Low-cost irradiance sensors for irradiation assessments inside tree canopies.

The solar irradiation that a crop receives is directly related to the physical and biological processes that affect the crop. However, the assessment of solar irradiation poses certain problems when it must be measured through fruit inside the canopy of a tree. In such cases, it is necessary to check many test points, which usually requires an expensive data acquisition system. The use of conventional irradiance sensors increases the cost of the experiment, making them unsuitable. Nevertheless, it is still possible to perform a precise irradiance test with a reduced price by using low-cost sensors based on the photovoltaic effect. The aim of this work is to develop a low-cost sensor that permits the measurement of the irradiance inside the tree canopy. Two different technologies of solar cells were analyzed for their use in the measurement of solar irradiation levels inside tree canopies. Two data acquisition system setups were also tested and compared. Experiments were performed in Ademuz (Valencia, Spain) in September 2011 and September 2012 to check the validity of low-cost sensors based on solar cells and their associated data acquisition systems. The observed difference between solar irradiation at high and low positions was of 18.5% ± 2.58% at a 95% confidence interval. Large differences were observed between the operations of the two tested sensors. In the case of a-Si cells based mini-modules, an effect of partial shadowing was detected due to the larger size of the devices, the use of individual c-Si cells is recommended over a-Si cells based mini-modules.

Degradação de paracetamol empregando tecnologia oxidativa avançada baseada em fotocatálise heterogênea usando irradiação artificial e solar

In this work, the oxidation and mineralization of paracetamol, based in an advanced oxidative process promoted by heterogeneous photocatalysis, was evaluated. The action of two photocatalysts (titanium dioxide, and a composite based on the association between titanium dioxide and zinc phthalocyanine dye) was studied. First of all, experiments in laboratory scale were performed using as radiation font a 400 W high pressure mercury lamp. The mineralization of paracetamol, promoted by both photocatalysts, was evaluated working with 4L of solution containing 10 mg L-1 of paracetamol and 100 mg L-1 of photocatalyst. To find the best experimental conditions, the influence of hydrogen peroxide concentration and pH was evaluated for the reactions. The best results for the reactions in laboratory scale was obtained using 33,00 mg L-1 of hydrogen peroxide in natural pH (6,80). Under these conditions, 100% oxidation was reached in just 40 minutes of reaction using TiO2 P25, while the mineralization was 78%. Using the composite, the mineralization was 63% in 2 hours of reaction and a oxidation of almost 100% was reached after 60 minutes. A CPC reactor (compound parabolic concentrator) was employed in the expanded work scale, using the sun as irradiation source. In this case the experiments were performed using 50 L of aqueous solution containing 10 mg L-1 of paracetamol and 100 mg L-1 of photocatalyst. The assays were done at pH 3,00 and natural pH (6,80). The used concentration of hydrogen peroxide was 33,00 mg L-1, adopted after laboratory scale studies. The reaction at pH 3,00 shows to be more advantageous, since under natural pH (6,80), the use of deionized water was necessary to prepare the solutions, probably because the deleterious action of carbonate ions, known hydroxyl radical scavengers. Using solar irradiation, the reaction mediated by the composite was more efficient when compared with the assays under laboratory scale since the composite presents the advantage of promoting a better use of visible radiation. Under these conditions, the mineralization increased from 40% to 56% under pH 3,00. At natural pH the oxidation occurred more slowly and the mineralization decreased from 56% to 50%. Thus, the use of pH 3,00 will be more interesting in real scale applications, even if it is necessary the pH correction before the discard of the treated effluent to the environment.

Exergetic, energetic, economic and environmental evaluation of concentrated solar power plants in Libya

