Solar PV Electricity Research Articles

Investigating the Role of Byproduct Oxygen in UK-Based Future Scenario Models for Green Hydrogen Electrolysis

Water electrolysis for hydrogen production with renewable electricity is regularly studied as an option for decarbonised future energy scenarios. The inclusion of byproduct electrolytic oxygen capture and sale is of interest for parallel decarbonisation efforts elsewhere in the industry and could contribute to reducing green hydrogen costs. A deterministic hydrogen electrolysis system model is constructed to compare oxygen inclusion/exclusion scenarios. This uses wind and solar-PV electricity generation timeseries, a power-dependent electrolysis model to determine the energy efficiency of gas yield, and power allocation for gas post-processing energy within each hourly timestep. This maintains a fully renewable (and therefore low/zero carbon) electricity source for electrolysis and gas post-processing. The model is validated (excluding oxygen) against an existing low-cost GW-scale solar-hydrogen production scenario and an existing hydrogen production costs study with offshore wind generation at the multi-MW scale. For both comparisons, oxygen inclusion is then evaluated to demonstrate both the benefits and drawbacks of capture and utilisation, for different scenario conditions, and high parameter sensitivity can be seen regarding the price of renewable electricity. This work subsequently proposes that the option for the potential utilisation of byproduct oxygen should be included in future research to exemplify otherwise missed benefits.

Techno-economic analysis of solar PV electricity generation at the university of environment and sustainable development in Ghana

The electricity indebtedness of Ghanaian schools is increasing due to the high cost of electricity in the country. As a result, the utility companies frequently disconnect the schools from the grid to force them to settle their debts. Meanwhile, the school can reduce its bills from rooftop solar PV systems, yet little attention is given. The study uses the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) as a case to assess the technical feasibility, economic viability, and potential benefits of implementing rooftop solar PV electricity in Ghanaian schools. Google Earth software was used to estimate the structure's rooftop surface areas to determine the potential energy harvest from a PV plant.In contrast, the economic analysis uses the net present value (NPV), internal rate of returns (IRR), discounted payback period (DPP) and profitability index (IP) to appraise the intended project. The results show that using rooftops of school structures can provide the needed electricity for local consumption and export excess to the grid for sales. The NPV, IRR, IP, and DPP recorded from the study are million GHS 15.15, 21%, 1.6 and 8 years, respectively. The findings highlight the potential of rooftop solar PV systems to meet educational institutions' electricity demand, exploring the possibility of exporting excess to the national grid for revenue (income generator), reducing operational costs, and contributing to a sustainable energy transition.

Efficacy of Enterprise Risk Management in Enhancing Sustainability and Financial Performance in the Solar PV Industry: A Conceptual Framework

As an alternative to fossil fuels, solar PV electricity can help mitigate global warming and improve the environment by lowering greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). More nations have developed programs to encourage the production and use of PV electricity, considering the potential of renewable energy for sustainable development. The government of Malaysia wants solar PV to be the primary source of renewable energy by 2030. To reduce global warming, renewable energy technology must be implemented more widely. However, the production of solar photovoltaic modules raises serious sustainability concerns. These concerns include using conflict minerals, toxicity, and limited supply or supply chain governance risks of rare materials. Even though solar energy projects are technically feasible, stakeholders still view the region’s initiatives as risky due to ongoing governance problems. Domains related to solar project deployment that involve installation, operation, and management are particularly susceptible to governance issues, such as a lack of accountability and transparency. Renewable energy investments upfront are risky and expensive. Risks in the solar PV value chain include subpar design and manufacturing decisions, inventory losses, quality problems during the execution process, and cultural and societal problems brought on by the absence of an effective risk management system. This study thus investigates how the implementation of ERM influences the company’s financial performance. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a technique that regulates, and coordinates offset risks all over the firm to manage and integrate all risks holistically. As a result, this paper provides a conceptual and theoretical framework for how corporations use risk management to lower the cost of capital and improve sustainable development in the solar PV industry. The suggested theoretical and conceptual framework, supported by stakeholder and legitimacy theory, provides a foundation for empirically validating the entangled interaction between the relevant variables. It is advocated that measuring variables such as enterprise risk management, financial performance, and sustainability performance be based on previous research and frameworks and recommendations produced by major organizations. The purpose of this paper is to guide Malaysian solar PV companies in the implementation of sustainability and risk management.
 Keywords: enterprise risk management, sustainability, solar PV, financial performance

