scholarly journals Photovoltaics and Electrification in Agriculture

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Muñoz-García ◽  
Luis Hernández-Callejo

The editorial introduces a Special Issue entitled “Photovoltaics and Electrification in Agriculture”. Agriculture requires not only tillage and fertilization but also water supply and, in some cases, heating and cooling. These needs go hand in hand with the use of energy, which, increasingly, is electrical energy. An option that has dropped a lot in price in recent years is photovoltaic energy. This type of energy has experienced an explosion in terms of its expansion worldwide and has been revealed as a viable solution to rapidly increase the electrical power of non-fossil origin. However, the use of panels must compete with the use of the soil for cultivation, and in many cases, it could displace the use of the soil for cultivation, something that would not be desirable either from a production point of view or from an ecological point of view. For this, a new concept of soil sharing for crops and energy production is being developed in what is called “agrovoltaics”. This shared production model is analyzed in this document. In addition, the electrification of agriculture allows the introduction of elements, such as sensors, the IoT, and intelligent control. The internet connection opens the doors to technologies such as those based on data, digital control, and what is called precision agriculture, both for cultivation in greenhouses and for regular cultivation. This would not be possible without an electrical energy source that allows powering the inter-connected elements, photovoltaics being the best candidate again. However, above all, we must not forget the issue of CO2 emissions due to the use of energy in agriculture. In this sense, photovoltaic energy can reduce the carbon footprint and provide one of the cheapest energy sources available. All these topics are analyzed in this Special Issue, focusing on photovoltaics and its uses and impact on agriculture.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Kurnia Paranita Kartika ◽  
Riska Dhenabayu

This study aims to design a Solar Home System with an Arduino-based Smart Switching system so that the use of electrical energy generated by solar panels can be adjusted without adding power from other electricity sources, such as PLN. Calculation of Leveled Cost of Energy (LCOE) is used as the basis for the switching process that will be carried out to regulate the use of household appliances that are routinely used, regulate electricity consumption automatically, minimize usage, and calculate the effectiveness of electric power usage. The way SHS works is to collect electrical energy from sunlight, then convert DC voltage to AC so that it can be used to run household electronic equipment. To accommodate the adequacy of electrical power, an automatic adjustment is made for household appliances that are routinely used, namely house lights, which includes setting the lights on and off and the number of lights that can be activated. The advantage of this research is that the SHS system is integrated with the automatic setting of the lights installed in the house so that the number of lights on will adjust the availability of electrical energy in the battery. In addition, with the LCOE method, the level of usage can be calculated so that users can save electricity. From the results of usage testing, it is found that the application of this switching technology provides benefits for users because it is no longer dependent on PLN supply. From an economic point of view, based on the calculation of Leveled Cost of Energy (LCOE), there is a kWh value savings of Rp. 77, - for each kWh price or about 4.53% compared to purchasing electricity with prepaid mode.


Author(s):  
Zongli Xie ◽  
Derrick Ng ◽  
Manh Hoang ◽  
Jianhua Zhang ◽  
Stephen Gray

Desalination by pervaporation is a membrane process that is yet to be realized for commercial application. To investigate the feasibility and viability of scaling up, a process engineering model was developed to evaluate the energy requirement based on the experimental study of a hybrid polyvinyl alcohol/maleic acid/tetraethyl orthosilicate (PVA/MA/TEOS) Pervaporation Membrane. The energy consumption includes the external heating and cooling required for the feed and permeate streams, as well as the electrical power associated with pumps for re-circulating feed and maintaining vacuum. The thermal energy requirement is significant (e.g., up to 2609 MJ/m3 of thermal energy) and is required to maintain the feed stream at 65 °C in recirculation mode. The electrical energy requirement is very small (<0.2 kWh/m3 of required at 65 °C feed temperature at steady state) with the vacuum pump contributing to the majority of the electrical energy. The energy required for the pervaporation process was also compared to other desalination processes such as Reverse Osmosis (RO), Multi-stage Flash (MSF), and Multiple Effect Distillation (MED). The electrical energy requirement for pervaporation is the lowest among these desalination technologies. However, the thermal energy needed for pervaporation is significant. Pervaporation may be attractive when the process is integrated with waste heat and heat recovery option and used in niche applications such as RO brine concentration or salt recovery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-323
Author(s):  
Anges A. Aminou Moussavou ◽  
Atanda K. Raji ◽  
Marco Adonis

