Simulation activities are a useful tool to improve competence in industrial engineering bachelors. Specifically, fluid simulation allows students to acquire important skills to strengthen their theoretical knowledge and improve their future professional career. However, these tools usually require long training times and they are usually not available in the subjects of B.Sc. degrees. In this article, a new methodology based on short lessons is raised and evaluated in the fluid-mechanical subject for students enrolled in three different bachelor degree groups: B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and B.Sc. in Electronic and Automatic Engineering. Statistical results show a good acceptance in terms of usability, learning, motivation, thinking over, satisfaction and scalability. Additionally, a machine-learning based approach was applied to find group peculiarities and differences among them in order to identify the need for further personalization of the learning activity.

As solar photovoltaics in buildings reaches maturity, grid integration and economic yield are topics of greater interest. The traditional design of photovoltaic installations has considered the optimal orientation of photovoltaic modules to be that which yields the maximum annual energy production. The influence of the consumption patterns and the hourly variable electricity prices implies that this traditional optimal design might not be the most profitable. Using a full-year dataset for a residential installation, alternative installations using canopies and modules attached to the façades are simulated. By evaluating the energy balances for different annual consumptions, it is found that the canopy and façade installations offer better self-consumption of the PV produced energy, reflected in a 9% higher self-consumption degree using modules on façades and a 5% higher self-consumption degree using canopies. The economic evaluation under the new electricity tariffs in Spain shows a better profit for PV self-consumption, reducing the time of return on investment by more than 2 years. The analysis of different alternatives for an industrial PV allowed us to identify several benefits for these orientations which are confirmed after a full year of operation, such as an increase of up to 59% in annual energy production over the optimal-producing orientation.

As Solar Photovoltaics in buildings reaches maturity, grid integration and economic yield are topics of greater interest. Some strategies like demand shift management or storing electricity in batteries are proposed to reach a higher share of PV into the distribution grid. The price reduction of solar PV has driven a change in support policies from the feed-in tariff to net metering and, nowadays, to net billing schemes. With an increase in PV installations, aesthetical aspects are more valued, and coplanar placement of modules is preferred. By analyzing the operation of two PV installations: one residential and another industrial, we will show that smart use of these non-optimal orientations for the yearly production can be more convenient. Through the economic evaluation of several PV orientations, it is found that the economic performance could minimize the energy loss from optimal. The analysis of different alternatives for each study case has allowed us to identify several benefits for these orientations.