Carbon Farming: A Promising Approach to Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in India

This article addresses India's role in the reduction of GHG emissions, the impact of renewable energy and the application of solar energy. In response to the climatic challenges, India is meticulously stepping towards offsetting or the onset of carbon farming such as organic cultivation and solar energy interventions. Offset carbon farming area of 5. 387 Mha organic farming could sequester carbon annually of 6.567 mt, simultaneously; it has the advantage of reducing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer application doses ranging from a minimum of 0.27 mt and a maximum of 1.08 mt per hectare. Furthermore, solar energy can indirectly be used as SWH suitable for average family households contributing carbon credits of 771 kg-824 kg in addition to saving an annual electricity burden of around 1365 kWh to 1459 kWh and directly utilized for solar PV electricity generation of 1 MW will offset approximately 730 tons of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to 33, 183 carbon-absorbing trees (22 kg of CO2 absorbed/ tree/year). Carbon farming has challenges encompassing economic, technological, policy, and knowledge-based barriers that require innovative solutions and concerted stakeholder efforts.

Short-term solar energy forecasting: Integrated computational intelligence of LSTMs and GRU.

Problems with erroneous forecasts of electricity production from solar farms create serious operational, technological, and financial challenges to both Solar farm owners and electricity companies. Accurate prediction results are necessary for efficient spinning reserve planning as well as regulating inertia and power supply during contingency events. In this work, the impact of several climatic conditions on solar electricity generation in Amherst. Furthermore, three machine learning models using Lasso Regression, ridge Regression, ElasticNet regression, and Support Vector Regression, as well as deep learning models for time series analysis include long short-term memory, bidirectional LSTM, and gated recurrent unit along with their variants for estimating solar energy generation for every five-minute interval on Amherst weather power station. These models were evaluated using mean absolute error root means square error, mean square error, and mean absolute percentage error. It was observed that horizontal solar irradiance and water saturation deficiency had a highly proportional relationship with Solar PV electricity generation. All proposed machine learning models turned out to perform well in predicting electricity generation from the analyzed solar farm. Bi-LSTM has performed the best among all models with 0.0135, 0.0315, 0.0012, and 0.1205 values of MAE, RMSE, MSE, and MAPE, respectively. Comparison with the existing methods endorses the use of our proposed RNN variants for higher efficiency, accuracy, and robustness. Multistep-ahead solar energy prediction is also carried out by exploiting hybrids of LSTM, Bi-LSTM, and GRU.

Design and Viability Assessment of Grid-Integrated Solar PV System for Electric Power Supply Enhancement: A Case Study of Idofian, Nigeria

Recently, the demand for electric power supply has tremendously increased and the Nigerian government is unable to meet this demand, with conventional energy generation, due to myriads of issues in the electricity sector. A 2 MW grid-integrated solar photovoltaic system design is carried out in this work using Idofian, Kwara State, Nigeria, as a case study. The feasibility study for the Solar PV system along with the load estimation for the study area were done using RETScreen software. The simulation results revealed that the design is feasible for Idofian township, with an annual energy yield of roughly 2,853 MWh, of about 17% of Idofian's annual (daily) electricity consumption. Solar PV electricity generation saves around 1,182.7 tonnes of CO2. The plan, if adopted, will go a long way toward alleviating Nigeria's electricity shortage.

