A plan for energy management in 110 villages of the Silora Block in Rajasthan,India

In future energy plans, adequate attention has not been paid to rural areas. We have chosen a most backward Silora Block in Rajasthan to carry out a thorough study to assess energy potential, energy requirements, and the local technical expertise available to fabricate and maintain energy gadgets. This block has 110 villages, a total population of 91,350, and a total area of about 117,030 hectares. An analysis of the total energy potentials including biomass, solar energy and wind energy available in the entire area has been worked out. It is found that this area has plenty of energy and only needs proper management for its utilization. The total energy requirements for cooking, lighting, irrigation, rural industries, drinking water, hospitals, entertainment, etc. have been estimated and suitable ways are suggested for the effective utilization of renewable resources to meet the energy demands. Fabrication of solar appliances by village carpenters will also serve to reduce rural underemployment to some extent.     

Renewable energy applications in desalination: state of the art

Millions of people have no access to a secure source of fresh water. Nevertheless, since many arid regions are coastal areas, seawater desalination is a reasonable alternative. On the other hand, the energy requirements of desalination processes are high. Then, the energy supply in low development countries or isolated areas may be a problem, especially if electricity is required. Since most arid regions have high renewable energy resources, the use of renewable energies in seawater desalination exhibits an interesting chance, or even the only way to offer a secure source of fresh water. The status and perspectives of development of coupling renewable energy systems with desalination units are reviewed. It is pointed out that there are place of development even for such technologies that seem to be the most mature ones.     

Renewable energy and sustainable development in Turkey

Achieving solutions to environmental problems that we face today requires long-term potential actions for sustainable development. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions. So clean, domestic and renewable energy is commonly accepted as the key for future life for Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Because of this and the fact that it has limited fossil fuel resources, a gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewables seems to be serious and the sole alternative for Turkey. This article presents a review of the present energy situation and sustainability, technical and economical potential of renewable energy sources and future policies for the energy sector in Turkey. Also, potential solutions to current environmental problems are identified along with renewable energy technologies. Throughout the paper several problems relating to renewable energy sources, environment and sustainable development are discussed from both current and future perspectives. The renewable energy potential of the country and their present use are evaluated here based on the available data. The present study shows that there is an important potential for renewables in Turkey.     

An analysis of hydrogen production from renewable electricity sources

Three aspects of producing hydrogen via renewable electricity sources are analyzed to determine the potential for solar and wind hydrogen production pathways: a renewable hydrogen resource assessment, a cost analysis of hydrogen production via electrolysis, and the annual energy requirements of producing hydrogen for refueling. The results indicate that ample resources exist to produce transportation fuel from wind and solar power. However, hydrogen prices are highly dependent on electricity prices. For renewables to produce hydrogen at $2 kg⁻¹, using electrolyzers available in 2004, electricity prices would have to be less than $0.01 kWh⁻¹. Additionally, energy requirements for hydrogen refueling stations are in excess of 20 GWh/year. It may be challenging for dedicated renewable systems at the filling station to meet such requirements. Therefore, while plentiful resources exist to provide clean electricity for the production of hydrogen for transportation fuel, challenges remain to identify optimum economic and technical configurations to provide renewable energy to distributed hydrogen refueling stations.     

Renewable and sustainable energy use in Turkey: a review

Turkey is an energy importing nation with more than half of our energy requirements met by imported fuels. Air pollution is becoming a significant environmental concern in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources are becoming attractive for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution mitigation in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Because of this and our limited fossil fuel resources, a gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewables seems to be a serious alternative for Turkey's energy future. This article presents a review of the present energy situation and assesses sustainability, technical, and economical potential of renewable energy sources, and future policies for the energy sector in Turkey. Throughout the paper, problems relating to renewable energy sources, environment, and sustainable development are discussed for both current and future energy investments. The renewable energy potential of the country and its present status are evaluated.     

Biofuels from microalgae—A review of technologies for production,processing, and extractions of biofuels and co-products

