As a market segment for solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption, new homes have a number of attractive attributes. Homebuyers can easily roll the cost of the PV system into their mortgage and, with rebates or other financial incentives, potentially realize an immediate net positive cash flow from the...

This is the first of three planned quarterly Technical Reports of 1996 system performance and major project activities. The final quarter will be discussed in the 1996 Progress Report. Activity for the PVUSA project was curtailed considerably, pending resolution of the transfer of management to...

Photovoltaic (PV) cells, when integrated within a building facade, offer the possibility of generating electric power and heat for local use or export. This paper reports on a project to investigate the practical operational efficiencies that might be delivered from such facades. The results...

Partial shading is a commonly encountered issue in a PV (photovoltaic) system. In this paper, five different connection configurations of PV cells are studied to compare their performance under the condition of partial shading. They are SS (simple series), SP (series-parallel), TCT...

This paper presents a case study on the utilisation of global solar radiation data on horizontal surface to perform an economic feasibility study of using Photovoltaic (PV) panels with battery backup to meet a small load for a camping site in Saudi Arabia. The analysis considers three scenarios...

This paper proposes an effective algorithm for simulating a large mismatched photovoltaic array. The technique allows to reproduce the array behavior at a cell level, including both the direct and the reverse operating mode, thus making the analysis of the hot-spot phenomenon possible. The...

Photovoltaic technology is used worldwide to provide reliable and cost-effective electricity for industrial, commercial, residential and community applications. The average lifetime of PV modules can be expected to be more than 25 years. The disposal of PV systems will become a problem in view...

Solar energy is a clean source of energy that is available in all regions of the world. Bahrain, where the present research was conducted, is rich in solar energy expressed as hours of sunshine which ranges between 13 h per day in the summer months to 10 h per day in the winter months.

Sustainable energy harvesting, such as solar energy, depends increasingly on nanotechnology components. This article will look briefly at the principles of photovoltaic units and elucidate the toxicological aspects of its principal components, namely fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Through this...