Floating PVs in Terms of Power Generation, Environmental Aspects, Market Potential, and Challenges

This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordLimited reserves of fossil fuels, rising environmental concerns, and a remarkable increase in electricity demand have led to the necessity of harnessing solar energy on a large scale. For this purpose, there has been a noticeable stimulation into photovoltaic power plants (PVPPs) over the last three decades, but the land requirement for PVPPs is still a handicap in many countries since valuable lands are considered for other purposes such as agriculture and livestock. For effective conservation of valuable lands and water resources, PVPPs are preferred to be installed on various water bodies such as oceans, seas, lagoons, lakes, rivers, dams, canals, wastewater treatment plants, irrigation ponds, fish farms, wineries, reservoirs, etc. PV systems on water bodies are called floating PVPPs, and they have outstanding advantages compared with land-based PVPPs including better energy generation owing to passive cooling effects, higher system efficiency and reliability, and lower dirt and dust accumulation on PV modules thus lower operating costs. There are also some significant environmental features provided by floating PVs. Shading effects due to PV coverage reduce water losses arising from evaporation. Moreover, algae growth is limited because of mitigated solar radiation, which yields better water quality. This review presents more insight on floating PVPPs in terms of several aspects such as electricity generation, system efficiency, reliability and sustainability, experimental applications and facilities in operation, water and carbon saving as well as challenges

Meta-Design Approach to Environmental Building Programming for Passive Cooling of Buildings

Sustainable design practices are being disseminated all around the world, thanks to a growing interest by users, builders, and politicians in facing the impact of climate changes and the need for a more sustainable future. Nevertheless, although design practices include currently green issues and technologies, these are applied mainly in the last design phases in order to comply with local and/or national regulations and requirements (e.g. minimum values for the energy demand to be covered by renewable sources and for the envelope transmittance). Instead, to integrate sustainable technologies in an energy- and cost-effective way, it is necessary to deal with them since the earliest design phases, i.e. building programming and site analysis. Furthermore, passive and hybrid technical building systems (TBS) are dependent on the specific project context, and this is even more apparent for cooling. In fact, while the performance of passive heating TBS is mainly related to solar access and reduction of energy losses, the one of space cooling TBS depends on other variables such as internal heat gains, heat capacity, and wind environment. The paper describes a methodology to assess the energy- saving potential of passive ventilative systems in the earliest design phases. Site and climate aspects, together with definitions of needs and requirements for building programming, will be described. Results from an application of a method based on Givoni-Milne bioclimatic chart to evaluate the climate-dependent potential of passive system are reported. Criteria for spatial and technological integration of passive cooling systems are also presented

Early Design Strategies for Passive Cooling of Buildings: Lessons Learned from Italian Archetypes

alternative solutions are needed to reduce energy consumption in the summer season without sacrificing good comfort quality. The study of traditional archetypes, related to the specific climate regionalism of a location, shows that valid solutions are related with the inclusion of passive cooling techniques in buildings. Nevertheless, since these systems refer to a large toolbox, including different strategies and natural heat sinks, it is important to conceive their usage from early design phases in order to maximise their potential, increase their level of integration into building shapes and choose the best solutions for each climate and location. This chapter aims at translating traditional vernacular solutions for guaranteeing the indoor comfort in Italian climates into contemporary guidelines for architects