Thermal analysis of a portable DSSC mini greenhouse for botanical drugs cultivation

• Main Authors: L. Lu, M.E. Ya’acob, M.S. Anuar, G. Chen, M.H. Othman, A. Noor Iskandar, N. Roslan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-11-01
• Series: Energy Reports
• Subjects: Mini greenhouse; Shading mechanism; DSSC; Botanical drugs; Thermal analysis
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484719311102

Photovoltaic farms in Malaysia are being developed tremendously as a form of supporting fossil fuel setbacks in Malaysia power generation. An important parameter of the PV installation is the power (Watts) accumulated over sunlight retrieval. Considerable losses may arise from the conversion, where the efficiency is typically 15% to 23%, with the remainder becoming losses in the form of accumulated heat under the PV array or panel installations. PV heat dissipation is dependent on solar radiation, air convection and PV cell conduction. Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) has been applied as a greenhouse shading element, having the ability of enabling specified spectrum of light color penetration during electric accumulation. Furthermore, only light of wavelength between 400 and 700 nm (PAR) is absorbed by the greenhouse plants which is essential for their growth and photosynthesis. A Portable DSSC Mini Greenhouse (PDMG) can provide simple, effective and suitable light source for botanical drugs. Light which is associated with increasing temperature and heat is critical to be measured. A measurement of average heat gain flowing into a building through building envelope (OTTV- Overall Thermal Transfer Value) is a well-known method adopted in green building design. In this paper, the OTTV approach is applied to calculate heat transfer properties, from outdoor surroundings to the PDMG structure, giving justification of the PDMG thermal conditions.