Review on Feasibility of Gravity Power Generation Mechanism in Malaysia's Sustainable Energy Program

Malaysia being an oil-producing country has a vast amount of other natural resources that has not been used efficiently. In regard to focusing more in producing oil and gas, natural resources such as sunlight, water, wind, geothermal and gravity have not received a huge recognition by the government. Although hydroelectric power has been up and coming in the energy policies to promote power production in a sustainable way, other means of gravity power generation mechanism were not reviewed for this country, due to the lack of knowledge in this particular field. Gravity power generation mechanism can be of small scale which can actually fit in properly in areas that are off-the-grid. Hence, literature must be reviewed to discover the different type of gravity power generation mechanisms and run viability studies to implement the right system that offers sustainable energy production in rural parts of Malaysia. This review paper will analyze the feasibility of two systems in Malaysia, by assessing the viability of these system through the Malaysian economic, social, environmental, and sustainable standards. &nbsp

A review of available hybrid renewable energy systems in Malaysia

The utilization of conventional sources of energy releases harmful pollutants to the environment causing global warming and acid rain. For that reason, it becomes necessary to use a non-depletable, sustainable and eco-friendly renewable energy as a mean of producing electricity. Malaysia is tropical country rich in resources beneficial in electricity generation as it is in equatorial region therefore it has an abundance of solar irradiance of average annually. In addition, Malaysia’s demand in electricity is increasing to 124,677 GWh by 2020. Therefore, the electricity generation from renewable sources in Malaysia is anticipated to grow in the future alongside the government endorsement due to its clean, eco-friendly and free source of energy which can highly reduce the dependency on oil and gas that emits harmful pollutants to the environment. This paper gives a comprehensive review on the renewable projects and researches in Malaysia, challenges that affect popularity of renewable energy in Malaysia and available and successful renewable energy system in Malaysia

A comprehensive scientometric analysis on hybrid renewable energy systems in developing regions of the world

Energy crises, increasing electricity prices, and having no access to the grid electricity are the leading issues in developing countries of Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Developing hybrid renewable energy systems in off-grid or grid-connected modes is the best way to overcome developing countries' economic and energy crises. However, the development of hybrid renewable energy systems faces severe technical and related economic challenges. This article provides an updated and comprehensive resource and economic overview of developed hybrid renewable energy systems in different locations in these aforementioned regions. The resource assessment shows that for economical hybrid energy system the average annual wind speed and average annual solar radiation should be 5 m/s and 5 KWh/m^2 respectively. This paper also provides a big picture of renewable energy impacts, challenges in the architecture of hybrid systems, and key organizations working in this domain in the developing regions. According to our review, hybrid optimization model for electric renewable, particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm are frequently used tools for the optimization and sizing of hybrid energy systems. The map of hybrid renewable energy system research in developing regions is not available. Our study gives energy scenario and clear map of hybrid energy in developing regions of the world. The scientometric review of 2000 bibliographic data obtained from the Scopus database to perform co-author and co-occurrence analysis in this study. The data is used to trace the research pattern and thus to identify the most impactful authors, institutions, and countries in the hybrid renewable energy systems domain to obtain recommendations and make policies for the future uninterrupted and carbon dioxide emission free energy systems. The results of scientometric analysis shows that the Wang X. is the most prolific author, while India and Tanta University are the most productive country and institution in this domain. The scientometric analysis result will be beneficial in determining the future research directions in the hybrid renewable energy systems field

Sizing and economic analysis of stand-alone hybrid photovoltaic-wind system for rural electrification: A case study Lundu, Sarawak

Energy Consumption has been increasing at an alarming rate due to the growing energy need. More and more non-renewable sources are harvested to fulfill the energy demand resulting in and rising environmental health issues. However, harvesting Solar and Wind energy is considered as the best alternative in generating energy as these resources are renewable. Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) has been grabbed the attention recently, as it involves with renewable, environmentally friendly sources to generate energy. The limitation of single Renewable Energy (RE) system is overcome by systems such as HRES. Even though it has been introduced different sizing and optimization techniques, due to the lack of system function, it had posed issues in calculating the optimized cost of a hybrid system considering the solar, wind resources and load demand as the optimization of the system cannot be predicted accurately. The aim of this research was to obtain optimization of a Hybrid PV-wind system in term of sizing and cost over the 20 years of the period of interest. The simulation of the PV-Wind Hybrid system using MATLAB for the verification purpose. This work includes detailed calculation using the Life Cycle Cost method for identifying all possible combinations. The combination of eleven Solar Panels, one Wind Turbine and nine Batteries was identified as the optimal Combination with LCC of RM 221,329.97 and has been verified using simulation results. Lastly, a sensitivity test was carried out using the exiting results of verified by the simulation to identify the most deterministic system in affecting LCC of the Hybrid system. Further, total Cost distribution for the Optimized hybrid PV-Wind system was conducted and identified that 50% of system cost was contributed by the Wind turbine. Determination of LCC, was done as a combination of Component and Operation costs. It was identified that Replacement cost contributed the highest while Wind turbine showed the highest Operation cost from the system cost. Thus, this work was included with the sensitivity test assuming 10% price increment for each component and it was concluded that price changes in Wind turbine results the greatest difference in LCC while further verified with the results of the simulation

