Ana Palmero

• PhD in Physics
• Senior Researcher in INEGI and Lecture (guest) in FEUP at INEGI - University of Porto - Faculty of Engineering

This study investigates the implementation of passive design strategies to improve the thermal environment in the extremely hot climates of Brazil, Portugal, and Turkey. Given the rising cooling demands due to climate change, optimizing energy efficiency in buildings is essential. Using the Trace 3D Plus v6.00.106 software, typical residential buil...

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) consist of PV panels that are integrated into a building as part of its construction. This technology has advantages such as the production of electricity without necessitating additional land area. This paper provides a literature review on recent developments in urban building energy modelling, including...

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) consists of PV panels that are integrated into the building as part of the construction. This technology has advantages such as the production of electricity without necessary additional land area. This paper provides a literature review about the recent developments in urban building energy modelling, inclu...

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) consists of PV panels that are integrated into the building as part of the construction. This technology has advantages such as the production of electricity without necessary additional land area. This paper provides a literature review about the recent developments in urban building energy modelling, inclu...

In this paper, the experimental results of the thermal sub-system of a reliable and cost-effective polygeneration solar system are presented. This polygeneration system produces heating, cooling, and electricity from solar energy, which is used in an existing test building. Heat is generated in four evacuated tube solar collectors (ETCs). The heat...

This research aims to optimize and compare the annual costs of energy services in buildings with critical loads and analyze case studies for hospitals and higher education institutions in the United States. Besides electricity and natural gas costs, the study considers all the infrastructure costs of capital amortization and maintenance. In additio...

Portugal destaca-se globalmente na transição para uma matriz energética mais limpa, centrada em renováveis e eficiência energética, com foco no consumidor. Enquanto o setor vitivinícola enfrenta desafios socioeconômicos e ambientais, exigindo práticas mais sustentáveis devido à sua relevância como produtor e consumidor de vinhos globalmente. Este a...

In this paper, the experimental results of the thermal sub-system of a reliable and cost-effective polygeneration solar system are presented. This polygeneration system produces heating, cooling and electricity from solar energy, which are used in an existing test-building. Heat is generated in four evacuated tube solar collectors (ETC). The heat m...

Neste trabalho realizou-se uma análise de um aquecedor solar através do método f-chart e modelagem estatística. Através do método f-chart foram realizadas simulações considerando-se os diversos parâmetros constantes, exceto que os parâmetros: área do coletor, temperatura de saída e inclinação foram variados. Nas diversas simulações a área do coleto...

Gasification of biomass can yield synthesis gas for power generation. A problem is the poor adjustability to changes in load. To improve dynamics, integration of a hydrogen storage system based on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers has been evaluated. Coupled with a gasification unit, it can remove hydrogen from the synthesis gas. If power demand is...

This research presents a novel optimization strategy for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with thermal energy storage (TES) systems that aims to stabilize and reduce electricity prices in spot markets. In the current international scenario of initiatives with regulatory changes aiming to reduce climate change effects and therefore CO2 emissio...

Nowadays, desalination is the primary alternative to increase water supply for domestic, agriculture and industrial use. Energy demanding desalination could be a sustainable solution in places where renewable energy resources are abundant. Multi-effect thermal vapour compression desalination is widely applied; however, its integration with solar en...

The building sector is growing at a rapid pace and has become the third largest consumer of fossil energy, after industry and transportation. To achieve a significant reduction in building energy consumption, aiming a sustainable development, passive methods are not enough: renewable energy technologies should be integrated with passive building co...

Buildings are responsible for a large portion of the energy consumption and harmful emissions to the environment. To change this situation, the European Performance of Buildings Directive requires new buildings to be nearly Zero Energy Buildings. To achieve this goal, energy saving measures combined with large use of renewables on-site must be appl...

A study was carried out to predict the long-term energy performance of swimming pool solar heating systems for four Brazilian cities using the utilizability method. The chosen cities were Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre and São Luís. The pool area was kept constant and both glazed and unglazed solar thermal collectors were considered for the diff...

In this work, an educational tool to be used in solar energy courses is proposed. It consists of software, named Softsun, with educational purposes, which allows performing some tasks applicable to solar thermal and photovoltaic systems. Among other things, this software allows: obtaining the I–V curve of diode models using data from manufacturers,...

In this paper, a reliable and cost-effective polygeneration system for an existing test building, able to provide electricity, cooling and heating needs is presented, modelled and assessed. The system relies on solar energy as the primary source (PV and solar thermal collectors). Building cooling demand is achieved with a variable geometry ejector...

This paper presents a detailed energy analysis of a 37-year-old house, located near Porto, Portugal. The current situation leads to overheating in the Summer and low temperatures during the Winter, causing high levels of discomfort to the occupants. With the aim to improve the overall comfort, several passive/active solar systems were proposed, and...

