THE RELEVANCE of this article lies in its timely and critical reassessment of the "green" energy trend. It serves as a "sober voice," advocating for a balanced evaluation, comprehensive risk assessment, and a shift from ideological approaches to scientificallygrounded, holistic analysis aimed at achieving genuine sustainability. This makes it a valuable contribution not only to academic discourse but also to the development of practical government policies and corporate strategies. THE PURPOSE . This paper conducts a comprehensive critical analysis of the modern trends, technological solutions, and systemic challenges within the green energy sector and decarbonization efforts. It aims to evaluate their actual effectiveness, economic viability, and full lifecycle environmental impacts, moving beyond the prevailing optimistic narratives to provide a balanced assessment. METHODS . The research employs a systematic review and comparative analysis of a wide range of scientific studies and technological case studies. The methodology critically examines wind, solar, and hydrogen energy, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, hybrid systems, and various energy storage solutions. The assessment incorporates key technological, economic, and environmental metrics, including energy return on investment (EROI), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX), and carbon footprint across the entire value chain. RESULTS . The study identifies significant contradictions and systemic challenges in the transition to renewables. It demonstrates that many promoted solutions, such as hydrogen economy and CCUS, remain at early development stages, characterized by high costs, low EROI, and unresolved end-of-life waste management issues for wind turbine blades, solar panels, and batteries. The analysis confirms the non-viability of renewable energy sources in regions with low natural potential without substantial government subsidies. Furthermore, the mass integration of inverter-based generation reduces the overall system inertia, creating substantial risks for grid stability and reliability. The research also highlights severe environmental and social costs associated with the extraction of critical materials like lithium and cobalt, revealing a hidden negative footprint of the green energy supply chain. CONCLUSIONS . The study concludes that the declared benefits of the green energy transition are often offset by a complex array of hidden technological, economic, and environmental problems. The radical transformation of energy systems is not an unequivocally positive process and presents multifaceted challenges. It necessitates a balanced approach, deep systemic analysis, and the development of comprehensive strategies involving the state, business, and scientific community, rather than merely following trends. A critical revision of current assessment methodologies is required to fully account for the entire lifecycle of green technologies and their true systemic costs.

Global efforts to mitigate climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels have intensified interest in sustainable, urban-compatible wind energy technologies. Conventional wind turbines, however, remain limited in densely populated environments due to acoustic emissions, mechanical complexity, cost, and risks to avian wildlife. This study proposes and numerically evaluates a bladeless wind turbine concept based on vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) as a simplified alternative to conventional bladed systems. The proposed design replaces rotating blades with a vertical mast that undergoes wind-induced oscillations, which are passively converted into unidirectional rotational motion using a cylindrical cam (CCAM) mechanism. The aerodynamic behavior and structural response of the system are investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) under low-wind-speed conditions representative of urban environments. The numerical results indicate well-defined flow separation and wake formation conducive to VIV, along with low stress and displacement levels in the mast, supporting reliable mechanical engagement with the CCAM mechanism. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of mechanically rectified VIV-based bladeless wind turbines and highlight their potential as low-noise, low-impact solutions for decentralized and urban wind energy applications.

In the practical application of wind energy technology, the reliability of wind turbine systems is directly linked to the stable output of renewable electricity. Data imbalance in fault monitoring networks causes classification bias in diagnostic models, which increases the risk of misdiagnosis and ultimately undermines the stability of wind power. In the context of distributed monitoring, this issue is further exacerbated by the geographically dispersed layout of wind farms, which significantly amplifies data imbalance. To address these challenges, a global distribution-aware logits adjustment federated framework is proposed, along with a dynamic estimation mechanism for global fault distribution based on edge node logits. This mechanism accurately captures the global fault feature distribution and enhances attention to minority categories. Additionally, a feature compensation architecture for edge-cloud bidirectional collaboration is developed. By constructing a feature similarity matrix, knowledge distillation is performed at the feature level to transfer global feature knowledge to the edge, enabling local models to learn global common features while preserving the personalized feature extraction capabilities of edge nodes. On-site experiments at Kelmarsh and Xinjiang wind farms demonstrated that the proposed method achieved accuracies of 0.8617 and 0.9891, respectively, showcasing its effectiveness.

