This research aims to present a state-of-the-art cleaning technology solution that effectively overcomes the dust accumulation issue for conventional photovoltaic systems. Although continuous innovations and advanced developments within renewable energy technologies have shown steady improvements over the past years, the dust accumulation issue remains one of the main factors hindering their efficiency and degradation rate. By harvesting abundant solar thermal energy, the presented self-cleaning system uses a unique thermomechanical property of Shape Memory Alloys to operate a solar-based thermomechanical actuator. Therefore, this study carries out different numerical and experimental validation tests to highlight the promising practicability of the developed self-cleaning system from thermal and mechanical perspectives. The results showed that the system has a life expectancy of over 20 years, which is closely equivalent to the life expectancy of conventional photovoltaic modules while operating under actual weather conditions in Dammam city. Additionally, the thermal to mechanical energy conversion efficiency reached 19.15% while providing average cleaning effectiveness of about 95%. The presented outcomes of this study add to the body of knowledge an innovative methodology for a unique solar-based self-cleaning system aimed toward smart and modern photovoltaic applications.

Currently, energy demand is more significant than ever due to population growth and advances in recent technologies. In order to supply more energy while maintaining a healthy environment, renewable energy resources are employed. This paper proposes a novel solar-driven shape memory alloy thermomechanical actuator as an eco-friendly solution for solar thermal applications. The proposed actuator was assessed numerically and experimentally. The numerical tests showed that the designed actuation mechanism’s inner temperature has a minimum variation per day of about 14 °C and a temperature variation of 19 °C for most days of the year, which allows for proper activation and deactivation of the actuator. As for the experimental tests, the presented actuation mechanism achieved a bi-directional force of over 150 N, where the inner temperatures of the actuator were recorded at about 70.5 °C while pushing forces and 28.9 °C while pulling forces. Additionally, a displacement of about 127 mm was achieved as the internal temperature of the actuator reached 70.4 °C. The work presented adds to the body of knowledge of a novel solar-based self-driven actuation mechanism that facilitates various applications for solar thermal systems.

Today, the world continuously investigates the promising potential of advanced and optimized technologies for harvesting green renewable energy sources, such as a solar tracking system (STS). This study presents an actual implementation of a single-axis solar tracking system (SAST), where an azimuth control scheme is developed to precisely follow the sun’s orientation. This is demonstrated by computing in real-time the optimal azimuth angle based on the actual altitude, date, and time using an embedded microcontroller. At the same time, experimental comparisons using the azimuth-based control method compared with the proportional, integral, derivative (PID) control scheme and fixed-tilt PV systems (FTPV) are derived. Experimental results show that the developed azimuth solar tracker can autonomously follow the sun’s orientation primarily from time and location-based information and independent from the actual solar irradiance. Nevertheless, the electrical energies gained from all three tested systems revealed that using the sensor-based STS would increase the net energy production by 12.68% compared to the azimuth-based SAST, with an energy production increase of 7.7%. In addition, energy consumption by the azimuth-based STS is 65% greater than the energy consumption of a sensor-based STS due to the continuous movements of the tracker, regardless of the increase or change in power production within short periods.

As the world trend is going towards renewable energy, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy shines the most due to the low generation cost especially by using the latest PV cell technologies and materials, although the conventional silicon cell has an efficiency in the range of 15-16%. A PV tracking system (PVTS) could be a considerable method to increase electrical PV efficiency. In this study, the performance enhancement of the daily output power and energy has been experimentally investigated using single- and dual-axis tracking mechanisms for flat-plate conventional PV panels under the insolation conditions of the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia (SA). In the current study, the active PVTS has been designed and implemented with PID controllers and controlled in real-time with an embedded system. The fixed-tilt (FTPV), single-axis solar tracking system (SAST), and dual-axis solar tracking system (DAST) were tested simultaneously under clear-sky conditions. The PV electrical energy balance has revealed that the energy consumed by the electrical controllers of the SAST and DAST is 3.4% and 3.9%, respectively. In addition, the energy losses due to the actuators of the SAST and DAST are 7.8% and 13.0%, respectively, where they contributed mainly to the energy losses. However, the PV energy production by the DAST was high enough to compensate for the higher actuating mechanism losing rate compared to the SAST and performed incremental net energy output of around 8.64%. On other hand, the DAST and SAST were more efficient than the FTPV recording higher net energy increase by 28.98% and 18.73%, respectively.

One of the modern methods for enhancing the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems is implementing a solar tracking mechanism in order to redirect PV modules toward the sun throughout the day. However, the use of solar trackers increases the system’s electrical consumption, hindering its net generated energy. In this study, a novel self-tracking solar-driven PV system is proposed. The smart solar-driven thermomechanical actuator takes advantage of a solar heat collector (SHC) device, in the form of a parabolic trough solar concentrator (PTC), and smart shape memory alloy (SMA) to produce effective mechanical energy for solar tracking applications from sun rays. Furthermore, a thermal–optical analysis is presented to evaluate the performance of the solar concentrator for the simulated weather condition of Dammam City, Saudi Arabia. The numerical results of the thermal and optical analyses show the promising feasibility of the proposed system in which SMA springs with an activation temperature between 31.09 °C and 45.15 °C can be utilized for the self-tracking operations. The work presented adds to the body of knowledge an advanced SMA-based SHC device for solar-based self-actuation systems, which enables further expansions within modern and advanced solar thermal applications.