Algerian renewable energy assessment: The challenge of sustainability

Algeria plays a very important role in world energy markets, both as a significant hydrocarbon producer and as an exporter, as well as a key participant in the renewable energy market. Due to its geographical location, Algeria holds one of the highest solar potentials in the world. This paper presents a review of the present renewable energy situation and assesses present and future potential of renewable energy sources (RESs) in Algeria. This paper also discusses the trends and expectation in solar systems applications and the aspects of future implementation of renewable energies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region status. The problem related to the use of RES and polices to enhance the use of these sources are also analysed in this paper. In addition the available capacity building, the technical know-how for each RES technology and localizing manufacturing of renewable energy equipments are defined. The co-importance of both policy and technology investments for the future Algerian markets of RES and competitiveness of the solar/wind approach is emphasized. Some examples of policy significantly impacting Algerian markets are reviewed, and the intention of the new Algerian RES initiative is discussed.     

Solar energy in India: Strategies, policies, perspectives and future potential

Renewable energy sources and technologies have potential to provide solutions to the longstanding energy problems being faced by the developing countries like India. Solar energy can be an important part of India's plan not only to add new capacity but also to increase energy security, address environmental concerns, and lead the massive market for renewable energy. Solar thermal electricity (STE) also known as concentrating solar power (CSP) are emerging renewable energy technologies and can be developed as future potential option for electricity generation in India. In this paper, efforts have been made to summarize the availability, current status, strategies, perspectives, promotion policies, major achievements and future potential of solar energy options in India.     

Renewable energy in India: Status and potential

A majority of the Indian population does not have access to convenient energy services (LPG, electricity). Though India has made significant progress in renewable energy, the share of modern renewables in the energy mix is marginal. This paper reviews the status and potential of different renewables (except biomass) in India. This paper documents the trends in the growth of renewables in India and establishes diffusion model as a basis for setting targets. The diffusion model is fitted tot the past trends for wind, small hydro and solar water heating and is used to establish future targets. The economic viability and green house gas (GHG) saving potential is estimated for each option. Several renewables have high growth rates, for example wind, Photovoltaic (PV) module manufacture and solar water heaters. New technologies like Tidal, OTEC, Solar thermal power plants and geothermal power plants are at the demonstration stage and future dissemination will depend on the experience of these projects.     

The link between political decision-making and energy options: Assessing future role of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Finland

European Union and Finland are confronted with much the same kind of challenges in energy policy. Because of much higher importance on energy, these issues escalated earlier in Finland including vital political decision-making. Several alternative energy paths to the future can be identified with fairly similar projected costs. The more in-depth analysis in the Finnish case suggests that, e.g., an integrated approach consisting of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures would be one competitive alternative to satisfy both increasing energy demand and CO₂ emission reductions already by 2020. The study shows that meeting environmental, energy security and economical targets may not as such be adequate for the future success of an energy option. There is a more profound link between the energy options and the political decision-making, implying a much broader range of criteria than just the 3 Es reflecting thus politicians’ priorities and concerns. For example, in the Finnish case renewable energy sources and energy efficiency did not match optimally the parliamentary majority's preferences when deciding on future electricity direction in 2002. The methodology suggested here can be used to improve the strategic positioning of alternative energy paths.     

The Japanese energy sector: Current situation,and future paths

As the world’s third leading economy and a major importer of fuels, the choice of future energy paths and policies that Japan makes in the next few years will have a significant influence on the energy security of the world as a whole, and of the Northeast Asia region in particular. In this article we describe the current status of and recent trends in the Japanese energy sector, including energy demand and supply by fuel and by sector. We then discuss the current energy policy situation in Japan, focusing on policies related to climate change targets, renewable energy development and deployment, liberalization of energy markets, and the evolution of the Japanese nuclear power sector. The final section of the article presents the structure of the Japan LEAP (long-range energy alternatives planning software system) dataset, describes several alternative energy paths for Japan – with an emphasis on alternative paths for nuclear power development and GHG emission abatement – and touches upon key current issues of energy policy facing Japan, as reflected in the modeling inputs and results.     

Renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in China

The article examines the potential effectiveness of the renewable energy policy in China and its regulatory Law framework. It frames the option of renewable energy technology within the background of the long-lasting electricity problems that China has faced including serious supply shortages, reliance on coal, and severe environmental contamination. Its dual administrative and ownership system based on state and privately owned industry is discussed together with the market reform measures adopted in the sector. Current renewable energy policy is analysed, and the scope of the 2005 Renewable Energy Promotion Law is investigated. This is conducted within the context of the electricity sector reform that China adopted, and its effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy. This study draws upon primary information collected from interviews with stakeholders on the policy adequacy, and identifies three main types of shortcomings that have interfered with a more successful expansion of renewable energy in China.     

A new energy future for South Africa: The political ecology of South African renewable energy

Renewable energy remains a contested topic in South Africa. This paper argues that South Africa can build on the momentum surrounding its introduction of a feed-in tariff by enacting policies that may, if given adequate funding and political effort, allow the country to be a world leader in renewable energy. Given a variety of renewable energy policy options for moving forward, a majority of stakeholders consulted in this study strongly prefer the development of a renewable energy manufacturing cluster, in which government develops coordinated policy mechanisms that attract renewable energy manufacturers, over three other policies suggested by the authors. Interviews with key informants that play critical roles in this decision-making process suggest that there are reasons to remain cautiously optimistic about the country's renewable energy future while cognizant of the challenges that must still be overcome. Opportunities for a low carbon renewable energy transition in South Africa include the prevalence of broad stakeholder consultation, facilitated by civil society, and an innovative policy development context. Significant impediments also exist, however, and include pervasive social issues such as poverty and political inertia, along with the ongoing difficulties facing renewable energy technologies in reaching grid parity with inexpensive and abundant South African coal.     

Canada’s energy perspectives and policies for sustainable development

A regression analysis is performed to make projections for the Canadian energy production and consumption. These have been increasing and are projected to increase even further in the near future. The primary energy production and consumption are projected to increase by 52% and 34%, respectively, by 2025 over 2004 if business as usual. The amount of fossil energy resources is finite and the extraction, transportation and combustion of fossil fuels cause environmental pollution and climate change. On the other hand, energy plays an important role in the economic and social development of Canada. Canada can develop further from an energy balance point of view, but this alone cannot be sustainable, because of the negative consequences of the major energy use on the environment. Application of energy localization and diversification is a promising solution, but in order to reach that, better energy efficiency and more use of renewable energy are necessary. Instead of non-compulsory policies Canada’s policy approach should have more compulsory policies. Only then Canada can be made to develop further in a sustainable manner.     

A methodology for the electrical energy system planning of Tamil Nadu state (India)

In this paper, an energy planning optimisation procedure of a selected territory is illustrated and applied using an energy flow optimisation model. The developed approach takes into account various electricity generating options to meet the energy needs of various demand sectors. Energy saving techniques and hybrid technologies are considered and various scenarios are developed by assessing the contribution of renewable energy technologies over the planning period. The procedure aims to reduce the total actualised cost of energy generation over selected time horizon and predicts the additional installations required along with the existing facilities to meet the energy demand. At the same time the role of renewable energy technologies and of energy saving measures is evaluated by imposing suitable constraints on CO₂ emissions and primary energy sources exploitation. The procedure is applied to the territory of Tamil Nadu state (India) by considering different energy planning scenarios.     

Thirty years of domestic solar hot water systems use in Greece – energy and environmental benefits – future perspectives

The effort to reduce the dependence on imported crude oil in Greece, after the oil crises in the '70s, has resulted, among others, in a total installed area of 3.57 million m² solar collectors in 2007, making Greece one of the pioneers in the use of domestic solar hot water system (DSHWS) worldwide.In the present work, the contribution of DSHWS to the reduction of conventional energy and greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Greece from its early years in mid '70s up to now is assessed. DSHWS market penetration, solar system technological changes and development and demographic changes in association with the climatic conditions in all regions of the country have been taken into account in order to calculate energy conservation and emissions reduction. The results show that the conserved energy ranges from 21.27 GW h_el (0.1% of the domestic sector energy use) in 1978 to 1513 GW h_el (2.4%) in 2007, resulting in an abatement of CO₂ emissions, which for the year 2000 was 1.67 Mt, exceeding by 76% the objectives of the Greek Program of “Climatic Change”, which indicated savings of 0.95 Mt CO₂ for 2000.Moreover DSHWS maximum technical potential is assessed to be about three times the current installed area, showing that they can play an important role in energy end environmental policy of the country.     

Renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping in India: A preliminary attempt towards potential estimation

Simple frameworks have been developed for estimating the utilization potential of: (a) solar photovoltaic (SPV) pumps; (b) windmill pumps; (c) producer gas based dual fuel engine pumps; and (d) biogas based dual fuel engine pumps for irrigation water pumping in India. The approach takes into account factors such as: solar radiation intensity, wind speed, availability of bovine dung and agri-residues, and their alternative uses, ground water requirements for irrigation and its availability, affordability, and propensity of the users to invest in renewable energy devices, etc. SPV pumps are estimated to have the maximum utilization potential in India, followed by windmill pumps.     

Bio-energy in the Baltic States: Current policy and future development

The rapid economic growth in the Baltic States requires significant alterations in their energy sectors. This paper describes current status and specific features of the energy systems in the Baltic States, and in particular discusses the role of the renewable energy sources in the primary energy supply and energy transformation sector of these countries. The structure of the energy sectors inherited from the Former Soviet Union and constructed through several decades was inappropriate in terms of size of these countries and their access to primary energy. Based on common principles changes in the primary energy supply during the period 1990–2003 in each country are analysed. This paper presents analysis of the main driving forces for future usage of bio-energy, such as sound general energy policy in the Baltic States, favourable legislative framework, implementation of the EU Directives and corresponding National Programs. The paper focuses on comparison of existing potential for energy production from feasible renewable energy sources, trends of bio-energy production and the role of renewable energy sources for the future energy needs in the Baltic States. Due to existence of some limiting factors additional energy policy measures encouraging future development of bio-energy production in the region are necessary.     

Assessing complementarity of wind and solar resources for energy production in Italy. A Monte Carlo approach

Wind and solar energy are expected to play a major role in the current decade to help Europe reaching the renewable energy penetration targets fixed by Directive 2009/28/EC. However, it is difficult to predict the actual production profiles of wind and solar energy as they depend heavily on variable meteorological features of solar radiation and wind speed. In an ideal system, wind and solar electricity are both injected in a fast reacting grid instantaneously matching supply and demand. In such a system wind and solar electricity production profiles should complement each other as much as possible in order to minimise the need of storage and additional capacity. In the present paper the complementarity of wind and solar resources is assessed for a test year in Italy.To achieve this goal we employ data at high spatial and temporal resolution data for both solar radiation and wind speed in Italy obtained from running two state of the art models (PVGIS and MINNI). Hourly profiles for solar and wind energy produced are compared in each 4 × 4 km² grid cell in Italy for 2005, and hourly, daily and monthly correlation coefficients are computed in order to assess the local complementarity of the two resources. A Monte Carlo approach is also developed to estimate how large-scale wind and solar energy productions could be potentially involved to complement each other in a scenario with up to 100 production sites across Italy. The results show how local complementarity can be very interesting with monthly correlation coefficients reaching values lower than −0.8 in several areas. Large-scale complementarity is also relevant with nation-wide monthly correlation coefficients showing values between −0.65 and −0.6. These model results indicate that in this sample year of 2005, wind and solar energy potential production have shown complementary time behaviour complementary, favourably supporting their integration in the energy system.     

Growth and future trends of wind energy in India

In India, the wind power generation has gained a high level of attention and acceptability compared to other renewable energy technologies. New technological developments in wind power design have contributed for the significant advances in wind energy penetration and to get optimum power from available wind. The yearly percentage increase in wind energy installation is highest for India and now ranks fourth in the world with an installed capacity of 6018 MW. This paper reviews the development of wind energy in India and five potential Indian states. The future growth pattern and time period to achieve the technical wind potential are predicted and analysed.     

Renewable energy in India: Historical developments and prospects

Promoting renewable energy in India has assumed great importance in recent years in view of high growth rate of energy consumption, high share of coal in domestic energy demand, heavy dependence on imports for meeting demands for petroleum fuels and volatility of world oil market. A number of renewable energy technologies (RETs) are now well established in the country. The technology that has achieved the most dramatic growth rate and success is wind energy; India ranks fourth in the world in terms of total installed capacity. India hosts the world's largest small gasifier programme and second largest biogas programme. After many years of slow growth, demand for solar water heaters appears to be gaining momentum. Small hydro has been growing in India at a slow but steady pace. Installation of some of the technologies appears to have slowed down in recent years; these include improved cooking stoves (ICSs) and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. In spite of many successes, the overall growth of renewable energy in India has remained rather slow. A number of factors are likely to boost the future prospects of renewable energy in the country; these include global pressure and voluntary targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction, a possible future oil crisis, intensification of rural electrification program, and import of hydropower from neighbouring countries.     