Techno-economic analysis of waste-to-energy with solar hybrid: A case study from Kumasi, Ghana

The rapid growth in global energy demand in recent years has made global leaders think more about sustainability in the energy sector. Waste-to-energy (WTE) and solar energy are emerging areas in the energy sustainability discourse since terrestrial sustainability is of great concern. The study uses economic indices to evaluate the feasibility of WTE and solar plants at Oti landfill in Kumasi, Ghana, with the core objective of sustainable waste management through electricity production. Three scenarios were considered, (i) waste-to-energy plant alone, (ii) solar PV plant alone and (iii) combination of (i) and (ii) – hybrid. The Oti landfill receives a total volume of 891,000 tons per year of solid waste, which can be used to generate 379 GWh of electricity per year and has the potential to generate 85 GWh of electricity per year from solar with the assumption that one-half of the land surface area used waste to electricity and the other one-half is used for solar PV electricity. The study shows that all three scenarios are worth investing in, but the best investment option is the solar PV plant alone with NPV of mGHs 324.79, DPP of 4 years, IRR of 44% and DPI of 2.7. The WTE alone had NPV, IRR, DPI and DPP of mGHs 1122.11, 16%, 0.47 and 15.2 years, respectively. The WTE and solar PV composite had NPV of mGHs1445.9, IRR of 17%, DPI of 2.02 and the project initial cost recovery of 14.2 years.

Feasibility and Potential Assessment of Solar Resources: A Case Study in North Shewa Zone, Amhara, Ethiopia

The feasibility and potential assessment (PA) of solar PV energy is one of the key factors in identifying the most promising areas for the installation of solar PV stations. It determines the useful energy generated in the given area. This paper assesses the solar energy distribution and PA in the North Shewa administration zone. Based on the data collected and analysis made, it is found that more than 80% of the North Shewa areas are suitable for the solar energy generation for off-grid and on-grid systems. Hence, the solar potential of the North Shewa zone completely fulfills the standards of sunshine, solar radiation, and temperature. That is, most of the areas have solar radiation of 5.2 kWh/m2, and daily sunshine is greater than 7 h. The maximum energy production is found in December in Shewa Robit, Mehal Meda, Eneware, Debre Berhan, Alem Ketema, and Sela Dengay with 175.35 kWh, 188.18 kWh, 180.78 kWh, 189.54 kWh, 175.78 kWh, and 189.63 kWh, respectively. This is a good opportunity for investors to invest in solar PV electricity generation. It will solve the issue of electricity supply to the community, which currently relies on wood and fossil fuels. It also highlights the positive opportunities for the future implementation of solar energy.

Economic evaluation of solar PV electricity prosumption in Ghana

Residential and commercial facility users are looking for ways to reduce their energy bills; this has resulted in nano and micro solar energy production in the form of electricity prosumption in contemporary times. Several technical factors characterise rooftop solar projects informing the decision to go solar. Amongst these factors are the solar energy available from the PV system, self-consumption ratio and overall system efficiency. However, from the investor's viewpoint, the most critical factor is the economic viability of the proposed project. Since energy economics is vital to investors, the paper seeks to analyse the economics (financial feasibility and profitability) associated with different types of prosumers in Ghana's residential and commercial classes. The net present value, internal rate of return, profitability index, and discounted payback were the economic indicators used to appraise Ghana's financial feasibility and profitability of electricity prosumption. The study shows that electricity prosumption in Ghana is worth investing in. The best investment option in the residential and commercial classes is the prosumers with grid integration and without storage (type 2). In the residential tariff class, the best investment option is the prosumers, whose energy demands are between 301 kWh and 600 kWh.

Energy Landscape and Renewable Energy Resources in Nigeria: A Review

Renewable energy resource utilisation is becoming more prevalent in society and can be a sustainable method to meet rising energy demand and consumption. The International Renewable Energy Agency reports that presently, approximately 33% of total electricity output around the world is from renewable energy sources. However, in Nigeria, the World Bank reported this figure as 18.2% in 2015. It is important to understand how Nigeria can raise this average as the world moves towards less use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the aim of this work was to provide a review of the established literature, which can then be used to support the development of renewable energy systems in Nigeria. The methodology employed for the study of the literature involved a systematic review method, including identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion criterium steps. Understanding the national energy landscape is essential to support potential projects, and consequently, energy supply, demand and consumption in Nigeria are observed. The review examined renewable energy sources in Nigeria with a focus on solar and biomass/bioenergy. The levelised cost of electricity from renewable technologies was analysed, and the paper identified and evaluated past projects centered on solar and biomass, presenting three main case studies. The results indicate that solar and biomass have the most potential for energy generation in Nigeria, with 4–6.5 kWh/m2 of solar irradiation available per day and approximately 2.3 × 109 GJ bioenergy potential per year. However, solar PV is currently of most interest in Nigeria due to the lower cost of on-grid solar PV electricity, which can comfortably compete with fossil fuels. Nevertheless, costs still need to be lowered to compete fully. Finally, the findings also indicate that there is an omission in the literature surrounding the existing renewable projects and technologies in Nigeria.

ANALISIS PLTS ATAP 25 KWP ON GRID KANTOR DPRD PROVINSI BALI

Development to new renewable energy still lower than Indonesia's target of 23% in 2025. For this reason, alternative solutions are needed, namely the use of renewable energy, one of which is from the solar energy sector, namely solar PV. Solar energy has the highest potential compared to other renewable energy sectors of 207.9 GW. Based on that, in 2020 the Province of Bali received a Rooftop Solar PV grant through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, one of which is located at the Bali Provincial DPRD Government Office with an installed power of 25 kWp using the On Grid system. Based on this, it is necessary to conduct a detailed study of the potential, operational systems, savings and the proper management model of Rooftop Solar PV at the Bali Provincial DPRD Office. The potential of Solar PV electricity production on the roof of the Bali Provincial DPRD Office was analyzed by simulating the orientation and tilt angle of the Solar PV to get the optimum Solar PV electrical energy production results using HelioScope software. The results showed that the results of electrical energy production in the simulations of the two scenarios tended to be higher with the total difference in scenario 1 and scenario 2 being 21.75% and 19.66%, respectively. For savings that can be obtained for 6 months of Rp. 36,055,301 with a percentage of 22.60%. The PLTS management model in the future is located in the general section, precisely in the Sub Coordinator of the Equipment, Assets and Household Substance Unit.

Country-specific cost projections for renewable hydrogen production through off-grid electricity systems

Renewable hydrogen is increasingly recognized as one of the key decarbonisation options compatible with the EU's climate neutrality goal. We quantify possible cost reductions for renewable hydrogen production until 2050 through electrolysis with off-grid renewable electricity generation systems. We focus on the use of solar PV and on- and offshore wind energy in 30 European countries. We project that towards 2050 hydrogen production costs can fall below 2 €/kg in several countries in Europe. Hybrid configurations, consisting of both onshore wind and solar PV electricity generation, generally result in lower renewable hydrogen production costs. Systems with a relatively high level of full load hours benefit from a reduced share of investment costs for the electrolyser component. The levelized cost of hydrogen produced via solar PV systems can only compete with wind-based systems when significant electrolyser cost reductions are realized, despite the ultimately low expected levelized costs of solar PV-based electricity generation. The novelty of this analysis is that it proffers an overview of the dependencies of the costs of green hydrogen production, and how these costs could decrease over the forthcoming decades across a large set of European countries. Specifically, we show how the dynamics behind the projected renewable hydrogen production costs per country highlight the role that technological learning could have in identifying the most suitable locations for hydrogen production.

The uncertainties involved in measuring national solar photovoltaic electricity generation

The measurement of near real-time national solar PV electricity output is an increasingly important component for managing electricity systems. PV systems embedded in the distribution network are problematic for system operators since their output is not directly visible through existing transmission system metering. Typically, national solar PV output is measured indirectly by upscaling the output from a sample of reference PV systems using an estimate of the national capacity. National PV output is then used, along with similar measurements for other embedded technologies such as wind, to train and validate electricity forecasts which ensure efficient electricity market operation. For the first time and using Great Britain as a case study, we investigate the accuracy of this general approach by characterising different sources of uncertainty in national PV output measurements. We find that the capacity error, at ±5%, dominates the yield calculation error, at < ±1% and leads to an overall error in GB solar PV output estimates of ±5.1%. We conclude that solar PV measurements, and consequently national electricity demand forecasts, are currently limited by the state of national PV capacity registers. To make PV output measurements more accurate nations must develop a coherent and comprehensive approach to PV system registration, and output measurement methods must move away from using static solar PV capacity registers towards estimating an operational grid-connected solar PV capacity. This could involve moving away from capacity registers altogether and instead estimating capacity from other sources, for example, from network power flows, satellite imagery, or more likely, a combination of complementary datasets.

