Low tech photovoltaic panels (PVPs) installed in the early ’80s are now coming to the end of their life cycle and this raises the problem of their proper disposal. As panels contain potentially toxic elements, unconventional, complex and costly procedures are required to avoid environmental health risks and in countries where environmental awareness and economic resources are limited this may be especially problematic. This work was designed to investigate potential risks from improper disposal of these panels. To accomplish this aim an exhausted panel was broken into pieces and these were placed in water for 30 days. The resulting leached solution was analyzed to determine chemical release or used in toto, to determine its potential toxicity in established tests. The end points were seed germination (on Cucumis sativus and Lens culinaris) and effects on early development in three larval models: two crustaceans, Daphnia magna and Artemia salina, and the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. Our results show that the panels release small amounts of electrolytes (Na, Ca and Mg) into solution, along with antimony and manganese, with a concentration under the accepted maximum contaminant level, and nickel at a potentially toxic concentration. Developmental defects are seen in the plant and animal test organisms after experimental exposure to the whole solution leached from the broken panel. The toxic effects revealed in in vitro tests are sufficient to attract attention considering that they are exerted on both plants and aquatic animals and that the number of old PVPs in disposal sites will be very high.

In Turkey, Southeastern Anatolia region is the highest in terms of solar radiation level. However, the provinces in the region are subject to Particulate Matter (PM) coming from the Sahara desert, the Syrian Desert and the Arabian Desert by atmospheric transport. The daily limit of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ set by WHO for health is often exceeded in Sanliurfa. PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ pollutants also accumulate on the Photovoltaic (PV) panels and cause loss of PV panel performance. In this study, the effects of atmospheric dust deposition on the performance of PV panel was determined for both monocrystalline and polycrystalline technologies under Sanliurfa atmospheric conditions. Two panels with the same characteristics were used for each PV panel group from 2 different PV technologies. One of the panels in the group was cleaned by washing with distilled water every Monday while the other was not cleaned. Thus, the effect of the dust accumulation on the PV panel was determined by comparison to the cleaned PV panel. PV panel power is measured with I–V meter. Panel surface temperature, solar radiation and other meteorological parameters are measured simultaneously. The measurements were done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:00 am from May 1 to December 31, 2019. It is observed that the dust accumulation reduces the PV power output up to 8% depending on the amount of radiation. During the summer months, the power loss on the average is 4.33% for monocrystalline and 4.57% for polycrystalline. In the autumn months, it is less than 1.77%.

Solar energy will assist in lowering the price of fossil fuels. The current research is based on a study of a solar dryer with thermal storage that uses water and waste engine oil as the working medium at flow rates of 0.035, 0.045, and 0.065 l/s. A parabolic trough collector was used to collect heat, which was then stored in a thermal energy storage device. The system consisted of rectangular boxes containing stearic acid phase change materials with 0.3vol % Al₂O₃ nanofluids, which stored heat for the waste engine oil medium is 0.33 times that of the water medium at a rate of flow of 0.035 l/s which was also higher than the flow rates of 0.045 and 0.065 l/s. The parabolic trough reflected solar radiation to the receiver, and the heat was collected in the storage medium before being forced into circulation and transferred to the solar dryer. At a flow rate of 0.035 l/s, the energy output of the solar dryer’s waste engine oil medium and water was determined to be roughly 12.4, 14, and 15.1, and 9.8, 10.5, and 11.5 times lower than the crops output of groundnut, ginger, and turmeric, respectively. The energy output in the storage tank and the drying of groundnut, ginger, and turmeric crops with water and waste engine oil medium at varied flow rates of 0.035, 0.045, and 0.065 l/s were studied. Finally, depending on the findings of the tests, this research could be useful in agriculture, notably in the drying of vegetables.

Water is the most fundamental need for better yield in agriculture. Worldwide, diesel and electricity are typically used to pump water which contributes to atmospheric pollution. Besides, a power outage affects the irrigation process badly. Without water, the crop may wither away, causing a substantial economic loss. This paper discusses the resilience of a solar PV system during a power outage. HOMER Pro software was used to perform the techno-economic analysis of solar-based irrigation for four major divisions of Bangladesh, while 1-hour power outage was assigned in REopt lite to model the survivability of the system against the grid outage. The simulation outcomes showed that the energy cost is $0.1496/kWh, $0.1502/kWh, $0.1557/kWh, and $0.1576/kWh for Rajshahi, Sylhet, Dhaka, and Chattogram, respectively. About 45% of excess electricity can be stored after fulfilling all requirements. The system is more economical than a microgrid-based water pumping system and a diesel-based system, and the photovoltaic system is technically and economically suitable to pump water if the nearest grid connection is impossible. When connected to the main utility grid, the system can survive without grid power for several hours, subject to daytime outages.

A massive bird dropping (BD) deposition on the common rectangular flat plate (RFP) of photovoltaic (PV) module is a matter of great concern in Western Rajasthan (WR) that diminish the overall energy production capacity of the system remarkably. In this research article, a prototype novel flat plate (NFP) design of a front glass cover of PV module is proposed to prevent the impact of BD settlement by the restriction of bird’s sitting/movement on the front glass cover. In this regard, the performance analysis of PV module with common RFP and newly designed NFP glass covers has been assessed at the different inclination β° (0–90). The BD accumulation onto the both glass covers was explored by the optical transmittance profiles at the different tilt angles, i.e., explained by bird movement on each flat glass surfaces. Consequently, a significant amount of output electric energy has been gained in NFP design rather than RFP corresponding to particular tilt regions TR I (0° ≤ β ≤ 25°), TR II (25° ≤ β ≤ 60°), and TR III (60° ≤ β ≤ 90°). According to the results achieved, an excellent level of improvement in average power loss, ~ 97.85%, corresponding to optimal TR (III) has been detected by employing NFP glass collector.

