Renewable Energy Scenario Research Articles

Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions

Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions

A review of 100% renewable energy scenarios on islands

AbstractGlobally, more than 740 million people live on islands which are often seen as ideal environments for the development of renewable energy systems. Hereby, they play the role to demonstrate technical solutions as well as political transition pathways of energy systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The growing number of articles on 100% renewable energy systems on islands is analyzed with a focus on technical solutions for transition pathways. Since the first “100% renewable energy systems on islands”‐article in a scientific journal in 2004, 97 articles handling 100% renewable energy systems on small islands were published and are reviewed in this article. In addition, a review on 100% renewable energy systems on bigger island states is added. Results underline that solar PV as well as wind are the main technologies regarding 100% RES on islands. Not only for the use of biomass but for all RES area limitation on islands needs to be taken more seriously, based on full energy system studies and respective area demand. Furthermore, it is shown that there is still not the same common sense in the design approach including and starting at the energy needs as well as on multi‐sectoral approach. The consideration of maritime transport, aviation, cooling demands, and water systems beyond seawater desalination is only poorly considered in existing studies. Future research should also focus on developing pathways to transform the existing conventional infrastructure stepwise into a fully renewable system regarding also the interconnections with the mainland and neighboring islands.This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Green Economics and Financing Energy Systems Economics > Economics and Policy Energy Systems Analysis > Economics and Policy Energy Systems Analysis > Systems and Infrastructure

Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry: Evolution of the Cell Setup for On‐Line Investigation of Products and Screening of Electrocatalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

AbstractOne of the most important current topics in the renewable and sustainable energy scenario is the CO2 electro‐reduction reaction (CO2RR), which is an alternative and important route for its conversion into various high value‐added chemicals, therefore making up a CO2 recycling process. Despite its importance and the works already developed in this field, many challenges still need to be overcome for CO2RR to reach high values of efficiency and selectivity. This is even more challenging considering that this reaction occurs with the transfer of several electrons, making the investigation and elucidation of the reaction mechanism a real need. Thus, several characterization techniques have been employed, and specially, the on‐line Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry (EC‐MS) technique emerges as a powerful tool, thus making possible to improve the understanding of reaction pathways, through the identification of products and intermediaries, and allowing the screening of electrocatalyst potentials for CO2RR. Herein, we present the evolution of adaptations of general electrochemical cell designs for the study of the CO2RR.

Electrification of the industrial sector in 100% renewable energy scenarios

Future renewable energy systems with high shares of variable renewable energy production must also include technologies and measures to balance these production fluctuations. This could be in the form of electricity storage, energy demand adaptation (also known as demand-side management), or sector coupling. Industry electrification couples electricity and industry sectors by replacing the fossil fuel demand with electricity demands, thus enabling further integration of renewable electricity and transitioning the hard-to-abate energy sector. The effects of electrification on 100% renewable energy systems are rarely investigated. When investigated, one 100% renewable energy system scenario is used, which is often created by the same author, actor or organisation and may result in a narrow view of the possibilities for future energy systems. This study quantifies the role of industry electrification in the context of different 100% renewable energy system scenarios created by different relevant actors, to identify how its role may differ based on the scenario investigated. It is found that direct electrification of industrial process heat demands should be favoured over, e.g., a fuel shift to hydrogen-based process systems, even when these provide more flexibility.

Energy management of standalone cascaded adsorption-compression refrigeration system using hybrid biomass-solar-wind energies

