Carlos Vargas-Salgado

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor at Polytechnic University of Valencia

Reliable prediction of photovoltaic power generation is key to the efficient management of energy systems in response to the inherent uncertainty of renewable energy sources. Despite advances in weather forecasting, photovoltaic power prediction accuracy remains a challenge. This study presents a novel approach that combines genetic algorithms and...

El medioambiente conceptualizado como un sistema natural ha estado presionado por fuerzas antrópicas que en las últimas décadas se han convertido en fuerzas entrópicas, pues transforman y modifican muchas veces de forma irreversible la morfología de las condiciones originarias de los subsistemas naturales. Sostenibilidad, sustentabilidad y medioamb...

This research provides a contribution to biomass gasification technology development and to its establishment into the market as mature and functional technology, competitive for large and medium-scale applications. In this article, an experimental analysis of Bubbling Fluidized Bed Reactors (BFBR) for power generation with different sand mixtures...

Accurate temperature modeling is crucial for maintaining the efficiency and reliability of solar inverters. This paper presents an innovative application of symbolic regression based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) for predicting the temperature of photovoltaic inverters, offering a novel approach that balances accuracy and computational effic...

This research study explores the technology of biomass syngas production by using an experimental downdraft fixed-bed gasifier coupled to a two-cylinder engine, designed and implemented at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. Furthermore, it deals with the study of the experimental and analytical relations between the driving thermodynami...

Background In the context of urban energy transition, photovoltaic (PV) systems play an important role in electricity generation. However, PV technology has some environmental drawbacks that also need to be acknowledged and managed. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used to assess the environmental impacts of systems, but LCA is very complex to...

HOMER and SAM are commonly used in the scientific field to predict future energy balances and economic analysis, but it must be evaluated if such tools provide satisfactory predictions and results when using available inputs. This paper evaluates HOMER and SAM for predicting energy balance and conducting economic analyses of renewable energy system...

Complex, non-linear systems with diverse consumption, generation, and storage technologies require advanced energy management by considering several factors: resource availability, energy efficiency, economic viability, consumption costs, and installation feasibility. To address these challenges, this paper integrates artificial intelligence into a...

Análisis experimental comparativo de la producción anual de energía de una planta solar fotovoltaica de 72kWn instalada sobre techo para autoconsumo en la ciudad de Montería utilizando PVsyst, PVGIS y SAM

This paper presents a conceptual design of a battery energy storage system (BESS) for Colombia's Aquasol solar PV hybrid system. The study comprehensively analyzes the components required to implement the BESS system and proposes a conceptual alternative. The system capacity was calculated from the requirement to provide a constant monthly producti...

In recent years, the modeling and simulation of lithium-ion batteries have garnered attention due to the rising demand for reliable energy storage. Accurate charge cycle predictions are fundamental for optimizing battery performance and lifespan. This study compares particle swarm optimization (PSO) and grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithms in mo...

Energy systems face a challenge characterized by the inherent uncertainty associated with accurate renewable power generation forecasts. Despite the availability of weather prediction methods, achieving precise predictions for photovoltaic (PV) power generation remains a critical necessity. In response to this challenge, this study presents a novel...

Nowadays, the measurement of heat stress indices is of principal importance due to the escalating impact of global warming. As temperatures continue to rise, the well-being and health of individuals are increasingly at risk, which can lead to a detrimental effect on human performance and behavior. Hence, monitoring and assessing heat stress indices...

As the demand for renewable energy sources increases, the need for solar photovoltaic (PV) module monitoring systems is growing. This paper presents a LabVIEW®-based system for the visualization and data storage of solar PV modules. The system measures solar radiation, temperature, current, voltage, panel tilt, and orientation. The system can proce...

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) are critical components in renewable hybrid systems, demanding reliable fault diagnosis to ensure optimal performance and prevent costly damages. This study presents a novel model-based fault diagnosis algorithm for commercial hydrogen fuel cells using LabView. Our research focused on power generation an...

Hundreds of cities worldwide have committed to decarbonizing or becoming carbon neutral by 2030, 2050, or even sooner. The challenge is particularly acute for the dense, compact cities of the European Mediterranean basin. To maximize their energy self-sufficiency, Mediterranean cities seek to scale up PV production within their boundaries and suppl...

