Energy harvesting from pavements and roadways: A comprehensive review of technologies, materials, and challenges

Techno-economic analysis of off-grid photovoltaic LED road lighting systems: A case study for northern, central and southern regions of Turkey

Solar photovoltaic system design optimization by shading analysis to maximize energy generation from limited urban area

Digital numerical map-oriented estimation of solar energy potential for site selection of photovoltaic solar panels on national highway slopes

This work optimises the collection of solar energy within the period of its availability in order to increase its utilisation and also to enhance performance of heating systems that depend on it through appropriate determination of optimum solar collector tilt angles. Buoyancy-induced flow equation in solar collector pipe was established by continuity, energy and Navier–Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates. Fundamental solar radiation equations were programmed to determine optimum tilt angles in locations within latitudes 1° and 14°. A set of data recorded from a pryanometer located on latitude 6.45° north of the equator was used to generate average monthly radiation over the latitudes. Graphs obtained from latitude 6° and 13° data were analysed to investigate solar radiation on some tilt angles. The optimum tilt angles for solar heating for periodic tracking of the sun in the region within latitudes 1° and 14° were predicted as ∅ + 25° for November, December and January; ∅ + 15° for February, September and October; ∅ − 15° for August; ∅ − 25° for May, June and July; and ∅ for March and April. The results of this work confirmed that solar radiation on tilted surface increases with latitude.

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Determination of optimum tilt angles for solar collectors in low-latitude tropical region

Energy generation using solar photovoltaic requires large area. As cost of the land is growing day by day, there is a strong requirement to use the available land as efficiently as possible. Here, we explored the potential of energy generation using the land above national road highways by constructing a roof structure. This space can contribute to the energy generation without extra cost for the land. It also results in energy efficiency, for example, improved vehicle movement and minimum energy for air conditioning of vehicles. Additionally, it also helps in minimum road repairs and longer vehicle tire life due to the effect of sun shade. Thus, the expenditure for wear and tear for road repairs is reduced considerably. From our modelling study, it is observed that the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway can generate 104 MW of electricity (163 GWh of annual energy generation) and the Ahmedabad-Vadodara highway space can generate 61 MW of electricity (96 GWh of annual energy generation) for single-layer solar panels. If there are two layers of solar panels one over the other, the annual energy generation of the same highways, Ahmedabad-Rajkot and Ahmedabad-Vadodara, can be increased to 229 GWh and 140 GWh, respectively. If our concept is implemented throughout India, it not only increases the power generation to more than a few gigawatts of electricity but also has other various fringe benefits including longer road life, employment generation, reduced CO2 emission in environment, etc.

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Solar energy generation potential along national highways

The enhancement of energy using solar photovoltaic in a limited space is important in urban areas due to increased land cost in the recent years. Although there exist different procedures and methodologies to focus the sunlight on solar panels, we have suggested a new approach to enhance the energy generation from the photovoltaic panels, i.e., by keeping the two layers of photovoltaic panels as collectors of energy one above the other with the same size and orientation. Our results of two layer solar panels have shown about 75% increase in efficiency as compared to a single layer solar panel. This study can also be extended to n number of photovoltaic layers piled up one above the other, if the cost economics are justified with respect to the land cost.

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Pragya Sharma

Papers

Solar energy generation potential along national highways

Enhancement of energy generation from two layer solar panels