Several strategies have been developed to enhance the performance of a solar photovoltaicthermal (PV/T) system in buildings. However, these systems are limited by the cost, complex structure and power consumed by the pump. This paper proposes an optimisation method conversion strategy that modulates the ratio of thermal to electrical energy from the photovoltaic (PV) cell, to increase the PV/T system’s performance. The design and modelling of a PV cell was developed in MATLAB/Simulink to validate the heat transfer occurring in the PV cell model, which converts the radiation (solar) into heat and electricity. A linear regression equation curve was used to define the ratio of thermal to electrical energy technique, and the behavioural patterns of various types of power (thermal and electrical) as a function of extrinsic cell resistance (Rse). The simulation results show an effective balance of the thermal and electrical power when adjusting the Rse. The strategy to modulate the ratio of thermal to electrical energy from the PV cell may optimise the PV/T system’s performance. A change of Rse might be an effective method of controlling the amount of thermal and electrical energy from the PV cell to support the PV/T system temporally, based on the energy need. The optimisation technique of the PV/T system using the PV cell is particularly useful for households since they require electricity, heating, and cooling. Applying this technique demonstrates the ability of the PV/T system to balance the energy ( thermal and electrical) produced based on the weather conditions and the user’s energy demands.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1879
Author(s):  
Armin Veichtlbauer ◽  
Alexander Heinisch ◽  
Ferdinand von von Tüllenburg ◽  
Peter Dorfinger ◽  
Oliver Langthaler ◽  
...  

Due to changed power consumption patterns, technological advance and deregulation, the appearance of the power grid in the low and medium voltage segment has changed. The spread of heating and cooling with electrical energy and an increase of electric vehicles as well as the broad rollout of photovoltaic systems has a major impact on the peak power demand of modern households and the volatility smart grids have to face. Thus, besides the load impact of the growing population of electric vehicles, modern households are not only consumers of electrical power, but also power producers, so called prosumers. The rising number of prosumers and the limitations of grid capacities lead to an increasingly distributed system of heterogeneous components, which have to be managed and operated with locality and scalability in mind. Virtualisation technologies, particularly known as state of the art in data centre computing, can lead to a paradigm shift needed to meet the growing demands of this evolution. A key issue here is to forward data to the correct data sinks, where data are required in order to keep the grid balanced. This routing process has to be able to react on grid changes in a timely manner, i.e., it must be based on the instantaneous state of the grid. In this paper, we propose a solution based on virtualising the communication infrastructure in the low and medium voltage grid. We evaluate two different approaches. The first approach is based on SDN; an ONOS SDN controller is used to change the behaviour of the communication infrastructure according to information provided by components of the power grid. The second approach uses Coaty and a Mosquitto MQTT broker to deliver messages to the desired endpoint, again based on information from the power grid.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (01) ◽  
pp. 24-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHEN LIHONG ◽  
YU HONG ◽  
YAN XINFENG

This paper introduces the special issue on strategic choices for recyclable clothing implementation. Substantial private implementation is needed if company management objectives to increase the share of recyclable clothing and prevent dangerous clothing risk be achieved. The aim of this paper, and the entire special issue, is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for recyclable clothing implementation. An modular apparel safety architecture (MASA) framework for supply chain management was developed and implemented to provide guidelines for apparel designers and manufactures to solve safe and sustainable problems related to apparel production. The MASA framework was developed by integrating modular theory and product recyclable concept into existing apparel design and production. Children’s clothing design and production was used to implement the MASA framework as a proof concept. The MASA framework is the first apparel design and production model that emphasizes safety and recyclability in addition to functional, expressive, and aesthetic considerations. The originality of this work is its ability to combine social, technical, environmental and economic aspects using modular theory in order to provide a more holistic point of view on factors impacting recyclable clothing system through the design and development of recyclable management modules.


Author(s):  
A. Mezouari ◽  
R. Elgouri ◽  
M. Igouzal ◽  
M. Alareqi ◽  
K. Mateur ◽  
...  

