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Results for “SHADING”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Foundation heat exchangers for residential ground source heat pump systems Numerical modeling and experimental validation

A new type of ground heat exchanger that utilizes the excavation often made for basements or foundations has been proposed as an alternative to conventional ground heat exchangers. This article describes a numerical model that can be used to size these foundation heat exchanger (FHX) systems. The numerical model is a two-dimensional finite-volume model that considers a wide variety of factors, such as soil freezing and evapotranspiration. The FHX numerical model is validated with one year of experimental data collected at an experimental house located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The model shows good agreement with the experimental data-heat pump entering fluid temperatures typically within 1 C (1.8 F) - with minor discrepancies due to approximations, such as constant moisture content throughout the year, uniform evapotranspiration over the seasons, and lack of ground shading in the model.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Guide to Home Landscaping

How to use simple landscaping methods to create shade in the summer, or block wind in the winter, to help cut heating and cooling bills.

home, landscaping, summer, shade, Energy Savers, C↗
DOE OSTI2016

Progress & Frontiers in PV Performance

PowerPoint slides for a presentation given at Solar Power International 2016. Presentation includes System Advisor Model (SAM) introduction and battery modeling, bifacial PV modules and modeling, shade modeling and module level power electronics (MLPE), degradation rates, and PVWatts updates and validation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Improvements to PVWatts for Fixed and One-Axis Tracking Systems: Preprint

This work presents improvements to the widely used NREL PVWatts photovoltaic system energy model to improve modeling accuracy for typical fixed and one axis system designs. The aim is to calculate losses in the PV system assuming typical modern system design assumptions, while maintaining simplicity by keeping the required set of input parameters small. These improvements allow users to more credibly and quickly evaluate competing system designs in early stage feasibility. Common submodels for module cover, spectral, snow, tracker, transformer, plant controller, and self-shading losses, in addition to a bifacial gain option, are incorporated into the PVWatts model, and are shown to improve PVWatts' system performance prediction capabilities without major impact to ease of use.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Single-Axis Tracked Bifacial System Results

Results of a study on single-axis tracked bifacial PV in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Includes the adaptive tracking angle, edge brightening, and torque tube shading.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Consumer Guide to Home Landscaping

Learn how simple landscaping techniques, such as using trees, vines, and shrubs to create shade in the summer or to block wind in the winter, can help cut heating and cooling bills. This fact sheet from Energy Saver includes information on summer and winter landscaping for energy savings, as well as climate-based strategies to improve comfort and reduce energy costs.

landscaping, shade, windbreaks, climate zones, Ene↗
DOE OSTI2022

Understanding Bifacial Photovoltaic's Potential

The performance of bifacial PV systems depends greatly on the installed conditions. Previous simulations and results have shown very high bifacial gain improvement, but this may not be the case for all conditions, particularly for large-scale systems with self-shading, lower-cost PV modules (PERC) which might have lower bifaciality coefficient, and field deployments over natural ground cover. But not to worry! Financial models indicate that even with these lower performance conditions, and with bifacial gain of 4%-7%, bifacial modules can still provide improved LCOE.

bifacial↗
DOE OSTI2022

Case Studies of Residential Façade Upgrades in Four Climate Zones

This paper reports on a project that explored the viability of insulation and window upgrades during siding retrofits in four case studies across the United States. Thousands of homes are re-sided every year, but only a fraction of consumers add insulation and upgrade the windows at the same time, even though a siding replacement is the ideal time to update the thermal performance of building enclosures. To better understand why more siding retrofits do not include insulation and window upgrades, research staff from several organizations collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy on a multi-faceted research project that included a cost analysis, workforce analysis, market assessment, and contractor assessment. This paper will review four in-field case studies conducted with contractors actively engaged in home re-siding projects that agreed to add rigid insulation and window upgrades as part of their projects. Findings from the case studies will be presented including contractor perspectives, cost, and technical approaches on projects, located in multiple climate zones including Bellingham WA, Jackson MS, Kalamazoo MI, and Phoenix AZ. All projects involved adding continuous rigid insulation on the exterior walls and installation of new cladding. Cladding types varied from wood and metal to fiber cement, vinyl, and traditional stucco. All homes also received a window upgrade, although upgrades varied depending on the original condition of the windows and climate; upgrades included triple-pane windows, low-e storm windows, and exterior shading. Key findings including technical approaches, opportunities, barriers, and project cost will be presented.

