Use Of Renewable Energy Technologies Research Articles

The Prevalence of Students and Teachers’ Ideas about Global Warming and the Use of Renewable Energy Technology

This study aims to explore the prevalence of students’ and teachers’ ideas about global warming and the use of renewable energy technology in Gorontalo, Indonesia. Employing a non-experimental quantitative approach, the data were collected from 1522 respondents and analyzed with the WINSTEPS 3.73 Rasch software. This study reports that 97.6% and 76.08% of the respondents respectively understand the concepts of global warming and renewable energy from the internet (45%) and formal education (<40%). Respondents’ level/status of education, gender, and hometown cause some differences in their ideas prevalence. High school students consider that utilizing renewable energy is not crucial; they also do not concern about global warming effects and the environment. Teachers and university students do not believe that using renewable energy can produce sustainable energy; they also question the safety of renewable energy technology. These findings indicate the needs for a renewable energy literacy program in formal education in Indonesia.

Optimization of Lebanon's power generation scenarios to meet the electricity demand by 2030

Presently, Lebanon provides 95 % of the primary energy electricity power generation by using fuel-oil used in thermal power plants. To meet the population needs, private generators are also used in all the country and they represent the third of total electricity production. The challenges over the future development of the Lebanese electric sector are economic and environmental. This is why currently, the energy policy makers aim to diversify the national electricity generation mix in the energy planning strategy and to introduce low-carbon technologies. The complexity of these challenges in the particular Lebanese context has motivated our study which aims to recommend policies to develop the optimal electricity generation scenario by 2030. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate different scenarios reflecting different combinations of technologies by 2030. This is achieved by using an excel tool “Excel Solver Optimization Calculator” which makes possible the interaction of various inputs to produce a least-cost generation mix. The main results focus on the least-cost electricity generation portfolio, total investment required to generate electricity, level of energy independence and carbon emissions. Many policy choices could be feasible and very advantageous for Lebanon if renewable energies are deployed massively. However, this requires policies that support the massive use of renewable energy technologies in the mix.

CREATE MICROELECTRICITY TO ENSURE RELIABLE POWER SUPPLY OF AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES ON THE EXAMPLE OF VLADOVO-LUGINETSKOE EXPERIMENTAL BREEDING STATION

The use of renewable energy sources makes it possible to coordinate the load schedules of agricultural enterprises and achieve a significant technical and economic effect by optimizing the processes of generation, transportation, distribution and consumption of electricity. Powerful agribusiness enterprises are located far enough from the centralized power supply and closer to the raw material bases, so it is proposed to disperse the power of both industrial and energy industries. Therefore, the paper analyzes the features of creating scrollerroller taking into account the world experience of Vladovo-Lubinecka experimental breeding station of the Institute of bioenergy crops and sugar beet of National Academy of agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, part of the Training-scientific-industrial complex “Allukrainian scientific-educational consortium” with the use of renewable sources of energy. Describes the main modes scrollerroller. Outlines the advantages of creating scrollerroller: improving the quality and reliability of the system, decentralization of production, the decline in electricity prices (in the context of how transportation and distribution), optimizing the use of renewable energy technologies through the integration of scrollerroller and use scrollerroller as a backup mechanism to prevent a power outage. The paper proposes to use local information management systems, which have the functions of self-gratification and self-adjustment depending on changes in the conditions of generation and consumption.

Renewable Energy Sources in the New Industrial Revolution: World and Domestic Experience

The article is devoted to determining the place of renewable energy sources (RES) in the new industrial revolution. The peculiarity of the Fourth industrial revolution, unlike the previous ones, is a particular account of the anthropogenic impact of human activities on the environment. One of the ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere is the use of renewable energy technologies. In the article, the author outlined the prerequisites and prospects for the development of renewable energy in Russia and the world, as well as considered the world and domestic experience in the use of renewable energy. On this basis, the author concluded that it is expedient to develop renewable energy sources in Russia. Besides, the author showed that the development of renewable energy technologies could act as a driver of innovative modernisation of the economy and a source of formation of a low-carbon (green) economy characterised by high energy efficiency, energy independence and minimal impact on the environment.

