The green hydrogen paradigm shift: Energy generation for stations to vehicles

The change from a global economy dependent upon fossil fuels to renewable fuels for the hydrogen economy is occurring now. Not in 50–60 years, but the hydrogen economy exists today. This is a “paradigm shift” of such significance and so dramatic as to underlie the making of the Third Industrial Revolution. And more importantly, the Third Industrial Revolution includes three “pillars”: distributed as on-site renewable energy generation, “green” hydrogen and advanced storage devices. Each of these pillars is not an adjustment or economic cycle or business bubble. Indeed, the hydrogen economy is global with the European Union and the nation-state of California taking the lead toward sustainable energy infrastructures.This paper addresses that paradigm shift, but also the immediate economic and business development for any region or nation-state. More significantly, when the production of hydrogen is derived from renewable energy resources, not only are there societal benefits (no pollution and atmospheric impact), but also sustainable economic development and job growth. Some of the immediate evidence can be seen in California where “civic markets” are indeed working, but also with the combination of infrastructures into hybrid systems. Herein the combination of hydrogen for stationary power with transportation fuel needs is expediting the paradigm change into sustainable economic feasibility today, not in 50 years or the next century.     

Developing sustainable power systems by evaluating techno-economic,environmental, and social indicators from a system dynamics approach

The transition from fossil fuel-based energy systems to renewable energy systems (RES), especially in fossil-fuel-rich countries, is a challenging process requiring consideration of numerous factors, including technological feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and public acceptance. As governments play a crucial role in determining energy and environmental policy, developing practical policymaking tools encourages them to stimulate the adoption of renewable energy technology. This study proposes a novel framework to model an energy system transition focused on the power generation and its dynamic behavior of fossil-fuel-rich countries using the System Dynamics (SD) approach and then assesses the techno-economic and environmental impacts of various economic, technical, and environmental policies using the Multi-Criteria Decision-Analysis technique (MCDA). This study aims to compare the development of renewable technologies development versus improving the current technology efficiency under three different “business as usual,” “basic development,” and “advanced development” scenarios by assessing economic, environmental, and social indicators over the horizon of 2016–2040 in fossil-rich-fuel countries. The proposed framework was applied to Iran, a fossil-fuel-rich country. According to the case study results, in all of the defined policies under three scenarios, the improvement of fossil fuel technologies received the highest score indicating that improvement in the efficiency of the current energy system by utilizing combined cycle systems is an inevitable step. Taking into account the water shortage in Iran, the second crucial stage is the implementation of water-efficient renewable technologies.     

Agile sustainable communities: On-site renewable energy generation

Smart and sustainable campuses demand three components. First, there is the need to have a Strategic Master Plan (SMP) for all infrastructures that include energy, transportation, water, waste and telecommunications along with the traditional dimensions of research, curricula, outreach and assessments. Secondarily, there is the array of issues pertaining to the sitting of buildings and overall facility master planning which must be addressed from the perspective of “green” energy, efficient orientation and be designed for multiple-use by the academic and local community.Thirdly, the development of sustainable buildings in one area that is compact and walkable campuses thus enable a range of transportation choices leads to reduced energy consumption. Historically, college campuses were often like towns and villages in that they are self-sustaining for family, business and recreational activities. Any sustainable smart campus is a vibrant, “experiential” applied educational model that should catalyze creative learning. More significantly, today, campuses and communities must be secure in terms of not only their own energy use and needs, but also for the resource demands of their power. Otherwise, the community(s) will never be secure economically or politically.Recognizing global warming and climate change, in the spring of 2001, the Board of Trustee (BOT) for the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) took the critical initial policy steps to turn these sustainable developments into goals. For example, the LACCD decided to have new “green” buildings to replace or renovate existing ones. The building program led to sustainable communities that included recycling, product reuse from waste as well as smart growth in terms of reduced energy use, efficiency and the use of telecommunication and wireless systems. The paper focuses primarily on the energy programs for the LACCD campuses.The paper considers the overall energy situation in California and the Southern California region, primarily Los Angeles. Then the paper looks at the state and regional energy contexts which lay the ground work and rationale why LACCD and other communities must act on their own to counteract climate change and global warming. Finally, the paper discusses how a community becomes sustainable, and hence “energy independent”. By doing so, any community can generate its own energy through the production or acquisition of its energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind or biomass among other local resources. Even more significant consequences come in terms of carbon control, lower impact on the environment and reduced global warming.     