This study examines the energetic and economic feasibility of a new hybrid renewable biomass-solar-wind energy system for driving both cascaded adsorption-compression refrigeration systems compared with its counterpart conventional compression system for the same input energy. Two renewable energy scenarios are proposed: biomass-solar-battery (Scenario-I) and biomass-solar-wind-battery system (Scenario-II) for autonomously driving the cascaded adsorption-compression system. Herein, biomass and thermal waste heat from photovoltaic/thermal collectors are exploited for the adsorption system’s operation. By contrast, the compression unit is propelled by the electric power of the photovoltaic/thermal collectors besides wind energy. In that respect, surplus electricity beyond the battery bank’s charging is converted into heat through an electric heater. These scenarios are investigated and compared using representative meteorological data of New Borg El-Arab city, Egypt. The results demonstrate that Scenario-I is more cost-effective than Scenario-II, which has a cost of refrigeration of 0.235 $ kWh−1 compared to 0.237 $ kWh−1 of Scenario-II. Herein, photovoltaic/thermal collectors in Scenario-I ultimately deliver 100% of the required electric load beside excess electricity of 16.6 kWh. Comparably, Scenario-II delivers surplus electricity of 15 kWh due to the designed fewer numbers of photovoltaic/thermal collectors. Whereas biomass energy covers most of the requisite thermal demand for both scenarios. Moreover, a trade-off between the proposed cascaded adsorption-compression cycle and the renewable-based conventional compression cycle has been conducted. Herein, two proposed systems of photovoltaic-battery (Scenario-III) and photovoltaic-wind-battery (Scenario-IV) are proposed for the conventional compression cycle. The results exhibit that Scenario-III would attain a minimum annual cost of $2714 compared to $4045 for the cascaded system, notably in Scenario-I. In general, using renewable energy mix to drive cooling/refrigeration systems could pave the way towards abating ongoing energy demands and undermining global warming and climate change impacts.

CWM-CGAN Method for Renewable Energy Scenario Generation Based on Weather Label Multi-Factor Definition

With the increasing installed capacity of renewable energy in the energy system, the uncertainty of renewable energy has an increasingly prominent impact on power system planning and operation. Renewable energy such as wind and solar energy is greatly affected by the external weather. How to use a reasonable method to describe the relationship between weather and renewable energy output, so as to measure the uncertainty of renewable energy more accurately, is an important problem. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a renewable energy scenario generation method based on a conditional generation countermeasure network and combination weighting method (CWM-CGAN). In this method, the combination of AHP and the entropy weight method is used to analyze the meteorological factors, the weather classification is defined as the condition label in the conditional generation countermeasure network, and the energy scenario is generated by the conditional generation confrontation network. In this paper, the proposed method is tested with actual PV data, and the results show that the proposed model can describe the uncertainty of PV more accurately.

Sustainability assessment of electricity generation technologies: a transition pathway for Pakistan

ABSTRACT Sustainable electricity generation is at the pole position for global sustainable development. The purpose of this research is to develop a systematic framework for assessing sustainability of different electricity generation technologies, and present its application on Pakistan, which is a region with research gaps. Hydro and oil with a sustainability impact score of 0.59 and 0.39, respectively, were identified as the top and bottom sustainability performers. Gas, solar PV, wind, and coal scored 0.54, 0.52, 0.52, and 0.42, respectively. Gas is suggested as a bridging fuel for transition to a 100% renewable energy scenario by 2050. Contributions include formulation of a holistic electric generation sustainability assessment approach, and a sustainable transition pathway for Pakistan region to guide future policy making.

A Systematic Review on the Renewable Energy Development, Policies and Challenges in Nigeria with an International Perspective and Public Opinions

Due to the threat posed by fossil fuels to human existence; many countries around the world have turned attention to renewable sources for power generation to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and stop ozone layer depletion. This has increased the exploitation of various renewable energy sources which include: hydro, biomass, solar, geothermal and wind in many developed countries. However, most African countries seem not to have awakened to this new reality. This work presents a comprehensive review of available renewable energy capacity in Nigeria, the level of utilization of renewables in Nigeria in comparison to other countries, comparison of renewable energy scenarios among African countries, factors hindering the development of renewables in Nigeria, the country’s renewable energy policy and ways of improving its status in the country. A lot of peer-reviewed journal articles, and grey literatures were gathered from which the most suitable ones were selected for reviews. In addition, opinions of people across the country and beyond, regarding renewable energy status in Nigeria were sought through a questionnaire. It is found that Nigeria is greatly endowed with different renewable energy sources but the level of utilization has been very low due to a myriad of factors such as non-implementation of renewable energy policies, financial issues, unfavorable government policies and lack of adequate research. It is expected that the findings in this work will awaken policies makers in Nigeria to reshape her renewable energy policies and speed up its implementation as well as guide individuals wishing to invest in the nation’s vast renewable resources.