Renewable energy plays a significant role in achieving energy savings and emission reduction. As a sustainable and environmental friendly renewable energy power technology, concentrated solar power (CSP) integrates power generation and energy storage to ensure the smooth operation of the power system. However, the cost of CSP is an obstacle hampering the commercialization of this emerging industry, so the paper studies the technical characteristics, economic analysis, and policy implications of CSP. This paper sorts out the relevant policies of CSP and uses the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) model by considering financial parameters, investment parameters, operation and maintenance parameters, tax parameters, capacity parameters, etc., to analyze the economics of CSP. The model parameters are set by the actual situation of CSP projects. The economic evaluation of different technology types of parabolic trough (PT), solar tower (ST), secondary reflection ST, and linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) is carried out. The LCOE of PT project is 1.11 RMB/kWh (0.17 US$/kWh), the ST project is 0.93 RMB/kWh (0.14 US$/kWh), the secondary reflection ST project is 0.97 RMB/kWh (0.15 US$/kWh), and the LFR project is 0.92 RMB/kWh (0.14 US$/kWh). The results show that the grid parity era of CSP in China is within reach, and ST is the most potential technology type. Based on the results of economic analysis and the problems faced by CSP in China, this paper puts forward policy implications by preferential loans, tax incentives, and R&D fund support to promote the development of CSP.

This work aims to explore the optical and thermal conversion characteristics of activated carbon—solar glycol nanofluids with various volume fractions namely 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6%, respectively. Kigelia africana leaves were synthesized into porous activated carbon nanomaterials by using the high-temperature sintering process and the pyrolysis process in a muffle furnace. The experimental investigation was carried out with different nanofluid concentrations by using the solar simulator. Nanofluids were heated with the assistance of a solar simulator test system and the convection/conduction heat loss was decreased by using the glass as an insulating material around the test section. Prepared nanofluid with 0.6 vol% activated carbon augmented the thermal conductivity by 14.36% at 60°C. The maximum temperature difference of 10°C was attained at 0.6% volume concentrations of nanofluid as compared with base fluid (solar glycol). In addition, maximum receiver efficiency of 94.51% was attained at 0.6% volume fractions of activated carbon-based nanofluid compared with solar glycol thru a light radiation time of 600 s. Moreover, activated carbon–based nanofluid exhibited significantly higher absorption efficiency as the majority of the radiation was absorbed by the nanofluid. It is concluded that activated carbon-based nanofluids could be a suitable low-cost highly stable material for developing working fluid for direct absorbance solar collector–based applications.

A solar pond is a simple system that collects and stores heat for thermal and electrical applications. Heat storage and heat extraction are the key factors in the solar pond. Salt is added to the pond with fresh water to form a salinity gradient solar pond (SGSP). The solar pond comprises of three zones, namely, the upper convective zone (UCZ), the non-convective zone (NCZ) and the lower convective zone (LCZ). The LCZ is also called the storage zone. Generally, the LCZ stores the heat energy of the incoming solar radiation, and this heat may be used for various applications. In this paper, a review is done on the study of solar ponds with various designs and modifications, heating methods, use of floating devices, use of baffle plates, use of heat exchangers, use of flat plate collectors, use of different types of insulation, etc.

Solar energy has been a vital renewable energy source for humanity for decades. Researchers have proposed many strategies to harness the same but solar photovoltaic (PV) is the only technology which has reached commercial scale and highly successful in meeting renewable energy goals of many countries. The major drawback of PV systems is that increase in the temperature of solar cell of the PV module beyond the threshold limit brings down its electrical efficiency (EE). Hence, this review paper discusses the different cooling techniques responsible for reducing the cell temperature, which in turn increases not only its EE, but also collection of the thermal energy that is otherwise considered to dampen the performance of the PV system. A brief study on PV with air cooling, photovoltaic thermal (PVT) with water cooling, PVT/PCM with and without fins, PVT integrated with nanofluids has been done in this review paper. PVT hybrid systems are the need of hour to get the optimum efficiency. Amongst the PVT systems, the performance analysis of PV integrated with the nanofluid is discussed and it is found to give the maximum cell temperature reduction. Since reduction in the cell temperature directly relates to better efficiency, PVT system using nanofluid as a cooling medium gives the best overall efficiency (OE) followed by PVT system incorporating water and air respectively. This review paper also gives spotlight to the real-time usages of PCM and nanofluids for the effective cooling ability especially in the case of PV module.

The paper aims to develop a model using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) architecture for enhancing output power of semitransparent photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) air collector by predicting the failure of PV panels for different weather conditions and different climate zones. Increased temperature of the photovoltaic module is a big problem which reduces its working life. The working and hotspot temperatures of photovoltaic (PV) modules have been reduced using ANFIS-based thermal design with optimal placement of PV cells which increase their life and reduce the failure rate which in turn increase the output power. The overall analysis reveals that output power is enhanced using ANFIS-based model by minimizing absolute error to 1.4% in 100 epochs by predicting accurate parameters.