Economic impact of wind energy technology adoption in China's renewable power markets: Implications for energy security and financial development

The increasing global demand for clean and sustainable energy has intensified research focus on offshore renewable energy systems, particularly those integrating wind, solar, and wave resources. Offshore hybrid renewable energy systems represent a transformative opportunity to harness diverse marine energy sources, aiming to improve energy yield, capacity factor, and reliability compared to single-technology solutions. Evaluation of past literature reveals a critical gap in comprehensive evaluations of fully integrated hybrid offshore platforms that simultaneously deploy floating solar photovoltaic (FPV), offshore wind turbines, and wave energy converters (WECs), including their techno-economic performance and environmental impacts. This study addresses this gap by systematically reviewing the current state-of-the-art offshore floating solar, wind, and wave energy technologies and analyzing key commercial pilot hybrid projects such as Hollandse Kust Noord, W2POWER, and the Hybrid Floating POSEIDON system. A mixed-methods approach combining qualitative literature review, multi-criteria technical, economic, and environmental evaluation, and case study analysis was employed to assess the design innovations, integration strategies, and deployment challenges. Results demonstrate that hybrid offshore systems leveraging synergies between solar, wind, and wave resources can achieve up to five times higher energy output than single-source systems, with floating wind currently leading in maturity and energy production scale, complemented effectively by floating solar and wave converters to enhance seasonal and operational stability. Novel modular floating platforms and advanced mooring systems enable scalable, durable solutions capable of withstanding harsh marine environments. Environmental considerations, including biofouling, corrosion, and ecosystem impacts, can be addressed via mitigation strategies and adaptive site selection.

Due to improvements in wind energy technology, electrical distribution networks are becoming more capable of integrating large amounts of variable renewable generation. The wind distributed generators (WDGs) affect the medium-voltage (MV) electrical distribution network (EDN) by introducing variability, reverse power flows, power-quality issues, and higher fault levels. This paper applies a brand-new, reliable, and efficient algorithm, the tunicate swarm algorithm (TSA), to optimally link varying numbers of WDG units and allocate multiple WDG units in EDN. The main objective of this research is to propose an applied TSA algorithm for optimal energy-efficient integration of multiple WDG units in a hybrid medium‐voltage AC-DC network and to test it in a modified IEEE 33-bus network based on the active power loss minimization. The proposed approach granted improved solution quality with enhanced convergence speed and adherence to EDN constraints. The applied TSA addresses the sensitivity to parameter settings like population size and iterations. The findings verify that, out of all the scenarios taken into consideration, three WDGs offer the best performance in terms of active loss minimization and improve the bus voltage profile.

Improving ship energy efficiency has become a critical priority for reducing fuel consumption and meeting international decarbonization targets. In this study, eight major groups of energy efficiency improvement systems—including wind and solar energy technologies, hull and propeller modifications, air lubrication, green propulsion options, waste heat recovery, and engine power limitation—were evaluated against seven critical success factors. A hybrid neutrosophic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework was employed to capture expert uncertainty and prioritize alternatives. Neutrosophic fuzzy sets were adopted because they more comprehensively represent uncertainty—simultaneously modeling truth, indeterminacy, and falsity, providing superior capability to address expert ambiguity compared with classical fuzzy, intuitionistic fuzzy, gray, or other uncertainty-handling frameworks. Trapezoidal Neutrosophic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (TNF-AHP) was first applied to determine the relative importance of the criteria, highlighting fuel savings and cost-effectiveness as dominant factors with 38% weight. Subsequently, the Fuzzy Combined Compromise Solution (F-CoCoSo) method was used to rank the alternatives. Results indicate that solar energy systems and wind-assisted propulsion consistently rank highest (with 3.35 and 2.92 performance scores) across different scenarios, followed by green propulsion technologies, while waste heat recovery and engine power limitation show lower performance. These findings not only provide a structured assessment of current technological options, but also offer actionable guidance for shipowners, operators, and policymakers seeking to prioritize investments in sustainable maritime operations.