Can energy descent be justified by critiquing 100% renewable energy scenarios? A reply to Floyd et al.

A recent article by Floyd et al. argues a case for energy descent by critiquing renewable energy scenario modelling and arguing there is uncertainty as to whether a transition from fossil fuels entirely to renewable energy is possible. This paper addresses the part of their case that’s within the framework of normal science. In it, Floyd et al. uncritically cites well-known, previously-refuted criticisms of renewable energy to argue that uncertainties exist. In reply, this paper argues that energy modelling has produced valuable real-world results, the uncertainties within the framework of normal science are solvable given the political will, the critical articles cited by Floyd et al. are flawed or irrelevant, and most of the issues have been solved in practice in jurisdictions where the majority of electricity is supplied by variable renewables. There are better arguments by others for energy descent and degrowth than critiquing renewable energy. In the absence of political will to support socio-technical transitions, we enter the domain of post-normal science, also discussed by Floyd et al., where the barriers to energy descent and degrowth may be much greater than barriers to 100% renewable energy.

Strategies in Thermal Pyrolysis Processes with Food Industry Biomass Wastes in a Renewable Energy Scenario

Strategies in Thermal Pyrolysis Processes with Food Industry Biomass Wastes in a Renewable Energy Scenario

MPPT optimisation techniques and power electronics for renewable energy systems: wind and solar energy systems

This study proposes the challenges faced by the present renewable energy scenario and the contribution of power electronics and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) optimisation techniques. India is one of the leading energy harvester country in the world. Power electronics keep power system operation stable, harvest electric power from renewable energy sources (RESs), and reduce energy consumption. This study has focused on power electronics and MPPT optimisation techniques for wind energy and photovoltaic energy and points out some aspects related to configuration for integration, energy storage technologies, reliability, and grid connection. Apart from this, modern optimisation techniques for MPPT control using artificial intelligence like fuzzy control and neural network control are also presented in this study.

Overall Levelized Cost Modeling for Mobile Energy Storage in High Proportion Renewable Energy Scenario

Overall Levelized Cost Modeling for Mobile Energy Storage in High Proportion Renewable Energy Scenario

열병합발전 생산량에 따른 운전특성을 고려한 열과 전기의 통합에너지시스템 운영전략 수립 방안

Sector coupling can provide an efficient energy supply based on interdependencies among different energy sources. An integrated energy system is utilized for supplying heat and electricity demand in a local area with cogeneration systems and distributed energy resources. Among resources in this interdependent system, cogeneration systems can supply both heat and electricity demand. Considering operation characteristics of cogeneration systems is a key factor of planning operation strategy for the integrated energy system. We propose an optimal operation strategy for the integrated energy system considering heat and electricity generation efficiency varying with the amount of generation of a combined heat and power resource under the renewable energy scenarios. The proposed model is formulated as an optimization problem to minimize the operation cost of the integrated energy system. The effects of proposed method are evaluated in comparison with the fixed generation efficiency.

Demand and Electricity Energy Mix in Indonesia 2030 with Small Modular Reactor Nuclear Power Plant and Renewable Energy Scenario