Power System Expansion Planning Incorporating Renewable Energy Technologies with Reliability Consideration: A State of Art Literature

The maintenance of power balance condition is one of the key issues to be addressed by the power engineers with day to day increase in the demand for electrical energy, keeping environmental and economical aspects in consideration. CO2 emitted out to atmosphere from the power plants utilizing fossil fuels causes major environmental pollution. Hence incorporation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the need of the hour even though it increase the capital cost. Therefore a decision is to be made by the investing companies either to construct conventional power plants incorporating CCS or to go for non conventional energy sources that are environment friendly. This can be represented mathematically as a Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) problem. Energy Storage System (ESSs) helps in improving the reliability of the system satisfying the economic aspects as well. Also the use of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) can meet this objective. In view of the complications and complexities involved in the GEP incorporating renewable energy sources with or without storage facility, the Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) also plays a significant role in the electric power system expansion planning. This manuscript gives a comprehensive review corresponding to power system expansion planning including GEP, TEP and RETs to cope up with the crisis for electrical energy demand satisfying reliability criterion and the application of different optimization methods employed in solving the objective function.

A Simulated Study of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) as an Approach for Energy Retrofit in Buildings

Building envelopes can play a significant role in controlling energy consumption, especially in hot regions because of the wide variety of envelope materials and technologies that have been developed. Currently, because of the high rise in energy prices, especially with the high demand of fossil energy in the building sector worldwide, using curtain walls for maintaining adequate lighting in public buildings could lead to higher energy consumption because of the continuous exposure to the sun in hot regions. For this reason, studying the use of renewable or smart alternatives in the building sector to ensure a cleaner, greener environment by deploying sustainable technology in order to reduce energy demand and support economic long-term solutions would be important for solving such a problem. This paper aims at studying the use of renewable energy technologies and alternatives; represented in new building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) technology that could be integrated within building skin to reduce energy demand. The methodology follows a quantitative comparative approach, using an energy simulation software to study two different types of BIPV technology (BISOL Premium BXO 365 Wp monocrystalline and BXU 330 Wp, polycrystalline) on an existing building by retrofitting a part of its curtain wall. This is to conclude the energy saving percentage and feasibility of both alternatives.

Environmental policy and ‘double dividend’ in a transitional economy

Although the environmental benefit from implementing a climate tax is usually realized, the economic dividend still remains a controversial issue warranting further research. This is because the impact of an environmental policy on an economy-wide system will depend on factors that differ from one region to the next. In this paper, we develop a static CGE model for Liberia that is capable of analyzing both a uniform and a partial carbon tax policy. Under the uniform policy instituted to ensure mitigation in the range of 20–50%, an economic dividend is found for energy, employment, and welfare. In particular, energy consumption increases by between 5 and 15.5%, respectively. Interestingly, under a second best policy which exempts economically strategic sectors from the tax, no economic dividend is found for all three variables. This time, energy use declines by between 2 and 9%. These suggest that a uniform environmental tax policy is a more viable option for Liberia, in particular, as it does not only generate economic dividend for employment and welfare, it also incentivizes Liberia's adoption and use of renewable energy technologies. In general, based on the results obtained, further conditions for the feasibility of a double dividend are proposed.

Reducing energy usage in multi-family housing

The energy usage in residential sector have been around 22% of the total energy use in the world and increasing due to the population growth and higher living standards. The energy sources for this are made up primarily of non-renewable energy resources which generates a large amount of global greenhouse gases. A lot of countries have implemented various regulations and rules to reduce the energy usage in buildings and promoting the use of renewable energy technologies. This paper presents a parametric study of a typical multi-family building in its pre-design stage. The climate location used is Sweden (Gothenburg) and Japan (Osaka). The aim of the study is to compare various configurations and to examine how they affect the energy use. The most interesting configurations are the use of heat pump and solar cells. Other configurations that are examined are infiltration levels, pressure coefficients, wind impact, ventilation with heat recovery, ventilation scheduling, building orientation and finally changing U-values in the building material. Results of this study show that the energy saving, by utilizing a heat pump and solar panels, can reduce the total energy use by 34.9% for Gothenburg and 32% for Osaka. The results also show that the difference in total energy use between the two cities reduce substantially (3% difference) when utilizing a heat pump in combination with solar panels.

