الفهرس 
Energy CrisisOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 156 |  |  |
| | | from | 156 | | |
Abstract
Energy crisis is considered one of the momentous issues that facing Egypt today. The annual rate of energy consumption in Egypt increased rabidly within the last two decades until it exceeded 165%. The main factor caused this significant increase of the energy consumption in Egypt is trying to compensate the negative consequences of industrial revolution in terms of indoor thermal comfort. Because of Industrial revolution, the availability of glass increased and new construction materials emerged such as steel and concrete. Using those new construction materials allowed highly glazed buildings to be realized. The large glazing areas of building envelope affected the indoor thermal comfort negatively in hot climates such as Egypt. It became challenging for these climates to avoid overheat occurring in summer and to keep heat in winter. As a result, achieving thermal comfort became depending mainly on the extensive using of mechanical methods thus overconsumption of energy. This incontrollable energy consumption affected the environment negatively due to the increasing level of pollution and carbon emissions.
Previously Egypt was depending mainly on traditional energy resources such as oil and natural gas. It was able to fulfill its needs completely from traditional energy resources besides having surplus to export. Now, Egypt became a net importer for oil and natural gas. The stagnating of the production rate of them and the recent incontrollable energy consumption, caused by the industrial revolution, made consumption rate of these resources became faster than regeneration rate. Besides all of that, the continuously increase in population rate made the situation worse. It can be safely assume that the energy consumption rate will continue to increase. As a result of Egypt’s traditional resources inability to accommodate the rising demand of energy, it became a must to improve the indoor thermal efficiency thus the building total energy efficiency.
The abundance of sunlight in Egypt, according to its location in Sun Belt area, made it more challenging to improve the indoor thermal performance. Egypt is suffering from high solar radiation rate during almost the whole year. As façade plays a mediator role between indoor and outdoor environment, it can control the indoor thermal loads. Consequently, it is critical to choose an appropriate glazing technology to provide the maximum thermal saving loads. Semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) is one of the most promising PV types that can be integrated in facades as a substitution of glazing material. It has a great impact on improving thermal performance. The abundance of sunlight in Egypt made it more appropriate for STPV compared with other glazing technologies to be integrated in building envelope due to that STPV can also generate a clean power by using sunlight. In this respect, STPV also contributes in encouraging depending on renewable energy in generating clean power that doesn’t have any negative effect on environment.
Research problem
The integration of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) especially in transparent parts of façades raises an important question about how could the integration of STPV in office building envelope achieve the highest thermal (cooling/heating) savings in Egypt’s climate where the cooling loads became high almost throughout the whole year.
Because there is still a lack of research on the thermal performance when STPV is integrated in office building façade in Egypt’s climate through finding the efficient window to wall ratio (WWR) and the efficient visible light transmittance degree (VLT) that could accomplish the highest cooling/heating savings by taking into account the effect of using artificial lighting control system, this research is to fill this gap.
Hypothesis
The research supposes that integration of Semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) in office building facades can enhance their thermal efficiency, thus STPV can make them more sustainable compared to those with the traditional transparent window.
Research Aim
The main aim of the study is to investigate the efficient design of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) windows that will help architects and designers to achieve the highest thermal savings when STPV is integrated in office building envelope located in Egypt’s climate. It can be obtained through these operational objectives:
1- Identifying in details photovoltaic (PV) types and environmental factors that could affect the performance of PV negatively.
2- Identifying STPV types and different parameters that could affect its thermal performance.
3- Investigating the efficient window to wall ratio (WWR) and visible light transmittance (VLT) degree of STPV to achieve the highest cooling/heating savings compared to conventional glazing by taking into consideration the effect of using artificial lighting control system.
Research methodology
The research consists of 3 parts:
1- The first part: (includes the first, second and third chapter) this part indicates the theoretical part. It demonstrates the factors that led to energy crisis, identifying the different types of glazing technologies and clarifying their impact on indoor thermal loads. Then it is identified photovoltaic (PV) technology in detail, its different types and factors that could affect its performance. Eventually, mentioning the different categories of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) and design parameter that could affect its thermal performance.
2- The second part: (includes the fourth chapter) it is the practical part. It presents computer simulation that was performed with DESIGN BUILDER. The purpose of simulation is to assess the thermal performance of STPV through finding the efficient design of office building integrated STPV that could achieve the highest thermal savings. The efficient design of STPV will be obtained through investigating different parameters of STPV; window to wall ratio (WWR), visible light transmittance (VLT) degree of STPV and artificial lighting control system.
3- The third part: (includes the fifth chapter) this part contains the summery of key findings, recommendation for future research and limitations of this study.
Research content
The research consists of five chapters:
1-Chapter one – Energy crisis
This chapter contains energy consumption statistics of traditional sources of energy that reveal the energy crisis in Egypt nowadays and how it could be solved by starting improve the façade design to enhance indoor thermal performance. It also clarifies the different types of glazing technologies and their impact on improving the indoor thermal loads. This chapter also illustrates that semi-transparent photovoltaic is one of the most promising glazing technologies.
2-Chapter two – Photovoltaic
This chapter is identifying photovoltaic (PV) components and its different types beside the environmental factors that affect the PV performance negatively in addition to methods of PV maintaining. It also classifies the integration of PV and illustrates the beneficial capability of integrating PV in facades.
3-Chapter three – Semi-transparent photovoltaic
This chapter demonstrates types of photovoltaic (PV) suited for integrating in façades in addition to the multifunctional role of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV). This chapter is also highlighting the STPV role in affecting the thermal performance of building when integrated in its façade. The main parameters that affect the PV thermal performance are clarified as well.
4-Chapter four – Assessing thermal performance of Semi-transparent photovoltaic integrated in office building facades.This chapter contains computer simulation by Design Builder for a hypothetical office room to investigate the efficient thermal performance of semi-transparent photovoltaic integrated in office building façades. In this chapter also, analysis for the obtained results is conducted.
5-Chapter five – Conclusions
This chapter demonstrates conclusions of main obtained results. It also contains the limitations of this study and recommendations for future researches.