Analyzing the Energy Utilization Efficiency of Renewable Energy Resources. Part 1: Energy Analysis Method

Abstract

Energy consumption depends mainly on the available amounts of local resources, which are closely connected with the present rural economy and living standards. Recently, there has been increasing interest in using energy and exergy modeling techniques for energy utilization assessments in order to attain energy savings, and hence financial savings. The energy utilization of a country can be evaluated using exergy analysis to gain insights into its efficiency. The present study, consisting of two parts, deals with analyzing the energy utilization efficiency of renewable energy resources (RERs). Part 1 uses energy analysis method, while exergy analysis method is applied to Part 2. In the analysis, Turkey with a projected population of 76,840,418 in 2010, is given as an illustrative example. RERs considered are residential-commercial and industrial subsectors used in the Turkish conversion. The energy efficiency values for Turkey's RERs are projected to be 60.99% in 2010. Besides this, total energy utilization efficiency values for those are expected to be 49.85% in the same year. The present study has clearly indicated the necessity of the planned studies towards increasing renewable energy utilization efficiency in the sub-sectors studied and especially the critical role of policymakers in establishing effective energy-efficiency delivery mechanisms throughout the country. It is also expected that this study will fill a considerably large gap since it is the first attempt towards analyzing Turkey's RERs in 2010 in terms of energy utilization efficiencies.