A special collection to address challenges and interdisciplinary frontiers in solar energy meteorology
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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This special topic on Solar Energy Meteorology highlights the many variables, including cloudy conditions and energy conversion, that pose significant scientific challenges to solar energy efficiency.
view moreCredit: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
Solar energy has emerged as one of the most efficient and cost-effective renewable energy technologies capable of reducing the planet's dependence on fossil fuels.
Solar energy efficiency isn't entirely trivial, however. In the past, most solar energy challenges were delegated solely to solar engineers. Today, an entire new field of meteorology, solar energy meteorology, has been developed specifically to address various challenges of converting solar energy into electricity.
One aspect of solar energy meteorology is to assess the long-term solar resource availability in various locations to develop solar electricity farms in the most efficient and cost-effective locations. On the other hand, solar energy meteorology must also address the second-to-second and day-to-day fluctuations in solar energy availability due to weather variations. This solar forecasting arm of solar energy meteorology helps energy providers efficiently schedule the use of different power systems in the shorter term.
Atmospheric scientists and solar energy engineers have approached the solar efficiency problem — understandably — from the perspective of their own disciplines and expertise. In order to effectively identify and address all of the challenges facing solar energy meteorology, however, the two fields must collaborate to tackle issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.
To highlight the pressing nature of this dilemma and the most recent developments in the field, the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science recently published a special topic on solar energy meteorology. This issue consists of five invited articles featuring progress and challenges in satellite remote sensing, solar system modeling, photovoltaic power forecasting, thermal balance of solar panels and decarbonization strategy.
“In the meteorological community, there is a common misconception that obtaining precise and accurate meteorological data will automatically lead to high-quality solar power estimates,” said Dazhi Yang, professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology and one of the guest editors of the special topic.
The accuracy of meteorological data is only part of the solar energy efficiency hurdle that must be addressed by solar energy meteorology, however. “[In this special topic issue,] we stress that as an emerging interdisciplinary field, solar meteorology urgently requires both the atmospheric science and solar engineering communities to set aside disciplinary biases and gain a deeper understanding of the critical scientific and technical issues in interdisciplinary research,” said Yang.
“An additional aim of this special topic is to share expert perspectives and showcase the latest research advancements in solar meteorology, enabling atmospheric scientists to access relevant information when developing technologies and methods for solar energy applications,” said Xiang'ao Xia, from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP), also the guest editor of the special topic.
The invited articles, contributed by established scientists from China, USA, Germany and Hungary, each feature a different aspect of solar energy meteorology, ranging from power forecasting to calculation:
- “Fengyun radiation services for solar energy meteorology: Status and perspective” written by Xia, Yang and Yanbo Shen summarizes the current surface solar irradiance information, or amount of radiant energy a specific area of the Earth receives from the sun, obtained by the Fengyun-4 satellites. The paper also analyzes how the coverage, timeliness and accessibility of this and future information from a new generation of satellites can be leveraged for future solar energy meteorology forecasting.
- “Strategic Global Deployment of Photovoltaic Technology: Balancing Economic Capacity and Decarbonization Potential”, a perspectives article written by Ian Marius Peters from the Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Helmholtz-Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energies (HI ERN) in Erlangen, Germany stresses that the most effective means of global decarbonization may be counterintuitive. There is currently a mismatch worldwide between countries that can afford to install solar power panels and those where solar panel installation would maximize global decarbonization benefits. The paper argues that society must acknowledge this discrepancy and organize efforts to make capital and other resources available to less economically developed countries to increase global decarbonization efficiency.