Energy security remains a multifaceted and dynamic concept influenced by a variety of factors, including geopolitical developments, technological advances, and environmental considerations. The field continues to evolve, addressing new challenges and striving to balance competing objectives for a resilient and sustainable energy future. Traditional approaches to state security usually focus on military, political, economic, social, and environmental threats. The analysis of offshore wind energy technology, particularly floating wind farms, presents critical insights into how this sector can stimulate economic growth, enhance local employment opportunities, and foster sustainable community development. The exploration of Spain’s ambitious energy goals, in the context of its National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, highlights the economic strategies employed to transition toward a sustainable energy model. The development of offshore wind energy in Spain reflects a commitment to increasing renewable energy production while considering the potential impacts on local communities, marine transportation and navigation in the territory. Spain‘s ambitious goals include generating 48% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030, alongside a significant push for offshore wind capacity with plans to install 3,000 megawatts of floating wind capacity, Spain has a target to become a leader in this sector. However, managing offshore wind projects requires careful planning to mitigate disruptions to submarine noise and marine ecosystems considering locations fo wind resource, permissions, technical knowledge and strategical structures. Proposed allocations from wind farm revenues include funding for community projects, support for the investments in sustainable infrastructure. Offshore wind energy can contribute significantly to environmental sustainability while fostering socioeconomic development, promoting a balanced approach to renewable energy initiatives with an attractive financial plan.

Integrated power generation systems have gained increasing attention in marine renewable energy development due to their potential synergistic benefits. However, quantitative assessments of the added gains in structural stability and power output are limited. This study proposes a novel wind-solar-wave (WSW) co-generation system that integrates wind, solar, and wave energy technologies to enhance both power performance per unit area and structural stability. A new numerical model is developed based on potential flow theory and multi-body hydrodynamic interactions, and validated using existing data. Eight WSW configurations are examined, considering varying mooring depths and clump weights. Results shows that the integration of wave energy converters (WECs) within and along the perimeter of WSW can improve the structural stability by reducing the vertical fluctuations of the floating solar farm by 41.2%-69.7% while contributing 11.3%-22.6% to the total power generated. Moreover, mooring the additional WECs and floating solar farms (FSFs) to the foundation of offshore wind turbines can also effectively control the overall structural motion of WECs and FSFs. Overall, the present study confirms the promising prospects of the WSW for future design and policy development of offshore energy integration, and also offer a new numerical model that can provide assessment and evaluation of the integrative benefits towards mooring structural stability and power performance for the whole system within the same spatial footprint.

Recent advances in the development of floating offshore wind turbines have also generated great interest in hybrid wind–wave energy systems due to the resource and technological complementarity of both systems. Over the past decade, a large amount of research has been conducted to uncover the benefits of combining floating wind turbines with wave energy converters and to propose and evaluate new hybrid system designs. The aim of this study is to identify trends, patterns and insights of the hybrid wind–wave energy systems by collating, reviewing and analysing the data available in the literature. The statistical analysis is presented for the design aspects of the hybrid wind–wave system, power production of wave energy converters, methodologies used to investigate the hybrid system dynamics, and the reported findings. The analysis indicates that research on hybrid systems lags behind floating platform development by approximately five years, with a predominant focus on 5 MW wind turbines installed on semi-submersible platforms and coupled with heaving wave energy converters. However, hybridisation efforts must keep pace with advances in modern wind energy technologies. The share of wave energy in the total power production of a hybrid platform is less than 10 %, and the median rated power of a single WEC is close to 100 kW. Wave energy converters do not tend to change the wind turbine power production, while an increase in platform motions was observed, also negatively affecting loading on mooring lines. Therefore, new designs need to investigate motion suppression in order to explore additional benefits of the hybridisation, such as mooring and tower bending load reduction. Furthermore, integrating wave energy with a floating wind turbine increases the levelised cost of energy of the combined project, underlying the challenges in providing a techno-economically viable solution, which also should be considered in the design process. • Wave energy converters contribute 5 %–10 % of the wind turbine’s power output. • The semi-submersible platform with three heaving WECs is the most studied hybrid configuration. • A single WEC in a hybrid wind-wave system is typically designed as a 100 kW unit. • WECs generally amplify the platform’s heave motion while reducing its pitch motion. • Hybridisation of FOWTs with WECs increases the project cost.

