Courses | LES

The members of LES are teachers at Universidad de la Répública and teach curricular and extra-curricular solar energy courses. Some of the materials used in these courses are made available on this website.

Solar Resource Fundamentals (postgraduate course, material in Spanish)

2020 Edition: Masters and Doctorates in Energy Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de la República. The target audience also includes Atmospheric Sciences.
Course teachers (2020 edition):
Dr. Eng. Rodrigo Alonso Suárez (Head teacher) – LES, Institute of Physics, FING, Udelar.
Dr. Gonzalo Abal – LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar.
Lic. Agustín Laguarda – LES, Institute of Physics, FING, Udelar.
Syllabus: Solar radiation outside the atmosphere, solar radiation on the Earth’s surface, absorption and scattering phenomena in the atmosphere, direct and diffuse radiation modeling, transposition of solar radiation to tilted surfaces, clear sky modeling, satellite modeling for all sky conditions, characteristics of the solar resource, quality of available and commercialized databases, quality control of measurements, bankability of data, variability of the resource, short term forecast (up to 3 days ahead) of the resource, performance evaluation of estimates and forecasts.
Objective: To train professionals who can make critical use of solar resource information (commercial or freely available), taking into account its origin and quality differences, and who are capable of carrying out advanced consulting analysis in the solar resource area. The course does not include the analysis of applications of solar energy (thermal and photovoltaic), which have separate specific courses within the framework of previous postgraduate courses.
Taught at: Faculty of Engineering, Udelar. It is dictated bi-annually in even-numbered years (last edition, May-July 2020).

Course Notes – 2020 Update

Course Notes version 4.0 (2020) – Chapters 1 to 4 – Spanish.
Version 4.1 (final 2020 update) is in development.

2020 Edition (contents are made available as the course progresses)

Syllabus of the subject: Here.
EVA website of the subject: Here.

Course presentation (R. Alonso Suárez): Presentation – Class.
Module 1: Solar radiation outside the atmosphere (G. Abal).
Total Solar Irradiance (TSI, solar constant): Presentation 1 – Class 1
Solar Geometry– Irradiance and TOA Irradiation: Presentation 2 – Presentation 3 – Class 2 – Class 3 – Class 4
Module 2: Solar radiation on the earth’s surface (G. Abal, A. Laguarda).
Absorption and Scattering Processes in the Atmosphere: Presentation 1 – Class 1.
Attenuation of the Direct Irradiance: Presentation 2 – Class 2.
Clear sky models: Presentation 3 – Class 3 – Class 4.
Modeling of Diffuse Fraction: Presentation 4 – Presentation 5 – Presentation 6 – Class 5
Explanation on Clear Sky Models: Presentation – Class.
Module 3: Radiation transport from a horizontal plane to a tilted plane (G. Abal).
Hourly and sub-hourly transport models: Presentation 1 – Class 1.
Transport models at a daily scale: Presentation 2 – Class 2.
Module 4: Solar radiation measurements (G. Abal).
Measuring instruments, calibration, RMCIS, MSUv1: Presentation 1 – Class 1 – Class 2.
Module 5: Quality control of radiation series (R. Alonso-Suárez, A. Laguarda).
Metadata and Visual Inspection: Presentation 1 – Class 1 – Class 2.
Quality filtering: Presentation 2 – Class 3.
Module 6: Satellite estimation (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Satellite estimation of solar irradiation: Presentation 1 – Class 1.
Uncertainty of irradiance estimation: Presentation 2 – Class 2.
Available information sources: Presentation 3 – Class 3.
Module 7: Variability of the solar resource (R. Alonso-Suárez, A. Laguarda).
Climatic variability: Presentation 1 – Class 1.
Short term variability and variability filtering: Presentation 2 – Class 2.
Module 8: Forecast of the solar resource (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Solar Energy Forecast: Presentation 1 – Class 1.

