Angelina H.M.E. Reinders

The direct and indirect energy requirement of households in the European Union

In this article we evaluate the average energy requirement of households in 11 EU member states. By investigating both the direct (electricity, natural gas, gasoline, etc.) and the indirect energy requirement, i.e. the energy embodied in consumer goods and services, we add to research done on only the direct household energy requirement. Our analysis is mainly based on data of expenditures of households and the associated energy intensities of consumer goods. We found that differences between countries in the total energy requirement of households are mainly due to differences in total household expenditure. In particular, the indirect energy requirement is linearly related to the total household expenditure. The share of direct energy to the total energy requirement in different countries varies from 34% up to 64%. Differences in climate do not fully account for this variation. Corrected for total household expenditure, indirect energy requirement may vary significantly per country in the consumption classes food, beverages and tobacco, recreation and culture, housing, and hotels, cafes and restaurants.

Using CAD software to simulate PV energy yield: Predicting the charge yield of solar cells incorporated into a PV powered consumer product under 3D-irradiation conditions

We describe an innovative method to simulate the energy yield of photovoltaic (PV) cells under complex, three dimensional (3D) irradiation conditions by exploiting Computer Aided Design (CAD) software functionality. This can significantly facilitate PV energy yield simulations, because CAD software offers powerful ray-tracing and rendering features of 3D objects and sceneries. The concept is demonstrated by simulating the charge yields of a Product-Integrated PV (PIPV) solar cell located in an indoor environment. To this end, indoor CAD sceneries are ray-traced to render grey-scale or red-green-blue (RGB) encoded images. PV power output is then determined by translating the CAD-rendered images back into numerical data of irradiation, distributed on a 2D PV surface having a pre-defined cell-interconnection scheme. Although the concept is a very promising one, further software development and research is required to increase computational performance at high accuracy levels whilst facilitating software use.

PV-powered boats: Evaluation of design parameters

For about 150 PV boats which have been built during the last 30 years, we evaluated PV, mechanical and performance characteristics. From this evaluation followed that PV boats under 10 meters are most feasible to be equipped with preferably low weight PV modules of approximately 2kWp for electric propulsion. Most boats are equipped with PV with a surface area between 5m2 and 10m2 (78%). For boat length, 54% is between 4m and 8m. Most boats weigh up to 1000kg (56%). However, a large share of PV boats weighs much more: up to 85.000kg. Best performing PV boats — when considering speed and electrical efficiency-weigh around 250kg. The latter have a weight [t]/PV [kWp] ratio of around 1:2. In general, we notice under dimensioned PV systems installed on PV powered boats. In order to evaluate PV boat design parameters, we collected and evaluated the properties of 150 boats for commercial, recreational and private purposes. We evaluated PV boat design problems which lead to recommendations for improved designs of PV integrated boats. Among others, the hull choice may vary for different situations in which a boat is used; therefore a right hull needs to be selected carefully fitting sailing circumstances.

Environmental benefits of PV powered lighting products for rural areas in south east Asia: A life cycle analysis with geographic allocation

Photovoltaic (PV) lighting products are increasingly used to provide rural households in developing countries with clean and safe lighting. These households usually do not have access to electricity from a power grid and rely on either kerosene lamps or electricity from car batteries which are inefficiently charged at local charging stations. PV lighting products can deliver a higher quality of service. Moreover, they are safer and more reliable (1). Another important aspect is their environmental benefit when compared to their traditional alternatives, which we have evaluated by a life cycle assessment. Our study is based on a case in Cambodia (2).

Potential and cost-effectiveness of off-grid PV systems in Indonesia - An evaluation on a provincial level

In this study we estimate the potential of off-grid PV systems in Indonesia at a provincial level as a follow-up of a study on the potential of grid-connected PV systems in Indonesia which we executed in 2012 [1]. For this study we use an adapted methodology leading to cumulative numbers for the nominal power of installed off-grid PV systems, their LCOE and the relative financial benefits compared with diesel generators.

The influence of wind on the temperature of PV modules in tropical environments, evaluated on an hourly basis

It is well known that the efficiency of PV modules decreases with increasing module temperatures. Many studies have paid attention to the development and validation of heuristic models to calculate the PV module temperature in higher latitudes, however only a few focus on the thermal behaviour of PV modules in tropical regions of the world, where constantly high temperatures prevail. Also, little is known about the effect of including wind speed in these thermal models. This study evaluates three of such models - one that excludes wind, and two others including the wind influence - using hourly data for two tropical locations. Results show that the average hourly wind speeds in Singapore and Jayapura (Indonesia) are low and therefore the influence of the wind on the PV module temperature is minor. The three evaluated models produce about the same results with RMSE between 1.5-3.8 °C during daytime, which corresponds to a deviation in power output in the range of 0.3-1.6 %, depending on the PV module technology.

