Decentralized Renewable Energy Research Articles

Transitioning to Decentralized Renewable Energy in Latvia: A Comprehensive Payback Analysis

Abstract It is believed that the transition to renewable decentralized energy supply solutions (e.g., solar panels, storage of electricity in batteries) will help promote the decarbonization of the energy system. At the same time, it is expected to happen only when society is convinced of the environmental benefits and when there are enough economic incentives for it. This study analyses the economic feasibility of transitioning to decentralized renewable energy solutions, including solar panels and electricity storage, in Latvia. Our research explores potential savings of these solutions under various scenarios based on different factors, such as national NETO billing system, financial support scheme, electricity pricing, distribution network tariffs, energy storage options, as well as the impact of the battery energy storage system (BESS) discharging strategy. The results show that the potential savings can vary depending on these factors that are changing over time. Nevertheless, the rise in small-scale power generation at households shows that there is an increasingly rapid transition from centralized electricity supply to a decentralized supply system, which might indicate that society supports energy transition.

Analyzing the Viability of Decentralized Renewable Energy Solutions for Rural Electrification in Marginalized Communities of Pakistan

Analyzing the Viability of Decentralized Renewable Energy Solutions for Rural Electrification in Marginalized Communities of Pakistan

A Spoonful of Solar to Help the Medicine go Down Exploring Synergies Between Health Care and Energy

Given the wide adoption of decentralized solar energy systems in rural health facilities, this report explores the role of decentralized solar energy interventions in rural health facilities and its linkages to provisioning of health care services, especially for underserved populations. It reviews current decentralized energy interventions across multiple Indian states under different financing, ownership, and operating modes and attempts to understand the lacunae that certain implementation models face in terms of scalability and what conditions are essential to ensure the sustainability of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) systems in rural health facilities in the long run. The report is a culmination of extensive literature review, in-person interviews, field visits to the health facilities, as well as our own experience in supporting development partners to implement decentralized solar energy solutions in India. We studied 22 health facilities that are being powered by decentralized solar energy systems in rural parts of six Indian states—i.e., Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, and Odisha.

Feminizing Decentralized Renewable Energy Programs: A Study of a Community Renewable Energy Project from India

The increasing impact of global forces on local communities in the 21st century has necessitated a shift in focus from macro narratives to the micro-politics of planning. One of the critical areas of such micro-politics is energy policy-making in the Global South. It is argued that a bottom-up approach to energy intervention would increase the control and access of the end consumer to the sites of production, shift away from colonial energy production systems, and create more avenues for equitable community development. Within this context, this study critically evaluates a community-based renewable energy project from a feminist perspective. The study is based on data provided by Barefoot College International (BCI), which is one of the leading non-governmental organizations working towards fulfilling SDG goals. The study has used a document analysis approach to produce rich documentation of the community energy program under study. Findings from the study indicate that the current approach to gender inclusion within energy transition lacks a focus on the interlocked subordinations that exist within a community, and the lack of intersectionality in its model design could potentially reinforce the existing inequalities in the form of gendered resource access, livelihoods, and labor work. The study calls for further research on evaluating decentralized renewable energy programs to examine whether the way the energy transition to a low-carbon intensive future will produce equitable outcomes across genders.

Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems

Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems

The Sustainability of Decentralised Renewable Energy Projects in Developing Countries: Learning Lessons from Zambia

Decentralised renewable energy (RE) systems such as solar PV mini-grids (MG) are considered to be a cornerstone for the strategic achievement of the UN’s energy access goals in the developing world. Many of these systems implemented however face substantial technical, financial and social sustainability challenges which are also a recurring theme in the relevant literature. MG analyses however often lack detailed technical or financial data or apply ‘silo-approaches’ as a comprehensive review of MG case study literature presented in this article reveals. Consequently, this study aims to enhance the understanding of RE MG sustainability in the developing context based on the integrated evaluation of the technical, financial and social dimensions of MG operation through empirical data from community surveys on energy use from Uganda and Zambia and two in-depth MG case studies from Zambia. By presenting detailed technical and financial data in combination with energy consumer perception, the study aims to close existing data gaps on sustainable RE MG operation and offers an approach to evaluate and optimise the operational sustainability of an MG in its individual local context. The article finds that the complex rural community ecosystem is a central, but yet undervalued determinant of MG sustainability in rural developing contexts. The mismatch between energy affordability and MG tariffs threatens MG sustainability and the scaling of energy access projects if not addressed specifically during project development and implementation. Consequently, the article calls for a strategic inclusion of community-ecosystem parameters and MG planning based on realistic energy affordability levels and an added value approach that includes dynamic MG financing mechanisms and targeted measures to generate added value through energy consumption as integral parts of RE MG projects.

Decoupled control of quasi-Z source inverter for decentralised renewable energy application

Decentralised renewable energy (DRE) systems are acclaimed worldwide as it serves as an alternate to the grid extension to remote areas having no access to electricity. The impedance source inverter (ZSI) has overcome the limitations of conventional voltage source inverter (VSI), have buck/boost capabilities. This paper presents an alternative approach of obtaining shoot-through pulses in a quasi-Z source inverter (qZSI) along with decoupled control by keeping dc link voltage constant instead of capacitor voltage. Dynamics of the system are investigated by deriving small signal model, the proposed control methodology uses separate controllers to handle dc and ac side dynamics to get desired shoot-through pulse and modulation index without any overlap, performance of the control methodology is verified under normal condition and under disturbances. Results are obtained using PSIM which verifies the control methodology and depicts the ability of disturbance rejection and effective reference tracking without compromising stability issues.

Decoupled control of quasi-Z source inverter for decentralised renewable energy application

Decentralised renewable energy (DRE) systems are acclaimed worldwide as it serves as an alternate to the grid extension to remote areas having no access to electricity. The impedance source inverter (ZSI) has overcome the limitations of conventional voltage source inverter (VSI), have buck/boost capabilities. This paper presents an alternative approach of obtaining shoot-through pulses in a quasi-Z source inverter (qZSI) along with decoupled control by keeping dc link voltage constant instead of capacitor voltage. Dynamics of the system are investigated by deriving small signal model, the proposed control methodology uses separate controllers to handle dc and ac side dynamics to get desired shoot-through pulse and modulation index without any overlap, performance of the control methodology is verified under normal condition and under disturbances. Results are obtained using PSIM which verifies the control methodology and depicts the ability of disturbance rejection and effective reference tracking without compromising stability issues.

Decentralised Renewable Energy and Rural Development: Lessons from Odisha’s First Solar Village

Energy plays an indispensable role in providing basic services for our daily lives. The perils of climate change and its impact on our environment have made accessibility of energy difficult. The burden of energy poverty falls particularly on the poor households in rural areas. Decentralised renewable energy options can be used to meet the energy requirement especially for the rural and tribal communities, which are scatteredly located. The study aims to find out the effectiveness of a renewable energy project at village level by studying the experiences of the Ho tribal community residing in Barapita village of Odisha, India. Barapita village is the first 100 per cent solar powered village of Odisha. Participatory rural appraisal method comprising tools such as transect walking, interview schedule, focus group discussion and key informant interviews has been used to find out the energy use pattern and challenges faced by the community. Although the solar project was initially a success, later on technical issues and maintenance problems led to the decline of solar energy use. This article suggests how the Gandhian model coupled with Nai Talim approach can be deployed to train the villagers as solar engineers, which will enable them to resolve issues related to the use of renewable energy.

Ecological Scarcity Based Impact Assessment for a Decentralised Renewable Energy System

Increasing the share of renewable energies in electricity and heat generation is the cornerstone of a climate-friendly energy transition. However, as renewable technologies rely on diverse natural resources, the design of decarbonized energy systems inevitably leads to environmental trade-offs. This paper presents the case study of a comprehensive impact assessment for different future development scenarios of a decentralized renewable energy system in Germany. It applies an adapted ecological scarcity method (ESM) that improves decision-support by ranking the investigated scenarios and revealing their main environmental shortcomings: increased mineral resource use and pollutant emissions due to required technical infrastructure and a substantial increase in land use due to biomass combustion. Concerning the case study, the paper suggests extending the set of considered options, e.g., towards including imported wind energy. More generally, the findings underline the need for a comprehensive environmental assessment of renewable energy systems that integrate electricity supply with heating, cooling, and mobility. On a methodical level, the ESM turns out to be a transparent and well adaptable method to analyze environmental trade-offs from renewable energy supply. It currently suffers from missing quantitative targets that are democratically sufficiently legitimized. At the same time, it can provide a sound basis for an informed discussion on such targets.

Preface

This proceeding contains the papers presented at the 3rd Asia Conference on Energy and Electrical Engineering (ACEEE 2020), and the workshop, the 3rd International Conference on Power and Smart Grid, which was scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 29-31, 2020.When initially challenged by the ACEEE 2020 Conference Committee to propose to postpone ACEEE 2020 to next year or to the end of 2020, we immediately realize that unforeseen circumstances are still on the way. After evaluating the current COVID-19 situation and referring other successful virtual conferences, ACEEE 2020 had to make the difficult decision to move to a fully virtual conference this year. We felt this to be a unique opportunity to provide a more flexible way for researchers, professionals and other experts from around the world to present their research results in Energy and Electrical Engineering.We are happy to introduce that our committee was composed of about thirty excellent experts and scholars in the field of Energy and Electrical Engineering from various famous universities around the globe. Especially, we are honored to invite five distinguished keynote speakers to perform their valuable research achievements. Prof. C. Y. Chung (IEEE Fellow), University of Saskatchewan, Canada, presented a speech entitled Efficient Uncertainty Modeling for Optimal Planning and Operation of Modern Power Systems; Prof. C. K. Michael Tse, City University of Hong Kong, China, talked about Modelling and Analysis of Cascading Failure in Power Systems; Prof. Z.Y. Dong (IEEE Fellow), University of New South Wales, Australia, held his talk on Distributed Renewable Energy Resource Uptake Methodologies; Prof. Junye Wang, Athabasca University, Canada, who shared with us his speech on Decentralized Renewable Energy in Cold Climate Regions: Challenges and Opportunities. Lastly, Prof. Zhixin Wang, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, discussed his study on DC Fault Current Limiter and Application in VSC-HVDC Transmission System. The professional research of the five speakers stimulated in-depth communication between the participants via Zoom online rooms, and also provided new ideas for scholars in the field of energy and power, which enabled the conference a great success.

IDENTIFYING THE BEST DECENTRALIZED RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IN NEPAL

Access to electricity is generally recognized as an important factor for economic and social development. Moreover, the world energy consumption depends on the use of limited resources like fossil fuels that induce adverse impact on the environment and society. As an alternative, renewable energies turn into crucial alternative energy ensuring sustainable energy needs and taking care of society, economy and the environment. In order to combat such issues, the United Nations has declared universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for by 2030. In many cases, different types of renewable energy systems are being developed to serve energy need without considering the best alternative. Thus, this paper tries to prioritize the installed Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) systems for rural electrification in Nepal by analyzing nineteen sustainability indicators related to four sustainability dimensions - technical, social, economic and environmental. An Analytical Hierarchy Process-Online Software (AHP-OS) model is used for ranking various DRE systems. Suitable goals, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives are developed after reviewing pertinent literature and consultation of the experts. The results reveal that micro-hydropower is the best electrification option followed by the solar home system, solar mini-grid, and wind-solar hybrid for decentralized electrification in Nepal. Biomass is found to be the least prioritized alternative in Nepal. The outcome of the research can help the policy-makers and decision-makers in shaping energy policies, plans, and programs, and foster sustainable energy development in the country. Similarly, the relevant stakeholders will be benefited by improving their products and services in the future.

Prioritization of Decentralized Renewable Energy Technologies for Rural Areas of Bundelkhand Region, India Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Bundelkhand region is located in the central part of India and its rural energy demand depends mainly on the non-renewable energy resources while renewable energy resources are abundantly available in this region. The utilization of renewable sources is the demand of time because non-renewable energy resources are limited in amount and cause environmental pollution as well as health problems also. Rural energy planning with the implementation of renewable technology helps to attain in sustainable development. The decentralized renewable energy technologies can play a major role to meet the rural energy demand of the country . The objective of this study is met by the identification and prioritization of the potential renewable energy technologies for rural areas of this region. Prioritization of potential renewable energy technologies for this region is done with the help of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP introduced by Thomas L. Saaty, is one of the most widely used multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool in sustainable energy planning. AHP may help the decision-makers to set the priority and make the finest decision. This study identifies the various merit and demerit of the potential renewable energy technologies, namely anaerobic digestion, solar photovoltaic and biomass gasification and emphasizes the application of AHP in prioritization of the potential renewable energy technologies for rural areas in this region. The result of this research shows that solar photovoltaic can play a vital role in sustainable development in this region and it will also show a direction to policymaker and research scholar for analyzing rural energy planning in the most effective and efficient way.

Climate Change and Decentralized Renewable Energy: The Role of Smart Cities

This article, first and foremost, aims to frame the climate change phenomenon in the international context in order to highlight the impact of public energy policies on global warming. Than the article focuses on analysing the provisions of the Directive 2018/844/ EU and the centrality foreseen in it, of energy efficiency and therefore on capturing the role of local governments in designing cities. The smart cities model, combined with the transition of electricity generation from a centralized model to a distributed one, promotes various virtuous scenarios in terms of pollution’s containment. Therefore, it would be appropriate to provide political support in terms of economic incentives, aimed to encourage the bottom-up thrust, promoting investments aimed to develop smart cities and to create new small energy producers, which represent the natural and physiological framework of the new distributed and decentralized energy model.

Scope, Relevance and Sustainability of Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems in Developing Economies: Imperatives from Indian Case Studies

Scope, Relevance and Sustainability of Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems in Developing Economies: Imperatives from Indian Case Studies

Using hugs, carrots and sticks: How agents exercise power in the transition to community-owned energy systems in remote India

Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) systems are key for sustainable energy transitions, particularly in energy poor communities, yet their pace of adoption remains slow. This paper contributes to the field of energy transition, examining the role of power to establish and govern long-lasting community-owned DRE systems. The study develops a novel conceptual framework that analyses power as a system, whose constituting components include; entities (who); resources (what); instruments (how); motivations (why); and the spatial-temporal dimensions (where and when). Using qualitative methods, the framework is applied to examine 24 community-owned DRE systems implemented by a single solution provider in remote India that have been operational for many years.Learnings suggest that at the time of establishing the systems, the solution provider centrally mobilizes power, distributing hugs to bring actors together and generate consensus for the model. Conversely, while governing the systems power is mobilized by multiple entities, each using different instruments to achieve the collective aim of building local capacities for technical and administrative tasks. While external actors support the communities using a mix of hugs, carrots and sticks, local actors themselves engage in a virtuous cycle of learning-by-doing, leveraging their knowledge and abilities to acquire the skills to ensure long-lasting solutions. This model requires carefully designed contractual agreements, enabling non-hierarchical relations, flexibility and devolving responsibilities to the communities to devise and enforce contextually relevant rules. Retaining the power of alienation with external stakeholders acts as a deterrent, preventing elite capture and ensuring inclusivity.

