Solar Thermal Energy Systems

This textbook is intended for master's level engineering students in the field of their studies. It begins with an analysis of the growing world population's energy demand (heat and electricity) and its connection to the undeniable climate change, necessitating the expansion of climate-friendly technologies. The book is divided into two sections. The first section (Chapters 2 to 7) presents the physical fundamentals of solar thermal energy usage, along with the necessary processes, methods, and models. The second section (Chapters 8-12) covers the synthesis of the developed fundamentals applied to various functional solar thermal systems. It not only provides the logic and methods for transferring the physical fundamentals into an operative technical system but also includes aspects of concept development, selection, economic evaluation, and performance. Additionally, measurement and control technology are presented, underpinned by real projects that have already been successfully implemented.

Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Werner Platzer is Physicist and received his Ph.D. from the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg in 1988. He has been working for more than 35 years for the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Germany, performing research and development of solar thermal energy material, components and systems, facade technology, and energy efficiency in buildings. His focus in research and teaching is on concentrating solar thermal technology for process heat and power. Until 2015, he served as Director of the Division Solar Thermal and Optics. He cofounded the Fraunhofer Centre for Solar Energy Technology in Santiago de Chile and was Executive Director there in the years 2016 and 2017. Since 2018, he coordinated the international business development of Fraunhofer ISE. He is teaching as Honorary Professor at the Faculty for Environment and Sustainability, University of Freiburg.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Stieglitz obtained a doctoral degree in Engineering in 1994 at the University of Karlsruhe. In his professional career, he spent some time in power industry and joined the research center Karlsruhe (today Karlsruhe Institute of Technology-KIT) in 1995 in leading functions in several science fields associated with heat and mass transfer, instrumentation, material qualification, and nuclear as well as accelerator technologies. In 2009, he was appointed as Director of the Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology (INR), and he simultaneously holds a chair at the university campus as Professor in Applied Thermo-Fluidics. Since 2009, he is Director of the CEA KIT Frederic Joliot-Otto Hahn School and served too many associations as Advisor and Expert such as German Nuclear Reactor Safety Commission, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and others. His scientific record is characterized by more than 240 scientific articles/conference papers and 2 books and some book contributions in several science fields.