In this work, the evaluation of the performance of a small-size photovoltaic plant, with 15 kWp of capacity, is made and some proposals for its optimization are presented. The plant consists of a grid-connected centralized system, where the output power is consumed in the same building. The PV plant production data of the last couple of years are a...

The first experimental results with a small scale solar driven ejector cooling system installed in Porto, Portugal are reported. The system is constituted by three sub-systems: solar collector field, cooling cycle and thermal energy distribution sub-systems. The novelty in the cooling cycle is a 1.5 kW nominal capacity variable geometry ejector usi...

The European Directive on Energy Performance of Buildings has established a target of Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEB) for a sustainable future. For this target, hotels take a special interest, as shown in the neZEH project (Nearly Zero Energy Hotels project) (neZEH, 2016), (Tsoutsos et al., 2013). In this work, a hotel located in Tenerife (Cana...

In this work, the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) installation is assessed. The plant consists of a grid-connected centralized system, where the supplied power is not associated with a particular electricity customer. Operational data from this PV plant, ground-mounted and located in the north of Portugal, are now available for a period of 3 yea...

Micro-cogeneration systems are an efficient way of meeting energy demands in buildings. They achieve the goal of distributed electricity generation, combined with useful heat, with a high global efficiency. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems are an interesting solution in cases where the heat demand is significantly larger than electricity needs,...

In this work, a micro-tri-generation system integrated with a solar system is studied. A basic micro-cogeneration technology [micro-CHP (combined heat and power) system] integrating solar collectors, storage tank, micro-turbine and a thermodynamic cycle based on the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is combined with an absorption chiller. The heat reject...

External louvers are increasingly used to provide solar protection for building glazed surfaces. In this work, a general study of the effect of louver shading devices applied to different façades of a building is carried out, for different locations (latitudes). Building energy requirements for a building in the cooling and heating seasons is quant...

External louvres have been increasingly used to provide solar protection for a building's glazed surfaces. In this work, a general study of the effect of louvre shading devices applied to different façades of a building is carried out for different locations (latitudes). Building energy requirements for a building in the cooling and heating seasons...

In this work, three solar assisted thermodynamic cycles for a micro-cogeneration system with a power output of 5 kW are studied. The thermodynamic cycles are based on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and the operating temperatures of solar thermal collectors are 80°C, 100°C–150°C and 200°–250°C, for cycles 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The main work obj...

SYNOPSIS In this work, the application of a solar louvre collector system for building heating and cooling is studied. The system operates either in cooling mode, coupled to a water-fired absorption chiller, or in heating mode, when hot water is circulated through the slab (radiant heating). A mono-zone building, with an area of 100 m², was used as...

In this work, three solar assisted thermodynamic cycles for a micro- cogeneration system are studied. The thermodynamic cycles are based on the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and the operating temperatures of solar thermal collectors are 80ºC, 100ºC-150ºC and 200º-250ºC, for cycles 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Several researchers have investigated the ap...

This work aims to evaluate the integration of solar louvre collectors into a cooling system using a water-fired absorption chiller. Simulations for a building were performed using the TRNSYS simulation program, varying collector areas and using Portuguese climatic conditions. The system performance was assessed and the results show that with such a...

External louvres are increasingly used to provide solar protection for building glazed surfaces. The integration of collectors into the external louvres of buildings offers a means of reducing system cost as well as providing architects with more freedom to integrate the technology into their designs. This work concerns the modification of existing...

The integration of solar collectors into louvres has been studied. An existing louvre design was modified to integrate a solar collector in the shading device. This solar louvre collector has been experimentally tested under real outside conditions, during Summer and Winter seasons. Experimental results were compared to numerical ones, and a good a...

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de Doutora em "Doctorado Europeu", no Departamento de Física Fundamental y Experimental, Electrónica y Sistemas da Universidad de La Laguna, sob a orientação na FEUP do Doutor Armando Carlos Figueiredo Coelho de Oliveira, e na Universidad de La Laguna da Doutora Lourdes Garcia Rodriguez

SYNOPSIS External louvres are increasingly used to provide solar protection for building glazed surfaces. This work concerns the modification of existing louvre designs to integrate a solar collector in the shading device. A numerical model for the integrated solar collector was developed, and collector efficiency was quantified. Thermal performanc...

This paper deals with a global analysis of the use of solar energy in seawater distillation under Spanish climatic conditions. Static solar technologies as well as one-axis sun tracking were compared. Different temperature ranges of the thermal energy supply required for a desalination process were considered. At each temperature range, suitable so...

The Sol-14 plant is a solar multi-effect distillation system installed at the Plataforma Solar de Almería, a solar research centre located in southeastern Spain, near Almería. In July 1988 the first start-up of the plant took place, which was connected to the previous existing solar facilities. In the second phase of the project, a double-effect ab...

In this paper, the application of the direct steam generation into a solar parabolic trough collector to multieffect distillation is proposed and economically evaluated. The thermal fluid of the solar field is pure water, which boils as circulating along the solar collectors. The steam generated drives a multieffect distillation unit. This solar di...