Solar Energy:

The Ultimate Renewable

Resource
By: John Wilfred O. Mobreros BS. ChE 5
Solar Energy Sources

There is one energy source that is free and inexhaustible. Its like
a giant nuclear reactor only this one is located 93 million miles
away.
What is Solar Energy?
Every day, the sun radiates an enormous
amount of energycalled solar energy. It
radiates more energy in one second than the
world has used since time began. This energy
comes from within the sun itself.
Like most stars, the sun is a big gas ball made
up mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. The
sun makes energy in its inner core in a process
called nuclear fusion.

Nuclear Fusion
The process of fusion most commonly involves
hydrogen isotopes combining to form a
helium atom with a transformation of matter.
This matter is emitted as radiant energy.
Solar Energy
Solar energy is, and has always been, the Earths
primary energy resource
Drives our climate
Responsible for plant photosynthesis
Solar energy has been alternative energy only for a
few decades in the industrialized parts of the world
Fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) are the stored,
concentrated, products of photosynthesis
Wind, biomass and hydro are the result of solar energy
input
Solar Resource
The Earth receives 1,367 Watts per square meter
(W/m
2
) from the sun continuously
This is equivalent to over 43,000 times the entire
planets electric generating capacity
But
Solar energy is not concentrated in the same
way as fossil fuels
It needs to be collected before it can be used
It sometimes must be stored since its not
always available when needed


Solar Resource
Solar energy is really electromagnetic radiation across a
broad spectrum of wavelengths
The radiation generated by the sun travels through space to
the Earth, and through the atmosphere
Not all of the suns radiation gets to the surface of the Earth
The amount of energy available at the surface depends on:
Atmospheric conditions including clouds, humidity,
atmospheric density, and dust
Time of day (rotation of the Earth)
Season (location of the Earth in its orbit around the sun)
Latitude (distance from the equator)
Orientation of the collectors surface
Solar Resource at the Surface
Rule of thumb:
On a very clear day at noon, the amount of
energy available at the surface is
approximately 1,000 W/m
2
across the entire
spectrum
Solar Energy Distribution
Parts of the Earths atmosphere (especially water) absorbs some of the energy
from space. These are seen as notches in the energy distribution curve.
How much solar energy?
The surface receives about 47% of the total solar
energy that reaches the Earth. Only this
amount is usable.

Breakdown of incoming solar energy
Why Should we consider Solar Energy?
1 TW =
1x10
12
W
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
All chemical and radioactive polluting
byproducts of the thermonuclear reactions
remain behind on the sun, while only pure
radiant energy reaches the Earth.
Energy reaching the earth is incredible. By one
calculation, 30 days of sunshine striking the
Earth have the energy equivalent of the total of
all the planets fossil fuels, both used and
unused!

Advantages and Disadvantages
Disadvantages
Sun does not shine consistently.
Solar energy is a diffuse source. To harness it,
we must concentrate it into an amount and
form that we can use, such as heat and
electricity.
Addressed by approaching the problem
through:
1) collection, 2) conversion, 3) storage.

Photovoltaic Technology - Background
In 1839, a young French physicist Alexander
Edmond Becquerel observed a physical
phenomenon or effect that allows the
conversion of light into electricity. The solar
cells' work is based on this principle of
photovoltaic effect.
Photo+voltaic = photo, a Greek word for light,
and voltaic, which defines the measurement
value by which the activity of the electric field
is expressed, the difference of potentials.
- convert light to electricity

In the following years, a number of scientists have contributed to the
development of this effect and technologies through their researches, the
most relevant among them are Charles Fritts, Edward Weston, Nikola Tesla
and Albert Einstein, who has been awarded the Nobel Prize for his work
on "photoelectric effect" in the year 1904.


1954 - Bell Laboratories, experimenting with semiconductors, accidentally
found that silicon doped with certain impurities was very sensitive to light.
Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson, invented the first practical
device for converting sunlight into useful electrical power. Resulted in the
production of the first practical solar cells with a sunlight energy
conversion efficiency of around 6%.


1958 - First spacecraft to use solar panels was US satellite Vanguard 1


PV Cells
When sunlight strikes the solar cell it knocks loose
electrons, which generates a flow of DC current
PV Cell Materials
The most common PV cells are made from
crystalline silicon wafers
Other types of materials include thin films like
Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), Copper-Indium-
Gallium-Diselenide (CIGS), amorphous silicon (a-
Si)
The main goals for manufacturers are to minimize
the amount of materials and maximize efficiency
Today, the best crystalline silicon cells are about
15% efficient; the best thin films are about 8%
efficient
PV Cells, Modules and Arrays

Courtesy of Florida Solar Energy Center

PV cells are connected like batteries to increase voltage and power
output and are assembled in to modules
Modules become part of larger arrays
PV Systems
A complete PV system may also include a device to convert DC to AC
power (inverter), batteries to store energy, and a back-up generator
PV systems can be connected to the electric utility and can be used
to reduce the amount of electricity purchased from the local utility
without using batteries or generators
How Are PV Systems Rated?
PV modules are rated based on the maximum
power produced in Watts when the amount of
sunlight is 1,000 Watts/m2
PV systems are rated based on the maximum
combined power output of the PV modules
Since the amount of sunlight changes, the
power output of the system will vary
How Does PV System Output Vary?

What Affects PV System Output?
Rules of Thumb
Greatest annual energy output is when the array is
tilted at the same angle as the latitude of the location
(about 39o degrees above horizontal for Delaware) and
is pointed south
To get more output in the summer reduce tilt
To get more output in the winter increase tilt
To get more output in the morning point easterly
To get more output in the afternoon point westerly
To get the most output, you can automatically track the
sun, but this adds a lot of cost
PV Energy Output Example
Average insolation for a south-facing PV array
tilted at 39o in Delaware is 4.6 kilowatt-
hours/m2/day. The array is rated at 1.0 kW-
DC. How much energy is produced in one
year?
PV Energy Output Example
Easy rule-of-thumb:
4.6 kilowatt-hours/m2/day is equivalent to full sun hours in one
day so:

4.6 hours/day x 1.0 kW-DC x 365 days/year = 1,679 kWh-DC/year

There are also losses in conversion from DC to AC of about 20%,
so if AC power is needed:

1,679 DC kWh/year x 0.8 = 1,343 kWh-AC/year

This about 10% of the electricity used by an average
home in one year
Functioning of the photovoltaic cells
The light has a dual character according to
quantum physics. Light is a particle and it is a
wave.
The particles of light are called photons.
Photons are mass less particles, moving at
light speed.
The energy of the photon depends on its
wavelength and the frequency, and we can
calculate it by the Einstein's law, which is:

where:
E photon energy
h Planck's constant = 6.62610 34Js
V photon frequency
In metals and in the matter generally, electrons
can exist as valence or as free.
Binding energy is the energy by which an electron
is bound to an atom in one of the atomic bonds.
In the case of photoelectric effect, the electron
acquires the required energy by the collision with
a photon. Part of the photon energy is consumed
for the electron getting free from the influence of
the atom which it is attached to, and the
remaining energy is converted into kinetic energy
of a now free electron
Free electrons obtained by the photoelectric effect are
also called photoelectrons.
The energy required to release a valence electron from
the impact of an atom is called a work out Wi, and it
depends on the type of material in which the
photoelectric effect has occurred.

The equation that describes this process is as follows:

where:
hv photon energy
Wi, work out
Ekin kinetic energy of emitted electron
Cross Section of PV Cell
The photoelectric conversion in the PV
junction
The usefulness of a photovoltaic solar cell is defined as the ratio of
electric power provided by the PV solar cells and the solar radiation
power. Mathematically, it can be presented in the following
relation:
where:


Pel Electrical output power
Psol Radiation power (sun)
U Effective value of output voltage
I Effective value of the electricity output
E Specific radiation power (for example W/m2)
A Area
The usefulness of PV solar cells ranges from a
few percent to forty percent.
The remaining energy that is not converted
into electrical energy is mainly converted into
heat energy and thus warms the cell.
Generally, the increase in solar cell
temperature reduces the usefulness of PV
cells.
Standard calculations for the energy
efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells

Energy conversion efficiency of a solar
photovoltaic cell ( "ETA") is the percentage of
energy from the incident light that actually ends
up as electricity.


Standard test conditions, according to which the
reference solar radiation is 1000 W/m2, spectral
distribution is 1.5 and cell temperature 250C.
Types of solar photovoltaic cells
Electricity is produced in solar cells which
consists of more layers of semi conductive
material.
When the sun's rays shine down upon the
solar cells, the electromotive force between
these layers is being created, which causes the
flow of electricity. The higher the solar
radiation intensity, the greater the flow of
electricity.
Solar cell manufacturing technologies
are:

monocrystalline,
polycrystalline,
Barcrystalline silicon,
thinfilm technology.
The most common material for the production
of solar cells is silicon.

Cells made from crystal silicon (Si), are made
of a thinly sliced piece (wafer), a crystal of
silicon (monocrystalline) or a whole block of
silicon crystals (multicrystalline); their
efficiency
ranges between 12% and 19%.
Monocrystalline Si cells
conversion efficiency for this type of cells
ranges from 13% to 17%, and can generally be
said to be in wide commercial use.
In good light conditions it is the most efficient
photovoltaic cell. This type of cell can convert
solar radiation of 1000 W/m2 to 140 W of
electricity with the cell surface of 1m2.
Expected lifespan of these cells is typically
2530 years
Multicrystalline Si cells
this type of cell can convert solar radiation of
1000 W/m2 to 130 W of electricity with the
cell surface of 1m2. The production of these
cells is economically more efficient compared
to monocrystalline.
Conversion efficiency, which ranges from
10% to 14%. The lifespan is expected to be
between 20 and 25 years.
Barcrystalline silicon
Ribbon silicon has the advantage in its
production process in not needing a wafer
cutting (which results in loss of up to 50% of
the material in the process of cutting).
However, the quality and the possibility of
production of this technology will not make it
a leader in the near future. The efficiency of
these cells is around 11%.
Thinfilm technology
the modules are manufactured by piling extremely thin
layers of photosensitive materials on a cheap substrate
such as glass, stainless steel or plastic. The process of
generating modules in thinfilm technology has
resulted in reduced production costs compared to
crystalline silicon technology, which is somewhat more
intense.
Today's price advantage in the production of a thinfilm
is balanced with the crystalline silicon due to lower
efficiency of the thinfilm, which ranges from 5% to
13%.
Lifespan is around 1520 years.
Four types of thinfilm modules
1. Amorphous silicon (aSi)

2. Cadmium Tellurium (CdTe)

3. Copper indium gallium selenide (CIS, CIGS)

4. Thermo sensitive solar cells and other organ
cells (DSC)
Amorphous Si Cells
Cell efficiency is around 6%, a
cell surface of 1m2 can convert
1000 W/m2 of solar radiation to
about 50 watts of electric
energy.
It is primarily used in equipment
where low power is needed
(watches, pocket PCs) or, more
recently, as an element in
building facades.
Cadmium tellurium (CdTe) cells
Cell efficiency is around 18%, a cell
surface of 1m2 can convert solar
radiation of 1000 W/ m2 to 160 W
of electricity in laboratory
conditions. Cadmium telluride is a
fusion of metal cadmium and
tellurium semimetal. It is suitable
for use in thin photovoltaic modules
due to the physical properties and
lowtechnology manufacturing.
Despite these advantages it is not
widely used due to cadmium
toxicity and suspected
carcinogenicity.
CIGS cells
have the highest efficiency
among the thinfilm cells,
which is about 20%. This
cell type can convert solar
radiation of 1000 W/m2 to
160 W of electricity with
the cell surface of 1 m2 in
laboratory conditions
Thermo sensitive solar cells and other
organ cells (DSC)
The development of these organic cells is yet
to come, since it is still testing and it is not
increasingly commercialized. Cell efficiency is
around 10%. Also, a great potential of this
technology is in low cost compared to silicon
cells.
Photovoltaic system types
1. Photovoltaic systems not connected to the
network, standalone systems (offgrid)

2. Photovoltaic systems connected to public
electricity network (ongrid)
Stand Alone Solar PV System
BATTERY
Grid Connected Solar PV System
Connecting PV to the Grid
Solar Thermal Energy
Three basic levels of solar
thermal energy
Low-temperature (80 to 100 degrees F) for
purposes such as swimming pool heating and
boiler water preheating.
Medium-temperature (100 to 160 degrees F),
largely for domestic/service hot water heating
and space heating.
High-temperature (180 to 350+ degrees F) for
industrial processes and air conditioning.
Solar Thermal Collectors
Special kind of heat exchangers that transform
solar radiation energy to internal energy of
the transport medium.
Focus the sun to create heat
Boil water
Heat liquid metals
Use heated fluid to turn a turbine
Generate electricity


Types of collector

Stationary or non concentrating - has the same area for
intercepting and for absorbing solar radiation.
-permanently fixed in position and do not track the
sun.

Sun tracking concentrating solar collector - has concave
reflecting surfaces to intercept and focus the suns
beam radiation to a smaller receiving area, thereby
increasing the radiation flux.

