SOLAR THERMAL AND PHOTOVOLTAIC ELECTRICAL GENERATION IN LIBYA YASSER A AMDAWI ALDALI BSc. Mechanical Engineering MSc. Mechanical Engineering A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Edinburgh Napier University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2012 Declaration I hereby declare that the contents of this thesis are original and have been submitted solely to Edinburgh Napier University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Yasser A Amdawi Aldali Signed Dated I Acknowledgements Firstly, Praise and thanks to Allah, who has provided me with the aid and assistance to complete this work. It is my great pleasure to express my deep sense of gratitude to my thesis supervisors, Dr. Douglas Henderson and Prof. Tariq Muneer for their valuable guidance, helpful suggestions approach, fruitful academic discussions, kindness and constant encouragement. I take this opportunity to thank Prof. Tariq Muneer for is tremendous support throughout this work. I would like also to thank the technical staff, Ian Cambell, Kevin McCann, Bill Campbell and all the others. Your help throughout my work is deeply appreciated. I would also like to thank my family for their help and support. I am most grateful to my parents for their encouragement and support throughout my years of education. I am extremely thankful to my wife, and my children Alfrgani and Yazan for making this greatest experience of my life. I will treasure the memories for years to come. Last but not least, I would like to give my appreciation to all my office colleagues, Tham, Ahamed, Wahid and Loubana and to Dr. Haroon Junaidi for their help. II Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Electrical Generation in Libya Abstract This thesis investigates the application of large scale concentrated solar (CSP) and photovoltaic power plants in Libya. Direct Steam Generation (DSG) offers a cheaper and less risky method of generating electricity using concentrated solar energy than Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) plant. However, it is argued that the location of a DSG plant can be critical in realising these benefits, and that the South-East part of Libya is ideal in this respect. The models and calculations presented here are the result of an implementation of the 2007 revision of the IAPWS equations in a general application based on Microsoft Excel and VBA. The hypothetical design for 50MW DSG power plant discussed in this thesis is shown to yield an 76% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to an equivalent gas-only plant over the ten-hour daily period of operation. Land requirement is modest at 0.7km2. A new method for improving the distribution of heat within the absorber tube wall was developed. Internal helical fins within the absorber tube have been proposed to provide a regularly pitched and orderly distribution of flow from the ‘hot’ to the ‘cold’ side of the absorber tube. Note that the irradiance profile on the absorber tube is highly asymmetric. A CFD simulation using FLUENT software was carried out for three types of pipes with different internal helical-fin pitch, and an aluminium pipe without fins. The results show that the thermal gradient between the upper and lower temperature for the pipe without a helical fin is considerably higher compared with the pipes with helical fins. Also, the thermal gradient between the two halves for the aluminium pipe (without a helical fin) is much lower when compared to the result for the traditional steel pipe (without a helical fin). III A 50MW PV-grid connected (stationary and tracking) power plant design in Al- Kufra, Libya has been carried out presently. A hetero-junction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) type PV module has been selected and modelled. The effectiveness of the use of a cooling jacket on the modules has been evaluated. A Microsoft Excel-VBA program has been constructed to compute slope radiation, dew-point, sky temperature, and then cell temperature, maximum power output and module efficiency for this system, with and without water cooling for stationary system and for tracking system without water cooling. The results for energy production show that the total energy output is 114GWh/year without a water cooling system, 119GWh/year with a water cooling system for stationary system and 148GWh/year for tracking system. The average module efficiency with and without a cooling system for the stationary system is 17.2% and 16.6% respectively and 16.2% for the tracking system. The electricity generation capacity factor (CF) and solar capacity factor (SCF) for stationary system were found to be 26% and 62.5% respectively and 34% and 82% for tracking system. The payback time for the proposed LS-PV power plant was found to be 2.75 years for the