Investigation of Energy Harvesting Using Solar Water Heating and Photovoltaic Systems for Gaza and Montreal QC Climates

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate efficiency variation of harvesting solar energy in two completely different regions in climate, Gaza Strip, Palestine which is a sun-rich area, and Montreal, Canada which is a very cold area, especially in the winter. There are two main different ways for benefiting from solar energy. The first and the most common way is through a photovoltaic (PV) solar system that converts solar radiation into electricity. The other way is through solar thermal conversion. For sun-enriched regions, the solar thermal solution might be a very practical one at the residential level. In both ways, their use leads to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels for energy generation and thus it reduces the proportion of harmful gases such as Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The comparison is carried out focusing on solar thermal collector and PV systems. Results have shown the superiority of the solar thermal collector over PV based system in hot climates while in cold one both efficiencies become comparable to each other.