Sardar Patel College of Engineering

(Government Aided Autonomous Institute)

MUNSHI NAGAR, ANDHERI (W), MUMBAI-400058
2015-16

A
REPORT
ON

SOLAR ENERGY AND ITS

EFFICIENT EXTRACTION

SUBMITTED BY

AMAN CHHEDA
(TYM 559)

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the work on the project report titled Solar energy and its
efficient extraction has been carried out by Aman Chheda (TYM 559), who is
bonafide student of Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, in partial
fulfilment of the term work for the subject Environment Engineering and
Management Systems in the fifth semester in the academic year 2015-16.

Project guide: _________________

(Mr. Sharad Valvi)

Principal: _________________

(Dr. P.H. Sawant)

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 Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction to Solar Energy.4

Chapter 2: Literature Review.................................................................................6

Chapter 3: Current Scenario....8

Chapter 4: Ideas to Improve Current Situation..12

Chapter 5: Conclusion....15

Chapter 6: References.....16

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 Chapter 1
Introduction

Solar energy is radiant energy that is produced by the sun. Every day the sun radiates, or sends
out, an enormous amount of energy. The sun radiates more energy in one second than people
have used since the beginning of time. Some of the solar energy absorbed by the Earth appears
later in the form of wind, wave, ocean thermal, hydropower and excess biomass energies.

Solar energy is radiant energy that is produced by the sun. Every day the sun radiates, or sends
out, an enormous amount of energy. This energy comes from within the sun itself. Like other
stars, the sun is a big ball of gases mostly hydrogen and helium atoms. The hydrogen atoms in
the suns core combine to form helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion.
During nuclear fusion, the suns extremely high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms
to come apart and their nuclei to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to become one
helium atom. But the helium atom contains less mass than the four hydrogen atoms that fused.
Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion. The lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy.
It takes millions of years for the energy in the suns core to make its way to the solar surface, and
then just a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. The solar energy
travels to the earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light.

Several solar technologies, such as domestic hot water heating and pools heating, are already
competitive and used in locales where they offer the least-cost option. And in jurisdictions where
governments have taken steps to actively support solar energy, very large solar electricity
installations, approaching 100 MW of power, have been realized, in addition to large numbers of
rooftop PV installations. Other applications, such as solar fuels, require additional R&D before
achieving significant levels of adoption. In pursuing any of the solar technologies, there is the
need to deal with the variability and the cyclic nature of the Sun. One option is to store excess
collected energy until it is needed. This is particularly effective for handling the lack of sunshine
at night. For example, a 0.1-m thick slab of concrete in the floor of a home will store much of the
solar energy absorbed during the day and release it to the room at night. When totaled over a
long period of time such as one year, or over a large geographical area such as a continent, solar
energy can offer greater service. The use of both these concepts of time and space, together with
energy storage, has enabled designers to produce more effective solar systems. But much more
work is needed to capture the full value of solar energys contribution. Because of its inherent
variability, solar energy is most useful when integrated with another energy source, to be used
when solar energy is not available. In the past, that source has generally been a non-renewable
one. But there is great potential for integrating direct solar energy with other renewable energy
technologies.

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This history of solar energy began when early civilizations discovered that buildings with
openings facing the Sun were warmer and brighter, even in cold weather. During the late 1800s,
solar collectors for heating water and other fluids were invented and put into practical use for
domestic water heating and solar industrial applications, for example, large-scale solar
desalination. Later, mirrors were used to boost the available fluid temperature, so that heat
engines driven by the Sun could develop motive power, and thence, electrical power. Also, the
late 1800s brought the discovery of a device for converting sunlight directly into electricity.
Called the photovoltaic (PV) cell, this device bypassed the need for a heat engine. The modern
silicon solar cell, attributed to Russell Ohl working at American Telephone and Telegraphs
(AT&T) Bell Labs, was discovered around 1940. The modern age of solar research began in the
1950s with the establishment of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and increased
research and development efforts in many industries.

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 Chapter 2
Literature Review

1.D.G.Erbs, S.A.Klien: Hourly pyrheliometer and pyranometer data from four U.S. locations
are used to establish a relationship between the hourly diffuse fraction and the hourly clearness
index kT. This relationship is compared to the relationship established by Orgill and Hollands and
to a set of data from Highett, Australia, and agreement is within a few percent in both cases. The
transient simulation program TRNSYS is used to calculate the annual performance of solar
energy systems using several correlations. For the systems investigated, the effect of simulating
the random distribution of the hourly diffuse fraction is negligible. A seasonally dependent daily
diffuse correlation is developed from the data, and this daily relationship is used to derive a
correlation for the monthly-average diffuse fraction.

