Introduction of basic knowledge of solar technology, necessary for design and sizing various solar thermal and photovoltaic installations. Acquiring knowledge necessary for understanding the functioning of all parts of a solar installation for hot water or air or electricity production. The understanding and use of methods for sizing solar thermal and photovoltaic installations.

Course Description  

The sun and its radiation. Basic principles of solar geometry. Solar radiation incident on titled surfaces.Description of flat-plate solar collectors. Thermal analysis for a flat-plate collector. Efficiency of flat-plate solar collectors. Factors affecting the solar collector efficiency. Concentrating collectors. Thermal energy storage. Active Solar heating systems. Sizing solar thermal systems for domestic hot water production and space heating. Transient and steady state simulation of active solar heating systems. Solar Thermal Applications in residential, industrial, tourism and agricultural sector. Passive solar heating systems. Photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic solar cell and modules. Photovoltaic cell interconnection. Characteristic curve of photovoltaic module. Structure of a photovoltaic system. Battery operation in photovoltaic systems. Grid-connected and stand-alone systems. Sizing photovoltaic systems. Photovoltaic system examples. 

Expected Course Outcome

After completing this course, students will be able to undertake : 

• Design and sizing of solar heating systems
• Design and sizing of photovoltaic systems
• Studies concerning the factors affecting the performance of solar systems 

Bibliography

Greek:

 

1.  I.E. Φραγκιαδάκης, “Φωτοβολταϊκά συστήματα “, Εκδ. Ζητη, 2004. 

 

 English:

1. J. Duffie, W. Beckman, "Solar engineering of thermal processes", John Wiley, 2006.
2. G. N. Tiwari, “ Solar Energy-Fundamentals, Design, Modelling and Applications”, 2002.
3. J. Twidell & T. Weir, “Renewable energy resources”, Taylor and Francis, 2006