The PhD project addresses the potential of using concentrating solar power (CSP) plants as a viable alternative energy producing system in Libya. Exergetic, energetic, economic and environmental analyses are carried out for a particular type of CSP plants. The study, although it aims a particular type of CSP plant – 50 MW parabolic trough-CSP plant, it is sufficiently general to be applied to other configurations. The novelty of the study, in addition to modeling and analyzing the selected configuration, lies in the use of a state-of-the-art exergetic analysis combined with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The modeling and simulation of the plant is carried out in chapter three and they are conducted into two parts, namely: power cycle and solar field. The computer model developed for the analysis of the plant is based on algebraic equations describing the power cycle and the solar field. The model was solved using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software; and is designed to define the properties at each state point of the plant and then, sequentially, to determine energy, efficiency and irreversibility for each component. The developed model has the potential of using in the preliminary design of CSPs and, in particular, for the configuration of the solar field based on existing commercial plants. Moreover, it has the ability of analyzing the energetic, economic and environmental feasibility of using CSPs in different regions of the world, which is illustrated for the Libyan region in this study. The overall feasibility scenario is completed through an hourly analysis on an annual basis in chapter Four. This analysis allows the comparison of different systems and, eventually, a particular selection, and it includes both the economic and energetic components using the “greenius” software. The analysis also examined the impact of project financing and incentives on the cost of energy. The main technological finding of this analysis is higher performance and lower levelized cost of electricity (LCE) for Libya as compared to Southern Europe (Spain). Therefore, Libya has the potential of becoming attractive for the establishment of CSPs in its territory and, in this way, to facilitate the target of several European initiatives that aim to import electricity generated by renewable sources from North African and Middle East countries. The analysis is presented a brief review of the current cost of energy and the potential of reducing the cost from parabolic trough- CSP plant. Exergetic and environmental life cycle assessment analyses are conducted for the selected plant in chapter Five; the objectives are 1) to assess the environmental impact and cost, in terms of exergy of the life cycle of the plant; 2) to find out the points of weakness in terms of irreversibility of the process; and 3) to verify whether solar power plants can reduce environmental impact and the cost of electricity generation by comparing them with fossil fuel plants, in particular, Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) plant and oil thermal power plant. The analysis also targets a thermoeconomic analysis using the specific exergy costing (SPECO) method to evaluate the level of the cost caused by exergy destruction. The main technological findings are that the most important contribution impact lies with the solar field, which reports a value of 79%; and the materials with the vi highest impact are: steel (47%), molten salt (25%) and synthetic oil (21%). The “Human Health” damage category presents the highest impact (69%) followed by the “Resource” damage category (24%). In addition, the highest exergy demand is linked to the steel (47%); and there is a considerable exergetic demand related to the molten salt and synthetic oil with values of 25% and 19%, respectively. Finally, in the comparison with fossil fuel power plants (NGCC and Oil), the CSP plant presents the lowest environmental impact, while the worst environmental performance is reported to the oil power plant followed by NGCC plant. The solar field presents the largest value of cost rate, where the boiler is a component with the highest cost rate among the power cycle components. The thermal storage allows the CSP plants to overcome solar irradiation transients, to respond to electricity demand independent of weather conditions, and to extend electricity production beyond the availability of daylight. Numerical analysis of the thermal transient response of a thermocline storage tank is carried out for the charging phase. The system of equations describing the numerical model is solved by using time-implicit and space-backward finite differences and which encoded within the Matlab environment. The analysis presented the following findings: the predictions agree well with the experiments for the time evolution of the thermocline region, particularly for the regions away from the top-inlet. The deviations observed in the near-region of the inlet are most likely due to the high-level of turbulence in this region due to the localized level of mixing resulting; a simple analytical model to take into consideration this increased turbulence level was developed and it leads to some improvement of the predictions; this approach requires practically no additional computational effort and it relates the effective thermal diffusivity to the mean effective velocity of the fluid at each particular height of the system. Altogether the study indicates that the selected parabolic trough-CSP plant has the edge over alternative competing technologies for locations where DNI is high and where land usage is not an issue, such as the shoreline of Libya.

Cálculo espectral de la irradiación solar directa, difusa y global en Heredia, Costa Rica (ING)

A clear sky solar spectral model which describes the irradiation flux has been tested experimentally in Heredia, Costa Rica. A description of the model and comparisons with radiation data are presented. The model computes spectral fluxes of direct, diffuse and global solar irradiation incident on a horizontal surface. Necessary inputs include latitude, altitude, and surface albedo as characteristics of a location as well as the atmospheric characteristics: turbidity, precipitable water vapor, and total ozone content. The results evidence a satisfactory agreement.

Cross-correlations between weather variables in Australia

The information on climate variations is essential for the research of many subjects, such as the performance of buildings and agricultural production. However, recorded meteorological data are often incomplete. There may be a limited number of locations recorded, while the number of recorded climatic variables and the time intervals can also be inadequate. Therefore, the hourly data of key weather parameters as required by many building simulation programmes are typically not readily available. To overcome this gap in measured information, several empirical methods and weather data generators have been developed. They generally employ statistical analysis techniques to model the variations of individual climatic variables, while the possible interactions between different weather parameters are largely ignored. Based on a statistical analysis of 10 years historical hourly climatic data over all capital cities in Australia, this paper reports on the finding of strong correlations between several specific weather variables. It is found that there are strong linear correlations between the hourly variations of global solar irradiation (GSI) and dry bulb temperature (DBT), and between the hourly variations of DBT and relative humidity (RH). With an increase in GSI, DBT would generally increase, while the RH tends to decrease. However, no such a clear correlation can be found between the DBT and atmospheric pressure (P), and between the DBT and wind speed. These findings will be useful for the research and practice in building performance simulation.

