Small-Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage Application for Renewable Energy Integration in a Listed Building

In the European Union (EU), where architectural heritage is significant, enhancing the energy performance of historical buildings is of great interest. Constraints such as the lack of space, especially within the historical centers and architectural peculiarities, make the application of technologies for renewable energy production and storage a challenging issue. This study presents a prototype system consisting of using the renewable energy from a photovoltaic (PV) array to compress air for a later expansion to produce electricity when needed. The PV-integrated small-scale compressed air energy storage system is designed to address the architectural constraints. It is located in the unoccupied basement of the building. An energy analysis was carried out for assessing the performance of the proposed system. The novelty of this study is to introduce experimental data of a CAES (compressed air energy storage) prototype that is suitable for dwelling applications as well as integration accounting for architectural constraints. The simulation, which was carried out for an average summer day, shows that the compression phase absorbs 32% of the PV energy excess in a vessel of 1.7 m(3), and the expansion phase covers 21.9% of the dwelling energy demand. The electrical efficiency of a daily cycle is equal to 11.6%. If air is compressed at 225 bar instead of 30 bar, 96.0% of PV energy excess is stored in a volume of 0.25 m3, with a production of 1.273 kWh, which is 26.0% of the demand

Hybrid Energy Systems Model with the Inclusion of Energy Efficiency Measures: A Rural Application Perspective

way to the carbon footprint in the developing nations. Thus, the energy management initiative could assist in reducing the menace of greenhouse gas emission. Hence, the energy policy makers and planners have unanimously proposed adoption of demand side management (DSM) technique. Thus the adoption of energy efficiency technique (EET)-a DSM measures and hybrid energy system would be essential for rural electrification. This work investigates the effect of applying energy efficiency measures in rural electrification. A case study of an un-electrified rural settlement in Ibadan, Nigeria was considered. The utilization of EET techniques reduces the emission of CO2 by 62%, while the technical analysis indicates the possibility of a 100% renewable electricity production. Principally, the adoption of energy efficient techniques proved to be economically and environmentally friendly

Designing high-share 50% and 100% renewable energy scenarios for Ragusa by sustainable energy toolkit application

Increasing renewable energy production and integrating it into the current energy systems may lead to conditional solutions linked to the context of applications as well as regulatory and techno-socioeconomic issues. The PRISMI Plus toolkit is a powerful tool that can be improved to entail rural areas and energy islands for effective planning of the various renewable energy system scenarios associated with urban contexts. The target Flagship Case Study is Ragusa, a Municipality located in Southern Italy, analyzed with the EnergyPLAN software. The simulation and validation were carried out by the HOMER software. The input dataset was created jointly in collaboration with the Municipality, the updated Sustainable Energy Action Plan was inserted into the PRISMI Plus toolkit, and three transition scenarios based on different renewable energy uses were considered within the post-processing stage. For the baseline scenario, no green energy is considered and the whole electricity consumption is taken into account. In scenarios two and three, 50% and 100% renewable energy shares are secured through optimal investment in Photovoltaic (PV) panels, Wind Turbines (WT), and Battery Energy Storage (BES) technologies. From an economic point of view, it was concluded that the best scenario is the second one thanks to the increased technical capacity of the investment ratio compared with the two other scenarios, showing an energy price reduction of up to 10 %

Machine learning-enhanced all-photovoltaic blended systems for energy-efficient sustainable buildings

The focus of this work is on the optimization of an all-photovoltaic hybrid power generation systems for energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, aiming for net-zero emissions. This research proposes a hybrid approach combining conventional solar panels with advanced solar window systems and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. By analyzing the meteorological data and using the simulation models, we predict energy outputs for different cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, Cape Town, Riyadh, and Kuwait City. Although there are long payback times, our simulations demonstrate that the proposed all-PV blended system can meet the energy needs of modern buildings (up to 78%, location dependent) and can be scaled up for entire buildings. The simulated results indicate that Middle Eastern cities are particularly suitable for these hybrid systems, generating approximately 1.2 times more power compared to Toronto, Canada. Additionally, we predict the outcome of the possible incorporation of intelligent and automated systems to boost overall energy efficiency toward achieving a sustainable building environment

Environmental Technology Applications in the Retrofitting of Residential Buildings

The impact of buildings on the environment is nothing short of devastating. In recent years, much attention has been given to creating an environmentally friendly built environment. Nonetheless, it has been levied on new buildings. Residential buildings make up at least 80% of the built environment, most of which were built before any energy efficiency guidelines or regulations were introduced. Retrofitting existing residential buildings is a key yet neglected priority in effecting the transition to an environmentally friendly, sustainable built environment. It is pivotal to reducing a building’s energy consumption while simultaneously improving indoor environmental quality and minimizing harmful emissions. This Special Issue showcases studies investigating applications of environmental technology that is tailored to enhance the sustainable performance of existing residential buildings. It helps to better understand the innovations that have been taking place in retrofitting residential buildings, as well as highlighting many opportunities for future research in this field

Circular economy business models and technology management strategies in the wind industry: Sustainability potential, industrial challenges and opportunities

