Implementation Of Solar Energy Research Articles

Algerian energy policy and potential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions

ABSTRACTIn Algeria, energy consumption is growing rapidly. Due to the high demand and declining conventional energy resources, the country developed a new energy policy based on the promotion of renewable energies and CO2 mitigation. For this purpose, the authorities have taken new steps to reinforce the legislative and institutional framework and put in place a favorable financial support. In addition, an ambitious program to develop solar energy and energy efficiency was adopted recently. The objective of this strategy is to achieve by 2030 a 40% share of solar electricity and to contribute, voluntarily, to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this work, we present an analysis of the current situation and its projection to 2030 and we examine the available opportunities to reduce significantly GHG emissions. The study presents the magnitude of emissions in 2008 and 2012, the temporal evolution of CO2 and particularly what will be the impact on GHG emissions of the new strategy. The results show that, in 2012, GHG emissions totaled 153 MT CO2 eq. and growing at a rate of over 3%. However, there is a high potential for mitigation, especially in energy sectors, in building, transportation, as well as waste management and gas flaring. Two scenarios are developed: with implementation of solar energy and without. This analysis shows that the overall potential of CO2 mitigation will rise in 2030 to about 300 MT CO2 eq.

Distributional justice in solar energy implementation in India: The case of Charanka solar park

Large scale renewable energy developments, although seen as environmentally good, also have the potential to damage a community’s well-being if the distribution of outcomes of the development, both good and bad, is unfair. Inequality in the distribution of benefits and costs, especially when some sections of a community benefit at the expense of others, can divide communities, damage relationships, and result in conflicts. In recent years, a considerable number of empirical studies examining the controversies over distributional inequalities in renewable energy practices have emerged. However, most of them have focused on the developed world; there has been little research in the context of the Global South, where large scale and rapid development of solar energy especially is anticipated to contribute to economic development and relieve energy poverty. This paper provides an empirical case study of ‘Charanka Solar Park’ in the Indian state of Gujarat. The objective is to qualitatively analyse the distributional concerns in the implementation of the large scale solar park, developed in a remote rural location. The research illustrates how the benefits of renewable energy development tend to accrue at regional and national level whilst local host communities bear adverse consequences. Distributional inequalities also occurred at the local scale in Charanka, where while the upper caste and economically better of sectors of the community were able to take opportunities, while vulnerable pastoralists and small farmers suffered the most from loss of land resources and associated livelihoods. Thus, the uneven distribution of benefits arising from the solar park development reinforced and deepened existing inequalities. The paper concludes by discussing how distributional injustice in such developments might be ameliorated in the future.

Recognition and prioritization of challenges in growth of solar energy using analytical hierarchy process: Indian outlook

The growth of solar energy in India has not reached to satisfactory level due to several challenges faced in its developmental path. To address these challenges, firstly it is imperative to recognize the barriers of solar energy implementation. Therefore, the present investigation aims to identify and prioritize the barriers existing in the developmental path of solar power in Indian perspective using AHP (analytical hierarchy process). Among the identified barriers, “Political and Regulatory Barriers” is found to be the most influential challenge. Further, sensitivity analysis is performed in order to examine the rank stability of challenges faced by solar industry. Recommendations for the eradication of the barriers are also suggested. The present study has implication for policy planners, practitioners, researchers and academicians associated with solar industry for investigating solar perspective in India. Moreover, it can be helpful in structuring strategies for the smooth adoption of solar energy in India.

Procedural (in)justice in the implementation of solar energy: The case of Charanaka solar park, Gujarat, India

Solar PV is being rolled out on a large scale in India and other emerging economies, but in the enthusiasm for solar’s promise of plentiful, low carbon energy, the social and environmental justice concerns accompanying such infrastructure development are in danger of being overlooked. In this context, this paper, using the case study of ‘Charanaka Solar Park’ in Gujarat state, qualitatively analyses the degree of provision for procedural justice in solar energy implementation in India using a framework drawn from social environmental and energy justice literatures. The case study illustrates how the failure of various aspects of procedural justice can result in unnecessarily large impacts on the livelihoods of rural communities and the further marginalisation of those of lowest status. We conclude with discussion of the aspects of procedural justice that need attention in low carbon energy developments in developing countries alongside some policy and governance suggestions for the achievement of this in India and elsewhere.

Energy Saving, Implementation of Solar Energy and Other Renewable Energy Sources for Energy Supply in Rural Areas of Russia

The project of large-scale stage-by-stage implementation of energy systems based on solar energy and other renewable energy sources (RES) in rural settlements of Russia has been worked out. Research was made based on the analysis of regional, climatic, social, economical and technical factors, proposed complex approach to energy supply of rural buildings and predictive estimates. Priorities, sequence of actions and the values of interstage and final indicators have been defined. The issues of RES implementations and measures on energy saving over vast, mainly poorly populated, rural territories have been considered.

Efficient solar-to-fuels production from a hybrid microbial–water-splitting catalyst system

Photovoltaic cells have considerable potential to satisfy future renewable-energy needs, but efficient and scalable methods of storing the intermittent electricity they produce are required for the large-scale implementation of solar energy. Current solar-to-fuels storage cycles based on water splitting produce hydrogen and oxygen, which are attractive fuels in principle but confront practical limitations from the current energy infrastructure that is based on liquid fuels. In this work, we report the development of a scalable, integrated bioelectrochemical system in which the bacterium Ralstonia eutropha is used to efficiently convert CO2, along with H2 and O2 produced from water splitting, into biomass and fusel alcohols. Water-splitting catalysis was performed using catalysts that are made of earth-abundant metals and enable low overpotential water splitting. In this integrated setup, equivalent solar-to-biomass yields of up to 3.2% of the thermodynamic maximum exceed that of most terrestrial plants. Moreover, engineering of R. eutropha enabled production of the fusel alcohol isopropanol at up to 216 mg/L, the highest bioelectrochemical fuel yield yet reported by >300%. This work demonstrates that catalysts of biotic and abiotic origin can be interfaced to achieve challenging chemical energy-to-fuels transformations.

Solar thermal systems for large high rise buildings in Malaysia

Malaysia and Southeast Asia in general, is a very suitable region for implementing solar technologies because Malaysia is located near the equatorial line, where sunlight remains strong and stable throughout the year. The average solar radiation per month is 400–600MJ/m, so Malaysia should fully utilise solar energy because it is clean and sustainable. Solar energy can be considered as renewable energy that is environmentally friendly and can be continually replenished from time to time. The use of renewable energy is expected to increase exponentially in the future because natural resources could become depleted due to the increasing usage due to growing population in a world hungry for energy consumption for domestic, industrial and leisure purposes. Solar energy can provide infinite amount of energy because the sun can last for another few billions of years from now. So, many advanced nations have developed solar technologies to be implemented in a variety of sectors that include power generation and domestic water heating. The geographical location of Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries has enabled this region to be different from Western European countries that could only utilise solar energy through technology. Malaysia is located near the equatorial line, and so the sunlight in Malaysia remains strong and stable throughout the year. The average solar radiation per month for Malaysia is 400–600MJ/m, and hence the country has a very high prospect to develop large-scale solar power plants. For now, Malaysian government is putting a lot of effort to promote solar energy use in Malaysia. The initial implementation of solar energy in Malaysia is for domestic solar water heaters. Unfortunately, the use of solar water heaters domestically and commercially is still low. According to estimate, around 45,000 buildings in Malaysia are appropriate for solar thermal usage, but 10% of them are not suitable because of roof shadings and structure. Different economic sectors in Malaysia can provide 110,000,000m of building surfaces for solar thermal applications and so about 75GW of power can be produced from this application. The photovoltaic (PV) technology was first built in Malaysia during 1980s in order to provide electricity to rural areas. Tenaga Nasional Bierhad, the national utility company, began to set up grid-connected PV systems as an alternative for national power utility and power production in 1998. One PV system was built at a British Petroleum petrol station along KESAS highway with 8 kWp capacity and another one built at the Solar Energy Research Institute at National University of Malaysia with 5.5 kWp capacity. In 2000, the first Malaysian Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system was built in Port Dickson with 3.15 kWp capacity. Malaysia’s universities are focusing on five majors of R&D for solar technologies, including inverters, PV concentrators, cells fabrications, hybrid systems and energy conversion tracking systems. The funding for the research in PV technologies is provided by Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). Malaysian government also provides tax incentives so that a portion of the total cost of installing PV system can be deducted. The Feed-InTariffs can be the most promising policy because the utility pays a prestige price for the grid-connected PV electricity generated by system proprietors, and there is a 20-year of guarantee for the price. In short, Malaysia has a huge prospect to implement large-scale solar thermal systems. A solar collector is a type of heat exchanger that converts solar radiant energy into heat energy. Flat plate collector (FPC) is a type of solar thermal collectors. It will require minimal maintenance and is mechanically simple and with low installation cost. Major applications of solar energy like solar water heating, industrial process heating and air conditioning are using FPCs. Thermal performance for FPCs is treated in concise details, and the equations for collector performance can be reduced to simpler forms for performance analysis. Evacuated tube collectors (ETCs) contain heat pipe inside a vacuum-sealed tube. The

Energy Sustainability through Renewable Sources in Libraries – A Study

Libraries are store houses of knowledge functioning as service sector and playing major role in education all over the world. Libraries are not just enough to be user friendly but also be ecofriendly. Libraries should collect more resources but really the more the library grow it accumulates dust, pest and pollution. A poor maintained library can cause chronic disease like throat ulcer, bronchitis, and dust allergy, emit greenhouse gases. This pollution and emission can be reduced by strategic planning in utilizing energy efficiently, implementation of technological advances in library environment, making library more informative and giving library a new phase on sustainability. This paper describes on energy generation and utilization from green, fossil free, self-generated 0% emission solar power panels and wind energy structures. From a pilot scale study, nearing 100% of respondents have given their opinion that libraries have shrinking budgets and self-sustainability has become need of the hour. Self-sustainability can be attained from implementation of all possible strategies in library operations especially from energy consumption. Implementation of solar energy according to the quantity required or consumed by the library should be estimated and physical structures should be installed. These structures produce electricity from heat energy from sun, converted and supplied through specially designed batteries. Self-sufficient, energy efficient solar powered libraries around the world are taken as preamble, advantages, further implementation techniques are discussed in this paper helps to take library and environment a step head in energy sustainability.

