Introduction to solar energy

This will be a course on solar energy. This course will cover solar energy and applications in solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and hybrid systems. This course is part of the solar energy topic.

Some of the learning objectives in this course are:

• Understanding solar resources and availability
• Understanding radiation as far as it relates to harvesting solar power
• Understanding optics as it relates to solar power collection and conversion

Chapters

1. Introduction
2. Solar resources and availability

Exercises

1. Solar resources and availability quizbank 1

External resources

• View factor programs

Unorganized equations

Introduction to solar energy/Equations

Useful thermal heat output:

$\dot{q^{\prime }{\text{'}}_u}=\frac{\dot{m_f}\cdot C_{p,f}\cdot (T_{f,leaving}-T_{f,entering})}{A}$

Fill Factor is the ratio of the maximum power to the product of open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current:

$FF=\frac{P_{max}}{V_{oc}\cdot I_{sc}}$