Thermal Performance of Solar Hot Water Systems Using a Flat Plate Collector of Accelerated Risers

This study focuses on a comparison of the performance of two similar locally-fabricated solar water heaters. One of the collectors features a new design for accelerated absorber; its risers are made of converging ducts whose exit area is half that of the entrance. The other collector is a conventional absorber, with risers of the same cross sectional area along its length. Each collector is the primary part of an indirect thermosyphon circulation solar hot water system. Both collectors face south with a fixed tilt angle of 33.

The impact of conservation on the status of the world's vertebrates.

Using data for 25,780 species categorized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, we present an assessment of the status of the world's vertebrates. One-fifth of species are classified as Threatened, and we show that this figure is increasing: On average, 52 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians move one category closer to extinction each year. However, this overall pattern conceals the impact of conservation successes, and we show that the rate of deterioration would have been at least one-fifth again as much in the absence of these. Nonetheless, current conservation efforts remain insufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss in these groups: agricultural expansion, logging, overexploitation, and invasive alien species

A Review on Recent Development of Cooling Technologies for Photovoltaic Modules

When converting solar energy to electricity, a big proportion of energy is not converted for electricity but for heating PV cells, resulting in increased cell temperature and reduced electrical efficiency. Many cooling technologies have been developed and used for PV modules to lower cell temperature and boost electric energy yield. However, little crucial review work was proposed to comment cooling technologies for PV modules. Therefore, this paper has provided a thorough review of the up-to-date development of existing cooling technologies for PV modules, and given appropriate comments, comparisons and discussions. According to the ways or principles of cooling, existing cooling technologies have been classified as fluid medium cooling (air cooling, water cooling and nanofluids cooling), optimizing structural configuration cooling and phase change materials cooling. Potential influential factors and sub-methods were collected from the review work, and their contributions and impact have been discussed to guide future studies. Although most cooling technologies reviewed in this paper are matured, there are still problems need to be solved, such as the choice of cooling fluid and its usability for specific regions, the fouling accumulation and cleaning of enhanced heat exchangers with complex structures, the balance between cooling cost and net efficiency of PV modules, the cooling of circulating water in tropical areas and the freezing of circulating water in cold areas. To be advocated, due to efficient heat transfer and spectral filter characters, nanofluids can promote the effective matching of solar energy at both spectral and spatial scales to achieve orderly energy utilization