Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy http://scitation.aip.org/ Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Thermal behavior of encapsulated phase change material energy storage http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013112/1&agg=rss Hussain H. Al-Kayiem and Mohammed H. Alhamdo<br/> The performance of thermal solar systems can be enhanced by extending its operational time by the aid of thermal energy storage. In the present work, the transient behavior of packed bed thermal energy storage (TES) was investigated experimentally and numerically. An experimental setup was designed ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013112 (2012)] published Fri Feb 10, 2012. Vortex-assisted figure-eight wing power system http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013111/1&agg=rss David Labrecque, Dan Wheeler, and Eugene Katsman<br/> Due to the rising demand for low-cost clean energy, the development of efficient wind and water energy-generating systems is one of the major goals of this century. A novel approach for extracting energy efficiently from wind and water currents utilizes a tail-weighted wing following a figure-eight ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013111 (2012)] published Fri Feb 10, 2012. Potential role of renewable energy in water desalination in Australia http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013108/1&agg=rss Ben Rowlinson, Don Gunasekera, and Alberto Troccoli<br/> With projected increases in population and urbanisation in Australia, the sustainable supply of water and energy over the medium to long term will be an important challenge. In this context, meeting a part of the growing demand for urban water may involve reliance upon desalinated water in the futur ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013108 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. Thermal model for an early prototype of concentrating photovoltaic for active solar panel initiative system http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/011601/1&agg=rss Sendhil Kumar Natarajan, Matty Katz, and Tapas Kumar Mallick<br/> In this paper, three dimensional thermal model is presented for an early prototype of novel concentrating PV design for active solar panel initiative system using ANSYS, CFX package. The system consists of series of Fresnel lens for 36 x 6 series-parallel configuration solar cells, bottom encapsul ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011601 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. A first-principles density functional theory study of the electronic structural and thermodynamic properties of MZrO and MCO (M = Na, K) and their capabilities for CO capture http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013109/1&agg=rss Yuhua Duan<br/> Alkali metal zirconates could be used as solid sorbents for CO capture. The structural, electronic, and phonon properties of NaZrO, KZrO, NaCO, and KCO are investigated by combining the density functional theory with lattice phonon dynamics. The thermodynamics of CO absorption/desorption reactions o ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013109 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. Insulation and diffusion barrier characteristics of spin-on-glass layer on a stainless steel substrate http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/011603/1&agg=rss Ming-Jer Jeng, Wei-Jer Lai, Bai-Zong Chang, and Sung-Cheng Hu<br/> The efficiency of CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide) solar cells fabricated on stainless steel foil is lower than that on soda-lime glass substrates due to the lack of sodium incorporation and metal impurity diffusion. A dielectric barrier is necessary to prevent metal impurity diffusion for st ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011603 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. Effect of indium doping on physical properties of nanocrystallized SnS zinc blend thin films grown by chemical bath deposition http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/011602/1&agg=rss Meriem Reghima, Anis Akkari, Cathy Guasch, and Najoua Kamoun-Turki<br/> SnS:In thin films have been successfully prepared on Pyrex substrates using low cost chemical bath deposition technique with different indium concentrations (y=(([In])/([Sn]))=4%,6%,8%,and10%). The structure, the surface morphology, and the optical properties of the SnS:In films were studied by x-ra ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011602 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. The study of loss kinetics of current carriers in copper-indium-gallium selenide by microwave photoconductivity method http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/011604/1&agg=rss G. F. Novikov, E. V. Rabenok, M. J. Jeng, and L. B. Chang<br/> This study investigated how stoichiometry affects processes associated with current carriers by undertaking a kinetics investigation of electron loss processes in the copper-indium-gallium selenide (CIGS) samples prepared by PVD and sol-gel methods. Owing to these processes, the current carriers gen ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011604 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. Electrodeposition of stoichiometric CdTe thin film for photovoltaic application http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/011605/1&agg=rss H. Y. Ueng and S. Y. Yang<br/> Theoretical model based on the Buler-Volmer equation was developed to obtain the potential of perfect stoichiometry (PPS) under a variety of deposited conditions, and results were confirmed experimentally. It also shows that the stoichiometric deviation of CdTe thin film can be controlled accurately ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011605 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. ZnO based quantum dot sensitized solar cell using CdS quantum dots http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013110/1&agg=rss Neetu Singh, R. M. Mehra, Avinashi Kapoor, and T. Soga<br/> This paper reports the fabrication of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) based quantum dot sensitized solar cell using Cadmium Sulphide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs) capped by poly vinyl alcohol (PVA). Chemical route was used to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) as well as CdS QDs. The crystallite size of ZnO NPs was obt ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013110 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. The effect of an externally attached neutrally buoyant transmitter on mortal injury during simulated hydroturbine passage http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013107/1&agg=rss Richard S. Brown, Brett D. Pflugrath, Thomas J. Carlson, and Z. Daniel Deng<br/> On their seaward migration, juvenile salmonids commonly pass hydroelectric dams. Fish passing through hydroturbines experience a rapid decrease in pressure as they pass by the turbine blade. The severity of this decompression can be highly variable but can result in injuries such as swim bladder rup ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013107 (2012)] published Fri Feb 3, 2012. Power management strategy based on adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system for fuel cell-battery hybrid vehicle http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013106/1&agg=rss Qi Li, Weirong Chen, Shukui Liu, Zhiyu You, Shiyong Tao et al.