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In 21th century demand for energy is rapidly increasing as the population is increased. To provide desirable living conditions and satisfy the food needs of overpopulated humanity getting harder and harder due to the limited energy and nutrient resources. Nutrient sources pass through many stages such as heating, cooling, drying and freezing which includes thermal and electrical energy needs before being presented to the consumer in the food industry. In the current situation, these two main energy requirements are largely met by fossil fuels which are not efficient, unsustainable and not user friendly in terms of resource management. In this context, the possibilities of usage Photovoltaic-Thermal (PV/T) solar energy systems which will be able to eliminate these disadvantages, use solar energy as a source and can meet the thermal and electrical requirements of the facility continuously has been investigated and, a system was designed which can meet the energy needs according to different scenarios for different processes. It is aimed to produce food in low carbon-emission facilities by meeting both electrical and thermal energy from the solar energy which is a renewable and clean energy source.

The purpose of this research was to determine the drying characteristics of Uzun variety pistachios in a convectional dryer with air velocity of 1 m/s at 50, 55, 60, and 65°C. Through the end of drying, moisture transfer from in‐hull, and in‐shell pistachio samples was defined by using the diffusion model of Fick. The Arrhenius‐type relationship was used to establish the temperature dependence of the effective moisture diffusivity. The activation energy of in‐hull and in‐shell pistachios was determined to be 56.04 and 34.18 kJ/mol, respectively. Five well‐known models, that is, the logarithmic, page, two‐term, Midilli et al., and approximation of diffusion models were fit to data of moisture ratio. The Midilli et al., and the two‐term models were chosen to accurately describe the hot‐air drying behavior of in‐hull and shell pistachio samples. As shelf‐life criteria, the water activity (aw) values of fresh and dried pistachios were determined at different ambient air temperatures. The enthalpy (ΔH) and entropy (ΔS) values of the pistachio samples decreased with increasing the air temperature, while Gibbs‐free energy (ΔG) increased as the air temperature increased. Novelty impact statement Pistachio kernel has rich nutritional significance for the human diet due to its 50%–60% fat content and unsaturated fatty acid and, the drying is the most important post‐harvest process in the pistachio industry. Pistachio kernels must be dried below aw of 0.82 and 0.70 for short‐ and long‐term storage and to avoid fungal development, respectively. This work evaluates the drying conditions and presents a mathematical model for hot‐air drying of pistachio nuts and, the results show that drying of pistachio can be carried out in industrial convective dryers.