Utilization of Renewable Energy for Power Sector in Yemen: Current Status and Potential Capabilities

A severe energy crisis has plagued Yemen for decades, and most of the population lack access to electricity. This has harmed the country’s economic, social, and industrial growth. Yemen generates electricity mainly from fossil fuels, despite having a high potential for renewable energy. Unfortunately, the situation has recently been compounded by the country’s continuing war, which has been ongoing since early 2015. It has impacted the country’s energy infrastructure negatively, resulting in power outages. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an updated perspective on Yemen’s current energy crisis and explain its key issues and potential solutions. Besides, it examines the potential, development, and current state of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. Based on the findings, Yemen is one of the world’s wealthiest countries in terms of sunlight and wind speed, and these two resources are abundant in all regions of the country. In addition, this paper sheds light on the solar energy revolution that has arisen since the war started due to the complete outage of the national electricity. Within a few years, solar energy in Yemen has increased its capacity by 50 times and has recently become the primary source of electricity for most Yemenis. Furthermore, the paper discusses the difficulties and challenges that face the implementation of renewable energy investment projects. Numerous recommendations for potential improvements in Yemen’s widespread use of renewable energy are also provided in this paper. All of the ideas presented in this paper are hoped to increase the efforts to grow renewable energy production in Yemen, thereby solving the issues of energy poverty and reducing environmental effects. The presented analysis can be used as a scientific reference for researchers and industrial companies looking for suitable solutions to advance Yemen’s renewable energy

Impact of renewable energy utilization and artificial intelligence in achieving sustainable development goals

Many countries around the world are planning to reach 100% renewable energy use by 2050. In this context and due to the recent sharp increase in RE utilization in the global energy mix along with its progressive impact on the world energy sector, the evaluation and investigation of its effect on achieving sustainable development goals are not covered sufficiently. Moreover, an assessment of the emerging role of artificial intelligence for renewable energy utilization toward achieving SDGs is conducted. A total of 17 SDGs were divided into three groups, namely, environment, society, and economy, as per the three key pillars of sustainable development. Renewable energy has a positive impact toward achieving 75 targets across all sustainable development goals by using an expert elicitation method-based consensus. However, it may negatively affect the accomplishment of the 27 targets. In addition, artificial intelligence can help renewable energy enable the attainment of 42 out of 169 targets. However, with the current exponential growth of renewable energy share and artificial intelligence development and addressing certain present limitations, this impact may cover additional targets in the future. Nevertheless, recent research foci overlook essential aspects. The exponential growth of renewable energy share and rapid evolution of artificial intelligence need to be accompanied through the requisite regulatory insight and technology regulation to cover additional targets in the future

Grid-connected renewable energy sources: Review of the recent integration requirements and control methods

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The growing of renewable power generation and integration into the utility grid has started to touch on the security and stability of the power system operation. Hence, the grid integration requirements have become the major concern as renewable energy sources (RESs) such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) started to replace the conventional power plant slowly. In line with this, some of the new requirements and technical regulations have been established to ensure grid stability. This study aims to fill the gap and conduct an updating review of the recent integration requirements and compliance control methods regarding the penetration of renewable power plants to the power grid. The review is conducted by a comparing of the key requirements related to voltage stability, frequency stability, voltage ride-through (VRT), power quality, active and reactive power regulations towards grid stability. In order to fulfill these requirements, different control methods have been recently proposed. Accordingly, this paper compares and reviews the state-of-the-art solutions for compliance technology and control methods. Furthermore, a broad discussion on the global harmonization of the integration requirements, challenges, advantages and disadvantages is also highlighted. The rigorous review indicates that although the recent integration requirements can improve the grid operation, stability, security, and reliability, further improvements are still required with respect to protective regulations, global harmonization, and control optimization. Various recommendations for future research related to the integration and technical regulations of RESs are then presented. In sum, the insights provided by this review may aid the development of smooth and stable grid integration of RESs, help developers and researchers to develop the design and control strategies in the sense of current requirements. Additionally, assist power system operators in establishing or improving their own requirements in comparison with the remaining international requirements

Waste collection route optimisation model for linking cost saving and emission reduction to achieve sustainable development goals

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Developing an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for solid waste collection (SWC) and transportation system remains a major challenge for municipalities. Waste collection encompasses the largest part of the total budget in current waste management systems. SWC is a crosscutting issue that can be directly or indirectly linked to 10 of the 17 United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study aims to develop an SWC route optimisation model to improve collection efficiency, save collection costs and reduce emissions by considering fixed routing optimisation (FRO) with static data and variable routing optimisation (VRO) with real-time data. To realise the optimisation, a mixed-integer linear programming model utilising FRO and VRO was developed. Results show that VRO improved the collection efficiency by 26.08 % when the minimum filled-up level for collection was 70 %. Moreover, VRO achieved 44.44 % cost savings and 17.60 % carbon emission reduction at 70 % filled level. The proposed system achieved the targeted goals and demonstrated the feasibility of an optimisation model for the waste management sector to build a sustainable smart city. The findings of this study can be used to strengthen efforts towards the achievement of the SDGs related to solid waste collection and management