Renewable Energy Research and Applications
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2024

Electric energy is necessary to meet the daily needs of the population, as it is used in cooking, heating, irrigation, lighting and others. There are many residential areas far from the public electricity network, hence the importance of solar energy in meeting the needs of these residents. This paper will study the design of a solar photovoltaic system with a capacity of 131.6 kwh. The needs and requirements will be studied first, then a design will be made for The parts of this system, such as inverters, batteries, photovoltaic panels and other parts. The results that we will obtain will confirm that this energy system is able to meet the necessary needs with high efficiency, and will also confirm that it is environmentally friendly in terms of carbon emissions. We will take Tanzania as a case study , the designed system contain 108 panels and about 8kw battery bank to supply the load .

NEOM is a proposed megacity and business zone in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It was announced in 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with the goal of creating a hub for innovation and a hub for the future of living. NEOM is planned to cover an area of over 26,500 square miles and will include a focus on sustainability and cutting-edge technology. The project is being backed by the Saudi Arabian government and private investment. The primary objective of KSA is to utilize the renewable energy resources in the NEOM region sustainably. This study evaluates the availability of solar energy in the NEOM region on a quantitative and qualitative basis, and a database of weather conditions such as temperatures and wind speed is collected and processed. NEOM has favorable climate conditions with an average annual radiation incident energy of 12.54 GJ/m2, wind speed of 15.68 km/h, and temperatures ranging from 16 to 38°C. Based on the analyzed data, the study investigates the potential of solar energy as a sustainable source and alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The utilization of solar energy could be applied in various ways including seawater humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination with productivity of 26-33 l/day/m2, solar cooling with an average load of 15 MJ/day/m2, green hydrogen production with rate of 41-47 mole/day/m2, and electrical power generation with rate 4.2-6.8 MJ/day/m2.

Diffuse radiation is used in photovoltaic systems and other energy applications. Since global radiation is measured by local meteorological stations, it is possible to reach these radiation data. However, diffuse radiation is not usually measured, so it is not possible to obtain regular data on diffuse radiation. For this reason, efforts are underway to develop various empirical models to estimate diffuse radiation. This paper aims to develop new empirical models to estimate the diffuse radiation values for Konya, Türkiye. The empirical models are used to determine the relationship between the diffuse fraction and the clearness index. Data from NASA-Surface meteorology and Solar Energy and the measured global solar were used. The three most suitable developed models were selected, and it was suggested to estimate the diffuse radiation. The developed models consist of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-order polynomial regression models. The proposed models were tested to evaluate their performances by using eight statistical methods. These are Mean Bias Error (MBE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Sum Squared Relative Error (SSRE), Relative Standard Error (RSE), Coefficient of determination (R2) and Correlation Coefficient (r). For the suggested models, the statistical parameters R2 value were calculated as 0.999705413, 1, and 1, and the RSE values were determined as 0.0084537, 0.000122, and 6.05E-06. The proposed models can contribute to researchers working on the applications of photovoltaic systems. The approaches could be used to estimate diffuse radiation elsewhere under similar climatic conditions.

Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are essential for the efficient operation of hydrogen-powered automobiles. To improve their performance, researchers have proposed tapered flow channels as a possible solution. However, determining the optimal value for the tapering has not been explored in depth. In this study, a numerical investigation was conducted to optimize the tapering of tapered serpentine channels in PEMFCs. The results show that while anode channel tapering has a negligible effect on performance, cathode channel tapering has a significant impact. The study found that a flow channel geometry with an inlet of 0.8 mm and an outlet of 0.2 mm, with a gradual decrease in cross-section, resulted in the maximum net output, with a 10.64% increase in net power output at 0.7 V. Additionally, the improved water management performance was observed. Based on these findings, tapering flow channels only on the cathode side could be utilized as an optimal design for achieving higher performance. Overall, this study is significant as it provides valuable insights into optimizing the performance of PEMFCs, which can enhance their efficiency and utilization in hydrogen-powered vehicles. It highlights the importance of investigating the effects of flow channel geometry on performance and can guide future research in this area to improve the efficiency of PEMFCs.

