Solar Energy Laboratory

News

04-2007: ASHRAE Journal highlights solar energy technologies for buildings:
The April issue's cover article, Solar Technology and the Building Envelope, covers net zero-energy buildings and envelope technologies integral to achieving 50%-plus energy savings. The article shows how the building itself needs to become a renewable energy source.Read article.

02-2007: Graduate student Scott Hackel receives ASHRAE grant:
Graduate student Scott Hackel was selected as a recipient of an ASHRAE Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid for the 2007-2008 academic year. The Grant is intended to encourage the student to continue his/her preparation for service in the HVAC&R industry. Only 10 to 25 grants are made each year. Scott is developing design guidelines for hybrid-ground coupled heat pumps. More.

02-2007: Professor Klein named ASME Fellow:
Sanford Klein, Ouweneel-Bascom professor of mechanical engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), an honor celebrating significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession. The honor recognizes his contributions to research and education, especially with regard to the engineering equation solver software he developed.

02-2007: Professor Klein receives Honorary Doctorate:
Sanford Klein, Ouweneel-Bascom professor of mechanical engineering, will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege, Belgium, in a ceremony on March 29. The honor recognizes his research in solar energy systems and design methods.

08-2006: Third Edition of the book 'Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes':
The third edition of the book 'Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes' by Professors John A. Duffie and William A. Beckman has been published. More , Corrigenda

05-2006: Professor Sanford Klein receives Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication:
The College of Engineering at UW-Madison granted Professor Klein the Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication, recognizing the contribution that the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) has made to teaching and learning in thermal-fluid sciences classes. More

02-2006: New Downloadable Application for PV modules:
A new application can be downloaded from our webpage, which calculates the 5-parameters required to characterize the energy conversion from PV modules, according to the model developed by DeSoto et al.

02-2006: Concentrating solar collector earns first price in creativity competition:
Angie Franzke, an engineering mechanics and astronautics senior at UW-Madison won first price in the Schoofs Price for Creativity and Tong Protopype Prize competitions, for an modular solar-energy technology that could be used to heat water and generate electricity. More

02-2006: Best Paper Award to Schuetter, Prof. Tim Shedd and Prof. Greg Nellis:
At the 22nd European Mask and Lithography Conference (EMLC) held January 23-26 in Dresden, Germany, the Best Paper Award went to Scott Schuetter, Prof. Tim Shedd, Keith Doxtator and Prof. Greg Nellis. Their paper entitled, "A Correlation for Predicting Film Pulling Velocity in Immersion Lithography," addressed issues for extending optical lithography resolution to support the manufacturing of next-generation semiconductor devices.

09-2005 : BECKMAN HONORED WITH TWO SOLAR ENERGY SOCIETY AWARDS
The International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) each presented Mechanical Engineering Professor Emeritus William Beckman with an award at a joint meeting in August. ISES bestowed its Farrington Daniels Award on Beckman for his exceptional and long-standing intellectual leadership in the field of solar energy, while ASES honored him with the Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award for his significant contributions to solar energy technology. The ISES award, granted bi-annually, is named for former UW-Madison chemistry professor Farrington Daniels. Daniels was one of the founders of ISES and served as the society’s first president. Chemical Engineering Professor Emeritus Jack Duffie received the award in 1987. The first recipient of the Daniels award in 1975 was MIT chemical engineering professor Hoyt Clarke Hottel, who with his graduate students developed the theory of flat-plate collectors.

 

Water Heater vs. Family Car CO₂ Output

The Kyoto Protocol requires the United States to reduce its CO₂ emissions to approximately 7% below its 1990 levels between the years 2008 – 2012, which is a reduction to approximately 18% below current CO₂ emission levels. 

Here at the Solar Energy Lab, a study was conducted that focused on analyzing the extent to which solar thermal energy systems can be used for residential and commercial water and space heating purposes in order to help reduce the United States’ future CO₂ emissions.  The above link allows you to see some of the data that was collected.