Reuse of electric vehicle batteries in buildings: An integrated load match analysis and life cycle assessment approach

The increasing use of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation in buildings will require a growing number of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to enhance the reliability of electricity supply. The increasing number of retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries, expected from the automotive sector, can match this demand as EV batteries can be used as BESS, considering that they have about 80% of their original energy capacity.In this context, the study aims at examining the system, consisting of a BESS made by retired Li-ion EV batteries, a photovoltaic plant (20 kW) and the electricity grid, that provides the electricity required by an existing nearly net zero residential building (25.000 kWh/year). The goal is to identify the optimal BESS size, expressed as energy capacity, for load match optimization and environmental impacts in a life cycle perspective.A BESS of around 46 kWh of energy capacity allows achieving significant results in terms of load match increase and environmental sustainability.The study includes an environmental assessment combining the load match analysis and the life cycle approach. It highlights the potential synergy inspired to the principles of the circular economy and of the industrial symbiosis, between the building and the automotive sector.

Sizing and applications of battery energy storage technologies in smart grid system: A review

Dynamics of the world are changing, and people are preferring low cost and reliable power throughout the day. The addition of renewable energy to the existing system is also one of the ways to provide reliable and cheap electricity. The existing bottle neck in transmission lines, continuous contamination of the environment due to heavy reliance on fossil fuels, and the highly fluctuating cost of fossil fuel are few reasons for the widespread use of renewable energy technology. Energy storage technologies are the need of time and range from low capacity mobile storage batteries to high capacity batteries connected to the intermittent renewable energy sources. Selection of different battery types, each having distinguished characteristics in power and energy, depends on the nature of power required and delivered. This paper presents a detailed review of battery energy storage technologies pertaining to the latest technologies, benefits, sizing considerations, efficiency, cost, and recycling. An in-depth analysis in terms of advantages and limitations between the different types of batteries is discussed and compared. In terms of microgrid application, the economic benefits of battery sizing using optimization and probabilistic methods provide a potential solution during the design stage by taking into account various factors affecting the sizing of the battery such as the degradation rate, reliability, and battery placement. This paper ends with the discussion on the recyclability of these batteries and their impact on the environment.

Solar energy storing rock-bed to heat an agricultural greenhouse

The quality requirements of crops, particularly for export, are causing more and more Moroccan producers to consider heating their greenhouses. As the heating costs by conventional energy sources (coal, oil and natural gas) is too high, especially for developing countries, the use of renewable energy technologies and systems to heat the greenhouses have gained much attention in recent years. In this context, to maintain the optimum growth environment for plants, a solar energy storing rock-bed has been used to heat the ambient air inside a canarian type greenhouse. This system stores excess heat from the greenhouse during the day and restitutes it at night.The results of experimental measurements of the climatic parameters show that air temperature inside the greenhouse equipped with rock-bed is on average 3 °C higher than inside the conventional greenhouse during the night and 1.9 °C lower during the day.As the greenhouse equipped with the solar energy storing system was cooled down during the day and heated-up at night, its relative humidity was naturally higher during the day and lower at night. In addition, this system has a positive effect on the tomato yield, which has been improved by 22% compared to the conventional greenhouse.