A game-theoretic approach to assess peer-to-peer rooftop solar PV electricity trading under constrained power supply

The integration of distributed energy resources and the transition to smart cities are shifting the urban energy sector to a decentralized operating system. Blockchain-based microgrids, where small-scale operators trade electricity among each others, have gained remarkable attention recently. However, most of the proposed schemes study smart grids in prosperous cities. In this study, the performance of a solar-based power trading scheme is investigated in a shortage-prone context, Beirut City. Thus, we resort to a game-theoretic approach to model power trading as a repeated game between buildings at the urban scale. Results show that solar energy can cover up to 25% of the city electricity needs, depending on the rooftops area coverage. On the other hand, we found that deploying a peer-to-peer trading scheme has marginal impact since the energy demand in the city exceeds the supply and most buildings would prioritize self-consumption.

In-use energy and carbon performance of a true zero carbon housing development in England

This paper systematically examines the in-use energy and carbon performance of a large case study housing development in England, designed to be net true zero carbon. Remote monitoring during a one-year period was used to gather high-frequency data on dwelling heat use, grid electricity use, solar PV electricity generation and export and community heating system performance. Based on data from 74 dwellings, mean energy use of 76 kWh/m2/year and electricity use of 27.4 kWh/m2/year per dwelling placed the case study among the lowest energy housing developments in the UK. Nonetheless, heat usage and designed fabric efficiency fell short compared to other true zero carbon housing. The mean self-consumption rate of generated energy of 23% calls for the provision of home batteries. Heat usage variance was more prominent compared to findings in other studies. Based on the 2018/19 carbon factors, dwellings emitted 20.2 kgCO2e/m2/year on average, missing the zero carbon target. As found in other studies, this was attributed to the underperforming community heating system. This study comes timely in the context of the widespread calls for net zero carbon dwellings. The findings confirm the argument that the anticipated mainstreaming of zero carbon dwellings demands shifting toward an outcome-focused design approach.

The Water-energy Nexus in the Island of Crete, Greece

Water and energy are valuable resources in our contemporary societies. Their demand worldwide is increasing while they are interconnected and interlinked. Aim of the current work is to investigate the nexus between water and energy in the island of Crete, Greece. The use of water in electricity generation and in fuels production is investigated as well as the electricity utilization in water pumping, transportation, processing and distribution. Our results indicated that the annual electricity consumption in Crete is at 4,793 KWh/capita while the annual water consumption is at around 763.9 M3/capita to 962.2 M3/capita. The main fuels used in electricity generation in Crete are fuel oil and diesel oil that are imported. Among renewable energies solar-PV and wind energy are mainly used for power generation. Generation of solar-PV and wind electricity requires limited water resources while in water-cooled thermal power stations brackish and desalinated water is mainly used. Crete has sufficient water resources which though are unevenly distributed along the island. Groundwater is the main water source used while agriculture is the main sector of water consumption. Electricity is necessary in all stages of water utilization in Crete. The results indicated that the nexus between water and energy in Crete is asymmetrical and uneven. Electricity generation is not significantly depended on freshwater resources while water utilization is depended on electricity. These findings could be useful in designing the optimum management policies regarding the long term sustainability of these valuable resources in Crete.

A Blockchain-based Renewable Energy Investment Management Platform: Decentralized Sustainable Development (DeSDev)

In this study, a novel blockchain-based platform for renewable energy investment is proposed. The blockchain technology has been shown to be a reliable way to send financial transactions across the world in a decentralized manner, at a fraction of the cost and with a faster transaction time. The proposed platform is capable of handling an equity-sharing investment program for solar PV projects. The platform distributes the electricity generation income by sending it over a blockchain. The Ethereum blockchain is used to create a prototype, which is a smart contract. The prototype is tested with a solar-PV electricity generation data. The result shows that the proposed platform can handle the expected transactions without an error. The overall performance of the proposed platform is tested by comparing its temporal duration and its financial costs with centralized solutions. Therefore, the proposed platform provides all the benefits mentioned at a much cheaper cost.

Energy and economic assessment of distributed renewable gas and electricity generation in a small disadvantaged urban community

A methodology for assessing the efficiency and economic viability of renewable gas generation and energy conversion to compliment residential PV is proposed and demonstrated for the 10,000 resident example community of Oak View in Huntington Beach, California. Renewable fuel production processes included in this work are (1) processing of community-produced organic fraction of municipal solid waste in an anaerobic digester, and (2) using solar generation paired with water electrolysis. Six pathways – three ending in natural gas pipeline injection and three ending in solid oxide fuel cell electricity production – were evaluated for each PV capacity scenario. The renewable fuel production potential based only upon waste from the studied community was determined to be 2400 MMBtu per year of renewable natural gas (RNG) from anaerobic digestion, and up to 28,500 MMBtu of hydrogen from electrolysis using only excess solar PV electricity. With current costs the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for renewable fuel production is $40–203/MMBtu, depending upon the energy pathway and scale. The LCOE for renewable electricity production is $0.37–1.28/kWh. A combination of LCFS and tipping fees as low as $20 per ton can yield renewable fuel at $2 per MMBtu. Likewise, a tipping fee of $32 can lead to the production of renewable electricity at $0.18 per kWh. Using future costs, the unsubsidized cost of electricity can drop as low as $0.15 per kWh, and renewable fuel can be produced at $18 per MMBtu. If Low Carbon Fuel Credits exist in 2050, a tipping fee of less than $9 per ton can yield renewable fuel at $2 per MMBtu. On an energy basis, over 80% of the community electrical demand can be met through a combination of local solar PV, anaerobic digestion, and fuel cell operation (80% zero net electricity). In this scenario, solar PV meets 52% of the community electrical load, while excess solar production produces hydrogen that is passed through a fuel cell to meet 26% of the electrical load. The remaining 3% is met using RNG produced through anaerobic digestion using only organic waste from the studied community. This analysis indicates that the production of renewable fuel in the urban environment is currently not economically feasible but will become competitive with conventional energy in the future.

Assessment of solar energy potential and its deployment for cleaner production in Pakistan

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the potential and outlook of solar energy in Pakistan as a source of renewable and sustainable energy. A detailed energy infrastructure and major reasons behind the power crisis in Pakistan are presented followed by a detailed assessment of solar energy potential. The results obtained from the solar atlas for solar irradiation and PV electricity output show a high potential of solar power throughout the country. An average value of 4.1 kWh/kWp per day is obtained from an installed capacity of 1 KWp. Furthermore, the total estimated potential of solar power in Pakistan is around 2900 GW and its effective use will help in the growth of the country’s economy by reducing the import of fossil fuels. It is foreseen that the present research will help nations develop and utilize solar power in their respective countries efficiently and effectively.

Development of a photovoltaic-thermal solar humidifier for the humidification-dehumidification desalination system coupled with heat pump

To provide both thermal and electrical energies needed for the humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems independent of fossil fuels, the present study proposed a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar humidifier. The designed humidifier is a double-pass dual-fluid solar collector, which was mounted on a humidification-dehumidification system equipped with a heat pump. Experimental investigation of the system was conducted at different condensation temperatures and seawater flow rates. The results showed that the highest water evaporation in the humidifier was around 4.48 kg (1.06 kg/h/m2 humidifier surface) at the seawater flow rate of 0.15 kg/s and the condensation temperature of 20 °C. Specific electrical energy consumption values varied from 0.22 to 0.53 kWh/kg. The maximum thermal and electrical efficiencies of the PVT humidifier were 75.6 and 11.3%, respectively. The ratio of solar PV electricity to consumed electricity of the system at the different operating conditions was ranged from 0.95 to 1.03. The average freshwater production rates were between 0.56 and 0.99 kg/h/m2 humidifier surface. Economic analysis of the system indicated that the cost of freshwater production with the proposed system is 0.018 US $/kg.