Types of Stationary Collector
1. Flat plate collectors (FPC);

2. Stationary compound parabolic collectors
(CPC);

3. Evacuated tube collectors (ETC).
Flat-plate Collectors
Evacuated tube collectors

Sun tracking concentrating collectors
Advantages
1. The working fluid can achieve higher temperatures in a
concentrator system when compared to a flat-plate system of the
same solar energy collecting surface. This means that a higher
thermodynamic efficiency can be achieved.
2. It is possible with a concentrator system, to achieve a
thermodynamic match between temperature level and task. The
task may be to operate thermionic, thermodynamic, or other
higher temperature devices.
3. The thermal efficiency is greater because of the small heat loss
area relative to the receiver area.
4. Reflecting surfaces require less material and are structurally
simpler than FPC.
5. Owing to the relatively small area of receiver per unit of
collected solar energy, selective surface treatment and vacuum
insulation to reduce heat losses and improve the collector efficiency
are economically viable.
Disadvantages
1. Concentrator systems collect little diffuse
radiation depending on the concentration
ratio.
2. Some form of tracking system is required so
as to enable the collector to follow the sun.
3. Solar reflecting surfaces may loose their
reflectance with time and may require
periodic cleaning and refurbishing.
Types of Sun tracking concentrating
collectors
1. Parabolic trough collector;

2. Linear Fresnel reflector (LFR);

3. Parabolic dish;

4. Central receiver.
Parabolic trough collectors

Solar Thermal Dish Collector

Solar Thermal Dish Schematic
Thermal analysis of collectors
General formula:


by substituting inlet fluid temperature (Ti) for the
average plate temperature (Tp):


Where F
R
is the heat removal factor
( ) | | | |
i o p a p L t c u
T T mc T T U G A q = = to
( ) | |
a i L t R c u
T T U G F A q = ) (to
Collector efficiency
Finally, the collector efficiency can be
obtained by dividing q
u
by (G
t
A
c
). Therefore:


(

=
t
a i L
R
G
T T U
F n
) (
to
Overall heat loss coefficient
The overall heat loss coefficient is a
complicated function of the collector
construction and its operating conditions and
it is given by the following expression:
U
L
=U
t
+U
b
+U
e
(for flat plate collector)
- it is the heat transfer resistance from the
absorber plate to the ambient air.

Concentration
The concentration ratio (C) is defined as the ratio
of the aperture area to the receiver/absorber
area,

For flat-plate collectors with no reflectors, C=1.
For concentrators C is always greater than 1. For a
single axis tracking collector the maximum
possible concentration is given by:


and for two-axes tracking collector:



r
a
A
A
C =
) sin(
1
max
m
C
u
=
) ( sin
1
2
max
m
C
u
=
where
m
is the
half acceptance
angle limited by
the size of the
suns disk, small
scale errors and
irregularities of
the reflector
surface and
tracking errors.

Maximum concentration
For a perfect collector and tracking system
C
max
depends only on the suns disk which has
a width of 0.53 (32). Therefore:
For single axis tracking:
C
max
= 1/sin(16) = 216
For full tracking:
C
max
= 1/sin
2
(16) = 46,747

Solar Collector Application
Solar water heating
Space heating and cooling
Solar refrigeration
Industrial process heat
Solar desalination
Solar thermal power systems

Solar Energy Benefits
About 70% of all air pollution (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, particulates) comes from our use of fossil fuels for
generating electricity, transportation, space and hot water
heating
Solar energy emits no air or water pollutants, and virtually
no solid waste
Solar energy produces no greenhouse gases, which are
linked to global warming and climate change
Fuel doesnt require mining, drilling or transportation, and
costs nothing
Does not require energy supplies to be imported from
insecure regions
Systems can be installed exactly where the energy is needed
Socio-economic viewpoint
reduction of the national dependency on fuel
imports;
diversification and security of energy supply;
provision of significant job opportunities and
working positions;
support of the energy market deregulation;
acceleration of the rural electrification in
developing countries.
Solar Energy Issues and Barriers
Fuel is free but the systems are not. Can be
costly to install compared to grid-supplied
electricity and fossil fuels
Certain technologies, like PV, can require large
areas
Some PV technologies use toxic materials,
although in very small amounts
Energy storage must be used in some cases
Future of Solar Energy
Solar thermal energy is already very cost-effective for
providing low temperature heat almost anywhere
PV is very cost-effective for providing electricity in
remote areas and in niche applications
As the costs of fossil fuels and electricity increase, PV is
becoming more cost-effective compared to electricity
from conventional sources
The costs of all solar technologies are declining
Federal and state incentives are increasing the use of
solar energy, which helps to increase awareness and
promote solar technologies
No matter what the future will be like, one thing
is for certain: some type of energy will be
needed to power it.
What will that energy source be?

The answer ought to be obvious.

Its been up there all the time.