LEARNING OUTCOMES

The aim of the course is provide the students the engineering knowledge on renewable energies as a whole and to the technologies and engineering methods to exploit the solar (thermal, photovoltaics) and low enthalpy geothermal resources in the high efficiency building contest. The goals of this course are to provide the students the capabilities related to modelling and design criteria definition, energy production estimation analysis, national and international standard knowledge and application, basic economic and financial investment analysis.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of Course the student is expected to be able to:

understand engineering problems related to the exploitation of the renewable energies;

apply theories and models for energy production estimations applied to the renewable energies

develop engineering analysis and projects related to renewable energies

TEACHING METHODS

The course is based on theoretical lectures, solution of case problems and computer aided design of solar systems.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Primary energy resources: world situation, history, future scenarios. Renewable energy exploitation in the different countries and the Italian situation. Government programs and Italian laws. Solar energy: characteristics, solar angles and their relationships, solar irradiance and irradiation outside the atmosphere and at ground. Energy on tilted surfaces. Insolation data and correlations. Solar collectors, theory, efficiency calculation, plane collectors and evacuated tube collectors. Solar plants for the production of domestic hot water. Heat exchangers, plant configuration, the F-chart method. Solar cooling. Concentrators and high temperature solar plants. Solar Tracking and tracking laws. Photovoltaic systems, principles, technologies, electrical arrangements, matching, off-grid and connected systems, project criteria. Hybrid (PVT) systems. Energy from the earth: the geothermal heat pumps, the ground heat exchangers, design criteria. Analytical solutions for the transient conduction in the ground. ILS, ICS and g-function solutions for the transient conduction at ground-borefield level. Spatial and temporal superposition applied to ground source heat pump problems. The Ashrae method for BHE design. Computer aided design of solar and geothermal systems. Net present value analysis of solar and geothermal heat pump plants.

This unit contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda (in Italian and English):

3. Salute e Benessere

4. Istruzione di qualità

7. Energia pulita e accessibile

9. Imprese, innovazione e infrastrutture

11. Città e comunità sostenibili

13. Lotta contro il cambiamento climatico

3. Health and Well-being

4. Quality Education

7. Clean and Affordable Energy

9. Enterprise, innovation and infrastructure

11. Sustainable cities and communities

13. Fighting climate change

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Duffie and W.A. Beckman, Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes, John Wiley, 1991
S.Kalogirou, Solar energy engineering : processes and systems, Elsevier, 2009
D.Banks, An Introduction to Thermogeology: ground Source Heating and Cooling, 2nd Edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2012
H. Christopher, H. Armstead, Geothermal Energy, Spon, 1979
M.J. Moran, H.N. Shapiro: Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1988
A. Bejan, Heat Transfer, John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1993
T. D. Eastop, D. R. Croft, Energy Efficiency for Engineers and Technologist, Longman, 1990
S.Basta, F.Minchio, Geotermia e Pompe di Calore, Hoepli Italia, 2007
L.R. Ingersoll, O.J. Zobel, and A.C. Ingersoll, Heat Conduction with Engineering, Geological, and other Applications, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954
Lecture notes of the teacher