Circular business models, aimed at narrowing, slowing, and closing resource loops, can potentially generate significant economic and social benefits, promote resource security and improve environmental performance. However, within the wind power industry, sustainability research, including life cycle assessments, has been focused mostly on technology innovation at the material (e.g. permanent magnets), components (e.g. blades) or product level (e.g. new assets). Research analysing the implementation of circular business models in the wind industry is scarce. Such information could, however, support more robust decision-making in the development of system-level innovations for the deployment of more resource-efficient and sustainable wind energy infrastructure. Building upon practical methods for the identification, categorisation and characterisation of business models, 14 circular business models with application to the wind industry were comprehensively evaluated through the revision of 125 documents, including 56 journal papers, 46 industrial business cases and 23 wind technology management reports. Each circular business model is examined according to i) business offering and drivers, ii) value creation, delivery and capture mechanisms, iii) sustainability benefits and trade-offs, and iv) industrial challenges and opportunities. Accordingly, comprehensive guidelines to drive political (legislation design and implementation), industrial (technology and business innovation) and academic (further research) actions, are provided. Though the results are focussed on the wind industry, the general findings and recommendations are relevant across the renewable and low-carbon energy sector

Studies on Installation of Floating Photovoltaic Systems in Water Reservoirs of Several Hydropower Plants in Greece

Use of solar photovoltaics for electricity generation is growing rapidly in Greece replacing the use of fossil fuels in energy generation. The possibility of installing floating photovoltaic systems in water reservoirs in ten hydropower plants in Greece has been studied. Installations of floating photovoltaics in water reservoirs in Greece have not been reported while published studies regarding their applications in the country are limited so far. It has been found that the integration of floating photovoltaic systems with hydropower plants in Greece increases, by average, their initial capacity factor by 42.32%. It has been also estimated that, in the ten hydropower plants studied, by covering 9.39% of the water dams’ surface with floating photovoltaics the installed hydropower capacity is doubled while by covering 12.22% of their surface with floating photovoltaics the annual solar electricity generation is equal to the hydroelectricity generation. The additional hydroelectricity generation due to installation of floating photovoltaics in two hydropower plants varies in the range of 0.035% to 0.43% of the initial hydroelectricity generation. Our results indicate that floating photovoltaic systems can be integrated with hydropower plants in Greece generating significant amounts of solar electricity consisting of a complementary alternative technology to terrestrial photovoltaics which are mainly used to day. The results are useful to policy makers who are willing to increase the contribution of solar energy in energy generation, to investors in sustainable energy technologies and to the owners of hydropower plants in Greece who can increase the electricity generation and their energy efficiency integrating them with floating photovoltaic systems

Development of an Engineering, Economic and Environmental Design Tool for Planetary Scale Sustainable Power Systems

There are plenty of fossil fuels for hundreds of years. The importance of moving toward sustainable energy stems from global climate change and the need to provide access to affordable energy to all of humanity. The way forward is to help the developing world that dominates the future emissions (90% solution) with “clean” energy, rather than reducing the emissions for the developed world to make it clean (10% solution). The 90% solution has to be done consistent with appropriate technologies, sound business plan, and market economy. The ultimate goal of information presented in this dissertation is to satisfy a country’s national load demand by establishing multiple utility grid connections to various geographic locations of high wind or solar energy resources. This is done by building a new optimization design tool which investigates the engineering, economic feasibility and the environmental impacts. This tool is applied in Jordan as a case validation. This is done using single figure of merit (SFOM) optimizations. A mathematical modeling is developed for each component, and the optimal configuration is determined for each city. The annual system cost of energy (ASCE) is optimized to be 32.57% less than the grid energy price, and the CO2 emissions are reduced by 80.13%. These are excellent indications for the economic feasibility and the environmental benefits of the designed system. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE), total net present cost (TNPC), renewable penetration (RP) and annual emission indicator (AEI) are 0.058212 $/kWh,$8.713857 billion, 59.49817% and 4.576 Megatonne/year respectively. Multi-figure of merits (MFOM) optimization cases based on a non-sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) are investigated such as: AEI vs. ASCE, AEI vs. LCOE, AEI vs. RP and (RP, LCOE, AEI). The MFOM optimization results are either 2D or 3D Pareto frontier, where exists various competitive non-dominant solutions. The sweet spot selection (triple-S) procedure is proposed to help select the sweet spot in the two figure of merits Pareto frontier in order to have both environmental and feasible solutions. This design tool will be versatile enough for the application to any on-grid renewable power system worldwide. It will be made available on the internet as a public service of Texas A&M University Renewable Energy Program at the Power Electronics and Motor Drives Laboratory of the Electrical Engineering Department

From Wind to Hybrid: A Contribution to the Optimal Design of Utility-Scale Hybrid Power Plants

ABSTRACT: When a substantial number of wind parks are approaching the end of their lifespan, and developers of renewables are facing decisions about what to do with their assets, concepts such as hybrid power plants are emerging as a promising solution to enable renewable integration in a cost-effective and robust manner. This work proposes a decision-aid algorithm to perform a comprehensive analysis of hybrid power plants, focusing on the energetic contribution and economic feasibility of converting existing wind power plants into hybrid power plants (i.e., installing photovoltaic panels and a storage system). The analysis was performed by comparing the option of converting existing wind plants into hybrid plants with a pure repowering exercise or overplanting using wind technology only. The obtained results unequivocally demonstrate the added value of hybrid power plants as they promote: (i) a higher installed capacity and yearly capacity factor (up to 50%); (ii) an increased efficiency of existing electric infrastructures; and (iii) a positive contribution to a sustainable energy system with the ability to generate economic value.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio