A review on factors for maximizing solar fraction under wet climate environment in Malaysia

Solar energy is the most promising source of clean, renewable energy and it has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems. However, the problem, is how best to harness this vast amount of solar energy. Nevertheless, even if highly efficient Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) could be made cheaply, there would be considerable change in solar power. This technology is expected to be more efficient and to achieve a manufacturing cost of less than $1/W near future. This paper reviews and elaborates the methodology utilized to design and fabricate the solar dish concentrator and outlines the parameters that can be used to increase the efficiency of solar fraction in parabolic dish concentrator under wet climate environment in Malaysia. The study finally provides ideas to the continually increasing ability of these technologies to concentrate and harness solar energy for electricity production and thus eliminate the growing concern over climate change and how it will hurt the region's environment, human health and economy

Prospective scenarios for the full solar energy development in Malaysia

The limited availability of fossil energy carriers and environmental impact of energy consumption demand mid- and long-term strategies both for the rational use of energy and for increased renewable energy utilization. Despite the establishment of the National Energy Policy, there is still an obstacle in reaching those objectives and targets. In the 7th Malaysia Plan for instance, the government has highlighted that a third of the Government's total allocation of RM469 million for rural electrification programmes under the has been allocated for the provision of solar powered installations for rural and remote communities. This paper outlines a detailed description of various existing solar technologies, the understanding of each technology and its associated challenges, which will provide a suitable basis to recognize advantages and drawbacks in its implementation in Malaysia. The paper finally justifies some of the barriers in promoting the full scale utilization for the solar energy in Malaysia

Solar radiation and temperature measurement of solar dish concentrator system

Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies could be one of the major contributor to worlds future energy needs and which would be cheap and clean sources of energy. This would improve energy utilization, higher conversion efficiency with reliable and affordable supply of electricity to the public. The proposed approach is using 18 inch diameter of solar dish concentrator to measure the solar radiation using the aluminium foil as a reflector. In this paper, solar radiation is collected to investigate the solar fraction on incoming solar energy in wet climate

Thermal performance of parabolic concentrators under Malaysian conditions

Renewable energy generation is becoming more prevalent on today’s electric grid. The challenges of increasing the percentage of renewable energy will be dealing with the intermittent nature of renewable sources. This thesis outlines various existing solar technologies. The understanding of each technology and its associated challenges provide a suitable basis to recognize advantages and drawbacks, more importantly it gives the technological development of solar dish concentrator. Three experimental models with various geometrical sizes and diameter of about 0.5m of solar dish concentrators are used to analyze the effect of geometry on a solar irradiation and temperature and in maximising the solar fraction under Malaysian environment. These models are used to analyze the performance of parabolic concentrating collector’s parameters such as reflector materials, aperture diameter, depth of concentrator, size of focal point and temperature at the focal point with different solar irradiations to increase the thermal efficiency. There are 3 dishes involved which described as D1, D2 and D3. D1 is having depth of 5cm, focal point of 26.45cm and D2 is having depth of 15cm, focal point 10.42cm. The reflective material of these 2 dishes are 3M aluminium films while D3 having shiny stainless steel as a reflector with depth of 10cm and focal point of 12.66cm. The absorbers were fabricated from 85cm length of copper tube of 4 mm in diameter spiralled and positioned at the focal point. Components of the concentrated solar power technology such as reflectors and turbine/engines are quite mature in the market development. However, there is opportunity for improvements where new techniques can be adopted. Solar concentrator systems are among the alternatives that can be used to develop an improved and efficient renewable energy system. The enormous solar potentials in Malaysia could be used to bringing significant social and economic benefits in both rural and urban areas. At present there are many factors that would limit the implementation of renewable energy systems in Malaysia, particularly solar dish concentrators. Thermal efficiency of the different dimensional dish concentrators are analysed using an absorber placed at the focal point. There is a significant variation in the efficiency of the concentrator with different reflective materials used. The efficiencies are calculated and results are conclusive. The 3M Silverlux aluminium films are much efficient than shiny stainless steel and increasing the area of the concentrator gives much more considerable variation in the results i.e. efficiency when comparing with the base. Overall, the efficiency of D1 and D2 is over 60% compared to D3, which is 50% in many cases (by neglecting the losses). Finally, the results conclude that concentrator D3 is less efficient compared with other two concentrators. Although the results in this thesis could be used to develop efficient solar dish concentrators in Malaysia, there is still more research need to be done in improving current technology of dish concentrator systems, as the higher the efficiency of solar dish concentrators, the greater the role of renewable energy in the near future