The interest in small modular reactors worldwide has been increasing due to flexibility in the power generation for more comprehensive users and applications. Small Modular Reactors or SMRs can be the primary choice for Indonesia provided with the geographical condition, which consists of many islands and is more flexible in construction compared to the conventional nuclear power plant. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview projection of demand and energy mix of electrical in Indonesia 2030 with SMRs NPP in the energy mix referring to RUPTL or General Plan of Electricity Supply Indonesia. Using the end-use model, which is total electricity consumption for each electricity sector, it can be calculated how much electricity demand is from these sectors. The scenario uses RUPTL, roadmap from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry references, and policy of no coal power plant added from 2020 onwards. The results show in 2030, Indonesia needs 577,016.2 GWh of electricity, where the household and industry sectors have the highest electricity needs, which is 44% for the household sector and 31% for the industry. The transformation projection in PLTGU or Combined Cycle Power Plants scenario also shows that without replacing the power plant, renewable along without SMRs only had ±7.49% of the total capacity mix, and the second scenario with SMRs shows that renewable energy share had 16.07%.

Development of a system dynamics model for dioxin flow and its application to the energy sector

Dioxin pollution has been problematic in Taiwan. Although the government has established emission standards and emission inventory to control dioxin pollution, such efforts only apply to pollution emissions; no attempt has been made to understand the flow of dioxins in different environmental media. In this study, the STELLA software was used to model the flow pattern of dioxins in various media. This model and the RAIDAR model established by the Canadian Environmental Model Research Center were used to simulate dioxin flow in Taiwan, and their results were compared with the measured values. The accuracies of the RAIDAR and STELLA models were 63.92% and 49.78%, respectively. This shows that the simulation with the STELLA model provided results closer to the measured values and that the error was less than ten times that of the RAIDAR model, indicating that the proposed model is predictive. In addition, we used the results of a system dynamics model for dioxin flow and an air resource co-benefits (ARCoB) model to apply the obtained results to the energy sector to quantify the co-benefits of reducing dioxin, greenhouse gas, and air pollutant emissions on the basis of the policy target for the year 2030. The total co-benefits of natural gas and renewable energy (RE) scenarios were US$9.63 billion and US$12.57 billion, respectively; the benefit-cost ratios were 2.89 and 20.67, respectively. The development of an RE policy as an alternative to a coal-fired power generation policy will contribute to the best co-benefits of integrated reductions and will also contribute to human health.

Investigation of 1-Hexanol Diesel Blends on Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a Diesel Engine

The most potential long-term and renewable substitute of mineral diesel are biofuels. The growth and degradation of energy resources have an enormous influence on the long-term viability of the human community. Alcohols are gaining prominence in the current renewable energy scenario due to their ease of manufacturing and fuel characteristics. In this investigation, hexanol-diesel blend ratios (up to 20% v/v) is taken into account for this investigation in a single cylinder, water cooled, unmodified 4-stroke DI diesel engine. The increase in 1-hexanol volume content correlates to an improvement in combustion thereby promoting brake thermal efficiency. The greater concentration of oxygen in 1-hexanol reduces emission viz. HC and CO and increases value of NOx. Current investigation recommends a feasible option to substitute ULSD for the capabilities of 1-hexanol.

Role of Renewable Energy Scenarios in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Forecasting in Iran in Outlook 2030

In recent years, Iran is one of the ten most polluting countries in the world. However, economically, Iran's GDP is lower than other polluting countries, which indicates the high intensity of energy in this country. In this article, Iran's CO2 emissions in 2030 are predicted by regression method under several scenarios of renewable energy use according to the targets of the law on the Five-Year Economic, Cultural and Social Development Plan to examine Iran's commitment to the Paris Agreement. The findings suggest that Iran is unlikely meet its commitment to the Paris Agreement under the current scenario. However, full implementation of some scenarios in the five-year development plan law could have met its 4% or 12% target (lifting sanctions and raising funding) to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030. Of course, this requires a lot of investment in the renewable energy sector, and policymakers in the Iranian energy sector should pay more attention to this issue. However, the government does not have a specific plan in this regard.