re-siding, insulation, rigid insulation, exterior ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Separating the effects of phenology and diffuse radiation on gross primary productivity in winter wheat

Gross primary productivity (GPP) has been reported to increase with the fraction of diffuse solar radiation, for a given total irradiance. The correlation between GPP and diffuse radiation suggests effects of diffuse radiation on canopy light-use efficiency, but potentially confounding effects of vegetation phenology have not been fully explored. We applied several approaches to control for phenology, using 8 years of eddy-covariance measurements of winter wheat in the U.S. Southern Great Plains. The apparent enhancement of daily GPP due to diffuse radiation was reduced from 260% to 75%, after subsampling over the peak growing season or by subtracting a 15 day moving average of GPP, suggesting a role of phenology. The diffuse radiation effect was further reduced to 22% after normalizing GPP by a spectral reflectance index to account for phenological variations in leaf area index LAI and canopy photosynthetic capacity. Canopy photosynthetic capacity covaries with diffuse fraction at a given solar irradiance at this site because both factors are dependent on day of year or solar zenith angle. Using a two-leaf Sun-shaded canopy radiative transfer model, we confirmed that the effects of phenological variations in photosynthetic capacity can appear qualitatively similar to the effects of diffuse radiation on GPP and therefore can be difficult to distinguish using observations. The importance of controlling for phenology when inferring diffuse radiation effects on GPP raises new challenges and opportunities for using radiation measurements to improve carbon cycle models.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Comparison of Big-Leaf, Two-Big-Leaf, and Two-Leaf Upscaling Schemes for Evapotranspiration Estimation Using Coupled Carbon-Water Modeling

Evapotranspiration (ET) is commonly estimated using the Penman-Monteith equation, which assumes that the plant canopy is a big leaf (BL) and the water flux from vegetation is regulated by canopy stomatal conductance (G s ). However, BL has been found to be unsuitable for terrestrial biosphere models built on the carbon-water coupling principle because it fails to capture daily variations of gross primary productivity (GPP). A two-big-leaf scheme (TBL) and a two-leaf scheme (TL) that stratify a canopy into sunlit and shaded leaves have been developed to address this issue. However, there is a lack of comparison of these upscaling schemes for ET estimation, especially on the difference between TBL and TL. We find that TL shows strong performance (r 2 = 0.71, root-mean-square error = 0.05 mm/h) in estimating ET at nine eddy covariance towers in Canada. BL simulates lower annual ET and GPP than TL and TBL. The biases of estimated ET and GPP increase with leaf area index (LAI) in BL and TBL, and the biases of TL show no trends with LAI. BL miscalculates the portions of light-saturated and light-unsaturated leaves in the canopy, incurring negative biases in its flux estimation. TBL and TL showed improved yet different GPP and ET estimations. This difference is attributed to the lower Gsand intercellular CO 2 concentration simulated in TBL compared to their counterparts in TL. Finally, we suggest to use TL for ET modeling to avoid the uncertainty propagated from the artificial upscaling of leaf-level processes to the canopy scale in BL and TBL.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Incorporating Electrochemical Halide Oxidation into Drift-Diffusion Models to Explain Performance Losses in Perovskite Solar Cells under Prolonged Reverse Bias