2. D.E. Scaife: A wide range of oxides is examined for use as anodes in photo electrochemical
cells for the conversion of solar energy into electrical power or hydrogen. The Schottky barrier
model of the semi-conductor-electrolyte interface is used throughout. Type (a) oxides, not
containing partly-filled d-levels, are found to conform to the relationship between flat band
potential, Vfb (SHE), and band gap, Eg, VFB(SHE) = 2.94 Eg which essentially rules out the
possibility of finding type (a) oxides with simultaneously the small band gap and large negative
flat band potential required for efficient operation in the unbiased photo electrolysis of water.

Incorporation of this realationship into the Schottky barrier formula for photocurrent enables the
calculation of efficiencies of conversion for type (a) oxides. For air mass 1 radiation, the
predicted maximum efficiency of conversion to hydrogen is 3.4 per cent for Eg = 3 eV for
unbiased photoelectrolysis; 6.3 per cent for Eg = 2.4 eV for series voltage biased
photoelectrolysis; and 4.7 per cent for Eg = 2.2 eV for pH biased photoelectrolysis. For power
cells with redox operation, type (a) oxides are predicted to give 56 per cent efficiency for Eg =
2.4 eV, with a redox couple having standard potential not less than 0.8 V. High efficiency
operation of photoelectrochemical cells with type (a) oxide anodes appears to be possible only in
some special cases.
Comparisons of the observed stabilities for a wide range of oxides with their calculated
thermodynamic stabilities towards photo anodic dissolution indicate that oxygen over potentials
at the oxide anodes in photoelectrolysis may be small, and that the thermodynamic method of
estimation of long term stability in oxide anodes is useful.
The prospects of obtaining satisfactory efficiencies with oxides containing partly-filled d-levels
are also examined, and found to be severely limited by the simultaneous requirements of
stability, flat band potential, and band gap. Some suggestions for further research are made.

3. Richard Perez, Robert Seals, and Ronald Steward: This paper presents the latest versions
of several models developed by the authors to predict short time-step solar energy and daylight
availability quantities needed by energy system modelers or building designers. The modeled
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quantities are global, direct and diffuse daylight luminance, diffuse irradiance and illuminance
impinging on tilted surfaces of arbitrary orientation, sky zenith luminance and sky luminance
angular distribution. All models are original except for the last one which is extrapolated from
current standards. All models share a common operating structure and a common set of input
data: Hourly (or higher frequency) direct (or diffuse) and global irradiance plus surface dew
point temperature. Key experimental observations leading to model development are briefly
reviewed. Comprehensive validation results are presented. Model accuracy, assessed in terms of
root-mean-square and mean bias errors, is analyzed both as a function of insolation conditions
and site climatic environment.

4. Detlef Bahnemann: During the past 20 years research and development in the area of photo
catalysis have been tremendous. One of the major applications of this technology is the
degradation of organic pollutants in water and air streams which is considered as one of the so-
called advanced oxidation processes. This overview briefly describes the basic principles of
photocatalysis, focusing in particular on important mechanistic and kinetic aspects as well as on
some requirements for efficient photocatalysts. Since the comparatively high costs associated
with the generation of light from electricity constitute one of the major drawbacks particularly
for the rapid commercialization of photocatalytic water treatment units, solar photons have been
utilized here with great success for many years now. Various solar reactors for the photocatalytic
water treatment are described in detail in the main part of this review including the comparison
of their overall performance.

5. S.A.Klein: Several simplified design procedures for solar energy systems require monthly
average meteorological data. Monthly average daily totals of the solar radiation incident on a
horizontal surface are available. However, radiation data on tilted surfaces, required by the
design procedures, are generally not available. A simple method of estimating the average daily
radiation for each calendar month on surfaces facing directly towards the equator has been
presented by Liu and Jordan [1]. This method is verified with experimental measurements and
extended to allow calculation of monthly average radiation on surfaces of a wide range of
orientations

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 Chapter 3
Current Scenario
Installed capacity and generated energy:

In 2008, new capacity of 29.1 GWth, corresponding to 41.5 million m2 of solar collectors, was
installed worldwide (Weiss and Mauthner, 2010). In 2008, China accounted for about 79% of the
installations of glazed collectors, followed by the EU with 14.5%. The overall new installations
grew by 34.9% compared to 2007. The growth rate in 2006/2007 was 18.8%. The main reasons
for this growth were the high growth rates of glazed water collectors in China, Europe and the
USA.