A Brief Climatology of Dunkelflaute Events over and Surrounding the North and Baltic Sea Areas

In the coming decades, the European energy system is expected to become increasingly reliant on non-dispatchable generation such as wind and solar power. Under such a renewable energy scenario, a better characterization of the extreme weather condition ‘Dunkelflaute’, which can lead to a sustained reduction of wind and solar power, is important. In this paper, we report findings from the very first climatological study of Dunkelflaute events occurring in eleven countries surrounding the North and Baltic Sea areas. By utilizing multi-year meteorological and power production datasets, we have quantified various statistics pertaining to these events and also identified their underlying meteorological drivers. It was found that almost all periods tagged as Dunkelflaute events (with a length of more than 24 h) are in November, December, and January for these countries. On average, there are 50–100 h of such events happening in each of these three months per year. The limited wind and solar power production during Dunkelflaute events is shown to be mainly driven by large-scale high-pressure systems and extensive low-cloud coverage. Even though the possibility of simultaneous Dunkelflaute events in neighboring countries can be as high as 30–40%, such events hardly occur simultaneously in all the eleven countries. Through an interconnected EU-11 power system, the mean frequency of Dunkelflaute drops from 3–9% for the individual countries to approximately 3.5% for the combined region, highlighting the importance of aggregating production over a wide area to better manage the integration of renewable energy generation.

Comparative Life-Cycle-Assessment analysis of three major water electrolysis technologies while applying various energy scenarios for a greener hydrogen production

In terms of the decarbonization of industry, transport, electricity generation, and buildings, the production of green hydrogen plays a major role in the strategy of the European Union and Germany. Therefore, the potential environmental impacts of a greener hydrogen production have been analysed taking the three most important water electrolysis technologies alkaline electrolysis (AEC), polymer electrolyte membrane (PEMEC), and solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) into account. To depict a greener hydrogen production, different energy scenarios of Germany –2019, 2030, 2050, and RE (Renewable Energy)– with an increasing share of wind and solar energy have been considered. The study shows how the potential CO2-eq. of a greener hydrogen production change when applying the different energy scenarios for each technology. On the other hand, the study aims to compare the resulting CO2-eq. with comparative values of conventional and other hydrogen production processes for classification purposes. Moreover, the study compares the CO2-eq. results with comparative values of conventional electricity generation and conventional fuels for cars, assuming that the produced hydrogen is used for electricity generation and as a fuel for cars in order to show CO2 reduction potentials. Besides that, the study compares the Life-Cycle-Impact-Assessment (LCIA) indicators under study to show which technology is potentially the most environmentally friendly one for the respective energy scenario. In summary, it can be stated that the CO2-eq. decrease with an increasing share of wind and solar energy in the energy mix since the share of fossil energies, which are the main drivers of the CO2- eq., decline. Furthermore, the SOEC technology has the lowest CO2-eq. for the energy scenarios in 2019, 2030, and 2050. This applies to the AEC technology for the RE scenario. Regarding the comparative values of conventional and other hydrogen production processes as well as conventional alternatives, only the RE scenario with wind and solar energy provides lower results. Thus, merely the RE scenario is suitable for an environmentally friendly hydrogen production and utilization in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In addition, the SOEC technology causes the lowest potential environmental impacts for the energy scenarios in 2019 and 2030, taking all LCIA indicators into account. This applies to the PEMEC technology for the energy scenario in 2050 and the RE scenario.

Solar and biomass potential of renewable energy in selected ASEAN countries and Japan

ASEAN region is believed to have a great potential for biomass and solar energy generation due to its abundance of sunlight, rain, and fertile land. However, these resources are still underutilized as the current rate of renewable energy is relatively low, whereby most countries are still highly emphasizing fossil fuels. The use of fuel without replenishing the fuel source will ultimately deplete the resource in very much the same as fossil fuels currently utilized. While the concept of fuel replenishment seemed simple, the implementation posed a challenge to meet. This is where free energy in the form of solar, wind, wave, underground thermal, and biomass is being harnessed. Therefore, these forms of energy also have certain limitations depending on the geographical and the availability of the sources throughout the region. This study aims to analyze the current potential renewable energy scenario and future prospect of renewable energy resource for biomass and solar energy in selected ASEAN countries and Japan.