Design and simulation of a solar–wind–biogas hybrid system architecture using HOMER in India

The renewable energy sources are accompanied by certain constraints as reliability, availability and continuous generation. In India, biomass is considered as the second best suitable combination with other renewable energy sources. Both solar and wind are undependable renewable energies as they are unpredictable. Now the key to successful renewable energy harvesting lies in the selection of hybrid system architecture for power generation. In rural areas, light is usually unavailable and if it does, it is mostly an incandescent light used for household lighting instead of fluorescent. System reliability, economy and environmental issues are the three major issues for decentralised electrification. So, finding the best suited hybrid system configuration to overcome these constraints is the need of the hour. It is at this stage that HOMER comes into the picture. HOMER, abbreviated name of hybrid optimization model for electric renewable, successfully realises system configuration before its installation and works for on-grid, off-grid and stand-alone systems, which make it useful for rural to urban applications. It simulates and optimises the best suitable solution for a hybrid system and generates reports incorporating all the aspects in designing a system. Here, a typical hybrid system is considered and the implementation of HOMER software has been incorporated.     

Toward sustainable energy usage in the power generation and construction sectors—a case study of Australia

To be sustainable in energy usage in the future, there are two aspects that need to be considered: the energy supply or generation and the consumption side, including the closely linked construction and building industries which consume a large amount of energy. Essential requirements for energy efficiency are to produce less greenhouse gas emissions and to rely more on renewable energy sources for future sustainability. Policies for mitigation of the environment impact are having effects on both the supply and demand. While the former requires more alternate sources in smart grids and improved technologies for carbon capture and storage, the latter involves the reduction of energy wastes and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as prerequisites to green certification within the construction and building sector. Thus, access to sustainable, affordable, and secure energy is one of the major global strategic priorities to maintain and improve public health, sustain economic growth, and mitigate the effects of climate change. Toward this goal, many countries, including Australia, are investing in clean, efficient, reliable energy systems for a prosperous and environmentally sustainable future. Hence, exploring various options to ensure energy security by diversification of energy sources is an important step in meeting the future requirements and delivering clean energy to different industry sectors. This paper discusses options to manage the use of energy sources in the power generation and construction industries. Options for mitigation of environmental impact and for achievement of sustainable energy usage, such as building design with BIM, are discussed.     

基于微电网技术的新型节能电梯系统

介绍一种新型的电梯系统,主要采用直流微电网拓扑设计、可再生能源发电技术以及基于双向直流变换器的蓄电池一超级电容混合储能装置,并利用能量管理器监管系统的运行。借助上述技术,系统中的电梯有能力脱离电网独立运行。因此,该系统不仅具有明显的节能环保优势外,还有较强的停电应对能力。     

Battery energy storage systems: Assessment for small-scale renewable energy integration

Concerns arising due to the variability and intermittency of renewable energy sources while integrating with the power grid can be mitigated to an extent by incorporating a storage element within the renewable energy harnessing system. Thus, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are likely to have a significant impact in the small-scale integration of renewable energy sources into commercial building and residential dwelling. These storage technologies not only enable improvements in consumption levels from renewable energy sources but also provide a range of technical and monetary benefits. This paper provides a modelling framework to be able to quantify the associated benefits of renewable resource integration followed by an overview of various small-scale energy storage technologies. A simple, practical and comprehensive assessment of battery energy storage technologies for small-scale renewable applications based on their technical merit and economic feasibility is presented. Software such as Simulink and HOMER provides the platforms for technical and economic assessments of the battery technologies respectively.     

