High-Level Project Summary
Surface Solar Irradiance (SSI) is a key parameter dictating surface-atmosphere interactions, driving radiative, hydrological, and land surface processes, and can thus impinge greatly upon weather and climate. It is thereby a prerequisite of many studies and applications. Estimating SSI from satellites began in the 1960s, and is currently the principal way to map SSI spatiotemporal distributions from regional to global scales. Starting from an overview of historical studies carried out in the past several decades, this paper reviews the progresses made in methodology, validation, and products over these years.
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Detailed Project Description
Single-axis solar tracking systems follow the solar by moving in a single axis (vertical or horizontal). Generally, the inclination angle is adjusted manually at certain intervals during the year and automatic movement is provided in the east–west direction. Single-axis systems are more cost-effective than two-axis systems but have lower yields in terms of efficiency. Single-axis solar tracking systems are moved on the vertical or horizontal axis depending on the solar trajectory and the weather condition [41,42]. Fig. 2.16A schematically illustrates the single-axis solar tracking following the azimuth angle.3 Floating Roundabout Solar Tracking
The roundabouts, starting with the first solutions of the 1990s in Australia, are emerging worldwide as a tool to break down the statistics on car accidents and Europe encourages and promotes this technique as a solution to the problems of urban and highway traffic.
These are mostly circular areas, with a diameter varying from 10 to 100 m or more, which are sometimes transformed into green or decorative spaces. More often, they host lampposts or telecommunication antennas and require monitoring and maintenance by local authorities.
The Roundabout solar tracking (RAST) system consists in equipping the roundabout with a rotating platform that houses the PV system. RAST presents a number of engineering and logistics advantages:
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it uses spaces otherwise left to decay and with nonnegligible maintenance costs. These costs vary with the type of roundabouts and are related to the dimension and arrangement of the central island. The values ranges from €1000 for compact roundabouts to €10,000 for greater diameters [12];
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it integrates the urban and suburban policies for land management;
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it is visible to the public, thus drastically reducing insurance costs, which are high for PV plants;
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in most cases there is already a grid connection because of the presence of lighting systems or of telecommunication antennas, which however do not preclude the use of a PV system;
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it can provide a significant contribution to the national PV parks. As an example, in Italy there are over 500,000 km of streets containing more than 10,000 roundabouts and this number is still rising. Therefore it is possible, with proper planning and intervening in thousands of large roundabouts, to raise the RAST parks to 1000 MW.
Fig. 3A and B illustrates the RAST project for a location near Navacchio (Pisa, Italy). From the point of view of safety and resistance to atmospheric agents the platform has characteristics of reliability and robustness comparable with those of a fixed installation on the ground.
Space Agency Data
The authors designed the control elements with two photosensitive sensors [light-dependent resistor (LDR)] and a relay-based single-axis controllable solar tracking system with a servo motor Op-Amp. Developed using maximum power point tracking (MPPT) to capture maximum sun intensity, the system is shown in the simulation created with the help of MATLAB software, which provides more efficiency. Therefore a uniaxial controlled solar tracking system created using MPPT has been proposed to obtain more efficiency from solar energy. In the simulation results obtained, the authors suggested that the single-axis tracker system makes more use of solar radiation and therefore will be more efficient than other systems (Jadli, Uniyal, & Uniyal, 2018).
A solar tracking system was proposed to generate more energy using solar energy throughout the day. In the proposed system, the panel is provided to follow the sun with the help of a direct current (DC) motor controlled using photosensitive sensors. This designed system was operated in the same period with the system using fixed panels and their production was compared. In the results obtained, the authors concluded that the proposed system produces 1742.88-W energy, whereas the fixed system produces 829.6-W energy. The authors emphasized that the single-axis tracking system proposed is more efficient with the results analyzed (Mehdi et al., 2019).
A comparison of the performance of single-axis controlled, dual-axis controlled, and fixed axis controlled systems for cost and efficiency in solar energy use in Bangladesh was presented. Using the same panels and considering cloudiness, the performance of the three systems was monitored for a year. Considering the turbidity rates in the results obtained, it has been determined that the production of single-axis and double-axis controlled systems is close to each other. Also, the authors emphasized that the maintenance and operating cost of the double-axis tracking system is higher compared to the single-axis tracking system; therefore considering the weather conditions in Bangladesh, the single-axis tracking system will be more efficient (Fahad et al., 2019).
Hackathon Journey
This experience is a quite challenging and hark works for all of us. However, we count ourselves lucky as we have an opportunity to work as a team to solve the challenge faced by the worlds. In facts, our teammates have a passion in universe. When solving the challenge, we explore a lot of interesting things that we have never seen before. We learn the new space weather that is Carrington event. As our team share the same interest in universe, we want to give ourselves a try in something we have never hear before. The curiosity in studying more about the universe inspire our team to choose this challenge. I strongly believe that preparation for tomorrow is hard work today. We always do preparation early and never let our works to do in tomorrow. Apart from that, team cooperation is the most important things in a team. As a leader, I have a responsibility in make a comfortable and suitability condition for my teams. I will make sure that evert team members have done their works and hand in on time. In 1 and 2 October 2022 , we have six online meeting to discuss the challenge and something else. As we are a team , there are some quarrel and fight as all of us have different opinion. As a team leader, I need to calm down them and listen to their opinion. Luckily, we can bury the hatchet after the quarrel. At the last day we manage to hand in our project on time. I would like thank to all of my team members. They do not get enough sleep in this two days to solve the challenge. If I have opportunity next time to take part in Hackathon again, I would like to be team with them again！
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