About the Author(s)

Basant Agrawal obtained his B.E. and M.Tech. from Maulana Azad National Institute of technology (MANIT) Bhopal. He is awarded a gold medal in M.Tech. by Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal. He is working as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SGSITS Indore and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He has more than ten years’ teaching experience. His broad area of interest includes thermodynamics and heat engines, heat transfer, hybrid PV thermal (HPVT) systems and passive building design. He has authored four books with well-known publishers and has published over 30 research papers in various international and national journals and conferences. He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education and the Institute of Engineers (India).

Professor Gopal Nath Tiwari received postgraduate and doctoral degrees from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Since 1977 he is actively involved in teaching and research at the Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His area of research includes solar distillation, water/air heating system, greenhouse technology, earth–air heat exchangers, passive building design and hybrid PV thermal (HPVT) systems. He has guided about 55 Ph.D. students and published over 400 research papers in well-known journals. He has written 18 books in association with respected publishers. He is a co-recipient of the Hariom Ashram Prerit S.S. Bhatnagar Award in 1982. Dr Tiwari worked at the University of Papua New Guinea between 1987 and 1989 as Energy and Environment Expert and he became a European Fellow at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK) in 1993. He is responsible for developing the Solar Energy Park at IIT Delhi and the Energy Laboratory at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. He has been invited to speak in many countries including Italy, Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Greece, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan etc. He has chaired international conferences as an expert in renewable energy, presenting research papers, etc. He has been awarded with "Solar Energy Valued Associate Editor" by the Publisher, Elsevier, Oxford, UK in 2008 for his exceptional contribution to the quality of solar energy. He was editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Engineering for three years (2006–08). He is also the member of the editorial advisory board for more than a dozen of Journals which includes Solar energy, International Journal of Photoenergy, International Journal of Energy Research, The Open Environmental Sciences, The Open Renewable Energy Journal and Open Fuels & Energy Science Journal. On 26 March 2008 the government of Uttar Pradesh, India awarded him the Vigyan Ratna.