India has experienced rapid industrialization, propelling it to be the world's 3rd largest energy consumer. Among the sectors driving this energy consumption, the transportation industry plays a significant role. In the fiscal year 2022-23, India witnessed a surge in petroleum consumption, reaching a record high of 222.3 million tonnes. However, the country's crude oil production remained at 29.2 million tonnes during the same period, leading to a substantial reliance on imports. In fact, India imported crude oil of 232.4 million tonnes in 2022-23, amounting to a cost of approximately USD 158.3 billion. To curtail its dependence on imports, the Indian government has promoted ethanol as a renewable fuel alternative for several years. Although policies supporting the Ethanol Blended Program have been in place since 2003, they struggled to meet their targets until the introduction of the National Biofuel Policy in 2018. The policy incorporated several modifications and aimed to address the shortcomings of previous efforts. Presently, ethanol blending with petrol is being offered at a maximum concentration of 10% across the country, with the ultimate goal of completely replacing petrol with ethanol. This study analyzes India's ethanol blending program, evaluating policy impacts on distribution and production. It identifies challenges in feedstock availability, the role of oil marketing companies (OMCs), and vehicular technology hindrances. Proposed solutions include utilizing alternative feedstocks, supported by PLI schemes. OMCs should address logistical issues and reduce transportation costs by promoting local ethanol production. Optimizing petrol engines and expediting the introduction of flex engines are recommended.

Energy, a necessary component of the invention, has negative externalities on the health of humans and the environment due to its production and use, which hinders national growth. For this reason, countries should act with two main motivations when choosing energy sources. The first should be economic development by considering the increase in production and efficiency supplied by the source of energy, and the second should be to choose energy resources that will promote the welfare of the people. In this study, conventional and renewable energy sources for the long-term growth of India's energy sector are assessed from a variety of viewpoints, including technical, economic, environmental, and social criteria. In the choice model, the thermal, solar, wind, biomass, and hydro energy options are employed as alternatives. In this study, suitable energy sources are selected for India with the help of the Entropy method and the WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) method. And, the relevance of environmental, technical, social, and economic aspects of renewable sources of energy is assessed and in the second step, a proposal has been made about which renewable energy source can be suitable to meet the energy requirement in India through the WASPAS technique. From the results obtained from the WASPAS method, it was found that the renewable energy resources suitable for investment in India are hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar energy respectively.

This paper considers the context of renewable energy generation for a photo voltaic solar generating system with a non-linear load using one cycle controller with a motor across terminals. The paper finds a comparative study of the pulse width modulator with one cycle controller, which analyses both concepts using power sim software. The main challenge is to reject power supply disturbance. The frequency switch controls the single constant cycle and regulates direct current supply but with transients. As in the case of pulse width modulation, transients appear. In comparison, the one-cycle controlling technique rejects power supply disturbance as the constant voltage maximum power point tracker returns a reference speed value with the speed sensor, so one switching cycle is combined with a dual compensator to reject power supply disturbance as photo voltaic solar generation resolves the supply disturbance in a closed-loop scheme using one cycle modulator. So, in the case of the pulse width modulation technique, the ideal efficiency using the pulse width modulation controller varies from 70.45 % to 75 %; in the case of the novel one-cycle control modulator's excellent efficiency varies from 95.17 % to 99.49 %. Since switching converters efficiently control the photo voltaic energy generation system using one cycle control modulator rather than a pulse width modulator, apart from the swift transient response, one-cycle control modulator imparts economically efficient reference tracking and robustness to the system. The outcome of the one-cycle controller and pulse width modulated controller validates the analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Sustainable Development Goal 13 is an activity committed with the intention of stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the environment to stop potentially harmful human meddling with the climate system. GHG are released into the environment from various non-renewable energy sources of power generation and many industries that cause extensive damage to the environment. Some countries have begun to implement various pollution prevention strategies, such as power generation from renewable energy sources, which emit no greenhouse gases (GHG) or CO2. This study focuses on an analysis of GHG emission reduction along with the financial feasibility of a grid-connected 100MW PV solar system. This study uses RETScreen software to evaluate the GHG emissions reduction analysis as well as a financial analysis of the system. The annual electricity supplied to the local grid of the proposed PV power plant is 137,481MWh. The cost of reducing CO2 emissions has a positive impact on the overall cumulative cash flow of the proposed system.

