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This paper presents an overview of actual solar radiation data measurements in Ghardaïa site (32.360 N, 3.810 W, 450 m above MSL). Global solar radiation and surface temperatures were measured and analyzed for one complete year from 1 January-31December 2005. The data thus recorded are compared with corresponding data of the 22-year average of NASA's surface meteorology and solar energy-model. Hourly, daily and monthly solar radiation was made from five-minute recorded by EKO Pyranometer. The highest measured daily and monthly mean solar radiation was found to be 369 and 326 (W/m2), and the highest five minute averaged solar radiation values up to 1268 (W/m2) were observed in the summer season from May to September, and the yearly average daily energy input was 21.83 (MJ/m2/day). Besides the global solar radiation, the daily and monthly average temperature variations are discussed. The collected data indicate that Ghardaïa has a strong potential for solar energy applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper recommends an optimal sizing model, to optimize the capacity sizes of different components of photovoltaic water pumping system (PWPS) using water tank storage. The recommended model takes into account the submodels of the pumping system and uses two optimization criteria, the loss of power supply probability (LPSP) concept for the reliability and the life cycle cost (LCC) for the economic evaluation. With this presented model, the sizing optimization of photovoltaic pumping system can be achieved technically and economically according to the system reliability requirements. The methodology adopted proposes various procedures based on the water consumption profiles, total head, tank capacity and photovoltaic array peak power. A case study is conducted to analyze one photovoltaic pumping project, which is designed to supply drinking water in remote and scattered small villages situated in Ghardaia, Algeria (32°29′N, 3°40′E, 450m). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In accordance with a decree issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Algeria in August 2000, an electronic copy of every Master's and PhD thesis defended in all academic institutions must be deposited at the CERIST Research Centre. Deposit is a condition for getting the diploma. CERIST is then entrusted with the mission to build a database of Algerian theses and to update the national inventory of current theses and research. However a serious problem of archiving and preserving these Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) has emerged. From December 2001 to November 2002 a great number of ETDs has been deposited and constitutes a set of more than 1000 floppy disks and 100 CD-ROMs. What guarantees that these digital materials deposited by students are preserved and safeguarded? What guarantees that the content of these materials are preserved and accessible at any time regardless of machine, operating system and software. This paper explores the problem of the long-term conservation and preservation of electronic theses in the Algerian context, and shows how international recognised standards and techniques for setting up and organising the local ETD's archives may be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this article, an optimal design model using metaheuristic techniques to overcome such difficult optimization problems has been proposed. For this purpose, various well‐known metaheuristic algorithms have been used, namely: ant lion optimizer (ALO), bat algorithm (BA), cuckoo search algorithm (CSA), and gray wolf optimization algorithm (GWO). To provide optimal system configurations, an objective function based on the total net present cost (TNPC) has been specified while taking into account a number of constraints, including the loss of power supply probability (LPSP). The effectiveness of the used algorithms in solving such problem is assessed and their performances compared with each other. To assess the suggested model's effectiveness, a case study has been conducted to investigate a stand‐alone photovoltaic water pumping system (PVWPS), designed to supply water to a one‐hectare field of date palm trees. This field of an oasis located in the Ghardaïa region of Algeria consists of 130 date palm trees spaced 9 m apart. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the GWO algorithm over the other algorithms. GWO converges toward the optimal solutions for different heads and all reliability levels required by the customer. Another aspect, supported by the developed methodology, is the accounting of the excess water volume. It has been found that the relative surplus is inversely proportional to the PVWPS reliability level. For a head of 30 m, the relative excess is estimated at 120% for LPS0%, while it is 27% for LPSP of 10%. The same observations are made for the other heads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an investigation study has been carried out to evaluate the photovoltaic module degradation, in a desert area of Algeria. In this view, a set of PV modules have been put into tests and assessment for more than 11 years. These modules were assembled into three PV generators composed of monocrystalline (mc-Si) and polycrystalline (pc-Si) PV modules. The I–V curve tracer, calibrated reference m-Si solar cell and Pt1000 temperature sensor tools were used to collect the data. Three degradation modes were examined namely: (i) the visual inspection characterized mainly by a discoloration of PV modules, (ii) I–V degradation characterized by an increase in the series resistance which corresponds to electrical losses in conductors and (iii) the degradation rate (DR) assessment. The main parameters affecting on PV system performance are the high temperatures and sandstorms that characterize desert regions. The results indicated that for monocrystalline and polycrystalline PV modules, the power degradation rates were 1.53% and 0.37% per year, respectively. This degradation rate was found to be 2.36% per year for modules with broken back-sheet and corroded junction box. The production situation of examined PV systems shown a decrease of about 9%, 13%, and 6.8% for PVG1, PVG2, and PVG3, respectively, throughout the operation period. In addition, cell discoloration was observed as the predominant mode of degradation mechanism in desert climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]