A Low-Cost Sustainable Energy Solution for Pristine Mountain Areas of Developing Countries

Shakil Rehman Sheikh,Fawad Rauf,Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi,Umair Aziz,Zareena Kausar,Muhammad Faizan Shah,Umar Rauf,Syed Hassan Raza Shah,Haseeb Yaqoob

doi:10.3390/en14113160

Abstract

The rise in energy requirements and its shortfall in developing countries have affected socioeconomic life. Communities in remote mountainous regions in Asia are among the most affected by energy deprivation. This study presents the feasibility of an alternate strategy of supplying clean energy to the areas consisting of pristine mountains and forest terrain. Southeast Asia has a much-diversified landscape and varied natural resources, including abundant water resources. The current study is motivated by this abundant supply of streams which provides an excellent environment for run-of-river micro vertical axis water turbines. However, to limit the scope of the study, the rivers and streams flowing in northern areas of Pakistan are taken as the reference. The study proposes a comprehensive answer for supplying low-cost sustainable energy solutions for such remote communities. The suggested solution consists of a preliminary hydrodynamic design using Qblade, further analysis using numerical simulations, and finally, experimental testing in a real-world environment. The results of this study show that the use of microturbines is a very feasible option considering that the power generation density of the microturbine comes out to be approximately 2100 kWh/year/m2, with minimal adverse effects on the environment.

Highlights

Renewable, or inexpensive energy resources, are the need of the day for the sustainment of daily life [1]
Most rivers/streams originating from the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, such as the Himalayan ranges, are shallow, but they keep a high velocity during the majority of the year
The results show that selecting turbine design based on the best performance parameter can give a good year-round performa seen that turbine performance stays stable within a range of 2.5 < tip-speed ratio (TSR) < 4.5 and po of 4 kW to 6.5 kW is achieved in a velocity range of 3.5 < V < 4.5 m/s which is a during the summer months

Summary

Introduction

Inexpensive energy resources, are the need of the day for the sustainment of daily life [1]. Hydroelectric energy is one of the most abundantly available resource of renewable energy in Southeast Asia, but traditional hydroelectric projects require a huge amount of investment in the form of infrastructure and time. Most rivers/streams originating from the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, such as the Himalayan ranges, are shallow, but they keep a high velocity during the majority of the year. Several countries like Pakistan have a large number of such water channels. These are in abundance in the northern part of Pakistan’s rain catchment areas. To limit the scope of the current study, data from the water channels located in Pakistan are taken as the reference

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion