Solar Resources and Solar Cooling
Description and lines of research
The Solar Resources and Solar Cooling unit's main activity is the evaluation and prediction of the solar resource. It works on remote sensing and the optimization of sky cameras for cloud tracking and forecasting, as well as on the design and optimization of solar cooling and heating plants and trigeneration.
Strategic lines
- Solar resource assessment and forecasting
- Space remote sensing systems
- Meteorological observations with sky cameras
- Design and optimization of solar cooling and heating plants
- Design and optimization of cooling and heating systems using groundwater and geothermal exchangers
- Design and optimization of trigeneration plants
- Integration of thermal and photovoltaic systems into construction, industrial buildings, warehouses, and greenhouses
- Thermal energy storage with phase change materials
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- Assessment and forecasting systems for solar plants (thermal and photovoltaic)
- Characterization of soiling losses in photovoltaic panels and solar plants
- Refrigeration applied to the agrifood industry
Principal investigators
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0902-5680 · Scopus Author ID: 57219382156. I earned a PhD in Applied Environmental Sciences, specialising in solar energy, from the University of Almería (2014), where I am an Associate Professor. I am principal investigator on a project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and a member of five research projects: one international project, two national projects and two contracts with private companies. Since 2013, I have led the Andalusian Research, Development and Innovation Plan (PAIDI) group TEP-165, Solar Energy Resources, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics, at the University of Almería. My work has focused on improving society through solar-resource optimisation for commercial solar thermal power plants, including Gemasolar in Seville, a world reference for central-tower technology and day-and-night electricity generation, and the Valle 1 and 2 parabolic-trough plants in Cádiz. I have authored more than 50 papers in high-impact indexed journals, half as first author, and around 60 conference contributions organised by leading renewable-energy bodies (ISES, SolarPACES, Enersol and ECAC). I am an active member of International Energy Agency Task 16, “Solar Resource for High Penetration and Large Scale Applications”, and have been invited to international forums including ENERSOL 2017 and the Solar World Congress 2019. I have supervised two doctoral theses and around 20 master’s and undergraduate dissertations. I have also taken part in European Researchers’ Night, reviewed for several high-impact renewable-energy journals and served as a guest editor for Remote Sensing and the Journal of Energy and Power Technology.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1800-7273 · Scopus Author ID: 56202533400. Jesús Ballestrín earned a PhD in Physics in 1997 and has carried out research at CIEMAT since 1990. Since 1997, he has led projects and work packages in numerous national and international solar-energy projects covering different aspects of concentrating solar systems. He conducts his research at CIEMAT’s Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) and has more than 25 years of experience in concentrating solar technologies for solar tower power plants (receivers and heliostats) and solar furnaces. He leads the PSA Radiometry Laboratory and, since 2010, the Andalusian research group TEP247, Solar Concentration Technology, which comprises 19 researchers. His current research focuses on developing systems and methods to measure properties related to concentrated solar radiation, including high irradiance, high surface temperatures, material emittance and atmospheric attenuation of solar radiation. He is the author of a patent for a solar-extinction measurement system that is marketed worldwide, and has published scientific papers and book chapters and supervised doctoral theses in this field. He regularly reviews for journals including Solar Energy, Applied Energy, and Measurement Science and Technology, and for national research funding proposals submitted to ANEP (National Agency for Evaluation and Foresight), CDTI and Torres Quevedo.