Prospects of decentralized renewable energy to improve energy access: A resource-inventory-based analysis of South Africa

Approximately 1.5 million South African households (~16 million total) are still relying on paraffin, fuel wood, candle, and coal for their daily quota of energy. Although coal-based power generation is apparently easier for coal-rich South Africa, an increasing share of large-scale renewable energy (solar and wind) is mandated due to environmental concerns. In this work, prospect of two distributed renewable resources (farm manure and solar radiation) for a decentralized renewable energy (DRE) program targeting quality energy access for a non-electrified population, was investigated based on ground-level assessments. The potential demands of electrical and thermal energy were assessed and compared to the anticipated decentralized generation of biogas and solar photovoltaic power for all nine provinces of South Africa. In all provinces, except Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, farm manure could support the thermal energy requirements for cooking and water and space heating of non-electrified households. Further, farm manure could support the combined thermal and electrical loads of Western Cape and Free State. Similarly, decentralized solar photovoltaic power can support electrical loads in all provinces. A well-planned DRE program integrated with the development of indigenous technologies and local enterprises would benefit the economically and socially vulnerable households of South Africa, apart from fulfilling the additional energy demand and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Powering Jobs: The Employment Footprint of Decentralized Renewable Energy Technologies in Sub Saharan Africa

The future of work is a major source of uncertainty, especially in sub Saharan Africa (SSA), where climate change and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of agricultural employment, and where youth population is rising steadily. At the same time, SSA has the world’s lowest rates of electricity access, presenting a barrier to economic productivity and gainful employment. According to the global tracking framework, decentralized renewable energy (DRE) technologies are fast becoming a popular vehicle for rapid delivery of electricity access, yet reports suggest the sector’s expansion is hindered by a labor and skills gap. Thus, there is an opportunity for the growth of decentralized renewables to help tackle both universal energy access (SDG 7) alongside expansion of decent work opportunities (SDG 8). However, little data exists to date to support policy interventions. Our research explores the employment potential of the DRE sector by conducting the first comprehensive DRE sector jobs survey in SSA. We collect a year’s worth of employment data from DRE companies in Kenya and Nigeria, two of the continent’s most prominent DRE markets. We find that although nascent and just beginning to scale, the sector has already grown a formal workforce comparative to traditional utility-scale power sectors and has an informal workforce that may be twice as large. This article highlights our key findings on employment footprint, workforce trends and skills gaps, providing a baseline for further data collection.

Towards a Sustainable Electricity Supply in Nigeria: The Role of Decentralized Renewable Energy System

In Nigeria, access to reliable and stable supply of electricity is a major challenge for both the urban and rural dwellers. In this study, comprehensive review of accessibility to clean and modern energy in Nigeria has been carried out. Also, this paper examines the potential of renewable energy (RE) resources in Nigeria that can be harnessed for continuous energy supply and the government’s efforts to ensure RE‘s sustainability. Nigeria is endowed with abundant energy resources but the existing electric energy infrastructures are unable to meet the energy demands of teeming population. There is imbalance in energy supply and demand in the country. Over the period from 2000 to 2014, there was an average of about 2.35 billion kWh of energy gap between energy production and energy consumption. The highest electricity consumption per capita recorded so far was 156 kWh in 2012. This makes Nigeria one of the country with the lowest electricity consumption on per capita basis in the world. In order to improve access to clean energy supply and achieve sustainable development, this paper pin points the significance of decentralized renewable energy systems and needs for the government to review the policies on renewable energy development in the country.

Assessing the Sustainability of Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems: A Comprehensive Framework with Analytical Methods

The number of models of Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) systems, particularly for rural electrification, is growing globally. Most approaches to assess the sustainability of these solutions beyond simple techno-economic considerations are comparative in nature, and only allow us to evaluate performance within a set of other interventions. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the conditions for a specific model to be sustainable and whether its replication is likely to succeed. The approach suggested develops a framework to evaluate the sustainability of specific models for energy access individually and proposes analytical methods to illustrate its use. It combines the multi-dimensional analysis over five sustainability dimensions and the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) to assess technical sustainability, extending MTF’s rigorous scoring methodology to the other dimensions. The scores are based on qualitative and quantitative data collected from key stakeholders, taking into account different perspectives and aims. The framework and analytical methods are exemplified using a subset of data collected in over 40 off-grid DRE systems utilizing a common community ownership and hybrid financial structure. The proposed methodology can be used to understand the sustainability conditions of a given approach to energy access and can therefore be used by practitioners and policy makers to develop strategies and guide policies to roll out effective solutions.