Plug-and-play liquid PV thermal panels - integrated design for easy manufacturing and installation

A photovoltaic-thermal panel or PVT panel simultaneously generates heat and electricity. This paper reports about the design of a new PVT panel by paying specific attention to user requirements, costs, manufacturing, building integration and installation. The panels technical aspects and energy performance where also optimized. The result is a plug-and-play liquid PVT panel which consists of a PV laminate glued on top of a plastic channel absorber. The panel is covered by a plastic layer to reduce heat losses. It is equipped with four connection points which enhance the flexibility of the positioning of PVT panels on a tilted roof. Because of this feature the installation process will be simplified and installation costs will be decreased. Since part of the production process can be automated, production costs can be decreased as well. In Western Europe at an irradiation of 1000 kWh/m2.year, the PVT panel is expected to yield about 100 kWh/m2 of electricity and 1.0 GJ/m2 of heat.

Modelling the Performance of Product Integrated Photovoltaic (PIPV) Cells Indoors

In this paper we present a model, which have been developed for the estimation of the PV products’ cells’ performance in an indoor environment. The model computes the efficiency and power production of PV technologies, as a function of distance from natural and artificial light sources. It intents to support designers during the energy stability calculations, while creating PV-integrated products for indoor use. For the model’s validation, we tested indoors the PV cells of 10 commercially available PV-powered products in the power range of 0.8mWp to 4mWp, under three types of artificial illumination (halogen, fluorescent, LED lights) and natural light. Due to the model’s purpose to support the design process, its accuracy is not required to be high. Besides, given the difficulty to precisely measure low irradiance (< 20 W/m²) up to this point, it is unmanageable to succeed precise results. The measurements’ analysis revealed that the model could sufficiently predict PV products’ cells’ performance under CFL, LED illumination and mixed indoor light with a typical error around 25%. Measurements showed that under typical mixed indoor irradiance of up to 20 W/m², a-Si cells’ efficiency ranges between 5-6%, c-Si cells’ between 5- 7% and mc-Si cells’ between 4-6%.

Product-Integrated Photovoltaics

Product‐integrated photovoltaics (PIPV) is a relatively new field of interest in the PV community with great potential to use photovoltaics in the direct context of energy consumption by products. This chapter illustrates each application area of PIPV based on established product categories of PIPV as indicated: consumer products; lighting products; business‐to‐business applications; recreational products; vehicles and transportation; and arts. A dominant factor in the design of PIPV is the required area on products surfaces that can be covered by solar cells. The typical area of solar cells in PIPV is determined by a trade‐off of the internal power consumption of a product, its characteristic run time that results from the user behavior, the available area on the product, the PV technology applied, the storage capacity, and the irradiance conditions in the products surrounding. In the near future one may find new PIPV applications in lighting products, boats and other vehicles, and in indoor sensor networks.

Product-integrated PV applications - How industrial design methods yield innovative PV powered products

Given the high potential of PV technology to reduce the environmental impact of electricity use of products, it would be worthwhile to advance the integration of PV systems in mass produced products. We assume that industrial design engineering (IDE) could play a crucial role in making PV technology fit for product applications by its focus on functionality and usability. IDE might have an added value to existing R&D of PV technology which emphasizes on increased performance and decreased production cost of PV cells and modules. Therefore, in this paper, we will assess how industrial design methods might favour the development of product-integrated PV applications. In our project product designers have conceptually designed 17 products with integrated PV cells. The project took place in 2007 at the School of Industrial Design Engineering of University of Twente in the Netherlands. During the design process several innovative design methods were applied, among which the innovation phase model, lead user studies, platform driven product development, risk diagnosis, technology road mapping, TRIZ, innovative design and styling, innovation journey and constructive technology assessment. By observing 17 PV-powered products which resulted from the project we evaluated the innovative effect of industrial design methods on product-integrated PV applications. The application of IDMs resulted in a broad range of varied innovative PV-powered product concepts ranging from small products, like electronic handhelds, to middle-sized products like toys and portable fridges, to big-sized objects such as building-integrated PV elements and a zeppelin. The results show that the use of carefully chosen and applied industrial design methods can help to better integrate PV technology in products.