Search Results (3)

This study investigates the use of a foldable solar panel system equipped with a dynamic tracking algorithm for agrivoltaics system (AVS) applications. It aims to simultaneously meet the requirements for renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. The design focuses on improving solar energy capture while facilitating crop growth through adjustable shading. The results show that foldable panels, controlled by the tracking algorithm, significantly outperform fixed panels in energy efficiency, achieving up to a 15% gain in power generation and uniform power generation throughout the day. Despite the presence of shadows of adjacent panels in the early morning and late evening, the system’s effectiveness in creating microclimates for diverse crops demonstrates its substantial value. The foldable design not only protects crops from adverse climate conditions across different seasons but also generates energy efficiently. This demonstrates a step forward in sustainable land use and food security. Full article

Advanced coatings are essential to modern technologies as they optimise surface characteristics for different application scenarios. Transparent and self-cleaning coatings are increasingly used as protective coatings for various applications, such as foldable touchscreens, windows, and solar panels. Moreover, incorporating other functionalities such as high hardness, wear resistance, and flexibility into transparent and self-cleaning coatings is important for broadening the use cases. Although many kinds of multifunctional coatings have been developed, it is still difficult to embody several properties in one coating adequately as some properties, such as hardness and flexibility, are inherently contrastive. This review first describes basic principles, including wettability, photocatalytic reactions, photo-induced hydrophilic phenomena, and the implication of self-cleaning. The desired properties of multifunctional coatings are then listed and the methods for evaluating different properties are used. Recent progress in various preparation methods for multifunctional coatings, including the sol–gel, dip/spin, and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods, are also presented. Magnetron sputtering (MS) technology is widely used in coating preparation. Compared with chemosynthesis and CVD, MS is time-saving, suitable for industrial production, and environmentally friendly. Coatings prepared by MS usually possess excellent mechanical properties. Thus, we highlight the current research status of MS technology in multifunctional coating preparation. Moreover, according to the multilayer design structure of coatings, their optical and mechanical properties and self-cleaning ability can be controlled by combining the characteristics of different materials. Finally, combining photocatalytic materials such as TiO₂ with other materials through a multilayer structure to obtain a multifunctional coating with excellent overall properties is discussed. Full article

Jordan Valley area suffers from a lack of water because of the current political situation. Therefore, water distribution is being done on a periodic basis and farmers need to store water in artificial ponds on site so as to be able to irrigate their field during the anonymous days that water is not available from the main supply. However, artificial ponds may affect the environment negatively due to the plants that live in it such as algae, which attracts mosquitos and causes a bad smell. Thus, in this paper, a simple and low-cost photovoltaic based pumping system is proposed to inject a chemical material in the water of the artificial pond to get rid of algae. The proposed system consists of a pump that is powered by a photovoltaic module and pumps the proposed chemical material in the artificial pond using a rotary nozzle that is fixed on a pipe around the ponds. The system is affordable and reduces the production of the unwanted plants. As a result, the proposed system reduces chemical oxygen demand value, which is considered the main cause of algae blooming, from 7200 mg/L to 95 mg/L. The proposed product is powered by a 50 W foldable solar panel and it costs about 213 USD. Full article