2014 Edition – Ex-course of Solar Energy Fundamentals

Course Notes – Chap. 1 – Solar Radiation (G. Abal)

Course Notes – Chap. 2 – Optical efficiency and heat transfer (H. Failache)

Course Notes – Chap. 3 – Flat-plate collector (G. Abal)

Types of Solar Collectors for DHW (R. Alonso Suárez): Presentation 1 – Presentation 2

Solar Thermal Energy (postgraduate course)

2020 Edition: Masters and Doctorates in Energy Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics.
Course teachers (2020 edition):
Dr. Italo Bove (Head teacher) – LES, Institute of Physics, FING, Udelar.
Lic. Agustín Laguarda – LES, Institute of Physics, FING, Udelar.
Syllabus: Introduction to solar radiation, heat transfer elements, solar collectors, solar collector testing, solar system modeling, F-Chart method, solar concentrators, thermal conditioning of buildings, thermal energy storage.
Objective: To train professionals in the functioning of solar thermal energy applications, specifically, in the modeling of solar collectors and the sizing of solar systems for domestic hot water, industrial process heat and thermal conditioning.
Taught at: Faculty of Engineering, Udelar. It is taught bi-annually in even-numbered years (currently in its 2020 edition).

Solar Energy Conversion (graduate course)

2017-2018 Edition: Students of Renewable Energies Engineering of the UTEC. LES was in charge of the creation of this course in 2017 and of teaching it in 2017-2018. After this period, the UTEC continued teaching the course with its own HR, trained by LES. The activity was carried out within the framework of a Udelar-UTEC Specific Agreement.
Course teachers (2017-2018 editions):
D. Eng. Rodrigo Alonso-Suárez (Head teacher) LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar.
Gerardo Vitale – LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar.
Objective: The course is a more basic version of the advanced solar resource courses, suitable to provide the basics and data processing capabilities to undergraduate students in this specific area. The contents are presented in a more didactic and introductory way.
Taught at: ITR Centro-Sur (Durazno), UTEC, through a Udelar-UTEC Specific Agreement.

Class 1: [Presentation] Solar energy overview (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 2: [Presentation] Solar radiation outside the atmosphere (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 3: [Presentation] Solar radiation on the earth’s surface (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 4: [Presentation] Measurement and modeling of solar radiation (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 5: [Presentation] Solar radiation on a tilted plane (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 6: [Presentation] Available information sources (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 7: [Presentation] Fundamentals of heat transfer (G. Vitale).
Class 8: [Presentation] Solar collectors (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 9: [Presentation] Flat-plane collector modeling (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Class 10: [Presentation] Introduction to PV Solar Energy (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Extra Class 1: [Presentation] Advanced modeling of flat-plane solar collectors (R. Alonso-Suárez).
Extra Class 2: [Presentation] F-Chart method for solar fraction estimation (R. Alonso-Suárez).

Biomedical and Environmental Ultraviolet (UV) Radiation (Postgraduate Course)

Syllabus: PEDECIBA Biology postgraduate.
Course coordinators: Dr. Deborah Keszenman (Biophysics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar).
Participants from LES: Dr. Gonzalo Abal (LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar).
Content provided by LES: Information on UV radiation in the atmosphere.
Taught in: September 2019 at CENUR-LN (Salto), Universidad de la República.

Training in Solar Thermal Energy (technical course)

Setting: International cooperation through OLADE. Udelar-UTEC collaboration partnership.
Participants from LES: Eng. Ignacio Texeira (LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar).
Content provided by LES: Technical aspects of solar thermal energy installations for domestic hot water.
Taught in: August 2017 in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

Solar Energy Course for Installation Technicians (RTI, technical course)

Setting: MIEM-Udelar Agreement.
Participants from LES: Dr. Gonzalo Abal, Dr. Eng. Rodrigo Alonso-Suárez, Eng. Ignacio Texeira (LES, Physics Department, CENUR-LN, Udelar).
Other teachers: Eng. Juan Carlos Martinez-Escribano (MIEM international consultant in solar thermal energy), Eng. Pablo Franco (specialist in installations and local regulations in solar thermal energy) and D.Eng. Valeria Durañona (specialist in the effect of extreme winds on buildings).
Content provided by LES: Fundamentals of solar radiation and solar collectors for domestic hot water (contents of Chap.1, 2 and 3 of the Technical Handbook Vol. 1). Collaboration in the review of technical content on solar thermal energy installations (Technical Handbook Vol. 2).
Taught in: March-April 2013 at the FING, Universidad de la República.