Renewable energy resources, such as wind, are available worldwide. Locating areas with high and\ud
continual wind sources are crucial in pre-planning of wind farms. Vast offshore areas are characterized\ud
by higher and more reliable wind resources in comparison with continental areas. However, offshore\ud
wind energy production is in a quite preliminary phase. Elaborating the potential productivity of wind\ud
farms over such areas is challenging due to sparse in situ observations. The Mediterranean basin is not an\ud
exception. In this study we are proposing numerical simulations of near-surface wind fields from\ud
regional climate models (RCMs) in order to obtain and fill the gaps in observations over the Mediterranean\ud
basin. Four simulations produced with two regional climate models are examined here. Remote\ud
sensing observations (QuikSCAT satellite) are used to assess the skill of the simulated fields. A technique\ud
for estimating the potential energy from the wind fields over the region is introduced. The wind energy\ud
potential atlas and the map of a wind turbine's functional range are presented, locating the potentially\ud
interesting sub-regions for wind farms. The ability of models to reproduce the annual cycle and the\ud
probability density function of wind speed anomalies are detailed for specified sub-regions
The estimation of the average daily, monthly and annual direct normal solar irradiation(DNI) was done in the region hosting the Mario Zucchelli Station, in the bay of Terra Nova(Antarctica). Estimates are based on measurements of direct normal (DNI), horizontal global (GHI)and horizontal diffuse (Diff.HI) irradiations, observed by a solar-metric acquisition station installedduring the XXVIII scientific expedition carried out in the austral summer 2012/2013 as part of theNational Plan of Research in Antarctica (PNRA). The contemporary observations of all threeirradiations allowed the setting up of the model for the estimation of the DNI starting from thevalues of the GHI only, validated for the weather conditions of the Antarctic region. Subsequently,the long-time data reconstruction of the DNI values thanks to the availability of several years' hourlymeasurements of GHI at the Mario Zucchelli base has been carried out using the meteorologicalacquisition data installed both at the base and in places scattered around it. The final results makefeasible the estimation of solar potential for concentrated solar technology according to longmeasurements of GHI. Overall, we propose a clean technology based on a renewable power plantand a specific example with a tendency toward a decreased human carbon footprint in theatmosphere of this protected area.
This paper presents the modeling theory and results of an innovative thermal energy storage (TES) facility, ideated, realized, and tested by ENEA (Italy). This prototype enabled the thermocline storage with molten salts in a novel geometry ideated for small-medium scale decentralized solutions, which includes two vertical channels to force the circulation through two heat exchangers, respectively, and realized for charging and discharging phases (in a single tank). A thermophysical model was built and tested properly for this particular geometry in order to analyze the temperature distribution along the radius. The numerical results well reproduced the experimental values. Furthermore, the analytical solution provided a short-cut methodology able to evaluate the thermocline distribution (along the vertical axis) depending on both the time and the radius values. Hence, the influence of the radial position (r) on the thermocline degradation was studied finding that, at the edges (r → 1), the thermocline remains unchanged for longer (around ten times more) than at the center of the tank (r → 0). The obtained numerical modeling and the analytical correlation can be useful for the process analysis to scale-up the thermal storage system and to evaluate the system reliability for industrial plants.
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