In 2008, the global market had high growth rates for evacuated-tube collectors and fl at-plate
collectors, compared to 2007. The market for unglazed air collectors also increased significantly,
mainly due to the installation of 23.9 MWth of new systems in Canada. Compared to 2007, the
2008 installation rates for new unglazed, glazed fl at-plate, and evacuated-tube collectors were
significantly up in Jordan, Cyprus, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Slovenia, Macedonia (FYROM),
Tunisia, Poland, Belgium and South Africa.
New installations in China, the worlds largest market, again increased significantly in 2008
compared to 2007, reaching 21.7 GWth. After a market decline in Japan in 2007, the growth rate
was once again positive in 2008.

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The main markets for unglazed water collectors are still found in the USA (0.8 GWth), Australia
(0.4 GWth), and Brazil (0.08 GWth). Notable markets are also in Austria, Canada, Mexico, The
Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, with values between 0.07 and 0.01
GWth of new installed unglazed water collectors in 2008. Comparison of markets in different
countries is difficult due to the wide range of designs used for different climates and different
demand requirements. In Scandinavia and Germany, a solar heating system will typically be a
combined water-heating and space-heating system, known as a solar comb system, with a
collector area of 10 to 20 m2 . In Japan, the number of solar domestic water-heating systems is
large, but most installations are simple integral preheating systems. The market in Israel is large
due to a favorable climate, as well as regulations mandating installation of solar water heaters.
The largest market is in China, where there is widespread adoption of advanced evacuated-tube
solar collectors. In terms of per capita use, Cyprus is the leading country in the world, with an
installed capacity of 527 kWth per 1,000 inhabitants.

2.Industry capacity and supply chain

In passive solar technologies, people make up part of the industry capacity and the supply chain:
namely, the engineers and architects who collaborate to produce passively heated buildings.
Close collaboration between the two disciplines has often been missing in the past, but the
dissemination of systematic design methodologies issued by different countries has improved the
design capabilities (Athienitis and Santamouris, 2002).

The integration of passive solar systems with the active heating/cooling air-conditioning systems
both in the design and operation stages of the building is essential to achieve good comfort
conditions while saving energy. However, this is often overlooked because of inadequate
collaboration for integrating building design between architects and engineers. Thus, the
architect often designs the building envelope based solely on qualitative passive solar design

9
principles, and the engineer often designs the heating-ventilation-air-conditioning system based
on extreme design conditions without factoring in the benefits due to solar gains and natural
cooling. The result may be an oversized system and inappropriate controls incompatible with the
passive system and that can cause overheating and discomfort (Athienitis and Santamouris,
2002). Collaboration between the disciplines involved in building design is now improving with
the adoption of computer tools for integrated analysis and design.

The design of high-mass buildings with significant near-equatorial-facing window areas is

common in some areas of the world such as Southern Europe. However, a systematic approach
to designing such buildings is still not widely employed. This is changing with the introduction
of the passive house standard in Germany and other countries (PHPP, 2004), the deployment of
the European Directives, and new national laws such as Chinas standard based on the German
one

The largest exporters of solar water-heating systems are Australia, Greece and the USA. The
majority of exports from Greece are to Cyprus and the near-Mediterranean area. France also
sends a substantial number of systems to its overseas territories. The majority of US exports are
to the Caribbean region. Australian companies export about 50% of production (mainly
thermosyphon-systems with external horizontal tanks) to most of the areas of the world that do
not have hard-freeze conditions. The announced production capacitiesbased on a survey of
more than 300 companies worldwideincreased despite very difficult economic conditions in
2009 (Figure 3.12) (Jger-Waldau, 2010b). Only published announcements from the respective
companies, not third party information, were used. April 2010 was the cut-off date for the
information included. This method has the drawback that not all companies announce their
capacity increases in advance; also, in times of financial tightening, announcements of scale-
backs in expansion plans are often delayed to prevent upsetting financial markets. Therefore, the
capacity figures provide a trend, but do not represent final numbers.

3.Impact of policies

Direct solar energy technologies support a broad range of applications, and their deployment is
confronted by many of the barriers outlined in 4 Non-technology-specific policy issues. Solar

10
technologies differ in levels of maturity, and although some applications are already competitive
in localized markets, they generally face one common barrier: the need to achieve cost
reductions. Utility-scale CSP and PV systems face different barriers than distributed PV and
solar heating and cooling technologies. Important barriers include: 1) sitting, permitting and
financing challenges to develop land with favourable solar resources for utility-scale projects; 2)
lack of access to transmission lines for large projects far from electric load centers; 3) complex
access laws, permitting procedures and fees for smaller-scale projects; 4) lack of consistent
interconnection standards and time-varying utility rate structures that capture the value of
distributed generated electricity; 5) inconsistent standards and certifi cations and enforcement of
these issues; and 6) lack of regulatory structures that capture environmental and risk mitigation
benefits across technologies (Denholm et al., 2009).

