Solar Energy Fundamentals and Modeling Techniques - Atmosphere, Environment, Climate Change and Renewable Energy (Electronic book text)

Solar irradiation is the fundamental initiator of the different renewable energy alternatives, including wind, wave, hydrogen and biomass energy sources. Solar Energy Fundamentals and Modelling Techniques presents the methods of quantitative determination of solar irradiation incident amount on a surface on the Earth. The book collects together material from the current literature in atmospheric environmental sciences, climate change, meteorology, engineering and renewable energy, liberally illustrated by diagrams and worked examples. Solar Energy Fundamentals and Modelling Techniques provides a sound background to the underlying physical principles of solar irradiation and energy, with explanations as to how these can be modelled and applied in solar energy projects and design. Bringing together information not found elsewhere in a single source, the book includes an innovative exposition of expert system methodologies used in the domain of solar irradiation and energy. In addition to methodologies such as statistics and geo-statistics (regionalized variables), new modelling approaches such as fuzzy logic inference, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and genetic algorithm techniques are introduced, along with both classical Kriging and newly developed techniques for spatial solar irradiation modelling. Solar Energy Fundamentals and Modelling Techniques is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including energy analysts, thermal device designers, photovoltaic specialists, architects and engineers, agronomists, hydrologists, atmospheric scientists and meteorologists, climate change specialists, andenvironmentalists.