Design strategies of passive solar greenhouses: A bibliometric and systematic review

Abstract

During passive solar design of greenhouses, engineers usually encounter issues such as building form parameter selection. Suitable parameters can help to reduce energy losses related to interior temperature control and relatively intensive crop production. However, by using bibliometric analyses, no existing review works provide concise parameter selection lists. To fill in this gap, this paper compares and evaluates various passive technologies for greenhouse design in five areas: (1) orientation, (2) building structures, (3) envelope materials, (4) heat storage options, and (5) numerical modeling. First, the orientation of a passive solar greenhouse significantly influences its performance. Second, greenhouses exhibit various architectural shapes, including single- and multispan, with transparent and opaque envelopes. Third, greenhouses usually include envelopes constructed from transparent materials, opaque materials, and movable insulation materials. Fourth, most passive greenhouses provide daily energy storage systems equipped with storage media, including water, soil, rock, brick, and phase change material (PCM). Finally, this paper reviews numerical modeling and performance evaluations for passive greenhouses.

Keywords

• Passive design
• Agricultural greenhouse
• Solar absorption
• Transparent film
• Crop growth
• Bibliometric analysis