Today, global energy consumption is dominated by fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. The intensive consumption of these energy sources gives rise to greenhouse gas emissions and therefore an increase in CO2 emissions. Photovoltaic energy has persistently been considered as a green and pollution-free renewable energy source to overcome greenhouse effect and energy crisis. This paper describes a new method of photovoltaic energy sharing in standalone micro-grids using photovoltaic panels. This approach is based on automatic electrical energy sharing depending on the state of charge (SOC) of the electrical storage unit using by each home and on the electrical power consumption of each home.The monitoring system is connected to each home in micro-grid, it manage each home’s energy use, and assigns more energy to a large energy-consuming home. This architecture contributes to reducing total energy lost.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica Liponi ◽  
Claretta Tempesti ◽  
Andrea Baccioli ◽  
Lorenzo Ferrari

In the last years, an increasing number of countries has been affected by water shortage. Seawater desalination driven by solar energy, which is usually available in arid regions, might be a solution to satisfy the freshwater demand. In this study, the feasibility of a stand-alone multi-effect desalination (MED) plant driven by solar energy for an isolated community was studied. The system was made up of a solar field, a MED unit, and a thermal storage that mitigated solar energy fluctuations. Simulations with different top brine temperature and inclination and number of the solar panels were carried out in Matlab and Aspen Plus on an hourly basis by considering one typical meteorological year for ambient temperature and solar radiation. Two different sources of electrical energy were considered: A photovoltaic (PV) field and a diesel generator. The results were compared from an energetic and economic point of view, by considering the adoption of plastic as a material for MED heat exchangers. The maximum water production was obtained with December as the design month. Polytetrafluoroethylene heat exchangers allowed the cost of water to be reduced up to 9.5% compared to conventional exchangers. The lowest cost of water (7.09 $/m3) was obtained with September as the design month and a tilt angle of 45° with the PV field as the electrical power source.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Nasser Hosseinzadeh ◽  
Asma Aziz ◽  
Apel Mahmud ◽  
Ameen Gargoom ◽  
Mahbub Rabbani

The main purpose of developing microgrids (MGs) is to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into the power grid. RESs are normally connected to the grid via power electronic inverters. As various types of RESs are increasingly being connected to the electrical power grid, power systems of the near future will have more inverter-based generators (IBGs) instead of synchronous machines. Since IBGs have significant differences in their characteristics compared to synchronous generators (SGs), particularly concerning their inertia and capability to provide reactive power, their impacts on the system dynamics are different compared to SGs. In particular, system stability analysis will require new approaches. As such, research is currently being conducted on the stability of power systems with the inclusion of IBGs. This review article is intended to be a preface to the Special Issue on Voltage Stability of Microgrids in Power Systems. It presents a comprehensive review of the literature on voltage stability of power systems with a relatively high percentage of IBGs in the generation mix of the system. As the research is developing rapidly in this field, it is understood that by the time that this article is published, and further in the future, there will be many more new developments in this area. Certainly, other articles in this special issue will highlight some other important aspects of the voltage stability of microgrids.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3298
Author(s):  
Gianpiero Colangelo ◽  
Brenda Raho ◽  
Marco Milanese ◽  
Arturo de Risi

Nanofluids have great potential to improve the heat transfer properties of liquids, as demonstrated by recent studies. This paper presents a novel idea of utilizing nanofluid. It analyzes the performance of a HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system using a high-performance heat transfer fluid (water-glycol nanofluid with nanoparticles of Al2O3), in the university campus of Lecce, Italy. The work describes the dynamic model of the building and its heating and cooling system, realized through the simulation software TRNSYS 17. The use of heat transfer fluid inseminated by nanoparticles in a real HVAC system is an innovative application that is difficult to find in the scientific literature so far. This work focuses on comparing the efficiency of the system working with a traditional water-glycol mixture with the same system that uses Al2O3-nanofluid. The results obtained by means of the dynamic simulations have confirmed what theoretically assumed, indicating the working conditions of the HVAC system that lead to lower operating costs and higher COP and EER, guaranteeing the optimal conditions of thermo-hygrometric comfort inside the building. Finally, the results showed that the use of a nanofluid based on water-glycol mixture and alumina increases the efficiency about 10% and at the same time reduces the electrical energy consumption of the HVAC system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Divjak ◽  
Natalia Levshina ◽  
Jane Klavan

AbstractSince its conception, Cognitive Linguistics as a theory of language has been enjoying ever increasing success worldwide. With quantitative growth has come qualitative diversification, and within a now heterogeneous field, different – and at times opposing – views on theoretical and methodological matters have emerged. The historical “prototype” of Cognitive Linguistics may be described as predominantly of mentalist persuasion, based on introspection, specialized in analysing language from a synchronic point of view, focused on West-European data (English in particular), and showing limited interest in the social and multimodal aspects of communication. Over the past years, many promising extensions from this prototype have emerged. The contributions selected for the Special Issue take stock of these extensions along the cognitive, social and methodological axes that expand the cognitive linguistic object of inquiry across time, space and modality.


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