Solar Thermal Energy

This volume of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Second Edition, describes technologies that actively convert solar radiation into useful heat in a temperature range from just above ambient up to more than 1,000°C. Applications cover a broad range of energy services such as space heating, cooking, domestic hot water supply, electrical power generation, and high temperature thermochemical processes. The major developments that have led to currently available technologies for solar thermal energy applications were initiated mainly after the first oil shock in 1973. Solar thermal energy is widely used already for heating purposes (water, space) in the "low" temperature range up to about 100°C employing mainly nonconcentrating collectors, whereas higher temperatures can be achieved with more sophisticated solar collector technologies. Temperatures over 200°C typically require concentrating solar radiation using mirror systems. Several different technologies are described in detail in this volume, including solar collector systems in the lower temperature range, the direct use of solar radiation for food processing, namely cooking and drying, the production of electricity through conversion of solar radiation first to heat, driving a mechanical conversion system coupled to an electric generator, the use of solar radiation to drive chemical processes, and many more.

About the Author: Spiros Alexopoulos teaches Technical Thermodynamics at FH Aachen. He is a member of the board of directors of Solar-Institut Jülich.
Soteris Kalogirou is a Lecturer in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences and Engineering at the Cyprus University of Technology. He received his basic degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Higher Technical Institute (1982) his Masters (MPhil) in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic of Wales (1991) and his doctorate (Ph.D) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Glamorgan, Wales, UK (1995). He was employed as an engineering consultant by Intersol Engineering from 1982 to 1987 and in various posts in the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Practice Departments of the Higher Technical Institute from 1987 to 2007. In 2008 he was transferred as an Instructor at the Cyprus University of Technology. His research interests include solar thermal collectors (flat-plate, integrated and concentrating) thermosyphon and forced circulation hot water production systems, computer simulation and optimization of solar systems, seawater desalination using solar energy, use of artificial intelligence techniques for the prediction of the performance of energy and solar systems, energy conservation, absorption chillers, and thermal behaviour of buildings.