Abstract This paper presents the latest merchant ship concepts developed by the WHISPER Project Consortium under the Horizon Europe framework. The project is managed by Verkis and technically led by Stirling Design International (SDI), a naval architecture firm. It showcases innovative Panamax bulk carrier and container feeder designs, achieving up to 30% fuel consumption reduction through the integration of cutting-edge technologies, including OceanWings wingsails, Solbian solar panels, and Sidewind turbines. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the performance prediction, operational challenges, and associated risks. Mitigation strategies employed within the WHISPER Project will also be discussed. One key innovation is the integration of six tiltable OceanWings wingsails, each 363 m2, into a Panamax bulk carrier, based on insights from Ant Topic and Marfin Management ship owners. Additionally, the paper presents the integration of two OceanWings wingsails with elevator platform on a container feeder with an innovative hull design, highlighting results on ship commercial capacity and performance as informed by Samskip and Nav-Tech ship owners. Both designs developed by SDI are practical examples of how renewable wind and solar energy technologies can be effectively incorporated into the shipbuilding and ship repair sectors, offering substantial potential for sustainable maritime operations. Keywords wind propulsion; bulk carrier; wing sail; naval architecture

The increasing requirement of electrical energy and nature restrictions, extraction of electricity from sustainable energy-sources have been enlarged. The main sources of inexhaustible energy are from wind, and solar-pv systems. Incorporating renewable energy sources has gained significant importance in achieving the growing demand for power. Incorporating renewable energy sources presents both challenges and opportunities. In wind energy technology, the DFIG is immensely suitable due to its numerous advantages over the constant speed-driven wind-turbines. The DFIGs are capable of improving power quality, and stability of the surviving power-system. The power converters, grid-side (GSC), and rotor-side (RSC) are utilized for DFIG. The power perceived in solar-photovoltaic (PV) system is integrated into the grid through dedicated voltage source converter. To control the DC link voltage, DC/DC converters are utilized, by implementing, MPPT algorithms, maximum power is extracted from PV, and injected to grid. Advanced hybrid configuration is proposed, such as the perceived, pv power is injected to AC grid, via GSC of the DFIG. To control the DC bus potential, and extracting maximum power, from pv system, advanced MPPT algorithms can be implemented. Thus, the proposed hybrid configuration can reduce cost of the converters and improves the efficiency. The various issues integrated with the hybrid configurations of DFIG-PV system, are presented in this paper.

Abstract This study investigates the role of urban morphology in shaping wind suitability and ventilation potential across Manila, Philippines, by evaluating six spatial parameters: street density, building density, mean wind speed, intersection density, height-to-area ratio, and street canyon profile. Employing a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework, the study integrates these variables into a composite suitability score, facilitating a data-driven classification of urban zones based on their capacity to support wind energy interventions. The findings reveal a spatial gradient in suitability, indicating that high and moderate wind-suitable areas are concentrated in waterfront districts and zones characterized by open street networks and lower building compactness. Conversely, the urban core demonstrates predominantly low suitability due to a dense built form and constrained airflow. While tall buildings can channel wind through canyon effects, their arrangement often disrupts broader circulation, resulting in localized stagnation or turbulence. The synthesized wind suitability map emphasizes the necessity of aligning building height, spacing, and orientation with natural wind corridors to enhance both ventilation and the feasibility of micro-scale urban wind technologies. Furthermore, the research highlights the imperative for morphology-aware urban planning in tropical megacities, where high land-use compactness presents both challenges and opportunities for sustainable energy integration. Future research should incorporate long-term wind monitoring and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to validate and refine these spatial insights.

India's rapidly growing energy demands, driven by its economic expansion, necessitate a transition towards renewable energy sources and offshore wind energy presents a substantial opportunity in this context. Several leading nations including China, the USA, Germany, India, UK, Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal, collectively account for approximately 86% of the global capacity for wind turbines, underscoring the importance of international collaboration and knowledge sharing in advancing wind energy technologies. This study explores the opportunities and challenges of offshore wind power in India, looking at the pressing need to diversify energy mix. The methodology employed in the study involves reading of related papers, government policies and technological progress in the area of offshore wind turbine technology and a discussion of the reasons and potential of the country in this sector. The key conclusions show that in many ways despite the great offshore wind energy potential in India, major obstacles still remain in the path as in terms of initial investment that is huge, as well as the technology and network grid connection. One of the challenges is that India has very vast coastline which is liable to natural calamities such as earthquakes and tsunamis. To fully exploit the offshore wind energy potential in a successful manner, the need is to develop a clear and independent system of policies and regulations, generation of the transfer of the technology agreements as well as an established grid and in-depth research work to overcome the technological challenges. The results of this study suggest that the establishment of a viable solution to the identified problem can be achieved through the careful formulation of regulatory framework, the generation of financial benefits and the collaboration among the stakeholders involved can position India as a leader in offshore wind energy within the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, encouragement of the local production of offshore wind turbine tower parts and the orientation towards new technologies, including floating offshore wind turbines can stimulate the evolution of the sector and reduce the imports.