Through appropriate policy designs (see Chapter 11), governments have shown that they can
support solar technologies by funding R&D and by providing incentives to overcome economic
barriers. Price-driven instruments (see Section 11.5.2), for example, were popularized after feed-
in tariff (FIT) policies boosted levels of PV deployment in Germany and Spain. In 2009, various
forms of FIT policies were implemented in more than 50 countries (REN21, 2010) and some
designs offer premiums for building-integrated PV. Quota-driven frameworks such as renewable
portfolio standards (RPS) and government bidding are common in the USA and China,
respectively (IEA, 2009a). Traditional RPS frameworks are designed to be technology-neutral,
and this puts at a disadvantage many solar applications that are more costly than alternatives
such as wind power. In response, features of RPS frameworks (set-asides and credits)
increasingly are including solar-specific policies, and such programs have led to increasing
levels of solar installations (Wiser et al., 2010). In addition to these regulatory frameworks, fiscal
policies and financing mechanisms (e.g., tax credits, soft loans and grants) are often employed to
support the manufacturing of solar goods and to increase consumer demand (Rickerson et al.,
2009). The challenge for solar projects to secure financing is a critical barrier, especially for
developing technologies in market structures dominated by short-term transactions and planning.

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 Chapter 4
Ideas to Improve Current Situation

Architecture and urban planning:

Sunlight has influenced building design since the beginning of architectural history. Advanced
solar architecture and urban planning methods were first employed by the Greeks and Chinese,
who oriented their buildings toward the south to provide light and warmth.

The common features of passive solar architecture are orientation relative to the Sun, compact
proportion (a low surface area to volume ratio), selective shading (overhangs) and thermal mass.
When these features are tailored to the local climate and environment they can produce well-lit
spaces that stay in a comfortable temperature range. Socrates' Megaron House is a classic
example of passive solar design. The most recent approaches to solar design use computer
modeling tying together solar lighting, heating and ventilation systems in an integrated solar
design package. Active solar equipment such as pumps, fans and switchable windows can
complement passive design and improve system performance.

Urban heat islands (UHI) are metropolitan areas with higher temperatures than that of the
surrounding environment. The higher temperatures are a result of increased absorption of the
Solar light by urban materials such as asphalt and concrete, which have lower albedos and
higher heat capacities than those in the natural environment. A straightforward method of

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counteracting the UHI effect is to paint buildings and roads white and plant trees. Using these
methods, a hypothetical "cool communities" program in Los Angeles has projected that urban
temperatures could be reduced by approximately 3 C at an estimated cost of US$1 billion,
giving estimated total annual benefits of US$530 million from reduced air-conditioning costs
and healthcare savings.

Agriculture and Horticulture:

Agriculture and horticulture seek to optimize the capture of solar energy in order to optimize the
productivity of plants. Techniques such as timed planting cycles, tailored row orientation,
staggered heights between rows and the mixing of plant varieties can improve crop yields. While
sunlight is generally considered a plentiful resource, the exceptions highlight the importance of
solar energy to agriculture. During the short growing seasons of the Little Ice Age, French and
English farmers employed fruit walls to maximize the collection of solar energy. These walls
acted as thermal masses and accelerated ripening by keeping plants warm. Early fruit walls were
built perpendicular to the ground and facing south, but over time, sloping walls were developed
to make better use of sunlight. In 1699, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier even suggested using a tracking
mechanism which could pivot to follow the Sun.[69]Applications of solar energy in agriculture
aside from growing crops include pumping water, drying crops, brooding chicks and drying
chicken manure. More recently the technology has been embraced by vinters, who use the
energy generated by solar panels to power grape presses.

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Greenhouses convert solar light to heat, enabling year-round production and the growth (in
enclosed environments) of specialty crops and other plants not naturally suited to the local
climate. Primitive greenhouses were first used during Roman times to produce cucumbers year-
round for the Roman emperor Tiberius. The first modern greenhouses were built in Europe in the
16th century to keep exotic plants brought back from explorations abroad. [73] Greenhouses
remain an important part of horticulture today, and plastic transparent materials have also been
used to similar effect in polytunnels and row covers.

Transport:

Development of a solar-powered car has been an engineering goal since the 1980s. The World
Solar Challenge is a biannual solar-powered car race, where teams from universities and
enterprises compete over 3,021 kilometers (1,877 mi) across central Australia
from Darwin to Adelaide. In 1987, when it was founded, the winner's average speed was 67
kilometres per hour (42 mph) and by 2007 the winner's average speed had improved to 90.87
kilometres per hour (56.46 mph).The North American Solar Challenge and the planned South
African Solar Challenge are comparable competitions that reflect an international interest in the
engineering and development of solar powered vehicles.

Some vehicles use solar panels for auxiliary power, such as for air conditioning, to keep the
interior cool, thus reducing fuel consumption.

In 1975, the first practical solar boat was constructed in England. By 1995, passenger boats
incorporating PV panels began appearing and are now used extensively. In 1996, Kenichi
Horie made the first solar powered crossing of the Pacific Ocean, and the sun21 catamaran made
the first solar powered crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the winter of 20062007. [81] There were
plans to circumnavigate the globe in 2010.

In 1974, the unmanned AstroFlight Sunrise plane made the first solar flight. On 29 April 1979,
the Solar Riser made the first flight in a solar-powered, fully controlled, man carrying flying
machine, reaching an altitude of 40 feet (12 m). In 1980, the Gossamer made the first piloted
flights powered solely by photovoltaic. This was quickly followed by the Solar
Challenger which crossed the English Channel in July 1981. In 1990 Eric Scott Raymond in 21
hops flew from California to North Carolina using solar power. [83] Developments then turned
back to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with the Pathfinder (1997) and subsequent designs,
culminating in the Helios which set the altitude record for a non-rocket-propelled aircraft at
29,524 meters (96,864 ft) in 2001. The Zephyr, developed by BAE Systems, is the latest in a
line of record-breaking solar aircraft, making a 54-hour flight in 2007, and month-long flights
were envisioned by 2010. As of 2015, Solar Impulse, an electric aircraft, is currently

14
circumnavigating the globe. It is a single-seat plane powered by solar cells and capable of taking
off under its own power. The designed allows the aircraft to remain airborne for 36 hours.

A solar balloon is a black balloon that is filled with ordinary air. As sunlight shines on the
balloon, the air inside is heated and expands causing an upward buoyancy force, much like an
artificially heated hot air balloon. Some solar balloons are large enough for human flight, but
usage is generally limited to the toy market as the surface-area to payload-weight ratio is
relatively high.

Chapter 5
Conclusion

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1. Potential deployment scenarios range widelyfrom a marginal role of direct solar energy in
2050 to one of the major sources of energy supply. Although direct solar energy provides only a
very small fraction of global energy supply in 2011, it has the largest technical potential of all
energy sources and, in concert with technical improvements and resulting cost reductions, could
see dramatically expanded use in the decades to come.

2. Achieving continued cost reductions is the central challenge that wills influence the future
deployment of solar energy. Reducing cost, meanwhile, can only be achieved if the solar
technologies decrease their costs along their learning curves, which depends in part on the level
of solar energy deployment. In addition, continuous R&D efforts are required to ensure that the
slopes of the learning curves do not flatten before solar is widely cost competitive with other
energy sources.

3. The true costs of and potential for deploying solar energy are still unknown because the main
deployment scenarios that exist today often consider only a single solar technology: PV. In
addition, scenarios often do not account for the co-benefits of a renewable/sustainable energy
supply (but see Section 9.4 for some research in this area). At the same time, as with some other
forms of RE, issues of variable production profiles and energy market integration as well as the
possible need for new transmission infrastructure will influence the magnitude, type and cost of
solar energy deployment.

4. Finally, the regulatory and legal framework in place can also foster or hinder the uptake of
direct solar energy applications. For example, minimum building standards with respect to
building orientation and insulation can reduce the energy demand of buildings significantly,
increasing the share of RE supply without increasing the overall demand, while building and
technical standards can also support or hinder the installation of rooftop solar systems.
Transparent, streamlined administrative procedures to site, permit, install and connect solar
power sources can further support the deployment of direct solar energy

Chapter 6
References

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[1] D.G. Erbs, S.A. Klein, J.A. Duffie. Solar Energy Volume 28, Issue 4, 1982, Pages 293-
302

[2] D.E. Scaife, Solar Energy Volume 25, Issue 1, 1980, Pages 41-54

[3] Richard Perez, Pierre Ineichen, Robert Seals, Joseph Michalsky, Ronald Stewar. Solar
Energy. Volume 44, Issue 5, 1990, Pages 271289.

[4] Detlef Bahnemann. Solar Energy Volume 77, Issue 5, November 2004, Pages 445459

Photo catalysis

[5] Dr. Thomas E Lovejoy, Solar power enhanced

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