Partial shading of a solar module can induce a set of cells within the module to operate under reverse bias. Studies have shown that metal halide perovskite solar cells with a wide variety of compositions and contacts exhibit interesting behavior in reverse bias that includes both reversible performance loss and non-reversible degradation. In this paper, an advanced drift-diffusion approach incorporating an electrochemical term to explain the short-circuit, open circuit and fill factor losses that are experimentally measured after prolonged reverse bias is used. It is shown that holes can tunnel into the perovskite due to sharp band bending near the contact, accumulate within the bulk of the perovskite absorber, and trigger the oxidation of halides to form neutral halogens. The density of neutral halogens is much higher in reverse bias because there are hardly any electrons available to reduce the iodine. The resulting halogens act as bulk recombination centers. While the interstitial halogen density does decay when the cell is operated in forward bias, permanent degradation can occur if the iodine diffuses out of the perovskite layer. Finally, the ways in which changing parameters such as the mobile ion density or the series resistance at the contact can influence device performance and stability are discussed.

degradation↗
DOE OSTI2013

A Screening Model to Predict Microalgae Biomass Growth in Photobioreactors and Raceway Ponds

A microalgae biomass growth model was developed for screening novel strains for their potential to exhibit high biomass productivities under nutrient-replete conditions in photobioreactors or outdoor ponds. Growth is modeled by first estimating the light attenuation by biomass according to Beer-Lambert’s law, and then calculating the specific growth rate in discretized culture volume slices that receive declining light intensities due to attenuation. The model requires only two physical and two species-specific biological input parameters, all of which are relatively easy to determine: incident light intensity, culture depth, as well as the biomass light absorption coefficient and the specific growth rate as a function of light intensity. Roux bottle culture experiments were performed with Nannochloropsis salina at constant temperature (23 °C) at six different incident light intensities (5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 850 μmol/m2∙ sec) to determine both the specific growth rate under non-shading conditions and the biomass light absorption coefficient as a function of light intensity. The model was successful in predicting the biomass growth rate in these Roux bottle cultures during the light-limited linear phase at different incident light intensities. Model predictions were moderately sensitive to minor variations in the values of input parameters. The model was also successful in predicting the growth performance of Chlorella sp. cultured in LED-lighted 800 L raceway ponds operated at constant temperature (30 °C) and constant light intensity (1650 μmol/m2∙ sec). Measurements of oxygen concentrations as a function of time demonstrated that following exposure to darkness, it takes at least 5 seconds for cells to initiate dark respiration. As a result, biomass loss due to dark respiration in the aphotic zone of a culture is unlikely to occur in highly mixed small-scale photobioreactors where cells move rapidly in and out of the light. By contrast, as supported also by the growth model, biomass loss due to dark respiration occurs in the dark zones of the relatively less well mixed pond cultures. In addition to screening novel microalgae strains for high biomass productivities, the model can also be used for optimizing the pond design and operation. Additional research is needed to validate the biomass growth model for other microalgae species and for the more realistic case of fluctuating temperatures and light intensities observed in outdoor pond cultures.

biomass growth model↗
DOE OSTI2017

Ecophysiological variation of transpiration of pine forests: synthesis of new and published results

Canopy transpiration (E C ) is a large fraction of evapotranspiration, integrating physical and biological processes within the energy, water, and carbon cycles of forests. Quantifying E C is of both scientific and practical importance, providing information relevant to questions ranging from energy partitioning to ecosystem services, such as primary productivity and water yield. We estimated E C of four pine stands differing in age and growing on sandy soils. The stands consisted of two wide-ranging conifer species: Pinus taeda and Pinus sylvestris, in temperate and boreal zones, respectively. Combining results from these and published studies on all soil types, we derived an approach to estimate daily EC of pine forests, representing a wide range of conditions from 35° S to 64° N latitude. During the growing season and under moist soils, maximum daily E C (E Cm ) at day-length normalized vapor pressure deficit of 1 kPa (E Cm-ref ) increased by 0.55 ± 0.02 (mean ± SE) mm/d for each unit increase of leaf area index (L) up to L = ~5, showing no sign of saturation within this range of quickly rising mutual shading. The initial rise of E Cm with atmospheric demand was linearly related to E Cm -ref. Both relations were unaffected by soil type. Consistent with theoretical prediction, daily EC was sensitive to decreasing soil moisture at an earlier point of relative extractable water in loamy than sandy soils. Our finding facilitates the estimation of daily EC of wide-ranging pine forests using remotely sensed L and meteorological data. We advocate an assembly of worldwide sap flux database for further evaluation of this approach.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Rapid loss of an ecosystem engineer: Sphagnum decline in an experimentally warmed bog

Abstract Sphagnum mosses are keystone components of peatland ecosystems. They facilitate the accumulation of carbon in peat deposits, but climate change is predicted to expose peatland ecosystem to sustained and unprecedented warming leading to a significant release of carbon to the atmosphere. Sphagnum responses to climate change, and their interaction with other components of the ecosystem, will determine the future trajectory of carbon fluxes in peatlands. We measured the growth and productivity of Sphagnum in an ombrotrophic bog in northern Minnesota, where ten 12.8‐m‐diameter plots were exposed to a range of whole‐ecosystem (air and soil) warming treatments (+0 to +9°C) in ambient or elevated (+500 ppm) CO 2 . The experiment is unique in its spatial and temporal scale, a focus on response surface analysis encompassing the range of elevated temperature predicted to occur this century, and consideration of an effect of co‐occurring CO 2 altering the temperature response surface. In the second year of warming, dry matter increment of Sphagnum increased with modest warming to a maximum at 5°C above ambient and decreased with additional warming. Sphagnum cover declined from close to 100% of the ground area to <50% in the warmest enclosures. After three years of warming, annual Sphagnum productivity declined linearly with increasing temperature (13–29 g C/m 2 per °C warming) due to widespread desiccation and loss of Sphagnum . Productivity was less in elevated CO 2 enclosures, which we attribute to increased shading by shrubs. Sphagnum desiccation and growth responses were associated with the effects of warming on hydrology. The rapid decline of the Sphagnum community with sustained warming, which appears to be irreversible, can be expected to have many follow‐on consequences to the structure and function of this and similar ecosystems, with significant feedbacks to the global carbon cycle and climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Invasion promotes invasion: Facilitation of C 3 perennial grass dominance in mixed C 3 /C 4 grassland by an invasive C 3 woody sprouter ( Prosopis glandulosa )

1. In the Southern Great Plains (SGP) of the United States, encroachment of the native invasive woody legume, honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa Torr.), has caused a decline in C4 mid-grass abundance. Prosopis glandulosa invasion has also facilitated growth of the C3 mid-grass species, Texas wintergrass (Nassella leucotricha [Trin & Rupr.] Pohl) initially beneath its canopy but extending to interspaces between P. glandulosa as stand density increases. Little is known about the stability of the Prosopis/Nassella association or C4 grass recovery following P. glandulosa disturbance. 2. We quantified C3 and C4 grass production in interspaces, and basal cover in interspaces and P. glandulosa subcanopy microsites for 9 years following P. glandulosa suppression (top-kill) and compared this to untreated P. glandulosa woodland (woodland). 3. The Prosopis/Nassella association limited the window of C4 mid-grass recovery to only a few years. Nassella leucotricha dominated grass production during the first 3 years after top-kill. C4 mid-grass recovery began in year 4, but was interrupted by severe drought in years 5 through 7. Recovery resumed in year 8, due to above- average summer rainfall, but P. glandulosa regrowth was large enough by this time to limit C4 mid-grass production to a third of its potential. 4. Nassella leucotricha basal cover remained dominant and stable in woodland sub-canopy microsites, even during drought, and only briefly declined in top-kill subcanopy microsites before returning to pretreatment levels by year 8 as P. glandulosa regrowth increased and provided shade. 5. Synthesis and applications. A single suppression event had little impact on disrupting the Prosopis/Nassella association and allowing C4 mid-grass recovery. The coupling of a deciduous, N-fixing C3 woody species with this C3 perennial grass may be a vegetative “state” that is resistant to multiple woody suppression disturbances and permanently limits the transition back to C4 grassland.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Large‐ and small‐seeded species have contrasting functional neighborhoods in a subtropical forest