Use of Renewable Energy Technologies in Buildings

Use of Renewable Energy Technologies in Buildings

Fixed Frequency Sliding Mode Control of Power Converters for Improved Dynamic Response in DC Micro-Grids

The rapid decrease in conventional energy resources and their harmful impact on the environment has brought the attention of the researchers towards the use of renewable energy technologies. The renewable energy systems are connected to Direct Current (DC) micro-grids via power electronic converters where the load conditions are unknown and network parameters are uncertain. These conditions call for the use of robust control techniques such as Sliding Mode Control (SMC) in order to regulate the grid voltage. However, SMC has a drawback of operating the power converter at variable switching frequency which results in degrading the power quality. This paper introduces a fixed frequency sliding mode controller that does not suffer from this predicament. A novel double integral type switching manifold is proposed to achieve voltage regulation of a DC micro-grid, in the presence of unknown load demands and un-modeled dynamics of the network. Rigorous mathematical analysis is carried out for the stability of the closed loop system and the technique is experimentally validated on position of a DC micro-grid using a specially designed test rig. For benchmarking purposes, a conventional Proportional Integral (PI) controller is also implemented. An improvement of 2.5% in rise time, 6.7% in settling time and reduction of voltage dip by 31.7% during load transaction is achieved as compared to the PI controller. The experiment confirms the hypothesis that fixed frequency SMC shows better performance than its counterpart in the phase of introduced disturbances.

Development of geothermal heat pumps by using environment friendly refrigerants

Today, energy consumption and demand together with global warming are one of the most important challenges of human life. From the environmental point of view, the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning industry and current refrigerants are one of the important factors of global warming which need to be resolved. In terms of energy consumption, the main way is the development and use of renewable energy technologies which not only increases the efficiency of these systems but also generates diversification in energy resources. Among the various renewable energy systems, geothermal heat pumps offer significant potential to reduce energy consumption and also carbon dioxide emissions. The main purpose of this research is to select environmentally friendly refrigerants with the best performances. To assess the thermodynamic performance of organic refrigerants in geothermal heat pumps, this system is modeled using Engineering Equation Solver software. In this research, the results are compared with the results of the thermodynamic behavior of conventional refrigerants R22 and R134a for geothermal heat pumps with horizontal and vertical closed loop ground heat exchangers and also open-loop systems. Finally, R152a, R600, and R717 were introduced as substitute refrigerants to replace with synthetic refrigerants in the above-mentioned geothermal heat pump systems, resulted in an increase in 2.97–5.8 percent coefficient of performance in the cooling mode which means reducing the operating cost of the system compared to conventional artificial refrigerants.

Sustainable development and requirements for energy efficiency in buildings – The Korean perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of developments in Korea in relation to its energy consumption and sustainable development policies and progress in achieving its energy targets as given by the Building Energy Codes. Building insulation and passive building technologies are also reviewed for achieving passive house standards by 2017 and zero-energy or near zero-energy buildings (nZEB) by 2025 in Korea, and to identify strategies to further reduce usage of primary energy and to achieve energy efficiency targets. A defining feature of a sustainable building is its ability to reduce significantly its environmental impacts and its embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions over its whole life, including use of natural resources and releases of pollutants, to promote reuse and recycling of materials and sustainable development of buildings whilst ensuring the building satisfy the indoor environmental quality requirements for occupants. Passive technologies include the use of natural ventilation, energy storage such as using phase change materials (PCM) and high thermal mass structure, high energy efficiency windows and lighting and maximizing daylighting and use of renewable energy technologies. Technologies for refurbishment of building envelopes, windows and ventilation systems are reviewed to improve and upgrade the energy efficiency of existing buildings as well as focusing on new builds. The various options for heating, ventilating, cooling and air-conditioning of buildings are also discussed. Green Buildings and Energy Efficiency Labels and Standards should have a pertinent role to affect energy efficiency measures in building developments.

Reducing the Cost of Zinc–Oxygen Batteries by Oxygen Recycling

AbstractWith the increasing demand of energy storage towards increasing the use of renewable energy technologies, electrochemical systems with low cost, high safety levels, and low environmental impact are critically needed. Zinc–air/oxygen batteries, which were always considered to be cheap, are losing their competitive advantages due to poor cyclic performance and energy efficiency. Herein, an effective strategy for oxygen recycling, which reduces the cost of oxygen to as low as ¢ 0.2 kWh−1 per cycle, is reported. With the use of oxygen, the performance of zinc–oxygen batteries is largely increased, with a maximum power density of 290 mW cm−2, stable cycling for more than 1500 cycles, an average energy density of 60 %, and elimination of carbonates. A 1 kW/1 kWh zinc–oxygen battery system is also integrated and exhibits a satisfactory energy efficiency of 58 % and a high working power density of 75 mW cm−2.

