Solar Technologies for Buildings

Ursula Eicker is a physicist who carries out international research projects on solar cooling, heating, electricity production and building energy efficiency at the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart. She obtained her PhD in amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and then worked on the process development of large-scale amorphous silicon modules in France. She continued her research in photovoltaic system technology at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Stuttgart. She set up the Solar Energy and Building Physics Research Group in Stuttgart in 1993. Her current research emphasis is on the development and implementation of active solar thermal cooling technologies, low-energy buildings and sustainable communities, control strategies and simulation technology, heat transfer in facades, etc. Since 2002 she has been the scientific director of the research centre on sustainable energy technologies (zafh.net) in BadenWurttemberg. She also heads the Institute of Applied Research of the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart, where building physicists, geoinformation scientists, mathematicians, civil engineers and architects cooperate. During the last 10 years Professor Eicker has coordinated numerous research projects on sustainable communities with renewable energy systems and highly efficient buildings. The largest projects include the European Integrated POLYCITY Project, a demonstration project on sustainable buildings and systems in Germany, Italy and Spain, and the European PhD school CITYNET on information system design for sustainable communities.

Preface. Abbreviations in the Text. 1. Solar energy use in buildings. Energy consumption of buildings. Meeting requirements by active and passive solar energy use. 2. Solar irradiance. Extraterrestrial solar irradiance. The passage of rays through the atmosphere. Statistical production of hourly irradiance data records. Global irradiance and irradiance on inclined surfaces. Shading. 3. Solar thermal energy. Solar-thermal water collectors. Solar air collectors. 4. Solar cooling. Open cycle desiccant cooling. Closed cycle adsorption cooling. Absorption cooling technology. 5. Grid connected photovoltaic systems. Structure of grid connected systems. Solar cell technologies. Module technology. Building integration and costs. Energy production and the performance ratio of PV systems. Physical fundamentals of solar electricity production. Current-voltage characteristics. PV performance with shading. Simple temperature model for PV models. System engineering. 6. Thermal analysis of building-integrated solar components. Empirical thermal model of building-integrated photovoltaics. Energy balance and stationary thermal model of ventilated double facades. Building-integrated solar components (U- and g-values). Warm-air generation by photovoltaic facades. 7. Passive solar energy. Passive solar use by glazings. Transparent themal insulation. Heat storage by interior building elements. 8. Lighting technology and daylight use. Introduction to lighting and daylighting technology. Solar irradiance and light flux. Luminance and illuminance. Sky luminance intensity models. Light measurements. Daylight distribution in interior spaces. References. Index.