Request for advice, the subject of the graduation project - a research paper

[nidalls]

At my university we have four types of solar energy systems (research stations: on grid-off grid * tracking-fixed), and a power plant capacity of 5 Mega (Mega 4 as a farm outside the university, and 1 Mega within the university), and thin-film technology research station.

What topic you advise me to be the subject of my graduation project, or research paper?

[DanKegel]

What's your major, and what would you like to do after you graduate?

[nidalls]

Electrical Engineering, i would like to work in the field of solar energy (Photovoltaic).

[J.P.M.]

This is for a Baccalauleate engineering degree or some other discipline ? If engineering, what type ? What areas do your advisors fancy ? What data/instrumentation/equipment is available ? How long do you have ? How extensive is the paper expected to be ?

The area of fouling of industrial heat transfer equipment has been called the great unresolved problem of heat exchangers. Knowing a bit about both areas, it would seem to me that the same applies to the fouling of solar energy equipment. It's an area ripe for investigation. There are many parallels between fouling of process equipment and the fouling of solar energy collection/production equipment. Fouling in both types of equipment hampers production and have economic consequences for both. There is a very large body of open literature on the subject of heat exchanger fouling, a lot of it easily transferable (with some thought) to how dirt on a solar panel affects array performance, both in terms of production and economics. I'm of the opinion that maint. and reliability are also affected by fouling in similar ways in both types of equipment.

Might be worth a sniff.

[DanKegel]

Searching on Google Scholar pulls up a lot of interesting papers. Picking four at random for a taste:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...64032116300922 'Dust and soiling issues and impacts relating to solar energy systems: Literature review update for 2012–2015'
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...6014811630132X 'Experimental study on the effect of dust deposition on solar photovoltaic panels in desert environment'
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...60148111006756 'Spatio-temporal assessment of dust risk maps for solar energy systems using proxy data'
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...04388615300577 'Impact of accumulated dust particles' charge on the photovoltaic module performance'

[solarix]

I'd say the most important advancement needed to help the alternative energy field is how to deal with the intermittancy problem as this is the big stumbling block preventing widespread adoption by the utilities. To solve intermittancy, we need large scale, low cost storage added to the grid. Currently the only way to store AC power on a large scale is with pumped hydro which is only feasible in rare locations blessed with suitable terrain. There is a technology coming out of MIT that sounds promising to me - google professor Don Sadoway.

Another Idea is to do a study to find out what the effectiveness of battery size would be on improving a grid-tied inverter. A small battery could provide easy benefits of grid stabilization, voltage smoothing, emergency power, a little peak-shaving etc. that will be welcomed by utilities. A much bigger battery would do all this and be able to shift the solar gain to later in the day when the utilities really need it - but the cost is still prohibitive. What size battery would give a residential solar system the best benefits for its cost?

[J.P.M.]

Searching on Google Scholar pulls up a lot of interesting papers. Picking four at random for a taste:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...64032116300922 "Dust and soiling issues and impacts relating to solar energy systems: Literature review update for 2012–2015"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...6014811630132X "Experimental study on the effect of dust deposition on solar photovoltaic panels in desert environment"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...60148111006756 "Spatio-temporal assessment of dust risk maps for solar energy systems using proxy data"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...04388615300577 "Impact of accumulated dust particles' charge on the photovoltaic module performance"

Off topic, and FWIW, no more, if the rest of your postings had information as helpful and legitimate as this, I'd stay off your butt.

[DanKegel]

Now that bifacial panels are coming on the market, it might be worth studying soiling or cleaning of their back surfaces.
I only saw one paper on that in a quick search just now:
Hajjar, H. K., F. A. Dubaikel, and I. M. Ballard. "Bifacial photovoltaic technology for the oil and gas industry." 2015 Saudi Arabia Smart Grid (SASG). IEEE, 2015.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7449283

[SunEagle]

I'd say the most important advancement needed to help the alternative energy field is how to deal with the intermittancy problem as this is the big stumbling block preventing widespread adoption by the utilities. To solve intermittancy, we need large scale, low cost storage added to the grid. Currently the only way to store AC power on a large scale is with pumped hydro which is only feasible in rare locations blessed with suitable terrain. There is a technology coming out of MIT that sounds promising to me - google professor Don Sadoway.

Another Idea is to do a study to find out what the effectiveness of battery size would be on improving a grid-tied inverter. A small battery could provide easy benefits of grid stabilization, voltage smoothing, emergency power, a little peak-shaving etc. that will be welcomed by utilities. A much bigger battery would do all this and be able to shift the solar gain to later in the day when the utilities really need it - but the cost is still prohibitive. What size battery would give a residential solar system the best benefits for its cost?

Good comments. I read a little about professor Sadoway and was hoping his battery tech would make a leap forward. I have not heard much about it lately.

IMO a place to go forward in EE is finding ways to improve and harden the grid to allow multiple power generation sources yet keep the voltage and frequency steady. Smart metering and fast switching will help. That requires very good monitoring hardware and software along with fast solid state switching equipment.

I wish the OP luck in finding his passion and future career. My EE degree helped open doors and provide a pretty good financial lifestyle.

[J.P.M.]

Electrical Engineering, i would like to work in the field of solar energy (Photovoltaic).

If EE, skip the fouling issue. That's mostly about ME related stuff. Solarix' ideas related to energy storage sounds interesting, particularly for load leveling/peak shaving.

I suspect a lot/most of the R.E. action will be in electrical energy storage for the next few years. PV technology is getting mature and getting closer to being commoditized. An undergrad. project about electrical energy storage now might catch someone's eye who's looking for grad students, or someone looking for working/intern newly minted EE's who can hit the energy storage ground running a bit faster.

One thought: If dealing with energy storage, reference the paper title on your resume.

[nidalls]

Thank you ^^