A statistical approach to quantify the impact on voltage quality caused by PV generators

A probabilistic method is proposed to evaluate voltage quality of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) power systems. The random behavior of solar irradiation is described in statistical terms and the resulting voltage fluctuation probability distribution is then derived. Reactive power capabilities of the PV generators are then analyzed and their operation under constant power factor mode is examined. By utilizing the reactive power capability of the PV-generators to the full, it is shown that network voltage quality can be greatly enhanced.

Experimente über die Wirkung von UV-B auf pelagische Fischembryonen in einem Sonnenscheinsimulator

One of the supposed effects of the observed ozone depletion is the increase of solar UV-B irradiation at the seasurface. This will cause an impact on certain compartments of marine ecosystems. Especially, sensitive developmental stages of pelagic fish embryos might be affected. Embryos of dab (Limanda limanda) and plaice (Pleuronectes plalessa) were experimentally exposed 10 different amounts of UVB irradiation in a sunshine simulator. This programmable device allows the dosage of realistic solar irradiation in quality and guantity. Experiments were carried out in March 1995 and February 1996. Either artificially inserninated and reared emhryos of dab and plaice or embryos caught in the German Bight were exposed to simulated solar irradiation. The 1995 experiments served to identify the effective irradiation dosages. For the 1996 experiments irradiation applied was much lower, being dose to realistic valucs expected over the North Sea as a consequence of ozone depletion. The following end points were studied: 1. Mortality, 2. sublethal morphological effects (malformations), 3. DNA damage, 4. changes in buoyancy of embryos measured as changes in osmolarity of the perivitelline fluid. Conditions for the simulation of daylight were a c1oudless sky with a solar zenith distance of 34 % (air mass 1.2). The adopted ozone depletion was 40 % corresponding to 180 DU (Dobson Units) instead of 300 DU. In the 1995 experiments time and dosage dependent influenccs on mortality and buoyancy of embryos of dab and plaice were found. Even in those embryos which were protected from the UV-B spectral range a loss of buoyancy was registered after 12 hours in the simulator. No diffcrences in DNA integrity as determined by DNA unwinding of exposed and control embryos were found. Also with lower amounts of irradiation in the 1996 experiments dosage dependent acute mortality, malformations, and impact on the buoyancy of the emhryos was registered. Sublethal effects occurred as well in embryos protected against UV-B in the exposure chambers, but were not found in the dark controls. The impact of low dosages of UV-B on the buoyancy of pelagic fish embryos might indicate an important ecological threat and deserves further studies.

Using wildlife activity and antibiotic resistance analysis to model bacterial water quality in coastal ponds

Models that help predict fecal coliform bacteria (FCB) levels in environmental waters can be important tools for resource managers. In this study, we used animal activity along with antibiotic resistance analysis (ARA), land cover, and other variables to build models that predict bacteria levels in coastal ponds that discharge into an estuary. Photographic wildlife monitoring was used to estimate terrestrial and aquatic wildlife activity prior to sampling. Increased duck activity was an important predictor of increased FCB in coastal ponds. Terrestrial animals like deer and raccoon, although abundant, were not significant in our model. Various land cover types, rainfall, tide, solar irradiation, air temperature, and season parameters, in combination with duck activity, were significant predictors of increased FCB. It appears that tidal ponds allow for settling of bacteria under most conditions. We propose that these models can be used to test different development styles and wildlife management techniques to reduce bacterial loading into downstream shellfish harvesting and contact recreation areas.

Modeling vertical heat transport in the wave affected surface layer of the ocean

In considering the vertical heat transport problems in the upper ocean, the flat upper boundary approximation for the free surface and the horizontal homogenous hypothesis are usually applied. However, due to the existence of the wave motion, the application of this approximation may result in some errors to the solar irradiation since it decays quickly in respect to the actual thickness of the water layer below the surface; on the other hand, due to the fluctuation of the water layer depth, it is improper to neglect the effects of the horizontal advection and turbulent diffusion since they also contribute to the vertical heat transport. A new model is constructed in this study to reflect these effects. The corresponding numerical simulations show that the wave motion may remarkably accelerate the vertical heat transferring process and the variation of the temperature in the wave affected layer appears in an oscillating manner.

