Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Solar Energy Applications

The energy in solar radiation can be used directly or indirectly for all of our energy needs in daily life, including heating, cooling, lighting, electrical power, transportation and even environmental cleanup.  Many such applications are already cost-competitive with conventional energy sources, for example, photovoltaic (PV) electricity in remote applications is replacing diesel generator sets. Some applications, such as photovoltaics and solar heating are better known and popular, while others such as solar detoxification of contaminated waters or solar distillation are less known.

Solar water heating is the most developed solar technology and is very cost-effective when life-cycle costs are considered. However, the initial costs (capital investment) of solar water heaters are many times higher than those for electric water heaters. Therefore, most people opt for electric water heaters. In many countries, governments have adopted policies and financing mechanisms that make it easier for consumers to buy solar water heaters. For this reason the adoption of solar water heating worldwide is growing at a rate of more than 20% per year, as shown in Fig. 10-6 . Growth in China has been even greater, at around 27% per year.

Adoption of solar water heating can have a great impact on the reduction of peak electrical load and thus greenhouse gas emissions. For example, if all the electric water heaters in the USA (approximately 100 million) were replaced by solar water heaters, it would reduce the peak load by about 100 GW.

Solar Industrial Process Heat (SIPH) is an ideal application of solar energy. As a matter of fact, 30-50% of the thermal energy needed in industrial processes is below 250?C, which can be easily provided by low- and medium-temperature solar collectors. Consequently, this application of solar energy is expected to grow as the cost of fossil fuels goes up.

In industrialised countries, 35-40% of total primary energy consumption is used in buildings. However, if the energy used to manufacture materials and the infrastructure to serve the buildings is taken into account then buildings' share of total primary energy consumption can be around 50%. In Europe, 30% of energy use is for space and water heating alone, representing 75% of total energy use in buildings.

Solar technologies can make a substantial contribution to the energy budget of modern buildings, and consequently to the world's energy use. Buildings can be the largest collectors of solar energy and therefore the electrical appliances (light bulbs, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) with innovative energy-efficient models, can reduce electricity demand and increase the significance of, e.g. photovoltaic electricity, to the whole energy budget. Passive solar building designs can reduce the conventional energy consumption by as much as 75% and PV can provide the rest. Such designs use knowledge of the position of the sun either to allow sunlight to enter the building for heating or to shade the building for cooling, and employ natural ventilation and daylighting. There is thus a growing trend towards passive solar and Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) designs. In BIPV designs, PV panels replace some other component of the building such as roof shingles, wall panels or window shades etc. PV manufacturers are developing very attractive patterns, colours and designs of panels, and architects are integrating them into buildings, making them look even more attractive. These PV panels consequently become much more cost-effective than they otherwise would. Fig. 10-7  shows an example of a PV integrated building.

Globally, about 8-10 million new buildings are constructed every year, most of them in developing countries. Large areas of these countries do not have access to grid electricity, thus making solar energy an attractive alternative. Even if only a tiny fraction of these buildings were served by solar, the implications for the solar and energy industry could be enormous, not only from a technological point of view but also from a cultural point of view. It would be a contributory factor to changing the way people think about conventional sources of energy and solar energy.

Even though solar building applications can be cost-effective, they may not happen without appropriate policy intervention. New regulations and building codes, regarding energy-saving measures and the integration of energy-efficient and solar technologies in buildings, will be necessary to accelerate the deployment of solar energy. Such policy intervention has been the secret behind several success stories in the use of solar thermal collectors: for example, the 1980 regulation in Israel requiring every new building with a height of less than 27 m to have a solar thermal system on its roof. Similar regulations adopted over the last few years by a number of large and small towns elsewhere have stimulated a significant growth in solar thermal installations.

Because buildings do not exist in isolation, the 'whole building' approach can be extended to blocks of buildings or to towns, as in the photovoltaic application shown in Fig. 10-8 . This depicts Cosmotown Kiyomino SAIZ, a complex of 79 homes built by the Hakushin Company, with the Kubota Corporation supplying a roof-integrated 3 kW photovoltaic power generation system for each house. This illustration also underlines an argument, often raised against solar energy utilisation: namely land usage. Solar energy is often seen as a 'dispersed' source of energy compared with concentrated fossil fuels and nuclear energy. This argument is misleading because the solar energy systems installed on walls and roofs in Kiyomino do not use land additional to that used for the construction of the buildings themselves. Moreover, land usage for fossil-fuel infrastructures for transportation, distribution and waste storage can be considerable. The extension of solar energy use from a block of solar buildings to an entire city is possible. There are several cities around the world that are working in this direction, aiming at greater use of solar energy within the context of a long-term plan for sustainable urban development. Such projects focus on cities as complete systems, in which passive solar heating and cooling, daylighting, solar photovoltaic, and solar thermal technologies are integrated.

In the following paragraphs the most widely used solar systems for the production of electricity, heat and fuels are reviewed.