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RENEWABLE ENERGY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
ACU

Course Instructor
Dr. Ahmed El-Degwy

Email: mpdfoecu_ahmed@yahoo.com
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Contents
Introduction
• Solar energy importance
• Understanding the solar energy
• Some application of solar energy

Solar geometry
• Seasons and day and night
• Earth and sun relations – Solar time, Longitude, Latitude
• Equation of time
• Solar angles

Solar Radiation on Earth Surface

• Calculating solar incident energy (direct normal, diffuse, reflected)
• Solar intensity in outer space and on earth
• Flat plate collector - Transmission through glass, heat loss
• Solar concentrators - Parabolic trough
• Measuring radiation
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Solar Energy
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Chapter 1

Solar Geometry
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Topic Solar geometry

Learning  Sun position and movement of the earth around the sun
Objectives  Standard time and local time
 Equation of time
Learning Outcome
 Sun path in cylindrical coordinate and polar coordinate
This chapter enables learner to understand the relative motion of the
Summary sun around the earth to determine the incident radiation on any plane.
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INTRODUCTION

Advantages of Solar Energy

• Solar energy is the richest continuous source of energy available to human race.
• Solar energy is very attractive as it is free, reliable, non-polluting, and non-depletable.
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- ONE of the things that you need to know to design a house is the amount of
available solar radiation and its variation along the day (hourly) and along the year.
- How to measure, calculate, and predict the solar radiation?
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• Solar energy is not only thermal, it is also electromagnetic, (used in photovoltaic or solar
cells), and chemical (photosynthesis which is the source of the fossil fuel, for example).
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About 30% of the incoming sunlight is reflected back into space by

clouds or light areas on Earth‘s surface, or scattered back out into
space by gas molecules in the atmosphere (that scattering is what
makes the sky blue).

Of the 70% that makes it through, about two-third makes it to the

ground, while about one-third is absorbed (not reflected) by the
atmosphere and the clouds.
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When the ground, atmosphere, and clouds absorb sunlight, they heat
up and re-radiate heat back in the atmosphere. So every worm object
in the atmosphere emits thermal radiation back (infra red radiation).

Earth's atmosphere, like the panes of glass in the greenhouse, traps

much of the infrared radiation, and the heat that it carries, warming
our planet. Several different gases play a role in this greenhouse
effect; water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane are amongst the
most prominent.
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 GREENHOUSE EFFECT 12

Solar energy, mostly in the form of short

wavelength visible radiation, penetrates
the atmosphere and is absorbed by
greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere,
which in turn re-radiate a portion back to
the Earth's surface. The atmosphere thus
acts in a manner roughly analogous to the
glass in a greenhouse, which allows
sunlight to penetrate and warm the plants
and soil but which traps most of the
resulting heat energy inside.
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Disadvantages of Solar Energy
• The two main disadvantages are that is it very diluted and not constant for
terrestrial applications.

• The low energy flux dictate the use of large surface areas for collectors and
concentrators, and these systems are expensive. To overcome the discontinuity
problem storage systems (or auxiliary systems) are used, and these also are
expensive.
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Applications Examples of Solar Energy

a) Solar thermal collector system– domestic water heating

b) Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems ….. (Assignment 1)
c) Solar Power Generation Systems
d) Absorption refrigeration system ….. (Assignment 1)
e) Solar Food Drying
f) Solar Water Desalination ….. …….. (Assignment 1)
 SUN and Earth Data 15

Sun diameter = 1.39 × 109 m ( 109 D of earth)

Sun mass = 1.99 1024 ton
Sun specific gravity = 100
Sun surface temperature = 6000 K
Sun core temperature = 48000000 K ?
Sun maximum distance from earth = 1.521 × 1011 m
Sun minimum distance from earth = 1.473 × 1011 m
Earth diameter = 1.27 × 107 m

- The earth rotates around it self once every (24 hours).

- The earth rotates around axis called polar axis.

SUN and Earth Data 16
SUN and Earth Data 17
 EARTH ROTATION AROUND THE SUN 18
• Because the sun orbit is not circular, as the distance between the sun and earth
varies, then the relative position between the sun and a location on earth changes
depending on that distance.
The earth rotates around sun in an elliptic as shown.
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The solar constant:

The solar constant Isc is the rate at which energy is received from the sun on a
unit area perpendicular to the rays of the sun at the mean distance of the earth
from the sun.

Isc = 1367 W/m2. The irradiation from the sun varies by ± 3.5 % percent.

The actual solar intensity:

360 𝑛
Ι𝑠𝑜 = Ι𝑠𝑐 [1+0.033 cos( )]
365.25

n: Number of days starting from 1-junuary)

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Air mass:

Air mass is a measure of how much atmosphere the sun's rays have
to pass through on their way to the surface of the earth. Since
particles in the atmosphere absorb and scatter light rays, the more
atmosphere solar radiation passes through on its way to us, the less
solar energy we can expect to get.
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The spectrum outside the atmosphere is called the AM0 spectrum, because no
atmosphere is traversed. When solar radiation passes through the atmosphere of the
Earth, it is attenuated. The most important parameter that determines the solar
irradiance under clear sky conditions is the distance that the sunlight has to travel
through the atmosphere. This distance is the shortest when the Sun is at the zenith,
i.e. directly overhead. The ratio of an actual path length of the sunlight to this
minimal distance is known as the optical air mass. When the Sun is at its zenith the
optical air mass is unity and the spectrum is called the air mass 1 (AM1) spectrum.