<br/> A power management strategy based on an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is proposed to enhance the fuel economy of fuel cell-battery hybrid vehicle and increase the mileage of continuation of journey. The model of hybrid vehicle for fuel cell-battery structure is developed by electric vehicle ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013106 (2012)] published Fri Feb 3, 2012. Impacts of aerosols on available solar energy at Mbour, Senegal http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013105/1&agg=rss Mamadou Drame, Boudy Ould Bilal, Moctar Camara, Vincent Sambou, and Amadou Gaye<br/> This study aims to evaluate the available solar potential (direct normal on the overall horizontal plane) and to estimate the observed impact of aerosols on solar radiation at Mbour, Senegal (16.958 degrees W; 14. 394 degrees N) using observations from solar instruments and AERONET during 2006. Th ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013105 (2012)] published Thu Feb 2, 2012. Anaerobic fermentation hydrogen production from apple residue: Effects of sludge pretreatments http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013104/1&agg=rss Hui Wang, Hui Xu, Shenghua Ma, Zelun Zhi, Xiaofang Wang et al.<br/> Activated sludge from sewage treatment plant was tested for their suitability as inoculum source for the fermentation H production. A series of batch experiments were conducted to study the effects of various sludge pretreatments (domestication, boiling, acid, and alkali) on the fermentative H2 prod ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013104 (2012)] published Wed Feb 1, 2012. Functionalizing the rear scatterer in a luminescent solar concentrator http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013103/1&agg=rss Michael G. Debije and Wouter Dekkers<br/> Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are presented that use a rear scattering layer made of a phosphorescent material for improving the use of the incident solar light spectrum. Besides simply scattering incident light that passes through the waveguide proper, the phosphor can absorb blue light an ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013103 (2012)] published Wed Feb 1, 2012. Performance of copper coated two stroke spark ignition engine with methanol-blended gasoline with catalytic converter http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013102/1&agg=rss M. V. S. Murali Krishna, K. Kishor, A. V. S. S. K. S. Gupta, P. V. K. Murthy, and S. Narasimha Kumar<br/> This paper reports performance evaluation of two-stroke, single cylinder spark ignition (SI) engine with methanol blended gasoline (80% gasoline, 20% methanol by volume) having copper coated engine (CCE) [copper (thickness, 300 [mu]m) coated on piston crown, and inner side of cylinder head] provided ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013102 (2012)] published Wed Jan 25, 2012. Review of typical vs. synthesized energy modeling weather files http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/012702/1&agg=rss Ibraheem A. Al-Mofeez, Mohammad Y. Numan, Khalid A. Alshaibani, and Faris A. Al-Maziad<br/> This paper reviews the widely used weather file formats, namely, typical meteorological year (TMY) of evolved versions, test reference year (TRY), weather year for energy calculation (WYEC), design reference year (DRY) as well as synthetically generated meteorological year (SMY) used in energy simul ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 012702 (2012)] published Fri Jan 13, 2012. Production of bio-oil from mahua de-oiled cake by thermal pyrolysis http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/013101/1&agg=rss Vikranth Volli and R. K. Singh<br/> De-oiled cakes, a source of biomass in the form of agriculture residue, could be an ideal source for the production of bio-fuels that can be substituted with conventional fossil fuels. In this study, pyrolysis of mahua de-oiled cake (Madhuca indica) was carried in a semi-batch reactor at the tempera ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 013101 (2012)] published Fri Jan 6, 2012. Review: The use of geographic information systems in wind turbine and wind energy research http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/4/012701/1&agg=rss Tanya Christidis and Jane Law<br/> This paper is a review of wind energy articles that use geographic information systems (GIS). It is the hope of the authors that the article will inform renewable energy researchers of the potential for using GIS in their work, and geographers and spatial scientists to learn about the opportunities ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 012701 (2012)] published Wed Jan 4, 2012. Approach to designing a solar concentrator for small-scale remote power application http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/3/063114/1&agg=rss Khaled Metwally, Ahmed Makhlouf, and Lamyaa El-Gabry<br/> A small-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) unit was designed to provide electricity and hot water using an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for Egypt as part of an undergraduate capstone project. The system was designed for a target power output of 3 kW. It uses parabolic troughs to heat ethylene glyco ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 063114 (2011)] published Fri Dec 23, 2011. Climate zones and the influence on industrial nonprocess energy consumption http://link.aip.org/link/?RSE/3/063113/1&agg=rss Khaled Bawaneh, Michael Overcash, and Janet Twomey<br/> This paper begins with the recognition that climate zones influence nonprocess energy use in industrial buildings. Nonprocess energies are heating, cooling, lighting, and ventilation. Nonprocess energy data have been collected from the literature (about 68 buildings) across a wide range of climate z ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 063113 (2011)] published Tue Dec 20, 2011.