With the urbanization process of the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) zone in China, the energy consumption of space and water heating in urban residential buildings of the HSCW zone has increased rapidly. This study presents the energy efficiency and sustainability evaluation of various ways of space and water heating taking 10 typical cities in the HSCW zone as research cases. Two indicators...

Energy generated by the force of water in hydropower can provide a more sustainable, non-polluting alternative to fossil fuels, along with other renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar and tidal power, bio energy and geothermal energy. Small scale hydroelectricity in Iran is well suited for “off-grid” rural electricity applications, while other renewable energy sources, such as wind, s...

The low conversion efficiency of solar cells produces large amounts of thermal energy to the cells, and with an increase in the temperature of solar cells, their electrical efficiency decreases. Therefore, a hybrid photovoltaic thermal system improves the overall efficiency of the system by adding thermal equipment to the solar cell and removing excessive heat from these cells. In this paper, w...

The two most powerful optical/IR telescopes in history – NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes – will be in space at the same time. We have a unique opportunity to leverage the 1.5 million kilometer separation between the two telescopic nodal points to obtain simultaneously captured stereoscopic images of asteroids, comets, moons and planets in our Solar System. Given the recent resurge...

We discuss the importance of small solar observatories for EPO (Education and Public Outreach), mentioning why they are relevant and what kind of equipment and software require. We stress the fact that technological advances have made them affordable and that they should be widely available. This work is a result of our experience with one: The Carl Sagan Solar Observatory (CSSO). We briefly de...

The capability to fabricate photovoltaic (PV) solar cells on a large scale and at a competitive price is a milestone waiting to be achieved. Currently, such a fabrication method is lacking because the effective methods are either difficult to scale up or expensive due to the necessity for fabrication in a vacuum environment. Nevertheless, for a class of thin film solar cells, in which the solar...

Arctic and high altitude ice coring operations require lightweight and efficient equipment. Power sources. fuel and shelter in some cases compose up to 50'J6 of the cargo delivered to a drill ing ite. Solar panel , twotroke gasoline and air-cooled portable diesel generato rs have been u ed in Arctic a.nd high a lt itude glacier to power the drilling etup. On the ummit of Mt. Ki limanjaro (589S ...

This study is concerned with the results of a Life Cycle Assessment comparison between photovoltaic e silicon based modules and thin film modules e and solar thermal systems, as technologies which are usually installed for partially covering household energy demand. Several studies focused on energy and environmental performances of photovoltaic and solar thermal collectors, however they have b...