Sustainability is a key principle in natural resource management, and it involves operational efficiency, minimisation of environmental impact and socio-economic considerations; all of which are interdependent. It has become increasingly obvious that continued reliance on fossil fuel energy resources is unsustainable, owing to both depleting world reserves and the green house gas emissions associated with their use. Therefore, there are vigorous research initiatives aimed at developing alternative renewable and potentially carbon neutral solid, liquid and gaseous biofuels as alternative energy resources. However, alternate energy resources akin to first generation biofuels derived from terrestrial crops such as sugarcane, sugar beet, maize and rapeseed place an enormous strain on world food markets, contribute to water shortages and precipitate the destruction of the world's forests. Second generation biofuels derived from lignocellulosic agriculture and forest residues and from non-food crop feedstocks address some of the above problems; however there is concern over competing land use or required land use changes. Therefore, based on current knowledge and technology projections, third generation biofuels specifically derived from microalgae are considered to be a technically viable alternative energy resource that is devoid of the major drawbacks associated with first and second generation biofuels. Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms with simple growing requirements (light, sugars, CO₂, N, P, and K) that can produce lipids, proteins and carbohydrates in large amounts over short periods of time. These products can be processed into both biofuels and valuable co-products.This study reviewed the technologies underpinning microalgae-to-biofuels systems, focusing on the biomass production, harvesting, conversion technologies, and the extraction of useful co-products. It also reviewed the synergistic coupling of microalgae propagation with carbon sequestration and wastewater treatment potential for mitigation of environmental impacts associated with energy conversion and utilisation. It was found that, whereas there are outstanding issues related to photosynthetic efficiencies and biomass output, microalgae-derived biofuels could progressively substitute a significant proportion of the fossil fuels required to meet the growing energy demand.     

Fermentative hydrogen production - An alternative clean energy source

Hydrogen generation from wastewater is one of the promising approaches through biological route. So, exploitation of wastewater as substrate for hydrogen production with concurrent wastewater treatment is an attractive and effective way of tapping clean energy from renewable resources in a sustainable approach. In this direction, considerable interest is observed on various biological routes of hydrogen production using bio-photolysis, photo fermentation and heterotrophic dark fermentation process or by a combination of these processes. Therefore, in this communication, utilizing industrial wastewater as primary substrate for dark fermentation process is reviewed and different parametric aspects associated with this sustainable approach for better energy production is discussed. The industrial wastewaters that could be the source for bio hydrogen generation, such as rice slurry wastewater, food and domestic wastewaters, citric acid wastewater and paper mill wastewater, are also discussed in this article.     

Overview of renewable energy sources in the Republic of the Sudan

Sudan is an agricultural country with fertile land, plenty of water resources, livestock, forestry resources and agricultural residues. An overview of the energy situation in Sudan is introduced with reference to the end uses and regional distribution. Energy sources are divided into two main types: conventional energy (biomass, petroleum products and electricity) and non-conventional energy (solar, wind, hydro, etc.). Sudan possesses a relatively high abundance of solar radiation, moderate wind speeds, hydro and biomass energy resources. Application of new and renewable sources of energy available in Sudan is now a major issue in strategic planning for alternatives to fossil fuels to provide part of local energy demand. Sudan is an important case study in the context of renewable energy. It has a long history of meeting its energy needs through renewables. Sudan’s renewables portfolio is broad and diverse, due in part to the country’s wide range of climates and landscapes. Like many of the African leaders in renewable energy utilisation, Sudan has a well-defined commitment to continue research, development and implementation of new technologies. Sustainable low-carbon energy scenarios for the new century emphasise the untapped potential of renewable resources. Rural areas of Sudan can benefit from this transition. The increased availability of reliable and efficient energy services stimulates new development alternatives. Renewable environmentally friendly energy must be encouraged, promoted, implemented and demonstrated, for use in the Republic of the Sudan.     

Benefits from a renewable energy village electrification system

More than 100 years after Edison's life changing discovery, 1.6–2 billion people around the globe still live without light, in dark and smoke filled homes. The remote and impoverished Himalayan villages of upper Humla, in north-west Nepal, belong to some of the 2.4 billion people who still depend on the use of traditional biomass for their daily energy services such as cooking, heating and light. These activities on open fireplaces have a direct chronic impact on the health and extremely low life expectancy of the women and children along with devastating deforestation.There is a strong relationship between prosperity and access to electricity. The more remote and isolated communities in Nepal generally live in great poverty. Eighty percent of Nepal's 28.5 million people live in rural areas, with around half of these so remote, that neither a road, nor the national grid is ever likely to reach them.While Nepal has no fossil fuel resources, it is a country that is rich in renewable energy resources such as hydropower and solar energy. These abundant and locally available renewable energy resources can be tapped into with appropriate locally developed technologies. Generating and storing electrical energy derived from these rich local energy resources can provide for appropriate and sustainable lighting, which brings potential health, education, social and economic benefits to the people who have previously lived in homes with excessive indoor air pollution.This paper describes the living conditions of some villages in upper Humla, and the possible benefits of a simple village electrification system that provides basic lighting for the homes and the consequent improvements in the living conditions of the villagers.     

