Renewable energy

Non-conventional energy resources (KOE-074)

UNIT-1

Introduction

 The sources of energy which are being produced continuously in nature and are in
exhaustible are called renewable sources of energy (or) non-conventional energy.

 Non-conventional sources are also known as renewable sources of energy. Examples

include solar energy, bioenergy, tidal energy and wind energy.

 Renewable energy is useful energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are

naturally replenished on a human timescale, including carbon neutral sources like
sunlight,  wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. This type of energy source stands
in contrast to fossil fuels, which are being used far more quickly than they are being
replenished. Although most renewable energy is sustainable energy, some is not, for
example some biomass is unsustainable.

 Renewable energy comes from sources or processes that are constantly replenished.
These sources of energy include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and
hydroelectric power.
Various non-conventional energy resources

Natural resources like wind, tides, solar, biomass, etc generate energy which is known
as “Non-conventional resources“. These are pollution free and hence we can use these to
produce a clean form of energy without any wastage.

As the consumption of energy grows, the population depends more and more on fossil fuels
such as coal, oil and gas day by day. There is a need to secure the energy supply for future
since the prices of gas and oil keep rising by each passing day. So we need to use more and
more renewable sources of energy. For the effective exploitation of non-conventional
sources, there has been an establishment of a separate department namely “Department of
non-conventional sources of energy” by the government of India.

Availability

Renewable energy sources also called non-conventional energy, are sources that are
continuously replenished by natural processes. For example, solar energy, wind energy, bio-
energy - bio-fuels grown sustain ably), hydropower etc., are some of the examples of
renewable energy sources A renewable energy system converts the energy found in sunlight,
wind, fallingwater, sea-waves, geothermal heat, or biomass into a form, we can use such as
heat or electricity. Most of the renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from sun
and wind and can never be exhausted, and therefore they are called renewable. Renewable
energy sources include both ‘direct’ solar radiation intercepted by collectors (e.g. solar and
 flat-plate thermal cells) and indirect solar energy such as wind, hydropower, and ocean
energy and biomass resources that can be managed in a sustainable manner.

Types of Non-convention sources / Classifications

 Solar Energy

 Wind Energy

 Tidal Energy

 Geothermal Energy

 Biomass

Solar Energy

Solar energy is harnessed by converting solar energy directly into electrical energy in solar
plants. Photosynthesis process carries out this process of conversion of solar energy. In
photosynthesis, green plants absorb solar energy and convert it into chemical energy. Solar energy
is an essential energy of all non-conventional sources but its usage amount is very less. It is the most
important non-conventional source of energy and it gives non-polluting environment-friendly
output and is available in abundant.

Uses of Solar energy

 A solar cooker directs the solar heat into secondary reflector inside the kitchen, which
focuses the heat to the bottom of the cooking vessel. It has a covering of a glass plate.
They are applicable widely in areas of the developing world where deforestation is an
issue, and financial resources to purchase fuel are not much.

 Solar heaters also use solar energy to heat water instead of using gas or electricity.

 Solar cells also use solar power to generate electricity from the sun.
Wind energy

Wind energy describes the process by which wind is used to generate electricity. As the wind
increases, power output increases up to the maximum output of the particular turbine. Wind farms
prefer areas, where winds are stronger and constant. These are generally located at high altitudes.
Wind turbines use wind to make electricity. There is no pollution because no fossil fuels are burnt to
generate electricity. One of India’s largest windmill farm is in Kanyakumari which generates
380mW of electricity.

Biomass energy

Biomass is the organic matter that originates from plants, animals, wood, sewage. These substances
burn to produce heat energy which then generates electricity. The chemical composition of biomass
varies in different species but generally, biomass consists of 25% of lignin, 75% of carbohydrates or
sugar. Biomass energy is also applicable for cooking, lighting, and generation of electricity. The
residue left after the removal of biogas is a good source of manure. Biomass is an important energy
source contributing to more than 14% of the global energy supply.

Tidal energy

Tidal power is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into electricity. In areas
where the sea experiences waves and tides, we can generate electricity using tidal power. India
may take up “ocean thermal level conversion” by which it will be able to generate 50,000mW of
electricity to meet the power requirements.

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is the heat energy that we get from hot rocks present in the earth’s crust. So
Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped within the earth and but these emissions are
much lower per energy unit than the fossil fuels. This energy generally involves low running costs
since it saves 80% on fossil fuels. Due to this, there is an increase in the use of geothermal energy. It
helps in reducing global warming and does not create pollution.
Advantages / Merits of non-conventional energy resources

 Non-conventional/renewable energy is an indigenous source available in considerable

quantities to all developing nations and capable, in principle of having a significant local,
regional or national economic impact.

 There is a great scope of research and development in non-conventional/renewable energy

sectors regarding its future development and scientific utilization.

 The power plants based on renewable do not have any fuel cost and hence negligible
running cost.

 Renewable have low energy density and more or less there is no pollution or ecological
balance problem. Provide energy in environmentally benign manner.

 The use of non-conventional/renewable energy could help to conserve foreign exchange and
generate local employment if conservation technologies are designed, manufactured,
assembled and installed locally.