Abstract Forest community composition is the outcome of multiple forces, including those that increase taxonomic and functional divergence and those that promote convergence in traits. The mechanisms underlying these forces may not operate homogenously within communities; individuals of different species are never perfectly mixed, and thus, species tend to be surrounded and interact with different subsets of species. In fact, taxonomic and functional composition of neighborhoods of different focal species can be highly variable. Here, we examine whether mechanisms driving species‐level neighborhoods relate to intrinsic characteristics of focal species such as differences in life‐history and resource‐uptake strategies and in turn relate to species survival. We focus on two key characteristics: (1) seed mass, which defines a dominant axis of life‐history strategies related to stress tolerance, and (2) understory light preferences that sort species from light‐demanding pioneers to shade‐tolerant. We monitored seedling communities over 10 yr in Puerto Rico and calculated neighborhood trait dispersion in species‐level neighborhoods using seven functional traits. We examined whether species‐level characteristics, seed mass and preferred light conditions, influence patterns of functional dispersion in seedling neighborhoods using linear models. Then, we examined how species‐level functional neighborhoods impact seedling survival. We found that small‐ and large‐seeded species diverge in the type of functional neighborhoods they associate with. Large‐seeded species associate with neighbors that are more similar than expected in leaf economic traits, but more different than expected in seed mass and leaf area traits, while the opposite was found for small‐seeded species. This variation in species functional neighborhood was important in determining seedling survival. In sum, our results suggest that divergent and convergent forces do not operate homogenously over entire communities. Their relative role changes in space, and on a species‐by‐species basis, probably with a deterministic foundation linked to traits such as seed mass.

Umaña, María Natalia↗
DOE OSTI2022

Grassland productivity responds unexpectedly to dynamic light and soil water environments induced by photovoltaic arrays

Abstract Agrivoltaic (AV) systems are designed to coproduce photovoltaic (PV) energy on lands simultaneously supporting agriculture (food/forage production). PV infrastructure in agroecosystems alters resources critical for plant growth, and water‐limited agroecosystems such as grasslands are likely to be particularly sensitive to the unique spatial and temporal patterns of incident sunlight and soil water inherent within AV systems. However, the impact of resource alteration on forage production, the primary ecosystem service from managed grasslands, is poorly resolved. Here, we evaluated seasonal patterns of soil moisture (SM) and diurnal variation in incident sunlight (photosynthetic photon flux density [PPFD]) in a single‐axis‐tracking AV system established in a formerly managed semiarid C 3 grassland in Colorado. Our goals were to (1) quantify dynamic patterns of PPFD and SM within a 1.2 MW PV array in a perennial grassland, and (2) determine how aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and photosynthetic parameters responded to the resource patterns created by the PV array. We hypothesized that spatial variability in ANPP would be strongly related to SM patterns, typical of most grasslands. We measured significant reductions in ANPP directly beneath PV panels, where SM and PPFD were both low. However, in locations with significantly increased SM from the shedding and redistribution of precipitation by PV panels, ANPP was not increased. Instead, ANPP was greatest in locations where plants were shaded in the afternoon but received high levels of PPFD in the morning hours, when air temperatures and vapor pressure deficits were relatively low. Thus, contrary to expectations, we found relatively weak relationships between SM and ANPP despite significant spatial variability in both. Further, there was little evidence that light‐saturated photosynthesis ( A sat ) and quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation (ϕCO 2 ) differed for plants growing directly beneath (lowest PPFD) versus between (highest PPFD) PV panels. Overall, the AV system established in this semiarid managed grassland did not alter patterns of ANPP in ways predictable from past studies of controls of ANPP in open grasslands. However, our results suggest that the diurnal timing of low versus high periods of PPFD incident on plants is an important determinant of productivity patterns in grasslands.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