1
𝐴𝑀(𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠) = Actually [ 0o < Θ𝑧 < 70o]
𝐶𝑜𝑠Θ𝑧

𝐴𝑀 : The ratio between the length sun rays cut through gaseous layer to the length made
by perpendicular position of sun ray.
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Θ𝑧
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SUN ENERGY ON EARTH
• The incident energy from the sun will not only depend on the time of the day (i.e., day
or night, morning or noon) but also will depend on the location on the earth and the time
of the year.

• Therefore, we need to understand the sun and earth relative position and how that
affects the solar energy intensity
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Rotation of earth 25
 LONGITUDE 26
The mean sun time can be calculated directly from the local longitude, which is the angle
measured east or west along the equator from an imaginary line, called the prime
meridian that runs from the north pole to the south pole through Greenwich, England.

The prime meridian is designated to be 0 degree Long. since the earth revolves 360
degree in 24 hours, then each 1 degree of earth rotation (1 degree Long.) corresponds to
[24(60)/360] or 4 minutes.
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Time is now generally measured about standard time zone meridians. These meridians are
located every 15 degrees from the Prime Meridian so that local time changes in 1-hour
increments from one standard time zone meridian to the next. The standard time zone
meridians east of Greenwich have times later than Greenwich time, and the meridians to the
west have earlier times
Geographical coordinates 28

 : Latitude
 LATITUDE 29
The latitude of a location on the earth is measured from the center of the earth and it is the
angle between the equator plane and a radial line to the location of interest.

• The latitude angle (φ) ranges from 0 degree angle at a point on the equator to +90 degree
angle (or simple 90 degree N. Lat.) at the north pole, and -90 degree angle (90 degree S. Lat.)
at the south pole.
 SOLAR TIME (local apparent time)
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Solar time is the time used in all of the sun-angle relationships; it does not coincide with
local clock time. It is necessary to convert standard time to solar time by applying two
corrections.

First, there is a constant correction for the difference between standard longitude and the
local longitude time. The sun takes 4 min to transverse 1◦ of longitude.

The second, correction is due to the fact that the orbit of the earth around the sun is elliptic
not a circle.

Solar time (E)   4(Lst - L loc )

[+ve for West green-wish and –ve for East green-wish] locations
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Another correlation for equation of time

ET  9.87sin(2B) - 7.53 cos (B) - 1.5 sin (B)

360
B  (n  81)
365.25

Where:

ET = Equation of time (minutes), [ -14 min < E < +17 min ]

Local Apparent time (LAT)  standard time (Tst )  4(Lst - L loc )  ET

 Solar Hour Angle 32
The hour angle  is an expression describing the difference between local solar time and
solar noon. Although it is calculated directly from measurements of time, it is expressed in
angular units (degrees). The hour angle measures time before or after solar noon in terms of
one degree for every four minutes, or fifteen degrees per hour. Time after solar noon is
expressed using a positive hour angle, and time before solar noon, a negative hour angle.
Therefore, at two hours before solar noon, the hour angle is -30°, and at two hours after
solar noon it is +30°.

  15( LST  12 )
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EXAMPLE 1.
At Madison, Wisconsin, where the longitude is 89.4 degree west, what is the solar time
corresponding to 10:30 AM central time on February 3?
EXAMPLE 2.
At Port-Said, Egypt, (31.3°N, 32.3°E), what is the solar time corresponding to 10:30 AM on
February. 3?
On February 3, n = 34, and from Equation, E = −13.5 min

At Madison Solar time = standard time + 4(90 − 89.4) + E

= standard time + 2.4 -13.5

Solar time = 10:30 AM - 11.1 min = 10:19 AM

At Port-Said Solar time = standard time - 4(30 − 32.3) + E

= standard time + 9.2-13.5

Solar time = 10:30 AM – 4.3 min = 10:25.7 AM

 Declination Angle 34
The sun’s declination is the angle between a line connecting the center of the sun and earth
and the projection of this line on equatorial plane. It varies between +23.45 and -23.45
degrees. It is also equal to the latitude on the earth at 12 noon when the sun’s ray is
perpendicular to a horizontal surface. Declination can be calculated as a function of the day
number N.

Figure location of tropics. Note that the sun is so far from the earth that all the rays of the sun
may be considered as parallel to one another when they reach the earth.
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where n is the day of the year. The value of n for any day of the month "D" can be determined
easily with the aid of Table 1.
 SEASONS AND DAY & NIGHT
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The earth’s rotation about its polar axis produces our

days and nights; the tilt of this axis relative to the
ecliptic plane produces our seasons as the earth
revolves about the sun.
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