The calculation of the electricity bill components is not an easy task in Spain. Such calculation is even more complex when there is a renewable system in the equation consumer-producer (Prosumer). One of the skills that the student of the course on Generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, belonging to the master's in industrial e...

This work leads with the application of Learning Analytics (LA) methods in high education as data driven for making decision, where a real case study is presented. The LA method has been applied to a course on HVAC Facilities and Energetic Certification of the Master in Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain....

This work leads with the application of Learning Analytics (LA) methods in high education as data driven for making decision, where a real case study is presented. The LA method has been applied to a course on HVAC Facilities and Energetic Certification of the Master in Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain....

The calculation of the electricity bill components is not an easy task in Spain. Such calculation is even more complex when there is a renewable system in the equation consumer-producer (Prosumer). One of the skills that the student of the course on Generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, belonging to the master's in industrial e...

More than half of the world population live in urban settlements which are responsible for a large share of energy consumption and, consequently, carbon emissions. The transition towards a more sustainable urban environment requires a change in paradigm in terms of how we design and manage our cities. Urban areas require innovative technologies and...

Renewable power capacity sets records annually, driven by solar photovoltaic power, which accounts for more than half of all renewable power expansion in 2021. In this sense, photovoltaic system design must be correctly defined before system installation to generate the maximum quantity of energy at the lowest possible cost. The proposed study anal...

The Bologna Plan adopted by European universities ended the hegemony of an evaluation system exclusively based on the performance of traditional examinations. In this area, with a view to revitalizing grading models in university education, a wide range of evaluation mechanisms has been developed in recent years. Using them, teachers may evaluate t...

This study aims to estimate the performance and losses of a 50 MW photovoltaic (PV) utility-scale after 12 years of operation. The PV plant has monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon modules and is located in the central region of Spain with an annual insolation of 1976 kWh/m². Monitoring data over the entire year 2020 has been analyzed and fi...

The electrification of final energy uses is a key strategy to reach the desired scenario with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Many of them can be electrified with more or less difficulty, but there is a part that is difficult to electrify at a competitive cost: heavy road transport, maritime and air transport, and some industrial processes are some...

Solar photovoltaic systems are widely used; however, their performance is bound to weather conditions, depending on irradiation, temperature, and the effect of shadows. Maximum Power Point Tracking techniques have been developed to solve this issue. Standard methods use mainly two algorithms: Perturb and Observe and Incremental Conductance. However...

The extensive use of greenhouse gas-free energy sources is essential to achieve net zero emissions targets in electricity generation by mid-century; if such sources also increase the economic competitiveness by producing cheaper energy, the outlook is even better. With this purpose, the current study presents the combined use of the NuScale design,...

En 2015, las Naciones Unidas aprobaron la Agenda 2030 sobre desarrollo sostenible, que cuenta con 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) en muy diversos ámbitos. Dentro de este contexto, las Universidades deberían incorporar los ODS en todos los ámbitos de su actividad, ya que éstas juegan un papel primordial como agentes transformadores de la...

Energy management systems are usually used to integrate different energy sources into a coordinated microgrid system. However, given the variability of renewable sources and the complexity of calculating renewable resource availability and managing energy, it is not easy to incorporate efficient energy management models in a microgrid. This work fo...

The extensive use of carbon-free energy sources is essential to achieving zero CO2 emission goals in electricity generation. But these systems are not yet used to cover 100% of the energy demand in areas with many inhabitants. This study answers the question “Can a fully renewable system with storage cost-effectively cover the total demand of a big...

Syngas produced from small-scale biomass gasification plants (tens of kW) can generate power from biomass resources. However, due to the syngas gensets demand is marginal, compared to gasoline gensets, it is not easy to find a genset specially designed to run on syngas. In this paper, an experimental study of a genset running on two kinds of fuel h...

The decarbonization of the electric generation system is fundamental to reaching the desired scenario of zero greenhouse gas emissions. For this purpose, this study describes the combined utilization of renewable sources (PV and wind), which are mature and cost-effective renewable technologies. Storage technologies are also considered (pumping stor...

Costs of photovoltaic systems have fallen over the last decade, while the energy prices have risen. As a result, PV system is being proposed as a cost-effective option for power generation in the built environment. However, some authors consider that better regulatory support is still needed to deploy the PV potential in cities. In this research, f...

A residential load management system equips smart meters (SMs) to measure load utilization at residencies. SM reports electricity usage based on electronic appliances. In this paper, a smart residential load management system is designed by three-fold along with the provisioning of consumer security. Load management encompasses load categorizing by...

Una de las principales estrategias de aprendizaje en las diferentes asignaturas técnicas y de ciencias puras se basa en la resolución de una gran variedad de problemas prácticos por parte de los alumnos. Esta resolución de problemas debe llevarse a cabo en cada uno de los diferentes módulos de la asignatura objeto de estudio. Para una mejor asimila...

En la actualidad, las herramientas informáticas se han convertido en un instrumento indispensable en la mayoría de los sectores del mundo industrial y de servicios. Por ello, las asignaturas de la Universidad cuentan cada vez más con prácticas de informática que relacionan lo que se explica en las clases teóricas con sus aplicaciones. Por tanto, es...

Debido a la pandemia producida por la COVID-19, los profesores de universidades han tenido que adaptar la educación de modo tradicional a online. Uno de los puntos críticos del modelo online es la evaluación. En este trabajo se explican los métodos utilizados para evaluar a los estudiantes y además se comparan y analizan los resultados de dicha eva...

La forma habitual de incluir contenidos prácticos en las asignaturas suele consistir en complementar los aspectos explicados en las clases teóricas con determinadas aplicaciones o ejemplos próximos a la realidad de los trabajos en los que está basada la asignatura. Durante la etapa de máster, ya habiendo superado el grado, es importante que los alu...

The installation of fast electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) will be essential to promote the acceptance by the users of electric vehicles (EVs). However, if EVCS are exclusively supplied by the grid, negative impacts on its stability together with possible CO2 emission increases could be produced. Introduction of hybrid renewable energy syst...

Cities are expected to be protagonists of the energy transition and, among other challenges, the decarbonation of the residential consumption could greatly benefit from photovoltaic generation in the built environment. To assess its potential, the present study analyses the possibility to cover the electric demand of the city of Valencia with rooft...

(50 days' free access to the article, until June 23, 2021: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1d0Q33QJ-dho-E) Off grid electrification is key to achieving universal electricity access. Despite the potential of biomass gasifiers as a clean technology to ensure reliable systems, they are not as well looked upon as their advantages suggest. In particular,...

The installation of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) will be essential to promote the acceptance by the users of electric vehicles (EVs). However, if EVCS are exclusively supplied by the grid, negative impacts on its stability together with possible CO2 emission increases could be produced. Introduction of hybrid renewable energy systems (...

Agriculture and forestry crop residues represent more than half of the world's residual biomass; these residues turn into synthesis gas (syngas) and are used for power generation. Including Syngas Gensets into hybrid renewable microgrids for electricity generation is an interesting alternative, especially for rural communities where forest and agri...

Power converters are electronic devices widely applied in industry, and in recent years, for renewable energy electronic systems, they can regulate voltage levels and actuate as interfaces, however, to do so, is needed a controller. Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) are applied to power converters comparing output voltage versus a reference vo...

The methods currently used for designing a fluidized bed reactor in gasification plants do not meet an integrated methodology that optimizes all the different parameters for its sizing and operational regime. In the case of small-scale (several tens of kWs biomass gasifiers), this design is especially complex, and, for this reason, they have usuall...

Despite being a renewable source, biomass as fuel for power generation is still not completely exploited. In biomass gasification plants, control operations are crucial for the proper management of the plant. This paper describes the results of a regulation control applied to an experimental biomass bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasification plant....

El mundo enfrenta importantes retos, entre ellos: cambio climático, agotamiento de recursos, desigualdad. La universidad como agente de cambio debe tomar parte de la Responsabilidad Social Universitaria (RSU), puesto que en ella se forma a los futuros profesionistas. El propósito de este estudio es evaluar las competencias transversales relacionada...

Despite being a renewable source, biomass as fuel for power generation is still not completely exploited. In biomass gasification plants, control operations are crucial for the proper management of the plant. This paper describes the results of a regulation control applied to an experimental biomass bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasification plant....

Applications of renewable electricity in cities are mostly limited to photovoltaics, and they need other renewable sources, batteries, and the grid to guarantee reliability. This paper proposes a hybrid system, combining biomass and photovoltaics, to supply electricity to educational buildings. This system is reliable and provides at least 50% of e...

Resumen. Los convertidores de corriente directa a directa, CD-CD, se utilizan en diversas aplicaciones industriales, siendo la principal en los inversores solares. La no-linealidad de la construcción y funcionamiento de los convertidores de potencia origina que el voltaje y corriente de salida tengan un efecto de rizado. El sobrecalentamiento de lo...

Resumen. Los convertidores de potencia son dispositivos electrónicos que permiten regular niveles de voltaje y, por lo tanto, sus aplicaciones en el ámbito de las energías renovables son importantes. Una de las principales problemáticas de los controladores Proporcional-Integral-Derivativo (PID) es que deben ser sintonizados correctamente para redu...

The Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) algorithm is a metaheuristic optimization method based on the hunting made by wolves in nature. In this work, the GWO algorithm was proposed for tuning a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller parameters for a DC-DC boost converter. DC-DC boost converters are electronic devices widely used for voltage regula...

This paper presents a novel methodology to simulate a gasifier power plant including an electric generator for the software HOMER Pro. The aim is to add gasifier power plants to the simulation of Hybrid Renewable Energy Microgrids for rural development of off-grid isolated rural communities. The methodology allows to take advantage of the inbuilt B...

Natural gas systems, similarly to the rest of energy systems, are evolving towards a highly technified structure where high level of metering devices, monitoring and communication activities, are calling to play the starring role. EU countries started the replacement of the traditional gas meters with smart devices in 2012, but the massive rollout...

Industrial buildings often have interacting continuous-and discrete-valued signals. Hybrid multilinear time invariant (MTI) models have been shown to be able to describe this hybrid dynamics appropriately for many cases. White box modelling methods from first principles have been used in this application domain before. The parameters of these model...

Nowadays, the new configuration of natural gas systems, according to the principles of smart grids, includes a high level of metering, monitoring and communication activities. However, there are still different technological barriers that hinder the interoperability of networks. In this framework, the different communication technologies that are c...

Flip Teaching, also called Flipped Classroom, is a new methodological form of development of teaching with an approach based on inverting the traditional scheme of the learning process and giving greater prominence to students. Flip Teaching has the objective of increasing student engagement and improving their conceptual understanding, combining d...

In the present paper, it is carried out the design of a photovoltaic installation connected to the utility grid with panels mounted on a floating structure at an irrigator's community. The objective is to determine the technical and economic feasibility of a floating photovoltaic installation to partially or totally cover the energy demand. The flo...

This paper presents the results of implementing the Flipped Learning Agile (FLA) methodology as a general framework to manage courses and to encourage proactive learning for students in higher education levels. Flipped Learning is used in combination with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to encourage the student in the self-learnin...

Energy consumption has increased significantly over the past century, which has brought several bad conditions for the environment. One way to reduce these adverse consequences of energy consumption from Earth is to make smarter and more efficient use of it, and measuring energy is an essential task to accomplish it. A detailed measurement of power...

Microgrids are a group of loads and distributed power generation sources acting as a single entity to provide power to the user or the grid. Since a Microgrid is a system of systems, this leads to an operability problem for local management and an interoperability problem for remote management. Operability and interoperability problems are solved b...

Control and data acquisition systems are required in researching facilities to analyze the behaviour of any process. In this paper, the results of the design and implementation of an automation and control system applied to a microgrid based on renewables energy are shown. The microgrid is located in the Laboratory for Distributed energy resources-...

Due to the pandemic provoked by COVID-19 in March 2020, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), following the Government's guidelines, changed the modality of the formal lectures from face-to-face to online teaching. Professors and students had the challenge of adapting to the new model to continue the semester. In this paper, the results of...

In the so-called society 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being widely used in many areas of life. Machine learning uses mathematical algorithms based on "training data", which are able to make predictions or take decisions with the ability to change their behavior through a self-training approach. Furthermore, thanks to AI, a large volume of d...

The serious situation caused by the coronavirus has forced Authorities to take drastic decisions that have affected the normal functioning of the entire society. One of the most impactful measures taken has been the self-discipline of the social distancing as the entire society has been obliged to stay at home. At the education level, restrictions...

Group tutorials are becoming an ever-increasing learning methodology in University education due to the continuous knowledge feedback among students. Despite the positive impact of such kind of sessions on students, their previous organization phase remains most of the times misleading. The traditional way of arranging a group tutorial through e-ma...

Microgrids (MGs) are widely increasing to manage unequal electrical load requirements based on the infrastructure. The goal of this article is to manage energy in a centralized controller multimicrogrid (MMG) system operated at islanded mode. Renewable energy fluctuations in MG due to weather conditions build oscillation in MG operation modes. To s...

La docencia inversa, también llamada clase invertida, es una nueva forma metodológica de desarrollo de la actividad docente con un enfoque basado en invertir el esquema tradicional del proceso de aprendizaje y de dar mayor protagonismo al alumnado. La docencia inversa tiene el objetivo de incrementar el compromiso del estudiante y de mejorar su com...

En este paper se aplica la metodología de docencia inversa utilizada en la UPV, a la asignatura de Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes. Tiene especial interés dicha metodología debido a la pandemia producida por COVID-19 y el cambio de actividad académica de presencial a no presencial en la UPV. De acuerdo con el procedimiento, se realiza la presentación...

La educación universitaria está experimentando un proceso de cambio dinámico, desde un sistema de enseñanza tradicional hacia otro más flexible. En este contexto surge la metodología clase inversa, la cual comprende dos fases: conceptual y colaborativa. En la fase conceptual, desarrollada fuera del aula, el estudiante se prepara para la clase a par...

This article presents an updating of the structure, methodology and evaluation results after 4 years of teaching (courses 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-18 and 2018-19) of a subject entitled Applied energy technology - Project course belonging to MUTEDS (Master's Degree in Energy Technology for Sustainable Development) at the Universitat Politècnica de...

Power converters are electronic devices that regulate voltage levels and therefore their applications in the field of renewable energies are important. One of the main problems of PID controllers is that they must be tuned correctly to reduce the error between output and reference signal. This work presents the tuning of a PID controller for a DC-D...

REDUCCIÓN DEL VOLTAJE DE RIZADO EN UN CONVERTIDOR ELEVADOR DC-DC MEDIANTE LA OPTIMIZACIÓN POR ENJAMBRE DE PARTÍCULAS

Landfills are one of the most common ways to dispose the solid urban waste in many countries due to their relatively simple technical requirements, operational costs and low investment. Moreover, biogas produced in landfills can be used as a renewable energy source for power generation. The Valencian Region is one of the largest solid urban waste p...

Heat stress can affect negatively human performance, behavior and even health, therefore, mean radiant temperature (MRT) and wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) measurement and monitoring should be obtained for any environment in which people are constantly exposed. The aim of this work is to compare the globe thermometer temperature (tg), used for c...

Thermal comfort indices are normally used for assessing and controlling heat stress conditions in both: insides and outsides environment. In this paper, the results of the design and test of an Arduino-base prototype for estimating heat stress index is presented. This prototype allows the accurate detection of wind speed, air temperature, relative...

In this paper, a procedure for the systematic evaluation of lab practices based on the development of transversal competences is presented. This procedure includes the design and completion of specific rubrics (complemented with a personal interview at the end of the session) for each of the experiments carried out during the practice, considering...

In this paper, it is presented preliminary results of a methodology for thermal comfort monitoring and evaluation in urban areas based on local metering of ambient conditions and Rayman model application. In the framework of GROWGREEN European project it was installed six monitoring stations for data acquisition of air temperature, relative humidit...

Spanish electrical generation has traditionally included high pollutant energy resources, like fuel or carbon. However, disturbing ever-increase in the average temperature of Planet Earth has led to a search for sustainability in the energy scenario. Therefore, Spanish electrical generation mix is prone to replace contaminant energy resources by no...

This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system based on a Web interface to be applied to a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) microgrid. This development will provide a reliable and low-cost control and data acquisition systems for the Renewable Energy Laboratory at Universitat Pol...

Este trabajo presenta una modificación a la metodología de doble evaluación (DDE), la cual consiste en una primera evaluación mediante la aplicación de una prueba de control, luego se realiza una realimentación sobre los resultados obtenidos y posteriormente se aplica una segunda evaluación. En el presente trabajo se ha añadido un mecanismo de auto...

En este trabajo se presenta un método de enseñanza/aprendizaje a través de la plataforma Moodle y la aplicación de Zoom como recursos tecnológicos para la docencia. Esta técnica se aplica al desarrollo de un Diplomado Internacional en Energías Renovables llevado a cabo entre la Universidad de Guadalajara, México y la Universidad Libre de Colombia....