Harmonizing nuclear and renewable energy: Case studies

Climate change is one of the grand global challenges facing the world community. With the global warming threat and the attendant public health risks caused by poor air quality and harmful fine particles, the two different energy sources—nuclear and renewables—may have found a common ground and thread to form an alliance to meet these grand global challenges. The latest advent of technologies enables load-follow flexibility of nuclear power, which has mainly provided baseload power, making nuclear energy an ideal partner for renewable energy, leveling the uncertainty and accommodating the unpredictability associated with renewables. The progress in small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which can be deployed to remote areas, can further facilitate the linking of the two energy resources. Some investigators have recently pioneered the ideas to inosculate these two energy resources with the aid of energy storage devices. This paper presents a series of case studies on meeting demand forecasts by coupling nuclear and renewable energy resources for various practical scenarios. The paper also proposes a paradigm shift in thinking in order to eliminate (or minimize to a certain extend) the need for energy storage devices in the combined energy production system by replacing the energy storage devices with some industrial facilities to directly utilize any excess power supplied by renewable energy. As an example, a desalination facility appended to the nuclear-renewable integrated system is shown to absorb surplus power from renewable energy to produce water, thereby satisfying the demand for both power and water in a typical small remote village. Case studies are also performed to extend the concept to include the effect of weather condition and seasonal variation in solar energy conditions. The promising role of disruptive emerging technologies in the nuclear-renewable combined system is also addressed.     

A hybrid optimization technique for proficient energy management in smart grid environment

Electrical energy is one of the key components for the development and sustainability of any nation. India is a developing country and blessed with a huge amount of renewable energy resources still there are various remote areas where the grid supply is rarely available. As electrical energy is the basic requirement, therefore it must be taken up on priority to exploit the available renewable energy resources integrated with storage devices like fuel cells and batteries for power generation and help the planners in providing the energy-efficient and alternative solution. This solution will not only meet electricity demand but also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a result the efficient, sustainable and eco-friendly solution can be achieved which would contribute a lot to the smart grid environment. In this paper, a modified grey wolf optimizer approach is utilized to develop a hybrid microgrid based on available renewable energy resources considering modern power grid interactions. The proposed approach would be able to provide a robust and efficient microgrid that utilizes solar photovoltaic technology and wind energy conversion system. This approach integrates renewable resources with the meta-heuristic optimization algorithm for optimal dispatch of energy in grid-connected hybrid microgrid system. The proposed approach is mainly aimed to provide the optimal sizing of renewable energy-based microgrids based on the load profile according to time of use. To validate the proposed approach, a comparative study is also conducted through a case study and shows a significant savings of 30.88% and 49.99% of the rolling cost in comparison with fuzzy logic and mixed integer linear programming-based energy management system respectively.     

New directions in renewable energy education

The renewable energy industry is growing rapidly amidst rising concerns about oil depletion and climate change. Renewable energy is seen by many as part of the appropriate response to these concerns and some national Governments have put programs in place to support the wider use of sustainable energy systems. This has led to a rapid increase in demand for renewable energy specialists who are able to design, install and maintain such systems. Most engineers are not trained to use these renewable energy technologies and most are not aware of the principles of sustainability. There is therefore an urgent need to develop and implement new courses that prepare engineers, scientists and energy planners to work with renewables to produce sustainable energy generation systems.Renewable energy education is a relatively new field and previously it formed a minor part of traditional engineering courses. These days it has an identity of its own, with special techniques, standards and requirements which are not normally encountered in other disciplines. Attempts to add one or two units of study on renewables into traditional science and engineering degrees are unlikely to produce graduates with sufficient knowledge or understanding to use renewables effectively. Modern renewable energy education includes a study of the technology, resources, systems design, economics, industry structure and policies in an integrated package. This prepares the graduates to design sound systems from amongst the range of options available. There are more pitfalls in the use of renewables than there are in using the more mature conventional technologies and systems. Designers, installers and service personnel need to be particularly aware of the industry and the characteristics of the various firms and their technologies.Over the past decade several new approaches have emerged to renewable energy education that seek to address the needs of the 21st century for sustainable energy supply systems.This paper will describe the aims, philosophy, structure and outcomes of several of these initiatives. It includes courses in renewable energy science, renewable energy engineering, renewable energy policy and planning and renewable energy technician training. The paper will also describe some aspects of the training of researchers in cooperation with the renewable energy industry.     