Comprehensive review on the feasibility of developing wave energy as a renewable energy resource in Australia

The facts are that increasing energy demand, depletion of fossil fuel, and greenhouse gas emissions have increased the world's interest in renewable energy. Out of all RE options, Wave Energy (WE) is the least harnessed one despite the availability of WE Resource (WERs) in many countries and with the potential to cover a significant proportion of the world's energy needs. Australia, mainly in the southern part of the country, has plenty of this resource. Although recently, the Australian Government has started to focus on WERs as a Renewable Energy Source (RES) to cope with the energy crisis, research suggests that the country's progress in the WE generation to meet the energy demand is well below the potential generation capacity. However, insufficient research and studies address the issues and technologies in detail. This study examines the viability of further developing WE as a renewable energy source in Australia by evaluating the current constraints and challenges to achieving a satisfactory level of WE generation in the country. As a result, this study emphasizes the trustworthiness of WE in terms of several criteria. The availability of WERs within Australia and the status of producing WE are reviewed in this study. It also highlighted certain Australian technologies and devices that are now being tested or deployed in real-time. Moreover, this review is expanded by comparing the key developers in the WE sector to Australia to uncover some of the contributing elements in other countries that may have contributed to the growth of the WE generation in other nations. Finally, some of the barriers identified are lack of high-resolution data and social & environmental challenges. Some recommendations are given in the latter part of the review to accelerate WE production in Australia

Techno‐economic analysis of direct combustion and gasification systems for off‐grid energy supply: A case for organic rankine cycle and dual fluidized‐bed

Biomass is one of the most versatile sustainable energy sources. This versatility allows utilization of different biomass feedstock using a verity of conversion techniques. Often, a biomass-to-bioenergy conversion method is selected depending on the application, end-use product, and the type of feedstock. In many applications such as residential energy supply, it is possible to select amongst various technologies. Although, there exist several challenges such as cost-effectiveness and sustainability that constrains bioenergy development. To this end, this research elaborates on the impacts of different conversion methods on techno-economic performance of bioenergy systems for residential energy supply. In this context, Organic Rankine Cycle based on direct combustion, and Dual Fluidized-Bed technology based on gasification were selected for that purpose. A techno-economic comparative analysis illustrates that the primary product of the system and fuel cost are the two most important factors in feasibility assessment. The negative impact of feedstock price was more severe on the Organic Rankine Cycle. For wood chips prices below 55$/t, Organic Rankine Cycle could be the better option due to lower capital and maintenance costs. In contrast, Dual Fluidized-Bed could better tolerate the variation of feedstock price; offering 8$/t wood chips

Statistical analysis of lightning electric field measured under Malaysian condition

Lightning is an electrical discharge during thunderstorms that can be either within clouds (Inter-Cloud), or between clouds and ground (Cloud-Ground). The Lightning characteristics and their statistical information are the foundation for the design of lightning protection system as well as for the calculation of lightning radiated fields. Nowadays, there are various techniques to detect lightning signals and to determine various parameters produced by a lightning flash. Each technique provides its own claimed performances. In this paper, the characteristics of captured broadband electric fields generated by cloud-to-ground lightning discharges in South of Malaysia are analyzed. A total of 130 cloud-to-ground lightning flashes from 3 separate thunderstorm events (each event lasts for about 4–5 hours) were examined. Statistical analyses of the following signal parameters were presented: preliminary breakdown pulse train time duration, time interval between preliminary breakdowns and return stroke, multiplicity of stroke, and percentages of single stroke only. The BIL model is also introduced to characterize the lightning signature patterns. Observations on the statistical analyses show that about 79% of lightning signals fit well with the BIL model. The maximum and minimum of preliminary breakdown time duration of the observed lightning signals are 84 ms and 560 us, respectively. The findings of the statistical results show that 7.6% of the flashes were single stroke flashes, and the maximum number of strokes recorded was 14 multiple strokes per flash. A preliminary breakdown signature in more than 95% of the flashes can be identified

Study on the vertical component of lightning electric field during monsoon period in Malaysia

The most recognized and powerful demonstration of electrostatics in the natural world is a lightning discharge. The misoperation of several equipment and circuits would not only be caused by a direct contact with the lightning flash, but also by an indirect effect of a lightning channel. Appropriate information about lightning signature parameters can provide precise knowledge of lightning discharge that can be essential for the design of more improved detection and protective system. In this paper, the preliminary breakdown pulse train and the first return stroke of cloud to ground lightning discharge signatures observed in south of Malaysia are analyzed. Statistical analyses of the ratio between the maximum preliminary breakdown pulse trains amplitude and the first return stroke amplitude (BP/RS ratio), and the time duration between the high active part of the pulse train, and the return stroke (BP/RS separation) are presented. Observations on the statistical analyses show that about 94% of lightning signals have detectable breakdown pulses. The arithmetic means of BP/RS ratio and the BP/RS separation are 36.3% and 26.4ms, respectively