 Short gestation period and low investment

 Renewable Energy is Eco-friendly

 It’s a Renewable Resource

 Renewable Energy is a Reliable Source of Energy

  Leads to Job Creation

 Renewable Energy has Stabilized Global Energy Prices

 Less Maintenance of Facilities

 Boosts Public Health

 Empowering of People in the Countryside

 Renewables Save Money and Profitable

 It Can be Used to Recycle Our Waste Products

 Lower Reliance on Foreign Energy Sources

Dis advantages / Demerits of non-conventional energy resources

 One of the major disadvantages of non-renewable energy is that it is time-consuming.

Mining of coal, searching for oil, installing oil drills, building oil rigs, inserting pipes to
extract and the transportation of natural gases are very time-consuming processes. They also
take a lot of effort.

 Non- renewable energy can be dangerous and cause respiratory problems to humans
because sources like fossil fuels emit gases such as carbon monoxide.

 The Electricity Generation Capacity is Still Not Large Enough

 Renewable Energy Can be Unreliable

 Low-efficiency Levels

 Requires a Huge Upfront Capital Outlay

  Takes a Lot of Space to Install

 Expensive Storage Costs

 Not Always a Commercially-viable Option

 It Still Generates Pollution

Solar Cells

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly
into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a
form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such
as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often
the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels. The
common single junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of
approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.

Solar cells are described as being photovoltaic, irrespective of whether the source is sunlight or an
artificial light. In addition to producing energy, they can be used as a photodetector (for
example infrared detectors), detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation near the visible range,
or measuring light intensity.

Theory of Solar cells

 The theory of solar cells explains the process by which light energy in photons is

converted into electric current when the photons strike a suitable semiconductor device.
The theoretical studies are of practical use because they predict the fundamental limits of
a solar cell, and give guidance on the phenomena that contribute to losses and solar cell
efficiency.

 Working Explanation
 a. Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semi-conducting
materials.

b. Electrons (negatively charged) are knocked loose from their atoms as they are
excited. Due to their special structure and the materials in solar cells, the electrons
are only allowed to move in a single direction. The electronic structure of the
materials is very important for the process to work, and
often silicon incorporating small amounts of boron or phosphorus is used in
different layers.

c. An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct
current (DC) electricity.

 Photogeneration of Charge carriers: When a photon hits a piece of silicon, one of three

things can happen:

a. The photon can pass straight through the silicon — this (generally) happens
for lower energy photons.

b. The photon can reflect off the surface.

c. The photon can be absorbed by the silicon if the photon energy is higher than
the silicon band gap value. This generates an electron-hole pair and sometimes
heat depending on the band structure.

 The p-n junction: The most commonly known solar cell is configured as a large-area p-n
junction made from silicon. As a simplification, one can imagine bringing a layer of n-type
silicon into direct contact with a layer of p-type silicon. In practice, p-n junctions of silicon
solar cells are not made in this way, but rather by diffusing an n-type dopant into one side of
a p-type wafer (or vice versa).
 Charge carrier separation : There are two causes of charge carrier motion and separation
in a solar cell

a. Drift of carriers, driven by the electric field, with electrons being pushed one way and
holes the other way

b. Diffusion of carriers from zones of higher carrier concentration to zones of lower carrier
concentration (following a gradient of chemical potential).

These two "forces" may work one against the other at any given point in the cell. For
instance, an electron moving through the junction from the p region to the n region (as in the
diagram at the beginning of this article) is being pushed by the electric field against the
concentration gradient. The same goes for a hole moving in the opposite direction.
Band diagram of a silicon solar cell, corresponding to very low current (horizontal Fermi level), very low voltage (metal
valence bands at same height), and therefore very low illumination

Solar cell materials

Solar cells are typically named after the semiconducting material they are made of.
These materials must have certain characteristics in order to absorb sunlight. Some cells are
designed to handle sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface, while others are optimized for use in
space. Solar cells can be made of only one single layer of light-absorbing material (single-junction)
or use multiple physical configurations (multi-junctions) to take advantage of various absorption
and charge separation mechanisms.

Solar cells can be classified into first, second and third generation cells. The first generation cells—
also called conventional, traditional or wafer-based cells—are made of crystalline silicon, the
commercially predominant PV technology, that includes materials such
as polysilicon and monocrystalline silicon. Second generation cells are thin film solar cells, that
include amorphous silicon, CdTe and CIGS cells and are commercially significant in utility-
scale photovoltaic power stations, building integrated photovoltaics or in small stand-alone power
system. The third generation of solar cells includes a number of thin-film technologies often
described as emerging photovoltaics—most of them have not yet been commercially applied and
are still in the research or development phase. Many use organic materials,
often organometallic compounds as well as inorganic substances. Despite the fact that their
efficiencies had been low and the stability of the absorber material was often too short for
commercial applications, there is a lot of research invested into these technologies as they promise
to achieve the goal of producing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells.

a. Crystalline silicon: By far, the most prevalent bulk material for solar cells is crystalline
silicon (c-Si), also known as "solar grade silicon". Bulk silicon is separated into multiple
categories according to crystallinity and crystal size in the resulting ingot, ribbon or wafer.
These cells are entirely based around the concept of a p-n junction. Solar cells made of c-Si
are made from wafers between 160 and 240 micrometers thick.
b. Thin film: Thin-film technologies reduce the amount of active material in a cell. Most
designs sandwich active material between two panes of glass. Since silicon solar panels only
use one pane of glass, thin film panels are approximately twice as heavy as crystalline
silicon panels, although they have a smaller ecological impact (determined from life cycle
analysis).

c. Multijunction cells: Multi-junction cells consist of multiple thin films, each essentially a
solar cell grown on top of another, typically using metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy.
Each layer has a different band gap energy to allow it to absorb electromagnetic
radiation over a different portion of the spectrum. Multi-junction cells were originally
developed for special applications such as satellites and space exploration, but are now
used increasingly in terrestrial concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), an emerging
technology that uses lenses and curved mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto small, highly
efficient multi-junction solar cells. By concentrating sunlight up to a thousand
times, High concentration photovoltaics (HCPV) has the potential to outcompete
conventional solar PV in the future.

Solar cell array

 A solar panel, or photo-voltaic (PV) module, is an assembly of photo-voltaic cells mounted
in a framework for installation. Solar panels use sunlight as a source of energy to generate
direct current electricity. A collection of PV modules is called a PV panel, and a system of
PV panels is called an array. Arrays of a photovoltaic system supply solar electricity to
electrical equipment.

 A single solar module can produce only a limited amount of power; most installations
contain multiple modules adding voltages or current to the wiring and PV system. A
photovoltaic system typically includes an array of photovoltaic modules, an inverter,
a battery pack for energy storage, charge controller, interconnection wiring, circuit
breakers, fuses, disconnect switches, voltage meters, and optionally a solar
tracking mechanism. Equipment is carefully selected to optimize output, energy storage,
reduce power loss during power transmission, and conversion from direct current to
alternating current.

 If photovoltaic solar panels are made up of individual photovoltaic cells connected

together, then the Solar Photovoltaic Array, also known simply as a Solar Array is a
system made up of a group of solar panels connected together.

 A photovoltaic array is therefore multiple solar panels electrically wired together to form
a much larger PV installation (PV system) called an array, and in general the larger the
total surface area of the array, the more solar electricity it will produce.

 A complete photovoltaic system uses a photovoltaic array as the main source for the
generation of the electrical power supply. The amount of solar power produced by a
single photovoltaic panel or module is not enough for general use. Most manufactures
produce standard PV panels with an output voltage of 12V or 24V. By connecting many
single PV panels in series (for a higher voltage requirement) and in parallel (for a higher
current requirement) the PV array will produce the desired power output.

Solar cell power plant

 Solar power plant also known as solar energy system, solar system, solar power
system and solar plant. It is basically a modern technique to generate electricity by solar
panel using sunlight. This system consists of an arrangement of several components
including solar panel to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, solar inverter to
change the electricity from DC to AC as well as monitoring the system, solar
battery and other solar accessories to set up a working system.
  Solar power system is based on the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either
directly by using photo-voltaic (PV) panel or indirectly by using concentrated solar
power (CSP).

 Basically, solar power plants are mainly available in three different types.
a. on grid solar power plant
b. off grid solar power plant 
c. hybrid solar
power plant. 

 Off grid solar power plant is a system with battery bank. This type of power plant
store unconsumed power in batteries, provided with the solar system. The addition
of solar inverter allows this system to convert DC electrical current coming from the
batteries into AC (alternating current). AC is the standard form of electricity for
anything that “plugs in” to utility power and is the appropriate current for common
household appliances.
 On grid systems are solar pv system that only generate power when the utility
power grid is available. They must connect to the grid to perform its function. This
type of solar system will automatically send excess power to the grid when solar
panels are overproducing. You will get credited later for this through net
metering system by Indian govt.

 Hybrid solar system or power plant is a combination of both above said solar

system. We can say that, on grid solar system + off grid solar system = hybrid solar
system.
Limitations or Disadvantages of Solar Cells

disadvantages of Solar Cell:

a. It cannot be used in absence of the light from any source.
b. It incurs very high initial cost for installation.
c. During cloudy weather, less power is being generated.
d. Very large geographical area is needed in order to deploy solar panels or cells.
e. Off grid applications require energy storage.
f. Photo-Voltaic solar cells generate direct current (DC). It requires DC appliances or inverters
(to convert DC to AC) for use with solar cells based plants.

Advantages of Solar Cells

a. A solar plant is basically a re-newable power source. Hence it is not harmful to the
environment.
b. It is very easy to operate compare to other power sources of re-newable type.
c. It does not produce any noise as it does not have any moving parts.

d. It does not generate emissions or radiations.

e. It does not require fuels or water to produce electricity.

f. Solar cells have longer life, about 30 years.

g. PV cells operate in cloudy weather conditions also.

h. It is very cost effective.

i. It needs less capital investment.

j. It is easy to maintain and it requires lower maintenance.

k. Solar cells based plant is based on modular architecture and hence it can be used as small
size power source as well as large size power source.