedded between a pair of plastic lenslet arrays to demonstrate quasi-stati...

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have drawn great interest from both academics and industry, due to the possibility of low-cost conversion of photovoltaic energy at reasonable efficiencies. This review focuses on recent progress in molecular engineering and technological aspects of fused-thiophene-based organic dye molecules for applications in solar cells. Pa...

The continuous power supply for rural areas can be possible by using renewable hybrid power generation system and also reduction of the energy storage devices for the system. The impact of the shortage of power supply probability, surpluspower power generation, ratio of the energy supply to load demand, renewable fraction of different types of energy resources (solar and wind) and the combined ...

Photoelectrochemical water splitting promises both sustainable energy generation and energy storage in the form of hydrogen. However, the realization of this vision requires laboratory experiments to be engineered into a large-scale technology. Up to now only few concepts for scalable devices have been proposed or realized. Here we introduce and realize a concept which, by design, is scalable t...

For polar/nonpolar heterostructures, Maxwell's theory dictates that the electric potential in the polar components will increase divergently with the film thickness. For LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃, a conceptually intriguing route, termed charge reconstruction, has been proposed to avert such "polar catastrophe". The existence of a polar potential in LaAlO₃ is a prerequisite for the validity of the charge re...

The retail price a household pays for the last unit of grid-supplied electricity consumed is an important driver of the decision to install a rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system. This price is the cost a household avoids by consuming a kilowatt-hour (KWh) from their rooftop solar system. Consequently, if the levelized cost of a KWh from a rooftop solar system is less than this retail price, ...