The general theory of aerodynamic instability and the mechanism of flutter has been applied for decades in the environmental condition of uniform flow. Given the substantial growth in wind energy technology and aerospace in recent decades, there has been a greater focus on exploring the aerodynamic performance of oscillating airfoils in the environment of turbulence rather than just uniform flow. Most current research remains based on aerodynamic models obtained from potential flow theory, which have been thoroughly demonstrated through experimentation to be effective under the condition of uniform flow. However, it is still unclear whether turbulence and its interaction with the airfoil will cause traditional aerodynamic models to breakdown and how it will change under turbulent conditions. This study presents an analysis of how turbulence intensities and scale ratios individually influence the characteristics of oscillating airfoils. Furthermore, the turbulent kinetic energy and correlation are intimately associated with these two main components. The results suggest that as the turbulence intensities increase, more energy is injected, resulting in a larger amplitude of unsteady lift. In turbulence, smaller scale ratios reduce correlation and result in a decrease in the amplitude of lift. Turbulence could also lead to a departure of the transfer function from its theoretical value, known as the Theodorsen function. This work examines and evaluates the influence of turbulence on oscillating airfoils. The results might serve as a foundation for aerodynamic analysis to examine the stability of airfoils in turbulent flows.

Wind energy conversion technology: On the verge of a century and a half of innovation

This study presents the design, numerical analysis, and experimental validation of an innovative wind turbine blade incorporating an internal flow channel and tangential slots to harness the Coanda effect for enhanced aerodynamic performance. The primary objective is to improve thrust generation and lift while reducing drag, thereby increasing the efficiency of wind turbines and potential aerial propulsion systems. A three-dimensional blade model was developed in COMPAS-3D and fabricated using PET-G filament through 3D printing, enabling precise realization of the internal geometry. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, conducted in ANSYS Fluent using a refined mesh and the k—ω SST turbulence model, revealed that the proposed blade design significantly improves pressure distribution and airflow attachment along the blade surface. Compared to a conventional blade under identical wind conditions (12 m/s), the innovative blade achieved a 12% increase in power coefficient, lift force of 33 N and drag force of 60 N, validating the efficacy of the Coanda-based flow control. Wind tunnel experiments confirmed the numerical predictions, with close agreement in thrust and lift measurements. The blade demonstrated consistent performance across varying wind velocities, highlighting its applicability in renewable energy systems and passive flow control for aerial platforms. The findings establish a practical, scalable approach to aerodynamic optimization using structural enhancements, contributing to the development of next-generation wind energy technologies and efficient propulsion systems.

This study explores the feasibility of carbon fibre in a single-blade wind turbine design.FDA highlights its superior rigidity and vibration response, while CFD identify optimal angles of attack for efficient power generation.However, a life cycle assessment reveals significantly higher energy use and carbon emissions during carbon fibre production, despite better performance in reducing atmospheric acidification.Although carbon fibre offers advantages like reduced weight and structural simplicity, cost-benefit analysis underscores the need for further cost reductions to compete with conventional multi-blade turbines.This research provides a foundation for optimising single-blade designs and advancing wind energy technology.

Synergistic Optimization of Wind Energy and Energy Storage Technologies for Enhanced Renewable Energy Utilization

This study investigates the aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs), focusing on a novel dual-airfoil morphing mechanism for H-type Darrieus turbines. By leveraging the aerodynamic benefits of two distinct airfoil profiles, the proposed design adapts dynamically to varying wind speeds, enhancing overall efficiency. The methodology includes airfoil selection and aerodynamic analysis using the Double Multiple Stream Tube (DMST) model, simulated in QBlade software. The numerical model was validated against established benchmark data, confirming its accuracy. Key findings reveal that among all tested airfoils, the NACA 64(2)-415 airfoil achieves the highest power coefficient at low wind speeds, while the FX 84-W-127 airfoil performs optimally at higher wind speeds. Inspired by biomimetic principles, a morphing strategy and mechanism is proposed to transition seamlessly between these two profiles and enable broader operational adaptability. This innovative approach demonstrates significant potential for improving the energy capture efficiency and viability of VAWTs, contributing to the advancement of renewable wind energy technologies.