Experimental Investigations with Fuzzy Controller for PV Fed DC Motor Incorporating SEPIC Converter as Efficient Power Interface

The design and implementation of solar energy fed power electronic interface using SEPIC converter incorporating fuzzy logic controller for a DC motor has been attempted. The proposed scheme consists of a Photovoltaic (PV) array, a SEPIC DC-DC converter, a PIC microcontroller and a DC motor. The SEPIC converter has been fabricated using IGBT and associated circuit components. A PIC microcontroller has been programmed to automatically vary the duty cycle of the SEPIC converter with fuzzy logic controller depending upon the required speed of the motor. The Simulink model of the proposed scheme has been built using MATLAB/PSB. To test the satisfactory performance of the program written for PIC microcontroller, the program is loaded into the PROTEUS VSM simulator and the waveform of the gate pulses obtained from the simulator using MPLAB coding is studied. After confirming the satisfactory generation of the gate pulses by the simulator, the program is loaded into PIC microcontroller using PIC start plus and gate pulses generated is fed to the DC-DC converter for firing the IGBT. Experiments have been carried out on a 230V, 4.5A, 0.75 kW, 1500 rpm separately excited DC motor and the results are furnished for different load conditions. Various reference speeds have been set and the system automatically adjusts the actual speed of the DC motor close to the set speed. The PV array used in the system consists of the panels connected in series, each panel being rated for 18V and 5A. The comparison of experimental and simulation results show very close agreement between the two thus validating the proposed scheme.

Preface

Preface

An environmental impact assessment of quantum dot photovoltaics (QDPV) from raw material acquisition through use

Some emerging technologies are expected to be pivotal for solving many of the environmental challenges faced today, especially those related to energy. However, many of these technologies may incur significant environmental impacts over their life cycle, while having environmental benefits during their use. This paper presents results of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a proposed type of nanophotovoltaic, quantum dot photovoltaic (QDPV) module. The LCA is confined to the stages of raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, and use. The impacts of QDPV are compared with other types of PV modules and energy sources – both renewable and nonrenewable. To provide a comprehensive comparative assessment, QDPV modules were compared with mature as well as emerging PV types for which data are available. Comparative assessment with other types of energy sources includes coal, oil, lignite, natural gas, diesel, nuclear, wind, and hydropower. QDPV modules may have the potential to overcome two current barriers of solar technology: low efficiencies and high manufacturing costs. If higher efficiencies are realized, QDPV modules could pave the way to large scale implementation of solar energy, helping nations move toward greater energy independence. On the other hand, candidate materials as quantum dots for solar cell applications are mostly compound semiconductors such as cadmium selenide, cadmium telluride, and lead sulfide which may be toxic and for which renewable options are limited. Toxic effects of these materials may be exacerbated by their nanoscale features. The LCA was carried out using the software SimaPro, and the Ecoinvent Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database supplemented with available literature and patent information. Our results indicate that while QDPV modules have shorter Energy PayBack Time (EPBT), lower Global Warming Potential (GWP), SO x and NO x emissions than other types of PV modules, they have higher heavy metal emissions, underscoring the need for investigation of emerging technologies, especially nano-based ones, from a life cycle perspective. QDPV modules are better in all impact categories assessed than carbon-based energy sources but they have longer EPBT than wind and hydropower and higher GWP.

Lessons and Challenges Encountered in the Implementation of Solar Energy – The Case of Botswana

A number of photovoltaic pilot projects have been started in Botswana since 1990. The first photovoltaic pro- ject was Manyana PV project which started in 1992. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) PV solar pi- lot project is the most recent PV solar project in Botswana, which was launched in 2003 at Kudumatse, Motlhabaneng, and Lorolwana villages. The primary objective of all these projects was to access the viability and sustainability of solar energy technology as an alternative source of energy especially for rural based communities. Depending on the findings, such projects were also intended to be replicated in other parts of the country. Despite all these efforts by the government of Botswana and donor agencies, the level of use of PV solar systems for power generation in Botswana, particularly in isolated communities, is very low. This paper, therefore, discusses the factors that impede the rapid development of photovoltaics power generation systems in the rural environment of Botswana. The study is focused on the photovoltaic power generation project which was car- ried out in three villages in Botswana, namely Kudumatse, Lorolwana and Motlhabaneng. Keyword: Solar energy, barriers in Botswana.