- “A Second Tutorial Review of the Solar Power Curve: Applications in Energy Meteorology” focuses on the various applications of solar power curves, which are used to estimate the amount of electricity generated based on several meteorological variables. This comprehensive review is contributed by scientists from School of Electrical Engineering and Automation at the Harbin Institute of Technology, IAP/CAS, the Public Meteorological Service Centre at the China Meteorological Administration, and the Department of Energy Engineering and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Budapest, Hungary
- “Improving Model Chain Approaches for Probabilistic Solar Energy Forecasting through Post-processing and Machine Learning” argues that post-processing steps that account for systemic errors in forecast models improve the accuracy of solar power production forecasts. The team used both machine-learning (ML) and statistical post-processing methods, and the ML strategy slightly outperformed the statistical strategy. It's written by Nina Horat and Sina Klerings from the Institute of Statistics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany and Sebastian Lerch from Institute of Statistics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies in Heidelberg, Germany
- “Energy Meteorology for the Evaluation of Solar Farm Thermal Impacts on Desert Habitats” focuses on the effects of large solar power plant impacts on the environment and how the environment can affect the power plant. While some of the variables, such as temperature, are easier to quantify, others, including dust concentration, ground condition and panel angle, are more difficult to assess. These factors, among others, contribute to the complexity of determining the impact of solar farms on their environment and vice versa. The article is written by Carlos F. M. Coimbra from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, Center of Excellence in Renewable Resource Integration and Center for Energy Research at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, California.
While there is still much work to be done in the field of solar energy meteorology, Yang and Xia hope that highlighting current developments in the field will encourage atmospheric scientists and solar energy scientists to collaborate and overcome many of these challenges. “The current transition in the energy mix — from one dominated by fossil fuels to one primarily reliant on renewables — is not solely the responsibility of energy engineers. We want to take this opportunity to emphasize that understanding the mechanisms and uncertainties involved in solar energy harvesting, as well as how this energy is delivered to users via the electricity grid, is very crucial.”They said in the preface of the special topic.
Journal
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
Article Publication Date
28-Dec-2024
Solar-powered charging! Korea’s first self-charging supercapacitors developed
DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)
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Jeongmin Kim, Senior Researcher at DGIST (President Kunwoo Lee), in joint research with Damin Lee, Researcher at the RLRC[1] of Kyungpook National University (President Young-woo Heo), has developed a high-performance self-charging energy storage device capable of efficiently storing solar energy. The research team has dramatically improved the performance of existing supercapacitor devices by utilizing transition metal-based electrode materials and proposed a new energy storage technology that combines supercapacitors with solar cells.
□ The research team designed the electrodes using a nickel-based carbonate and hydroxide composite material and maximized the conductivity and stability of the electrodes by adding transition metal ions such as Mn, Co, Cu, Fe, and Zn. This technology has greatly improved the performance of energy storage devices, demonstrating significant advancements in energy density, power density, and charge and discharge stability.
□ Particularly, the energy density achieved in this study is 35.5 Wh kg⁻¹, which is significantly higher than the energy storage per unit weight in previous studies (5-20 Wh kg⁻¹). The power density is 2555.6 W kg⁻¹, significantly exceeding the values from previous studies (- 1000 W kg⁻¹), demonstrating the ability to release higher power rapidly, enabling immediate energy supply even for high-power devices. Additionally, the performance showed minimal degradation during repeated charge and discharge cycles, confirming the long-term usability of the device.
□ Furthermore, the research team developed an energy storage device that combines silicon solar cells with supercapacitors, creating a system capable of storing solar energy and utilizing it in real time. This system achieved an energy storage efficiency of 63% and an overall efficiency of 5.17%, effectively validating the potential for commercializing the self-charging energy storage device.
□ Jeongmin Kim, Senior Researcher at the Nanotechnology Division of DGIST, states, “This study is a significant achievement, as it marks the development of Korea’s first self-charging energy storage device combining supercapacitors with solar cells. By utilizing transition metal-based composite materials, we have overcome the limitations of energy storage devices and presented a sustainable energy solution.” Damin Lee, a researcher at the RLRC of Kyungpook National University, stated, “We will continue to conduct follow-up research to further improve the efficiency of the self-charging device and enhance its potential for commercialization.”
□ This research was conducted with support from DGIST’s Institutional Core Projects, the Early Career Researcher Projects, and the Kyungpook National University’s Regional Leading Research Center for Carbon-Neutral Intelligent Energy System. The research findings were published in the prestigious journal Energy (ranked in the top 3.2% of JCR) in December.
- Corresponding Author E-mail Address : jkim@dgist.ac.kr
[1] RLRC of Kyungpook National University: Regional Leading Research Center for Carbon-Neutral Intelligent Energy System
Journal
Energy
Article Title
Design of high-performance binary carbonate/hydroxide Ni-based supercapacitors for photo-storage systems
Article Publication Date
30-Dec-2024
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