Salinity gradient solar pond construction and maintenance

Abstract

Renewable energy has become popular alternative to fossil fuels as it can avoid environmental pollution such as air pollution. With the increase of human population and the demand of the power, power generation from renewable energy are greatly welcomed to be used for the future generation. One of the renewable energies that can be harnessed to meet our energy needs is solar energy. Salinity gradient solar pond is a low-cost solar collector and it can be used for a long term of heat storage. The storage of heat is useful for the generation of power during cloudy day and at night, in addition being very useful compared to other solar system. In this research, the solar pond was filled with saline water with increasing of density from top to the bottom as solar radiation was being absorb at the bottom of the pond. This project mainly focused on the construction of the salinity gradient solar pond and the methods to maintain the condition of solar pond. The parameters, such as temperature, density and pH value of water in solar pond was obtained as part of the maintenance and stability of the pond.