Sustainable water-energy nexus in the optimization of the BBC golf-course using renewable energies

ABSTRACT

Water distribution networks and irrigation systems consume high energy quantities that need to be recovered if the water managers want to meet sustainable systems. A sustainability optimization is proposed in this research in order to replace the energy consumption in a golf-course system by renewable solutions joining energy recovery, sustainable urban drainage systems and hybrid solutions (solar panels and wind turbine). Different sustainable approaches were considered in which energy (using PATs), economic and environmental factors were analysed. Both scenarios and analyses showed interesting values related to economic indicators and environmental reductions of CO₂ emissions. The possibility to supply the daily electric consumption in the pumping stations was checked using only renewable systems. Net present value was calculated in different solutions, obtaining positive values as well as the payback period was lower than 6 years. The CO₂ emissions were reduced from 257,000 to 11,500 kgCO₂/year in the most unfavourable scenario.     

“Social capitalism” in renewable energy generation: China and California comparisons

With a population of over 1.3 billion people, demand for renewable energy is expected to grow to a USD $12 billion market in the near term. Under Renewable Energy Law (REL) in February 2005 in the People's Republic of China (PRC) passed by the National Congress, renewable energy projects will be able to receive a range of financial incentives starting in 2006, which will more than double the PRC current renewable energy generation from 7% to 15% by 2020. Most of the increase will be in hydroelectric generated power. Nonetheless, the nation and especially the provinces are moving rapidly to develop a wide range of renewable energy generation including solar, wind, geothermal and run of the river.Because China practices “social capitalism” as expressed in it's recurrent Five Year National Plans since 1999, the national government and all the provinces have programs, unlike many western and industrialized nations, to “plan” and provide for infrastructures. This paper concerns only the energy infrastructure sector and renewable energy generation in particular. The planning process includes financial incentives and investments which are a major part of the Chinese law focused on “encouraging foreign investment industries”. The key part of the law is to guarantee long-term power purchase agreements with state owned and controlled “utilities”. In short, China may have gotten the economics of the energy sector correct in its concern for planning and finance.The paper develops these energy infrastructure ideas along with the legal and financial requirements as “lessons” learned from the USA and especially California. These lessons now apply to China and allow it to learn from the American mistakes. Empirical data will be drawn from work done in China that examine the renewable energy generation and infrastructures and hence allow the RPC and its Provinces to “leap frog ”the mistakes of other developed nations. Further lessons will be learned from provinces and related infrastructures in China, such as water, transportation, environment, waste and telecommunications. More significantly, the USA and western industrialized nations may now learn from the Chinese.     

Feasibility and techno-economic assessment of stand-alone and hybrid RE for rural electrification in selected sites of south eastern Nigeria

The study assessed the feasibility and economic viability of solar and wind energy resources as sustainable electrical source for rural communities unconnected to the grid. Rural communities made up of 200 homes, a school and health centre were conceived. Specific electric load profile of 358?kWh per day, with 46?kW primary peak load and 20?kW deferrable peak load, was formulated to match the rural communities. The assessment of the design that will optimally meet the daily load demand with a loss of load probability of 0.01 was carried out by considering three stand-alone applications of photovoltaic (PV), wind, diesel, and a hybrid design of wind-PV. The result showed that a cost-effective alternative for power generation at the different sites surpassed the conventional diesel stand-alone system. Also, the embedded generation analysis showed that 5 of the 6 configurations yielded profits for a 10-year project life in line with the present national tariff order.     

Sustainable development of renewable energy on Wangan Island,Taiwan

This study investigated the potential of achieving energy autonomy in Wangan Island, based on the use of renewable energy. The simulation results of air pollutants indicate that there could be a 30–40% reduction in emissions because of an improvement in energy efficiency. The reduction of CO₂ emissions exceeded 50% in two scenarios of energy integration systems after energy efficiency was improved. Renewables could replace costly diesel for electricity generation on Wangan, and become a successful condition example of sustainable development. Roadmaps are needed for Wangan to scale up its applications of renewables, whether in the power or transportation sectors. This requires support from central government and reform in regulatory arrangements in the energy sector.     

Validity of decision criteria for selecting power-to-gas projects in Poland

Renewable energy sources ultimately intend to become the only power source in modern economies. In the coming years, new generation systems based on renewable energy sources (RESs), new energy transmission systems, and new management systems will be introduced for the electricity and gas sectors. As RESs work irregularly, proper management is crucial for the reliable operation of the electrical grid. Their utility will depend mainly on energy storage capacity. Power-to-gas (P2G) technology, where electrical energy is converted into, e.g., hydrogen or methane, will become an essential solution. The forthcoming transformation will require substantial financial and technical investments. Decision-makers should consider many factors (e.g., social responsibility, location, distance from gas and electrical grids, and solar and wind resources). The implementation of individual projects should be carried out carefully. Poorly planned projects work inefficiently in terms of costs and technical aspects. This paper aims to identify the conditions necessary for implementing P2G projects. Multi-Criteria approaches based on chosen benchmarks can help to select optimal P2G projects.In the paper, the weights of the proposed decision criteria, such as investment cost, investment return time, substrate resources, environmental attraction and social acceptance, were determined based on the stakeholder surveys using the chosen elements of the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) method. The proposed approach allows considering differing viewpoints and establishing the validity of each of them indirectly. The applied approach based on the AHP method, the validity of technical, economic and environmental criteria was determined based on both the preferences of experts in the field of energy and transportation as well as the energy end-users. As a result of the analysis, two dominant factors were selected: access to substrates and economic efficiency - meaning that a deep analysis of substrates resources should precede the work on P2G projects.     

Time-based pricing and electricity demand response: Existing barriers and next steps

Interest in Demand Response (DR) is increasing due to its potential to improve reliability and save costs for electricity systems. DR can provide a sustainable and cost-effective option for supply balancing, especially in a scenario with more volatile inflows from renewable energy sources. End-users can be incentivized to provide DR through time-based pricing in general and dynamic pricing in particular. This paper provides a theoretic framework and practice-oriented review of the status of DR in Europe, outlining the major challenges currently hampering further DR development. Important challenges involve the split-incentive issue for investments in enabling technologies, traditional market rules for flexibility that favor large generation units and the need for electricity market and network operation coordination.     

Electricity from renewable energy resources: Sustainable energy transition and emissions for developed economies

Previous studies cover the connection between production-based carbon emissions and economic, financial, and environmental indicators. However, the comprehensive analysis still needs empirical evidence concerning the consumption-based carbon emissions. The present analyzes 21 industrialized countries during 1990–2020 by using the second-generation panel techniques. The study's results reveal the existence of the long-run equilibrium stable connection between the variables. Due to asymmetric data distribution, this research employed the novel method of moment quantile regression and found that economic growth is the leading factor of consumption-based carbon emission throughout the selected quantiles. However, electricity from renewable resources, research and development in renewable energy, environmental related taxes, and development of environmental related technologies substantially reduce consumption-based emissions and encourage environmental sustainability. This study concludes that an energy transition is an important tool for developed economies to confront the issue of degraded environmental quality.     

Clean energy transition in the Turkish power sector: A techno-economic analysis with a high-resolution power expansion model

The Turkish power sector achieved rapid growth after the 1990s in line with economic growth and beyond. However, domestic resources did not support this development and therefore resulted in a high dependency on imported fossil fuels. Furthermore, the governments were slow off the mark in introducing policies for increasing the share of renewable energy. Even late actions of the governments, as well as significant decreases in the cost of wind and especially solar technologies, have recently brought the Turkish power sector into a promising state. A large-scale generation-expansion power-system model (TR-Power) with a high temporal resolution (hours) is developed for the Turkish power generation sector. Several scenarios were analyzed to assess their environmental and economic impacts. The results indicate that a transition to a low-carbon power grid with around half of the electricity demand satisfied by renewable resources over 25 years would be possible, with annual investments of 3.97–6.88 billion in 2019 US$. Moreover, TR-Power indicates that the shadow price of CO₂ emissions in the power sector will be around 17.1 and 33.8 $/per tCO2 by 2042, under 30% and 40% emission reduction targets relative to the reference scenario.     

Ten questions concerning integrating smart buildings into the smart grid

Recent advances in information and communications technology(ICT) have initiated development of a smart electrical grid and smart buildings. Buildings consume a large portion of the total electricity production worldwide, and to fully develop a smart grid they must be integrated with that grid. Buildings can now be"prosumers"on the grid(both producers and consumers), and the continued growth of distributed renewable energy generation is raising new challenges in terms of grid stability over various time scales. Buildings can contribute to grid stability by managing their overall electrical demand in response to current conditions. Facility managers must balance demand response requests by grid operators with energy needed to maintain smooth building operations.For example, maintaining thermal comfort within an occupied building requires energy and, thus an optimized solution balancing energy use with indoor environmental quality(adequate thermal comfort, lighting, etc.) is needed. Successful integration of buildings and their systems with the grid also requires interoperable data exchange. However, the adoption and integration of newer control and communication technologies into buildings can be problematic with older legacy HVAC and building control systems.Public policy and economic structures have not kept up with the technical developments that have given rise to the budding smart grid, and further developments are needed in both technical and non-technical areas.     

Modelling and economic evaluation of pressure-retarded osmosis power plant case study: Iran

In recent years, a growing interest in investigation of new energies has been observed. Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) could be a feasible source of renewable energy. This study aims to present a model based on the present technology of PRO power plant components for design and economic evaluation of a PRO power plant, and to investigate case studies in order to demonstrate how each main component of a PRO power plant affects the economic evaluation. Therefore, all the mechanisms including intake and outfall systems, pre-treatment system, membrane system, and transportation and generation systems are explicated and meant to present the capability of the model to design the PRO power plant. Finally, places with a great potential to implement an osmotic power plant in Iran are evaluated. Therefore, the two best feasible sites are selected and three osmotic power plants by different capacities are designed and investigated in each site and the results are compared to explore an applicable site. Sensitivity analysis has been done to investigate effective economic factors for launching a PRO power plant. In conclusion, reducing the intake and outfall systems and pre-treatment system costs will make implementing an osmotic power plant more economical in the coming years.     

可再生能源建筑应用技术及其发展前景

随着全球能源趋紧,可再生能源建筑成为国内外节能领域的热点研究问题．借鉴发达国家的有益经验．科学分析我国可再生能源建筑技术应用状况,结合现实国情与技术研发进程．根据可再生能源建筑应用技术的应用前景．提出推进可再生能源建筑应用技术的策略．对我国尽快创建节约型社会意义重大。     

光伏墙BAPV系统经济性及环境效益分析

研究对象为上海地区高层建筑的并网光伏墙发电系统,系统为BAPV形式,以经济性和环境效益作为主要评价指标对系统进行分析。分析结果表明:光伏墙BAPV系统在国家和上海市的政策补贴下具有较佳的经济性,投资回收期为14年,单位净现值为3.90元/Wp,总投资回报率为45.3%;与传统煤炭电力系统相比共减少23 513.1 kg环境污染物的排放,相当于价值2 841.6元的环境减排效益,十分可观。若不考虑现有政府的政策扶持,就光伏发电成本本身依然过高,不利于光伏发电的推广和普及。     

Introduction to integration of renewable energy in demand controlled hybrid ventilation systems for residential buildings

In the scope of the EU supported project RESidential buildings HYbrid VENTilation (RESHYVENT), the possible integration of renewable energy solutions (RES) into hybrid ventilation systems has been analysed. The focus has been on solar and wind applications to substitute the use of fossil fuel. The feasibility of the investigated options depends on the ventilation concept the RES is integrated into, the location of the building geographically, placement of the RES in the building and on the urban environment. This paper describes the different renewable technologies, options and constrains in connection with integration into hybrid ventilation systems.