Alfaisal Center for Research & Consultancy Studies- Alfaisal University-Riyadh.

Thermoelectric Materials for solar energy conversion

Solar energy has become one of the most challenging and demanding topic of research in Saudi Arabia. Recently, the kingdom has invested in the solar energy research to produce the electricity that can be used also in desalination of water (another important challenge, Saudi Arabia is facing). The present project was aimed to study physical and transport properties of thermoelectric materials as well as solar cells design. Thermoelectric materials are known to produce electricity from heat (sun) and they are useful for solar energy conversion. During the execution of the present IRG, we have investigated different materials: chalcogenides, oxychalcogenide and selenides.

Publications 6

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A Modified Drag Based Wind Turbine Design with Sails

The project relates to a prototype fabrication and testing of a modified drag-based wind turbine with sails (US patent No US9217421 B1). The wind turbine operation is based on a novel concept whereby during a complete turn of the rotor, there will be an augmentation of a positive torque and a decrease of a negative torque resulting in double effect enhancement. Moreover, this turbine can capture more wind kinetic energy than that energy captured by the traditional drag-based wind turbines (Savonius rotor). The wind turbine apparatus comprises of a turbine supporting frame, a turbine rotor, a sail supporting arm, and a sail rotational axis along with sail swinging rods.