The influence of water desalination systems on load levelling of gen-set in small off-grid islands

In minor off-grid islands, energy is typically supplied by diesel generator set, while water, when not shipped with water tankers, is produced by means of desalination systems (typically based on reverse osmosis). The additional demand of desalination related power to the already inefficient diesel power systems may worsen gen-set performance. State-of-the-art remedial strategies advocate the use of renewable energy technologies in order to reduce the impact on diesel generators. Nevertheless, many small islands, due to their environmental value and tourist vocation or due to the quality of the local grid, do suffer of more stringent limitations reducing the potential of penetration of renewable energy. To this end, the present work aims at reporting on the influence of water desalination system on diesel generators load levelling. The study of different matching scenario, using a time-dependent model, demonstrates the possibility of finding management strategy paying-off with improved generator performance.

Mitigating Climate Change Through Energy Efficient Practices in High Altitutes of Nepal

Climate change is a global scale crisis with drastic effects on higher altitudes. Ice melting and its corresponding impacts on mountain ecosystems are just some of the most directly visible signals of global warming. Increased rate of energy consumption, emissions along with ever growing tourist inflow in such areas has a high impact on this phenomenon. Particulate matter, Carbon Dioxide and Methane are some of the chief emissions in such areas with negative impact on the environment. Since burning of fossil fuels is one of the main root causes of cclimate change, its risk mitigation and adaptation depends greatly on energy conservation and the use of renewable energy technologies. Well insulated energy – efficient building construction method and the increased use of renewable energy sources could be the key solution. Reduction of dung-cakes and kerosene for space heating would decrease the greenhouse gas emissions as well as black carbons and particulate matters and improves the indoor living conditions. Energy efficient technologies including the building of traditional Sherpa houses could be the best practice to reduce the impact of climate change in high altitudes. This paper is primarily concerned with testing the thermal properties of insulating tiles made of locally available materials as well as to establish a correlation between energy consumption patterns in different building types with respective CO2 emissions.Subsequently, the positive attributes of such energy conserving design in relation to climate change adaptation is ascertained.

Economic Effects of Renewable Energy Technologies

AbstractRapid economic development has resulted in the more frequent use of renewable energy technologies. On the other hand, the production and use of renewables fosters the development of new technologies, creating many new opportunities for entrepreneurial-minded individuals and, consequently, the economy in general. Renewable energy technologies have a multiplier effect in spurring the economy and the development of not only the energy sector but also all the supporting activities related to such industry. The purpose of this research is to analyse both the positive and the negative economic effects of investing in various renewable technologies, as well as to confirm, by means of the energy-economy model, the benefit of such technologies in boosting the economy.

Biomass for Power Generation: Clean Energies for Sustainable Development and Environment

This study highlights the energy problem and the possible saving that can be achieved through the use of renewable energy technologies. Also, this study clarifies the background of the study, highlights the potential energy saving that could be achieved through use of renewable energy technologies and describes the objectives, approach and scope of the study. The move towards a de-carbonised world, driven partly by climate science and partly by the business opportunities it offers, will need the promotion of environmentally friendly alternatives, if an acceptable stabilisation level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is to be achieved. This requires the harnessing and use of natural resources that produce no air pollution or greenhouse gases and provides comfortable coexistence of human, livestock, and plants. The increased availability of reliable and efficient energy services stimulates new development alternatives. We present and focus a comprehensive review of energy sources, and the development of sustainable technologies to explore these energy sources. We conclude that using renewable energy technologies, efficient energy systems, energy savings techniques and other mitigation measures necessary to reduce climate changes.