Assignment 1

1- What are the advantages of solar energy as a renewable

source of energy? And what are problems associated with its
use?
 Unlike fossil fuels it’s a clean source of energy.
 Free & available at adequate quantities in most parts
of the world.
 Inexhaustible (Many thousands of times larger than
consumption rate).
Many problems associated with its use:
 Dilute source of energy.
 Solar radiation flux rarely exceeds 1Kw/m^2 .
 As a result large collecting areas are required that
result in additional cost.
 Variation in the availability due to:
 Daily variation (Day-Night) Cycle.
 Seasonally as earth orbits sun ( Summer- Winter)
 Variation that occur at specific location due to
different conditions of local weather.
 The energy collected when sun is shining must be
stored for periods where it’s not available.
Thus the challenge that face usage of solar energy is
economic that requires development of cheaper
methods for collecting & storage of solar energy.
 2- What is required to make solar energy economically
attractive?
 The development of cheaper methods for
collecting & storage of solar energy.

3- Show with a sketch the broad classification of solar energy

utilization.

Solar Energy
Utilization

Direct Indirect
Method Method

Photo- Water Ocean

Thermal Wind Biomass Temperature
voltaic Power Difference
4- What are the main disadvantages of using conventional
sources of energy such as fossil fuel & nuclear fuel?
 Air pollution.
 Thermal Pollution (Global warming).
 Exhaustible sources of energy.
 Conventional sources are not clean source of
energy.
 they aren't available in all regions of the
world.
 they are transient sources.
 a. In brief, with the aid of a sketch, describe the structure
of the sun.
 Rotates around its axis once about every 4 weeks.
 Doesn’t Rotate as a solid body .
 Its core is a continuous fusion reactor with gases
like vessel refrained by gravitational force.
5- Define the solar constant ( what is its value?
 Energy per unit time at a unit area perpendicular to
the direction of propagation of the radiation at the
earth's mean distance from the sun outside the
atmosphere.
 Its value = 1353 W/m^2
 Distance between sun & earth varies by 1.7%

 The intensity of solar radiation outside the earth’s

atmosphere.
6- The radiation emitted by the sun result in a fixed intensity of
solar radiation outside the earth’s atmosphere, why?
 As its determined solely by the distance between
earth and sun with no scattering.
 Outside the earth’s atmosphere where there isn’t
any air or matter to diffuse the radiation.

7- Calculate the fraction of extraterrestrial solar radiation and

the amount of that radiation the ultraviolet ( ,
the visible ( portion of the spectrum using
the spectral distribution given in the table 1.31 Page 6.
Reference ( Solar energy of thermal Ocesses)
 



 Energy for Visible = 1353 x ( 0.544 – 0.065 ) =
648.087 W/m^2
 Energy of Ultraviolet = 1353 x 0.065 = 87.945
W/m^2
 Energy for both ( Visible + UV ) = 0.544 x 1353 =
736.032 W/m^2
8- Calculate the fraction of solar radiation in the wavelength
and in the wavelength < 0.3 .



 Energy of
 Energy of
 Energy of

9- What are the sources of variation of extraterrestrial

radiation?
 Due to the variation of the distance between earth
and sun by 1.7% due to the eccentricity of the
earth’s orbit.
 Time of year according to:

( ( )
10- Define the following:
- Beam Radiation
- Diffuse Radiation
- Global Radiation
 Beam radiation  Radiation received from the sun
without having been scattered by the atmosphere.
 Referred to as direct radiation.
 Diffuse radiation  The radiation which its
direction is changed by scattering of atmosphere.
 Referred to as sky radiation.
 Global Radiation  total solar radiation is the sum
of beam and diffused radiation on a surface. Also
called “Total solar radiation”.