Renewable rural electrification: Sustainability assessment of mini-hybrid off-grid technological systems in the African context

The investigation summarised in this paper applied a sustainability assessment methodology on a renewable energy technological system in a rural village project that was commissioned by the South African Department of Minerals and Energy. The project comprised of wind, solar and lead-acid battery energy storage technologies that were implemented as a mini-hybrid off-grid electrification system for the village. The sustainability assessment methodology predicts the outcomes of such interventions by way of a learning model using discipline experts in the fields of economics, sociology, ecosystem sustainability, institutional governance, and the physics and chemistry of energy conversion processes. The comparison of the project's outcomes with a South African sustainable development framework shows that the specific village renewable off-grid electrification system is not viable. The main reason is that charges for electricity supply costs in village grids are too high for available subsidies; the economies of scale for renewable energy supply technologies favour national grids. The failure of the integrated system may also be attributable to the complexity of the social-institutional sub-system, which resulted in uncertainty for project planners and system designers, and the lack of resilience of the technological system to demands from the socio-economic and institutional sub-systems. Policy-related recommendations are made accordingly.     

Sizing of integrated renewable energy system based on load profiles and reliability index for the state of Uttarakhand in India

In recent years the decentralized rural electrification is becoming cost effective and convenient for areas where grid extension is very difficult. The present paper deals with the electrification of dense forest areas of Uttarakhand state in India by Integrated Renewable Energy Optimization Model (IREOM). The IREOM consists of locally available renewable energy resources such as Micro-Hydropower (MHP), biomass, biogas, wind and solar photovoltaic (SPV) systems have been used to meet electrical energy and cooking energy needs of a cluster of villages. The paper includes the selection of different system components, sizing and development of a general model to find out optimal combination of energy subsystems for the selected study area in order to minimize the cost of energy (COE) generation for a required reliability values. The sizing of different renewable energy system components has been carried out so that they are suitable for four different seasonal load profiles. The two reliability values are considered for the selection of optimum solution of year round application. The model developed for this purpose, has been found to be quite useful in optimizing the renewable energy system sizes that are available in market. The proposed model totally depends on the renewable energy systems and eliminates the use of conventional energy systems.     

Renewable energy resources and technologies applicable to Ireland

The energy consumed in Ireland is primarily achieved by the combustion of fossil fuels. Ireland's only indigenous fossil fuel is peat; all other fossil fuels are imported. As fossil fuels continually become more expensive, their use as an energy source also has a negative impact on the environment. Ireland's energy consumption can be separated into three divisions: transportation, electricity generation and heat energy. Ireland however has a vast range of high quality renewable energy resources. Ireland has set a target that 33% of its electricity will be generated from renewable sources by 2020 [I. Government. Delivering a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland; 2007.]. The use of biomass, wind and ocean energy technologies is expected to play a major part in meeting this target. The use of renewable energy technologies will assist sustainable development as well as being a solution to several energy related environmental problems. This paper presents the current state of renewable energy technologies and potential resources available in Ireland. Considering Ireland's present energy state, a future energy mix is proposed.     

Relative inequality in energy resource consumption: a case of Kanvashram village, Pauri Garhwal district, Uttranchall (India)

Energy planning exercises for rural areas make use of a mix of locally available renewable resources with some commercial resources to cater to the energy needs of the population. Such exercises are economically attractive in developing countries, whereby, the foreign exchange reserves for the purchase of commercial energy is curtailed. The first step in the implementation of an energy planning exercise is to understand the energy consumption and utilization habits of the population being served. Frequently, an assessment of the levels of inequality in the consumption of various resources is necessary as, this provides the rural planner with an understanding of the future trends and thus forearms him with strategic alternatives to combat any future energy resource crisis that the trends seem to imply.In the present paper, an attempt is made to assess the level of energy resource consumption inequality in a typical hilly rural Indian village. The Gini Coefficient of Inequality, a measure of inequality in the field of Econometrics has been applied for this assessment. The population is segregated into different categories based on their income levels and certain socio-economic criteria, which are also felt to exercise an influence on consumption levels of energy. The results of the analysis are then discussed in the light of the findings.     

Renewable energy supply chains,performance, application barriers,and strategies for further development

Due to the depletion of traditional energy resources, such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas, many initiatives all over the world have addressed the efficient use or replacement of these resources. Several renewable energy sources have been introduced as alternatives to traditional sources to protect environmental resources and to improve the quality of life. This study assesses renewable energy sources from a supply chain perspective and presents an investigation of renewable energies focusing on four main components: renewable energy supply chain, renewable energy performance, and barriers and strategies to its development. The study provides managerial insights to governments, researchers, and stakeholders for the initiation of renewable energy use, and suggestions for overcoming the barriers to its development.     