A review on factors for maximizing solar fraction under wet climate environment in Malaysia

Solar energy is the most promising source of clean, renewable energy and it has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems. However, the problem, is how best to harness this vast amount of solar energy. Nevertheless, even if highly efficient Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) could be made cheaply, there would be considerable change in solar power. This technology is expected to be more efficient and to achieve a manufacturing cost of less than $1/W near future. This paper reviews and elaborates the methodology utilized to design and fabricate the solar dish concentrator and outlines the parameters that can be used to increase the efficiency of solar fraction in parabolic dish concentrator under wet climate environment in Malaysia. The study finally provides ideas to the continually increasing ability of these technologies to concentrate and harness solar energy for electricity production and thus eliminate the growing concern over climate change and how it will hurt the region's environment, human health and economy.Renewable energy CSP Solar dish concentrator Solar fraction Climate change

Prospective scenarios for the full solar energy development in Malaysia

The limited availability of fossil energy carriers and environmental impact of energy consumption demand mid- and long-term strategies both for the rational use of energy and for increased renewable energy utilization. Despite the establishment of the National Energy Policy, there is still an obstacle in reaching those objectives and targets. In the 7th Malaysia Plan for instance, the government has highlighted that a third of the Government's total allocation of RM469 million for rural electrification programmes under the has been allocated for the provision of solar powered installations for rural and remote communities. This paper outlines a detailed description of various existing solar technologies, the understanding of each technology and its associated challenges, which will provide a suitable basis to recognize advantages and drawbacks in its implementation in Malaysia. The paper finally justifies some of the barriers in promoting the full scale utilization for the solar energy in Malaysia.Energy consumption demand Renewable energy Rural electrification Solar powered installations Solar technologies

A Fatal Case of Native Valve Endocarditis with Multiple Embolic Phenomena and Invasive Methicillin-Resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Bacteremia: A Case Report from the Maldives

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening condition caused by infection within the endocardium of the heart and commonly involves the valves. The subsequent cascading inflammation leads to the appearance of a highly friable thrombus that is large enough to become lodged within the heart chambers. As a result, fever, fatigue, heart murmurs, and embolization phenomena may be seen in patients with IE. Embolization results in the seeding of bacteria and obstruction of circulation, causing cell ischemia. Of concern, bacteria with the potential to gain pan-drug resistance, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are increasingly being identified as the causative agent of IE in hospitals and among intravenous drug abusers. We retrospectively reviewed de-identified clinical data to summarize the clinical course of a patient with MRSA isolated using an automated blood culture system. At the time of presentation, the patient showed a poor consciousness level, and the calculated Glasgow scale was 10/15. A high-grade fever with circulatory shock indicated an occult infection, and a systolic murmur was observed with peripheral signs of embolization. This case demonstrated the emerging threat of antimicrobial resistance in the community and revealed clinical findings of IE that may be helpful to clinicians for the early recognition of the disease. The management of such cases requires a multi-specialty approach, which is not widely available in small-island developing states such as the Maldives

The analysis on sun tracking and cooling systems for photovoltaic panels

This paper presents a review study on the effects of sun tracking and cooling systems. So far, many studies (and case studies too) have been analyzed and evaluated in the literature. Existing studies show that sun tracking system is significantly affecting energy generation capacity of photovoltaic panel. Other effecting parameter is the cooling system which has small effect on PV panel power generation but this totally depends on the location of installation system. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved