Fernando Antonanzas

• Post-Doc
• PostDoc Position at Freelance

An analysis and comparison of daily and yearly solar irradiation from the satellite CM SAF database and a set of 301 stations from the Spanish SIAR network is performed using data of 2010 and 2011. This analysis is completed with the comparison of the estimations of effective irradiation incident on three different tilted planes (fixed, two axis tr...

This paper presents a new methodology to build parametric models to estimate global solar irradiation adjusted to specific on-site characteristics based on the evaluation of variable importance. Thus, those variables higly correlated to solar irradiation on a site are implemented in the model and therefore, different models might be proposed under...

A methodology for downscaling solar irradiation from satellite-derived databases is described using R software. Different packages such as raster, parallel, solaR, gstat, sp and rasterVis are considered in this study for improving solar resource estimation in areas with complex topography, in which downscaling is a very useful tool for reducing inh...

Solar global irradiation is barely recorded in isolated rural areas around the world. Traditionally, solar resource estimation has been performed using parametric-empirical models based on the relationship of solar irradiation with other atmospheric and commonly measured variables, such as temperatures, rainfall, and sunshine duration, achieving a...

This study performs the first life cycle assessment of solar home systems (SHSs) to use data quantifying lead pollution from informal lead-acid battery recycling. The typical life cycle of SHSs in off-grid communities surrounding Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe is assessed, considering affordable components imported from China, lead-acid battery lifet...

The rate of access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is just 42 %. The private market for household-scale off-grid solar (OGS) products (pico solar and solar home systems) is regarded as a key tool for increasing electricity access in SSA. However, the growing volume of unabated waste from OGS products poses a significant environmental ris...

The e-cooking feasibility was evaluated for two of the main staple foods across rural Sub-Saharan Africa (rice and maize porridge) considering basic solar home systems (SHS) of 100–150 W and using inexpensive market available low-power DC cooking devices (rice cooker and slow cooker). The coverage of e-cooking necessities was spatially evaluated fo...

Mini grids for off-grid electrification have attracted high interest in West Africa and a massive deployment is expected in the region in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030). Due to the lack of literature analyzing the environmental impact of mini gri...

Solar home systems (SHS) represent one of the most promising technologies for a rapid and independent electrification in those areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) without access to electricity. This study addressed the environmental impact of SHS in SSA through updated life cycle inventories and five impact categories: greenhouse gases (GHG) emission...

The current electrification status in West African countries presents rural electrification rates below 40%, national grid losses above 39% with frequent disruptions, and electricity prices averaging $0.35/kWh, up to national values of $0.66/kWh. With this, off-grid systems have gained great attention during the last decade as energy solutions; esp...

The field of energy forecasting has attracted many researchers from different fields (e.g., meteorology, data sciences, mechanical or electrical engineering) over the last decade. Solar forecasting is a fast-growing sub- domain of energy forecasting. Despite several previous attempts, the methods and measures used for verification of deterministic...

The field of energy forecasting has attracted many researchers from different fields (e.g., meteorology, data sciences, mechanical or electrical engineering) over the last decade. Solar forecasting is a fast-growing subdomain of energy forecasting. Despite several previous attempts, the methods and measures used for verification of deterministic (a...

Clear sky solar irradiance parametric models seek to simplify the atmospheric attenuation with relatively simple parameterizations in order to estimate solar irradiance under clear sky conditions, avoiding the use of computationally expensive radiative transfer models. These models are particularly useful when estimating solar irradiation with sate...

Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) modules and cells can transform solar radiation into electricity from both front and rear sides, unlike traditional solar technologies which can only generate power through the front face. This ability has shown to increase electric output with various levels of increment, depending on parameters such as distance to the g...

The primary goal of this work is to provide an understanding of the state of the art and future prospects for solar PV technology in Chile. Chile is leading the incorporation of this type of energy in Latin America, with a solar PV market that has experienced a dramatic growth in the last years, mainly due to the high solar resource and the favorab...

In this study, we have performed an analysis of potential irradiation increase across Europe, derived from moving photovoltaic (PV) modules to a horizontal position during cloudy and overcast situations. The motivation of research is that PV technology has expanded outside countries endowed with high solar irradiation and it is nowadays present in...

Empirical models are widely used to estimate solar radiation at locations where other more readily available meteorological variables are recorded. Within this group, soft computing techniques are the ones that provide more accurate results as they are able to relate all recorded variables with solar radiation. In this work, a new implementation of...

This work presents a validation of three satellite-based radiation products over an extensive network of 313 pyranometers across Europe, from 2005 to 2015. The products used have been developed by the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) and are one geostationary climate dataset (SARAH-JRC), one polar-orbiting climate datas...

Accurate information on global solar radiation is essential to design and operate the systems that are based on solar energy. However, global solar radiation measurement is very rare while the measurements of other meteorological parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration and precipitation are common in meteorological...

Most proposed metaheuristics for feature selection and model parameter optimization are based on a two-termed function. Their main drawback is the need of a manual set of the parameter that balances between the loss and the penalty term. In this paper, a novel methodology referred as the GA-PARSIMONY and specifically designed to overcome this issue...

Solar radiation can be estimated by a variety of methods in an attempt to overcome the limitations of on-ground records. Novel methods are often appearing but these are rarely com- pared to others from a different approach. This study surveys the main types of estimation methods for daily Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI), and then, one character...

Variability of solar resource poses difficulties in grid management as solar penetration rates rise continuously. Thus, the task of solar power forecasting becomes crucial to ensure grid stability and to enable an optimal unit commitment and economical dispatch. Several forecast horizons can be identified, spanning from a few seconds to days or wee...

The 21st century university has the big educational challenge of how to encourage “a will to learn” in students living in a world saturated with a huge amount of information and distractions. A needed step to keep students motivated is to update their learning environments. Herein we present a proposal with a methodology based on microprojects in D...

Nowadays, solar resource estimation via clear-sky models is widely accepted when correctly validated with on ground records. In the past, different approaches have been proposed in order to determine clear-sky periods of solar radiation on-ground records: visual inspection of registers, discretization via a threshold value of clear sky index, and c...

This work presents a dynamic model for a CO2 heat pump gas cooler. The gas cooler model is based on the conservation equations of energy, mass, and momentum. Due to the importance of an expansion device and a compressor for heat exchanger modeling, detailed mathematical treatment is also given to those devices. The spatial variations of temperature...

This paper deals with the implementation of an educational methodology based on microprojects into the subject ‘Manufacturing Technology’ of the EHEA (European Space of Higher Education) engineering degrees. The main idea is to consolidate the theoretical background by working on microprojects ordered by foreign entities. Under this approach studen...

This article proposes a new genetic algorithm (GA) methodology to obtain parsimonious support vector regression (SVR) models capable of predicting highly precise setpoints in a continuous annealing furnace (GA-PARSIMONY). The proposal combines feature selection, model tuning, and parsimonious model selection in order to achieve robust SVR models. T...

In the early design phase of steel structures, the maximum capacity of the connections is one of the critical parameters that ought to be calculated first. Determining this force by means of analytical methods usually leads to overestimations, given its highly non-linear behaviour. The finite element (FE) method, a hard computing approach, represen...

General purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is a promising technique to cope with nowadays arising computational challenges due to the suitability of GPUs for parallel processing. Several libraries and functions are being released to boost the use of GPUs in real world problems. However, many of these packages require a deep know...

Photovoltaic–thermal panels offer a practical means of generating both electricity and hot water but, at the same time, inefficiencies arise from combining these two types of collectors. This study aims to improve on convective losses in pane spacing in a covered panel by substituting the inside Air with different gases and also optimizing the dist...

Solar global irradiation is barely recorded in remote areas around the world. The lack of access to an electricity grid in these areas presents an enormous opportunity for electrification through renewable energy sources and, specifically, with photovoltaic energy where great solar resources are available. Traditionally, solar resource estimation w...

Solar irradiation databases from satellite estimates are based on images taken from satellites with wide spatial resolution. The rising interest on solar energy technologies and climate change suppose the necessity of high spatial resolution data of solar irradiation. The downscaling of satellite estimates provides an alternative to dense pyranomet...

The use of sensors in infrastructures made by human beings is becoming a standard practice at the time to prevent geological disaster, which causes traffic jam, casualties, economic loss and environment disruption. In this work a real-time control of landslides is performed in order to monitor their situation and to generate an alert system than ca...

Most of the research on estimating Solar Global Irradiation (SGI) is based on the development of parametric models. However, the use of methods based on the use of statistics and machine-learning theories can provide a significant improvement in reducing the prediction errors. The chapter evaluates the performance of different Soft Computing (SC) m...

Most of the research on estimating solar global irradiation (SGI) is based on the development of parametric models. However, the use of methods based on the use of statistics and machine learning theories can provide a significant improvement in reducing the prediction errors. The article evaluates the performance of different soft computing (SC) m...

This paper presents a performance comparative of GA-PAR SIMONY methodology with five well-known regression algorithms and with different genetic algorithm (GA) configurations. This approach is mainly based on combining GA and feature selection (FS) during model tuning process to achieve better overall parsimonious models that assure good generaliza...

In the component-based method, the ductility characterisation of the tension component plays a primary role in accurately predicting the rotation capacity of the whole connection. In this paper, a refined finite element (FE) model is presented to assess the complete force–displacement response of the T-stub component, from the initial stiffness up...

The accuracy of the component-based method relies heavily on the characteristic response of their constitutive elements. To properly assess the deformation capacity of the whole connection, modelling the complete force–displacement curves of the components, from the initial stiffness to fracture, is necessary. This paper presents a numerical-inform...

Solar radiation estimates with clear sky models require estimations of aerosol data. The low spatial resolution of current aerosol datasets, with their remarkable drift from measured data, poses a problem in solar resource estimation. This paper proposes a new downscaling methodology by combining support vector machines for regression (SVR) and kri...

Combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) are volumetric machines, which means that their net power output decreases at air temperatures above the design point. Such temperatures generally occur during periods of high solar irradiation. Many countries where these conditions occur, including Spain, have installed a significant number of CCGTs in recent ye...

An optimization based on genetic algorithms for both feature selection and model tuning is presented to improve the prediction of set points in industrial lines. The objective is the development of an automatic procedure that efficiently generates parsimonious prediction models with higher generalisation capacity. These models can achieve higher ac...

The estimation of the optimum number of loops to operate an integrated solar combined cycle gas turbine (ISCC) represents a complex problem and a very time demanding operation, which must be calculated in near-real time and as a result, it is hardly possible to be solved with regular ISCC production models. This problem is addressed evaluating diff...

A comparison of the DirIndex model for computing direct normal solar irradiance from global horizontal using different clear sky transmittance models is presented for four ground stations that belong to BSRN and AERONET networks. The results of DirInt model, which does not include any clear sky transmittance contribution, are also shown. The input...

The prediction of the set points for continuous annealing furnaces on hot dip galvanising lines is essential if high product quality is to be maintained and energy consumption and related emissions into the atmosphere are to be reduced. Owing to the global and evolving nature of the galvanising industry, plant engineers are currently demanding bett...

The assessment of failure force in bolted lap joints is a critical parameter in the design of steel structures. This kind of bolted joint shows a highly nonlinear behaviour so traditional analytical models are not very reliable. By contrast, other classical technique like finite element analysis provides a powerful tool to solve nonlinearities but...

Progress in information technologies and their broad social expansion have led to the appearance of websites specialized in online hotel booking. These sites offer new approaches for customers that have demonstrated a strong tendency towards making last minute reservations. This scenario has dramatically affected the task of predicting hotel bookin...