Energy source: renewable energy sources, renewable energy potential and achievements in India, General characteristics of solar energy; the Sun, solar spectrum, spectral solar impedance.
Solar constant beam, diffuse and global radiation. Solar radiation data of India.Measurement of solar radiation. Pyronometer, pyrheliometer, sunshine recorder (schematic diagram and working principles of the devices.)
Sun earth angles- latitude, declination, hour angle, zenith, solar altitude angle, surface azimuth angle, solar azimuth angle, Local apparent time, solar time, apparent motion of sun, day length, numerical examples. Flux on a plane surface, Solar radiation on a inclined surface- Beam, defuse, reflected radiation on a tilted surface, expression for flux on a tilted surface, monthly average hourly and daily radiation on inclined surface. Numerical examples.
Solar thermal radiation devices: Liquid flat plate collectors, solar air heaters, concentrating collectors like cylindrical, parabolic, evacuated tubular collectors. Storage devices: Sensible heat storage, latent heat storage. Application of solar energy: water heating, space heating, space cooling, active and passive cooling systems. Various power generation methods; Solar furnace, Refrigeration, Distillation, Solar ponds; theory, working principle, operational problems (Sketches, principle of working).
Introduction, Description, Principles of working of solar cell:- Doping, Fermi level, p-n junction, photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic Material:- Single crystal solar cell, Poly crystal solar cell, thin film solar cell, I-V characteristic, limits to cell efficiency, Cell temperature factors affecting PV cell performance Current status and Future potential of P.V. cells.
General description, collector geometry, selective surface (qualitative discussion), basic energy balance equation, stagnation temperature, transmissivity of the cover system, transmissivity- absorptivity product, numerical examples. The overall loss coefficient, correlation for the top loss coefficient, bottom and side loss- coefficient, problems (all correlations to be provided)
Temperature distribution: Temperature distribution between the collectors tubes, collector heat removal factor, collector efficiency factor and collector flow factor, mean plate temperature, instantaneous efficiency (all expression to be provided). Effect of various parameters on the collector performance: Collector orientation, selective surface, fluid inlet temperature, number of covers, dust. Solar Concentrators: Introduction, characteristic parameters: Aperture area, Acceptance angle, absorber area, geometric concentration ratio. Local concentration ratio or brightness concentration ratio, intercept factor, optical efficiency, thermal efficiency.. Concentration ratio.
Concentration, Non tracking concentrator. Geometrical optics in concentrators:- Ray tracing in a reflecting surface, ray tracing in a refracting surface. Theoretical solar image. Thermal analysis:- Cylindrical parabolic concentrator, Hemispherical Bowl Mirror, V- trough. Tracking Methods:- Three Dimensional Concentrators, Two dimensional concentrators. Materials for concentrators: - Reflecting and Refracting surfaces, receiver cover and surface coating, working fluids, insulation, Numerical problems.