Integration of python programming in renewable energy studies: A flat plate collector model

This paper studies the application of Python programming in renewable energy research through the development of a model for a flat plate solar collector. These collectors plays a very important role in solar thermal systems especially in in low to medium-temperature applications. Common modelling methods frequently involve the manual calculations (which are sometimes error prone) or the use of commercial software which are often costly. By utilizing Python’s open-source environment along with the efficient libraries like NumPy and Matplotlib, this article presents an iterative, reproducible, and computationally efficient construct. The developed Python model integrates key heat transfer principles which governs the flat plate collectors and accounting for thermal and radiative interactions between the absorber plate, glass cover, and surrounding environment. The developed Python functions are used to calculate the essential parameters such as Rayleigh and Nusselt numbers along with the heat transfer coefficients and loss factors. The developed model offers a versatile educational tool for renewable energy studies and will provide a robust foundation for improving the research in solar thermal system optimization.