Empirical determinants of renewable energy deployment: A systematic literature review

A large share of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the energy sector. Renewable energy (RE) appears to be a mean to decarbonize economies. To fight global warming, which might have substantial impacts on ecosystems and economies, it is essential to understand the empirical determinants of RE deployment for public policy guidance and to foster future research. This paper aims to review the growing, though limited, body of literature that has emerged in the late 2000s to study the quantitative determinants of RE development at a country level. Results show that there is little consensus on the influence of the economic, environmental, and energy-related determinants predominantly studied. The other main determinants considered are regulatory, political, and demographic. Results are often tempered by the fact that authors use diverse measures of RE deployment and have a variety of frameworks. This paper ends with several recommendations to improve the comparability of future papers to enhance their potential to make credible public policy recommendations. More specifically, the recommendations concern the choice of a RE deployment indicator, the determinants considered for further exploration, and the methodologies adopted.     

Top down strategy for renewable energy investment: Conceptual framework and implementation

Electricity market is undergoing a tremendous transformation throughout the world. A drastic reduction of carbon emission cannot be realized if renewable energy resources are not increased in share of generation mix. Currently, most of the traditional mechanisms, including regulatory policies, fiscal incentives and public financing, are initiated from and heavily relied on policymakers and governments. However, not only these schemes do not necessarily align with business interests of investors, but also the motivations for renewable energy developments are always initiated by governments. In order to realize the full potential of renewable energy investment, an innovative approach is necessary to motivate investors and lessen government expenditures.In this paper, we present a top down strategy for renewable energy investment. The proposed approach is a three-step framework. By applying the approach, renewable energy global market leaders and trends will be identified and analyzed that included: (1) economics and renewable energy policy, (2) specific renewable energy sectors that presents the most attractive investment opportunity, (3) and finally the most promising renewable energy investment vehicles for investors. Other stakeholders can also use the developed framework, such as consumers and policymakers, to make socio-economic decisions and assess renewable energy investments.     

Financing investments in renewable energy : the impacts of policy design

The costs of electric power projects utilizing renewable energy technologies (RETs) are highly sensitive to financing terms. Consequently, as the electricity industry is restructured and new renewables policies are created, it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts of renewables policy design on RET financing. This paper reviews the power plant financing process for renewable energy projects, estimates the impact of financing terms on levelized energy costs, and provides insights to policymakers on the important nexus between renewables policy design and financing. We review five case studies of renewable energy policies, and find that one of the key reasons that RET policies are not more effective is that project development and financing processes are frequently ignored or misunderstood when designing and implementing renewable energy policies. The case studies specifically show that policies that do not provide long-term stability or that have negative secondary impacts on investment decisions will increase financing costs, sometimes dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the program. Within U.S. electricity restructuring proceedings, new renewable energy policies are being created, and restructuring itself is changing the way RETs are financed. As these new policies are created and implemented, it is essential that policymakers acknowledge the financing difficulties faced by renewables developers and pay special attention to the impacts of renewables policy design on financing. As shown in this paper, a renewables policy that is carefully designed can reduce renewable energy costs dramatically by providing revenue certainty that will, in turn, reduce financing risk premiums.     

A review of energy in Rwanda

During the last two decades, Rwanda has experienced an energy crisis mostly due to lack of investment in the energy sector. With the growing of the population and increasing industrialization in urban areas, energy provided by existing hydro and thermal power plants has been increasingly scarce with high energy costs, and energy instability. Furthermore, as wood fuel is the most important source of energy in Rwanda, the enduring dependence on it and fossil fuel consumption as well, will continue to impact on the process of environmental degradation. Rwanda is rich with abundant renewable energy resources such as methane gas in Lake Kivu, solar, biomass, geothermal; and wind energy resource is currently being explored. Recently, the Government has given priority to the extension of its national electrical grid through development of hydro power generation projects, and to rural energy through development of alternative energy projects for rural areas where access to national grid is still difficult. This paper presents a review of existing energy resources and energy applications in Rwanda. Recent developments on renewable energy are also presented.