UNIT-5

NON CONVECTIONAL POWER

GENERATION SYSTEMS

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Types of Non-convention sources
• Solar Energy &Biomass
• Wind Energy
• Tidal (Ocean) Energy
• Geothermal Energy

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 Solar energy and Biomass energy
5.1 Solar energy
5.1.1 Introduction to Solar energy

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 Cont’d
• Solar power and solar energy resources on earth are enormous,
nonpolluting.
• Moreover, solar energy is the driving mechanism behind other
renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower, biomass,
and animal power.

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 Cont’d
5.1.3 Solar radiation and Solar Collectors
[Link] Solar radiation: is a general term for the electromagnetic
radiation emitted by the sun.
• Solar radiation can be captured and turned into useful forms of
energy, such as heat and electricity, using a variety of
technologies.
• Amount of power we receive daily, called Incident Solar
Radiation, or Insolation for short
• The Earth receives 1 400 W/m² of incoming solar irradiation at
the upper atmosphere.

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 Cont’d
•Amount of solar radiation that reaches on the
Earth's surface varies according to:
 Geographic location
 Time of day
 Season
 Local weather.

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 Cont’d

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[Link] A solar collector: is a device that collects and/or concentrates
solar radiation from the Sun.
There are many different types of solar collectors:
• A. Line Focus Collectors:

Fig: A diagram of a line focus solar collector

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• These collectors, sometimes known as parabolic
troughs, use highly reflective materials to collect and
concentrate the heat energy from solar radiation
• These collectors are composed of parabolically shaped
reflective sections connected into a long trough
• A pipe that carries water is placed in the center of this
trough so that sunlight collected by the reflective
material is focused onto the pipe, heating the contents.
• These are very high powered collectors and are thus
generally used to generate steam for Solar thermal
power plants

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 Cont’d
B. Flat Plate Collectors:

Fig: Schematic of a flat plate solar collector with liquid transport medium

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 Cont’d
• The Sun heats a dark flat surface, which collect
energy, then the energy is transferred to
water, air, or other fluid for further use

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 Cont’d

• Advantages:


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• .

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 5.1.4 Solar cells and PV systems
• A photovoltaic device contains special materials that
generate electricity from light.
• Materials used for a photovoltaic device are called
semiconductors
• Each photovoltaic (PV) device is called a photovoltaic
cell or a solar cell.
• A solar module is a connected assembly of one or
more solar cells, packaged together for applications
that require long life and high reliability.
• In turn, modules are connected together to produce
solar arrays
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 Cont’d

• Fig: Photovoltaics: Cells to Modules to Arrays

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 Cont’d
• Solar modules made from crystalline silicon
• The total voltage generated by the module is the sum of
the voltages generated by cells in the module.
How a PV System Works:
•PV systems are like any other electrical power
generating systems
• a PV array produces power when exposed to sunlight, a
number of other components are required to properly
conduct, control, convert, distribute, and store the
energy produced by the array

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 Cont’d
• specific components required may include
major components such as a DC-AC power
inverter, battery bank, system and battery
controller, electrical load (appliances) etc

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 Cont’d

• Fig. diagram of a photovoltaic system

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 Cont’d
Applications of Solar Energy
(a) Solar Water Heating:
• A solar water heating unit comprises a
blackened flat plate metal collector with an
associated metal tubing facing the general
direction of the sun. The plate collector has a
transparent glass cover above and a layer of
thermal insulation beneath it.

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 Cont’d
(b) Solar-pumping:
• In solar pumping, the power generated by
solar-energy is utilized for pumping water for
irrigation purposes.
(c) Solar Drying of Agricultural and Animal
Products:
• This is a traditional method of utilising solar
energy for drying of agricultural and animal
products.

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 Cont’d
(d) Solar Cooking
(e) Solar Electric Power Generation:
• Electric energy or electricity can be produced
directly from solar energy by means of
photovoltaic cells.

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 Cont’d
• PV Cell Equivalent Circuit:

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 Cont’d
• The above equivalent is common to understand the
performance of PV modules and arrays
• From the equivalent circuit, we have the following
basic equations:

• Where,

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 Cont’d
• The simplified equations for Open voltage and
short current respectively.

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 Cont’d
• Shockley's Diode Equation 
Io - reverse saturation current
k - Boltzmann's constant 
     =(1.3806488×10−23), J.K-1 
n - linearity factor (1 for ideal diode) 
q - elementary charge 
      = (1.602176565×10−19), C 
T – p-n junction absolute temperature, K 
VT - thermal voltage, V
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 Cont’d
• I - current through load, A 
Id - current through diode, A 
Ipv - current generated by PV, A 
Ish - current through the shunt resistor, A 
Rs - equivalent circuit series resistance, Ω 
Rsh - equivalent circuit shunt resistance, Ω 
U - voltage applied to the load, V 
Ush – shunt voltage, V  
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 Cont’d
• In a laboratory, efficiency is measured under
standard conditions by the use of I-V curves.
• I-V curves are obtained by varying an external
resistance from zero (short circuit) to infinity
(open circuit).
• The curve below shows a typical I-V curve

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 Cont’d

• PV Cell, I-V and Power Curves

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 Cont’d
• Power delivered by the PV cell is the product of voltage
(V) and current (I).
• At both open and closed circuit conditions the power
delivered is zero.
• At some point in between (around the knee point) the
delivered power is a maximum.
Fill Factor:
• One way to measure the performance of a solar cell is
the fill factor. This is the ratio of the maximum power to
the product of the open circuit voltage and short circuit
current:
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 Cont’d

• The higher the fill factor the better. As a

general rule, commercial PV cells will have a
fill factor greater than 0.7.

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 5.2 Biomass energy
• 5.2.1 Introduction to Biomass Energy
• Biomass is defined as the total mass of living
matter within a given unit of environmental
area.
• It is commonly referred to as the plant
material, vegetation, or agricultural waste
used as a fuel or energy source.

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 Biomass generation

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 Cont’d
• Largest historical energy source
• Largest current renewable energy source
• Modern Biofuels may be solid, liquid, or gaseous and
are derived from biomass feedstock
• Biofuel technologies can efficiently transform the
energy in biomass into various fuels for
transportation, heating, and electricity generating
purpose.
• These modern fuels are alcohol, biogas, biodiesel.

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 Cont’d
• The main components of biomass are
carbohydrates & lignin (+proteins, lipids)
Energy uses of Biomass:
 Heat
 Electricity
 Liquid Fuels for Transportation
• Biomass energy use is currently dominated by
wood, but government regulations driving rapid
expansion of ethanol and biodiesel production.
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 Cont’d
Advantages:
• Available everywhere
• Reliability
Disadvantages:
• Deforestation and desertification (especially in Africa)
• Industrial or modern use is not widespread

Biomass is the only resource that can lead to solid, liquid and
gaseous fuels to replace oil fuels in the transport sector

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 Biomass to Bioenergy

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 Cont’d
• Anaerobic decomposition (fermentation) is a
process for conversion of various organic substances
under the action of enzymes produced by
microorganisms in the absence of oxygen in the air.
• hydrolysis is a chemical reaction in which water is
used to break down the bonds of a particular
substance.
• Pyrolysis is a process of chemically decomposing
organic materials at elevated temperatures in the
absence of oxygen.

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