Photodynamic inactivation of bacteria by cationic porphyrins : their cellular targets and potential environmental applications

Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) is defined as the process of cell destruction by oxidative stress resulting from the interaction between light and a photosensitizer (PS), in the presence of molecular oxygen. PDI of bacteria has been extensively studied in recent years, proving to be a promising alternative to conventional antimicrobial agents for the treatment of superficial and localized infections. Moreover, the applicability of PDI goes far beyond the clinical field, as its potential use in water disinfection, using PS immobilized on solid supports, is currently under study. The aim of the first part of this work was to study the oxidative modifications in phospholipids, nucleic acids and proteins of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus warneri, subjected to photodynamic treatment with cationic porphyrins. The aims of the second part of the work were to study the efficiency of PDI in aquaculture water and the influence of different physicalchemical parameters in this process, using the Gram-negative bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri, and to evaluate the possibility of recycling cationic PS immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles. To study the oxidative changes in membrane phospholipids, a lipidomic approach has been used, combining chromatographic techniques and mass spectrometry. The FOX2 assay was used to determine the concentration of lipid hydroperoxides generated after treatment. The oxidative modifications in the proteins were analyzed by one-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Changes in the intracellular nucleic acids were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and the concentration of doublestranded DNA was determined by fluorimetry. The oxidative changes of bacterial PDI at the molecular level were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy. In laboratory tests, bacteria (108 CFU mL-1) were irradiated with white light (4.0 mW cm-2) after incubation with the PS (Tri-Py+-Me-PF or Tetra-Py+-Me) at concentrations of 0.5 and 5.0 μM for S. warneri and E. coli, respectively. Bacteria were irradiated with different light doses (up to 9.6 J cm-2 for S. warneri and up to 64.8 J cm-2 for E. coli) and the changes were evaluated throughout the irradiation time. In the study of phospholipids, only the porphyrin Tri-Py+-Me-PF and a light dose of 64.8 J cm-2 were tested. The efficiency of PDI in aquaculture has been evaluated in two different conditions: in buffer solution, varying temperature, pH, salinity and oxygen concentration, and in aquaculture water samples, to reproduce the conditions of PDI in situ. The kinetics of the process was determined in realtime during the experiments by measuring the bioluminescence of V. fischeri (107 CFU mL-1, corresponding to a level of bioluminescence of 105 relative light units). A concentration of 5.0 μM of Tri-Py+-Me-PF was used in the experiments with buffer solution, and 10 to 50 μM in the experiments with aquaculture water. Artificial white light (4.0 mW cm-2) and solar irradiation (40 mW cm-2) were used as light sources.

Self-Scheduling for energy and spinning reserve of wind/CSP plants by a MILP approach

This paper is on the self-scheduling for a power producer taking part in day-ahead joint energy and spinning reserve markets and aiming at a short-term coordination of wind power plants with concentrated solar power plants having thermal energy storage. The short-term coordination is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming problem given as the maximization of profit subjected to technical operation constraints, including the ones related to a transmission line. Probability density functions are used to model the variability of the hourly wind speed and the solar irradiation in regard to a negative correlation. Case studies based on an Iberian Peninsula wind and concentrated solar power plants are presented, providing the optimal energy and spinning reserve for the short-term self-scheduling in order to unveil the coordination benefits and synergies between wind and solar resources. Results and sensitivity analysis are in favour of the coordination, showing an increase on profit, allowing for spinning reserve, reducing the need for curtailment, increasing the transmission line capacity factor. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hyperspectral field measurements to determine dry matter yield and nutritive value of legume-grass swards

