Renewable Energy

Sun, wind and water. Solar PV fundamentals and system design, wind energy and wind-farm design, and hydroelectric power.

• Solar — Photovoltaic (PV) cells turn sunlight directly into electricity. Learn how cells work, I–V and P–V curves, maximum power point tracking, temperature and irradiance effects, energy yield, and how to size and string a rooftop system.
• Solar PV System Design & Yield Estimation — Designing solar plants that deliver. Learn solar geometry and irradiance (GHI, DNI, DHI, peak sun hours), module ratings and temperature effects (NOCT), tilt and orientation, shading and row spacing, string sizing for inverters, DC/AC ratio, performance ratio and loss breakdown, energy yield and capacity factor, rooftop vs utility vs floating PV, net metering, and O&M — with Python sizing a 5 kWp rooftop.
• Wind — Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of moving air into electricity. Learn the power equation and v³ law, the Betz limit, tip-speed ratio, power curves, wind shear, capacity factor and generator/converter types.
• Wind Resource Assessment & Wind Farm Design — From wind data to megawatt-hours. Learn wind resource measurement (met masts, LiDAR), wind shear and the power law, the Weibull distribution and mean power density, power curves and the Betz limit, annual energy production (AEP) and capacity factor, P50/P90 estimates, wake effects and turbine spacing, offshore wind, and grid integration — with Python integrating a Weibull distribution over a power curve.
• Hydroelectric — Hydropower converts the potential energy of falling water into electricity. Learn the power equation, head and flow, turbine types (Pelton, Francis, Kaplan), run-of-river vs reservoir plants, pumped storage and micro-hydro design.