stationary system and 3.58 years for the tracking system. The modelling that was carried was based on the measurements conducted on the experimental system set in a city in the southern part of Turkey. Those measurements are recorded by a Turkish team at Iskanderun. As well as the current, voltage and cell temperature of the photovoltaic module, the environmental variables such as ambient temperature and solar irradiance were measured. These data were used for validation purposes. The correlation for the conversion of solar irradiation from horizontal to sloped surface indicated that the presently used model is highly successful reflected by the goodness of fit parameters: the coefficient of determination is 0.97, and the mean bias error - 2.2W/m2. Similarly, the cell temperature model used in the present thesis is validated by the following correlation parameters R2 = 0.97 oC, while MBE is 0.7 and RMSE = 2.1 oC. IV Glossary of Symbols & Abbreviations = Latitude β = Slope or tilt γ = Surface Azimuth Angle δ =Declination ω =Hour angle θ = Angle of incidence θz = Zenith angle γs =Solar azimuth angle c =Efficiency of a solar cell (τα)e = Effective transmittance - absorptance product αG = Absorptivity of glass mirror =Reflectivity of the mirror 3 ρf =Density of fluid, kg/m 2 υf = Kinematic viscosity of fluid, m /s κf =Thermal conductivity of fluid, W/m K κeff =Effective thermal conductivity, W/m K εp = Emissivity of absorber tube εg =Emissivity of glass covers tube σ =Stefan-Boltzmann constant, 5.67*10-8W/m2 K4 3 ρg = Density of vapour, kg/m λ =Thermal conductivity, W/m K o µvoc =Temperature coefficient of open circuit voltage, V/ C o µIsc =Temperature coefficient of short circuit current, A/ C albedo = Average albedo of the ground αa = Solar altitude angle α = Absorptance = Transmittance/ Transmissivity εsky =Sky emissivity mp = Maximum power point efficiency of the PV module V 2 Ap =Section area of the absorber tube, m 2 Amirror = Area of mirror, m AM =Air mass factor b = Radial gap, m Cb = Development cost,$ Cd = Design cost,$ Ci = Inverters cost,$ Cin = Installation cost,$ Cm = Module cost,$ Cw = Total cost,$ CR =Concentration ratio of the collector Dci = Inner diameter of glass cover, m Di =Absorber tube inner diameter, m Do =Outer diameter of absorber tube, m f = Friction factor F =Sky clarity index FF = Filling factor, % g = Gravitational acceleration, m/s2 h = Enthalpy of water/steam substance, kJ/kg hb = Enthalpy for boundary, kJ/kg 2 hf =Convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m K hf = Specific enthalpy of saturated liquid, kJ/kg hg = Specific enthalpy of saturated vapour, kJ/kg 2 IB =Horizontal beam irradiance, W/m 2 Ibn = Incident beam of flux, W/m 2 IBT =Slope beam irradiance, W/m Id =Diode current, A 2 ID =Horizontal diffuse irradiance, W/m 2 IDT =Sky-diffuse irradiance, W/m 2 IE = Horizontal extraterrestrial irradiance, W/m 2 IG = Horizontal global irradiance, W/m 2 Ig =Ground-reflected radiation, W/m VI ILG =Light generated current, A Im = Current at maximum power of PV module, A Io = Reverse saturation current, A 2 IS =Slope irradiation, W/m Isc =Short circuit current of PV module, A 2 Isolar =Beam irradiance, W/m 2 Isun,c = Sun constant, W/m L =Characteristic dimension, m mf = Mass flow rate, kg/s Mtoe = Million tonne oil equivalent Nu = Nusselt number Patm = Atmospheric pressure, Pa ΔP =Pressure drop, Pa Pm =The maximum power of PV module, W Pr = Prandtl number Pw = partial pressure of water vapour Qloss = Energy loss, W Ra* = Modified Rayleigh number ReD = Reynolds number RCon = Thermal resistance due to convection RRad = Thermal resistance due to radaition Rs =Series resistance of PV cell, Ω Rsh =Shunt resistance of PV cell, Ω S = Material strength,Pa SF =Safety factor sf =Specific entropy of saturated liquid (kJ/kg K) sg = Specific entropy of saturated vapour (kJ/kg K) T = Temperature, K t = Wall thickness, m o Ta =Ambient temperature, C o TC =Cell temperature, C o Tdp =Dew point temperature, C o Tg =Glass covers temperature, C VII o Tp =Absorber tube temperature, C Tsat = Saturation temperature,K TSKY =Sky temperature, K o Tw =Water inlet temperature, C 2 UL = Overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m K Vf =Average velocity, m/s Vm =Voltage at maximum power of PV module, V Voc =Open circuit voltage of PV module, V Wh = Humidity ratio x = Dryness fraction υ =Wind speed, m/s VIII Abbreviations A Ambient air BOS Balance of system CFC Capacity factor CFD Computational fluid dynamics CSES Centre of Solar Energy Studies CSP Concentrating solar power plants DISS Direct Solar Steam Generation System DLR German Aerospace Center DNI Direct normal irradiance DOE Department of Energy DSG Direct solar steam generation system DSS Dish Stirling System EU-MENA Europe the Middle East and North Africa GCR Ground