Summary: Productivity, botanical composition and forage quality of legume-grass swards are important factors for successful arable farming in both organic and conventional farming systems. As these attributes can vary considerably within a field, a non-destructive method of detection while doing other tasks would facilitate a more targeted management of crops, forage and nutrients in the soil-plant-animal system. This study was undertaken to explore the potential of field spectral measurements for a non destructive prediction of dry matter (DM) yield, legume proportion in the sward, metabolizable energy (ME), ash content, crude protein (CP) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of legume-grass mixtures. Two experiments were conducted in a greenhouse under controlled conditions which allowed collecting spectral measurements which were free from interferences such as wind, passing clouds and changing angles of solar irradiation. In a second step this initial investigation was evaluated in the field by a two year experiment with the same legume-grass swards. Several techniques for analysis of the hyperspectral data set were examined in this study: four vegetation indices (VIs): simple ratio (SR), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and red edge position (REP), two-waveband reflectance ratios, modified partial least squares (MPLS) regression and stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR). The results showed the potential of field spectroscopy and proved its usefulness for the prediction of DM yield, ash content and CP across a wide range of legume proportion and growth stage. In all investigations prediction accuracy of DM yield, ash content and CP could be improved by legume-specific calibrations which included mixtures and pure swards of perennial ryegrass and of the respective legume species. The comparison between the greenhouse and the field experiments showed that the interaction between spectral reflectance and weather conditions as well as incidence angle of light interfered with an accurate determination of DM yield. Further research is hence needed to improve the validity of spectral measurements in the field. Furthermore, the developed models should be tested on varying sites and vegetation periods to enhance the robustness and portability of the models to other environmental conditions.

On the natural variability of the pre-industrial European climate

We suggest that climate variability in Europe for the “pre-industrial” period 1500–1900 is fundamentally a consequence of internal fluctuations of the climate system. This is because a model simulation, using fixed pre-industrial forcing, in several important aspects is consistent with recent observational reconstructions at high temporal resolution. This includes extreme warm and cold seasonal events as well as different measures of the decadal to multi-decadal variance. Significant trends of 50-year duration can be seen in the model simulation. While the global temperature is highly correlated with ENSO (El Nino- Southern Oscillation), European seasonal temperature is only weakly correlated with the global temperature broadly consistent with data from ERA-40 reanalyses. Seasonal temperature anomalies of the European land area are largely controlled by the position of the North Atlantic storm tracks. We believe the result is highly relevant for the interpretation of past observational records suggesting that the effect of external forcing appears to be of secondary importance. That variations in the solar irradiation could have been a credible cause of climate variations during the last centuries, as suggested in some previous studies, is presumably due to the fact that the models used in these studies may have underestimated the internal variability of the climate. The general interpretation from this study is that the past climate is just one of many possible realizations and thus in many respects not reproducible in its time evolution with a general circulation model but only reproducible in a statistical sense.

What is the climate system able to do ‘on its own’?

The climate of the Earth, like planetary climates in general, is broadly controlled by solar irradiation, planetary albedo and emissivity as well as its rotation rate and distribution of land (with its orography) and oceans. However, the majority of climate fluctuations that affect mankind are internal modes of the general circulation of the atmosphere and the oceans. Some of these modes, such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), are quasi-regular and have some longer-term predictive skill; others like the Arctic and Antarctic Oscillation are chaotic and generally unpredictable beyond a few weeks. Studies using general circulation models indicate that internal processes dominate the regional climate and that some like ENSO events have even distinct global signatures. This is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to separate internal climate processes from external ones caused, for example, by changes in greenhouse gases and solar irradiation. However, the accumulation of the warmest seasons during the latest two decades is lending strong support to the forcing of the greenhouse gases. As models are getting more comprehensive, they show a gradually broader range of internal processes including those on longer time scales, challenging the interpretation of the causes of past and present climate events further.

Foreword: International Space Science Institute (ISSI) workshop on observing and predicting Earth’s energy flows

The Earth’s climate, as well as planetary climates in general, is broadly regulated by three fundamental parameters: the total solar irradiance, the planetary albedo and the planetary emissivity. Observations from series of different satellites during the last three decades indicate that these three quantities are generally very stable. The total solar irradiation of some 1,361 W/m2 at 1 A.U. varies within 1 W/m2 during the 11-year solar cycle (Fröhlich 2012). The albedo is close to 29 % with minute changes from year to year but with marked zonal differences (Stevens and Schwartz 2012). The only exception to the overall stability is a minor decrease in the planetary emissivity (the ratio between the radiation to space and the radiation from the surface of the Earth). This is a consequence of the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas amounts making the atmosphere gradually more opaque to long-wave terrestrial radiation. As a consequence, radiation processes are slightly out of balance as less heat is leaving the Earth in the form of thermal radiation than the amount of heat from the incoming solar radiation. Present space-based systems cannot yet measure this imbalance, but the effect can be inferred from the increase in heat in the oceans where most of the heat accumulates. Minor amounts of heat are used to melt ice and to warm the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.