Scientists and engineers are nowadays faced with the problem of optimizing complex systems subject to constraints from, ecology, economics, and thermodynamics. It is chiefly to the last of these that this volume is addressed. Intended for physicists, chemists, and engineers, the book uses examples from solar, thermal, mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering to focus on the use of thermodynamic criteria for optimizing energy conversion and transmission. The early chapters centre on solar energy conversion, the second section discusses the transfer and conversion of chemical energy, while the concluding chapters deal with geometric methods in thermodynamics.
Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Systems goes beyond theoretical aspects of advances in renewable energy and addresses future trends. By focusing on the design of developing technologies, relevant operation and detailed background and an understanding of the application of power electronics and thermodynamics processes in renewable energy, this book provides an analysis of advancing energy systems. The book will be of interest to engineering graduates, researchers, professors and industry professionals involved in the renewable energy sector and is ideal for advanced engineering courses dealing with renewable energy, sources, thermal and electrical energy production and sustainability. With increasing focus on developing low carbon energy production, audiences need to have the engineering knowledge and practical skills to develop and implement creative solutions to engineering problems encountered with renewable energy technologies. By looking at renewable energy capture and conversion, system design and analysis, project development and implementation, each modular chapter examines recent advances in specific renewable energy systems with detailed methods, calculations and worked examples. - Includes recent techniques used to design and model different renewable energy sources (RES) - Demonstrates how to use power electronics in renewable systems - Discusses how to identify, design, integrate and operate the most suitable technologies through key problems
Solar energy conversion requires a different mind-set from traditional energy engineering in order to assess distribution, scales of use, systems design, predictive economic models for fluctuating solar resources, and planning to address transient cycles and social adoption. Solar Energy Conversion Systems examines solar energy conversion as an integrative design process, applying systems thinking methods to a solid knowledge base for creators of solar energy systems. This approach permits different levels of access for the emerging broad audience of scientists, engineers, architects, planners, and economists. Traditional texts in solar energy engineering have often emerged from mechanical or chemical engineering fields. Instead, Solar Energy Conversion Systems approaches solar energy conversion from the perspectives of integrative design, environmental technology, sustainability science, and materials science in the wake of amazing new thin films, polymers, and glasses developed by the optoelectronics and semiconductor industries. This is a new solar text for the new generation of green job designers and developers. It's highlighted with vignettes that break down solar conversion into useful stories and provides common points of reference, as well as techniques, for effective estimation of evolving technologies. - Contextualizes solar conversion for systems design and implementation in practical applications - Provides a complete understanding of solar power, from underlying science to essential economic outcomes - Analytical approach emphasizes systems simulations from measured irradiance and weather data rather than estimations from "rules of thumb" - Emphasizes integrative design and solar utility, where trans-disciplinary teams can develop sustainable solar solutions that increase client well-being and ecosystems services for a given locale
This book explains the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy and its storage. It covers the basic background; interface modeling at the reacting surface; energy conversion with chemical, electrochemical and photoelectrochemical approaches and energy conversion using applied photosynthesis. The important concepts for converting solar to chemical energy are based on an understanding of the reactions’ equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions. Since the energy conversion is essentially the transfer of free energy, the process are explained in the context of thermodynamics.
This concise primer on photovoltaic solar energy conversion invites readers to reflect on the conversion of solar light into energy at the most fundamental level and encourages newcomers to the field to help find meaningful answers on how photovoltaic solar energy conversion can work (better), eventually contributing to its ongoing advancement. The book is based on lectures given to graduate students in the Physics Department at the University of Oldenburg over the last two decades, yet also provides an easy-to-follow introduction for doctoral and postdoctoral students from related disciplines such as the materials sciences and electrical engineering. Inspired by classic textbooks in the field, it reflects the author’s own ideas on how to understand, visualize and eventually teach the microscopic physical mechanisms and effects, while keeping the text as concise as possible so as to introduce interested readers to the field and balancing essential knowledge with open questions.
Scientists and engineers are nowadays faced with the problem of optimizing complex systems subject to constraints from, ecology, economics, and thermodynamics. It is chiefly to the last of these that this volume is addressed. Intended for physicists, chemists, and engineers, the book uses examples from solar, thermal, mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering to focus on the use of thermodynamic criteria for optimizing energy conversion and transmission. The early chapters centre on solar energy conversion, the second section discusses the transfer and conversion of chemical energy, while the concluding chapters deal with geometric methods in thermodynamics.
Complete coverage of the thermodynamics of radiation matter for solar energy utilization This comprehensive guide reviews the fundamentals of the thermodynamics of radiation matter--photon gas. The book introduces the exergy of radiation through the most advanced thermodynamic analysis of the solar power processes involving radiation. Engineering Thermodynamics of Thermal Radiation: For Solar Power Utilization provides, for the first time, an exhaustive discussion on energy and exergy analysis of radiation processes. Extensive details on the exergy of radiation are developed for evaluation of the practical uses of radiation. This volume contains quantitative calculation examples for solar heating, a solar chimney power plant, photosynthesis, and photovoltaic technology. Addressed to researchers, designers, and users of different solar installations, the book also has the potential to inspire the development of new applications of radiation exergy. Coverage includes: Definitions and laws of substance and radiation Laws of thermodynamic analysis, including energy and exergy analysis Thermodynamic properties of photon gas Exergy of emission and arbitrary radiation flux Energy, entropy, and exergy radiation spectra of surfaces Thermodynamic analysis of heat from the sun, a solar chimney power plant, photosynthesis, and the photovoltaic
This textbook gives a thorough treatment of engineering thermodynamics with applications to classical and modern energy conversion devices. Some emphasis lies on the description of irreversible processes, such as friction, heat transfer and mixing and the evaluation of the related work losses. Better use of resources requires high efficiencies therefore the reduction of irreversible losses should be seen as one of the main goals of a thermal engineer. This book provides the necessary tools. Topics include: car and aircraft engines, including Otto, Diesel and Atkinson cycles, by-pass turbofan engines, ramjet and scramjet; steam and gas power plants, including advanced regenerative systems, solar tower and compressed air energy storage; mixing and separation, including reverse osmosis, osmotic power plants and carbon sequestration; phase equilibrium and chemical equilibrium, distillation, chemical reactors, combustion processes and fuel cells; the microscopic definition of entropy. The book includes about 300 end-of-chapter problems for homework assignments and exams. The material presented suffices for two or three full-term courses on thermodynamics and energy conversion.