Optimization and control of autonomous renewable energy systems

Recently, there has been a growing interest in harnessing renewable energy resources particularly for electricity generation. One of the main concerns in the design of an electric power system that utilizes renewable energy sources, is the accurate selection of system components that can economically satisfy the load demand. This depends on the load that ought to be met, the capacity of renewable resources, the available space for wind machines and solar panels, and the capital and running costs of system components. Once size optimization is achieved, the autonomous system must be controlled in order to correcly match load requirements with instantaneous variation of input energy. In this paper, a new formulation for optimizing the design of an autonomous wind-solar-diesel-battery energy system is developed. This formultation employs linear programming techniques to minimize the average production cost of electricity while meeting the load requirements in a reliable manner. The computer program developed reads the necessary input data, formulates the optimization problem by computing the coefficients of the objective function and the constraints and provides the optimum wind, solar, diesel, and battery ratings. In order to study the effect of parameters predefined by the designer on the optimum design, several sensitivity analysis studies are performed, and the effects of the expected energy not served, the load level, the maximum available wind area, the maximum available solar area, and the diesel engines' lifetime are investigated. A controller the monitors the operation of the autonomous system is designed. The operation of this controller is based on three major policies; in the first, batteries operate before diesel engines and hence the storage system acts as a fuel saver, while in the second diesel engines are operated first so that the unmet energy is lower but the fuel cost is high. According to the third policy, the supply is made through diesel engines only. This is done for the purpose of making a performance comparison between the isolated diesel system and the hybrid renewable energy system. The proposed optimization and control techniques are tested on Lebanese data. Although three different control policies have been adopted in this work, the software is able to accommodate other policies.     

Standalone hybrid system energy management optimization for remote village considering methane production from livestock manure

Recently, many efforts have been done to overcome increasing fuel consumption. One of the vital solutions is utilization of standalone renewable energy resources hybrid systems. This paper attempts to develop a cost-effective methodology to ascertain optimal design and energy management for a remote village. Different energy resources such as wind and solar, fuel cell, and energy storage systems are employed to satisfy total demands including agriculture, residential, school, and health center. Different hydrogen production methods are proposed to verify the efficiency of the developed methodology. In the proposed village, different waste types such as rice husk, maize straw, livestock, and residential wastes are used to generate the required hydrogen for fuel cells to generate electricity. The main objective of the proposed methodology is minimizing the total cost of the village including total costs of each Distributed Generation (DG), cost of natural gas consumption, penalty for interruption the demands, and cost of CO₂ emission. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to solve the optimization problem by minimizing the total system costs while the customers required Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) is satisfied. The suggested hybrid system not only increases the renewable energy penetration but also decreases the natural gas consumption. The results achieved in the course of the present study depict that utilization of energy produced from different types of wastes plays a significant role in conserving fossil fuels and overcoming the fossil fuels depletion. It is concluded from the results that there is about a 17.46% reduction in natural gas consumption when all available waste is utilized. In addition, considering 100% availability for the animal manure reduces the natural gas consumption by reformer from 2.373 to 1.605 million liters which means reduction of the natural gas consumption is 32.35%. The results conclude that H₂ produced by livestock waste is dominating among available wastes. However, there is about 18% reduction in the Cost of Energy (COE), when 100% availability is considered for this type of waste.     

A comparative study of critical factors influencing the renewable energy systems use in the Indian context

The use of renewable energy technologies in developing countries has steadily increased over the past few decades. The widespread use of renewable sources requires a greater understanding of the available options. In order to ascertain the quantum of acceptance of renewable energy sources in the context of possible deterioration of the environment, on account of the increased use of fossil fuels, a Delphi study had been conducted. The feedback from the study was collected and analysed, so as to arrive at a general consensus. By the year 2020, the renewable energy contribution is expected to be 25% of the total energy use in India. At that time, the main resources utilised would be biomass, wind and solar in the order of their quantum of use. Using skewness and rank correlation analysis the results of the Delphi study were studied. It is identified that price, equipment efficiency and technology are the critical factors for commercialising renewable energy sources as denoted by skewness coefficients of 11.6, 5.55 and 0.68, respectively. Rank correlation indicates that the correlation between biomass gasifier electric conversion and biogas electric conversion for lighting is positive, denoting the possibility of integration of the two systems. Similarly, it has been analysed for integrated systems in the area of cooking, pumping, heating, cooling and transportation. This study will help in the formation of strategies which will ensure the development of the optimal integrated energy systems for continuous power supply.