Increasing reliable produce farming and clean energy generation in the southwestern United States will be important for increasing the food supply for a growing population and reducing reliance on fossil fuels to generate energy. Combining greenhouses with photovoltaic (PV) films can allow both food and electric power to be produced simultaneously. This study tests if the combination of semi-transparent PV films and a transmission control layer can generate energy and spectrally control the transmission of light into a greenhouse. Testing the layer combinations in a variety of real-world conditions, it was shown that light can be spectrally controlled in a greenhouse. The transmission was overall able to be controlled by an average of 11.8% across the spectrum of sunlight, with each semi-transparent PV film able to spectrally select transmission of light in both the visible and near-infrared light wavelength. The combination of layers was also able to generate energy at an average efficiency of 8.71% across all panels and testing conditions. The most efficient PV film was the blue dyed, at 9.12%. This study also suggests additional improvements for this project, including the removal of the red PV film due to inefficiencies in spectral selection and additional tests with new materials to optimize plant growth and energy generation in a variety of light conditions.
This honors thesis report aims to propose a sustainable long-term solution for providing off-grid solar energy to rural communities that lack the necessary grid energy infrastructure. With this in mind, we aim to establish the framework and documentation for people to be able to build and maintain their own off-grid solar power systems. Due to recent incentives for clean energy both nationwide and statewide, the team will discuss the current renewable energy market and the future growth potential of residential solar energy systems, which includes off-grid or remote solar. This discussion will include comparing pre-built solar systems currently offered for purchase against the proposed design outlined in this report. Notably, the outlined design has been made with an emphasis on system sustainability, low initial cost, reliability, ease of manufacturing/maintenance, and material selection. Lastly, the team will discuss the project’s approach to documentation with a user manual draft to ensure the system's long-term sustainability and troubleshooting. Although the efforts of this project have increased over time, this project remains active within the ASU EWB chapter, meaning that not all aspects described throughout this report are fully complete as future work will continue to optimize and improve the system. A rural community in northern Arizona, will be used as an example to understand a rural community's needs for designing a solar panel system that provides sufficient energy for a single household. The project was completed in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS) program and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter. Both these organizations aim to connect ASU students to the professional mentors and resources they need to design and implement low-cost, small-scale, easily replicated, and sustainable engineering projects.
temperature due to the emission of greenhouse gases, caused mainly by burning of fossil fuels, is the most prominent reason for this effect. This increase in the temperature along with the changing precipitation levels has led to the melting of the snow packs and increase in the evaporation levels, thus affecting hydropower. The hydropower in the United States might increase by 8%-60% due to Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively by 2050. Wind power generation is mainly affected by the change in the wind speed and solar power generation is mainly affected by the increase in the ambient air temperature, changes in precipitation and solar radiation. Solar power output reduces by approximately a total of 2.5 billion kilowatt- hour (kWh) by 2050 for an increase in ambient air temperature of 1 degree Celsius. Increase in the ambient air and water temperature mainly affect the thermal power generation. An increase in the temperature as per the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate change scenarios could decrease the total thermal power generation in the United States by an average of 26 billion kWh and a possible income loss of around 1.5 billion dollars. This thesis discusses the various effects of climate change on each of these four power plant types.