Traditional cooking methods using fuel woods can pose very serious challenges of local and regional air pollution and land degradation. These methods are inefficient, unsustainable and have serious implications to the environment. To overcome these challenges, a novel four reflectors solar baking oven has been designed and tested for application in rural areas. The solar baking oven consists of four reflectors made from plane mirrors which reflect the Sun’s rays to the absorber plate placed at the baking chamber. The four reflectors intensify the incoming solar radiation into the baking chamber and increase the thermal properties and efficiency of the oven thereby resulting in shorter cooking time. The result obtained from the study showed that the oven can attain high temperature values. The temperature values are higher when the oven is loaded compared to when the oven is unloaded. When the oven is unloaded, the highest temperature attained by the four reflector solar baking oven is 128.6oC at 13:00 pm, as compared to 133oC at 13:00 pm, when the oven is loaded.

This paper investigates the melting behavior of phase-change material (PCM) in an evacuated tube solar collector. The outer tube was made of borosilicate glass with a diameter of 60 mm, and the inner tube was made of copper with a diameter of 10 mm and length of 1500 mm. The heat transfer problem in heat pipe was investigated in four cases: finless, full fin, half fin, and third fin. The fins were cut from a 35 mm diameter copper tube and installed concentrically with the outer tube. The inner space between the absorber tube and the heat pipe was filled with stearic acid as the PCM. The numerical simulation was conducted using the Ansys Fluent 2022 for the laminar incompressible Newtonian fluid flow in the transient state via the enthalpy-porosity model. The initial temperature of PCM was 27°C, and liquid fraction was zero at the beginning of the simulation. After validating the numerical results with experimental ones, the collector performance was evaluated by considering the four temperatures of 68, 72, 76, and 80°C for the fin and heat pipe at three different times t = 22, 55, and 110 s. The results showed that by increasing the fin area in three cases of third fin, half fin, and full fin, the melting and storage time of PCM were reduced by 6%, 44%, and 87%, respectively. Also, as the Estefan number increased from 0.007 to 0.05, 0.09, and 0.13, the process of PCM melting decreased by 75%, 85%, and 92%, respectively.

Light shelves not only create shade but also improve the uniformity of daylight. In addition to saving energy, they can improve the lighting quality of a space. This research aims to position light shelves and deep windows to enhance energy efficiency and daylight illuminance in classrooms in Abadan (Iran) with hot and dry climates. Rhino/Grasshopper software and Ladybug/Honeybee plugins were used to model and evaluate visual comfort and EUI. By comparing the types of external, internal, and central shelves and in different situations of window depth, the following results were obtained: By combined use of light shelves and deep windows: In central light shelves, energy consumption decreased by 20%, and glare effects were reduced by 53.37%. As a result, installing a window in the depth of the wall did not have much effect on reducing energy consumption, but to some extent, it controlled the intensity of glare. The deep window has reduced energy consumption (13%), and using light shelves has improved energy performance (14 to 20%). Compared to the base model, the combined light shelves reduced UDI by 20% and glare by 53%, while the inside light shelves reduced UDI by 14% and glare by 30%. Therefore, installing light shelves always reduces glare. But if the intention is to save energy, the central and external light shelves in the position of the deep window are very useful.

Today, policymakers are aware of the substantial advantages of renewable energies. From the point of view of national and regional decision-makers, the first priority of preparing a com-prehensive energy plan and the second priority of determining the share of renewable energy in the total energy production basket of the country is an essential step in the energy policy pro-cess. In choosing from various renewable energy options, environmental dimensions are com-bined with economic, technical, and social criteria, which shows the need to combine these crite-ria, the multi-criteria of the governing decision-making space, and policy-making. Multi-criteria decision-making techniques can play an important role in choosing the best solution and option. The statistical population of this study is eight cities in the case study. The renewable energy sources studied include wind, solar, water, geothermal, and biomass. First, the potential of re-newable energy for the study areas was identified. Then the two main criteria of sustainable de-velopment: economic criteria with 5 sub-criteria and environmental criteria with 3 sub-criteria were analyzed. Finally, using the Economic Analytic Network Process (ANP) sub criterion, the environmental sub-criterion of each of the weighted renewable energies was allocated. One of the essential results of this research is the income of 72868.8 $ from solar power in Ardabil. The cost of energy is $ 2.72 kWh. The lowest cost per unit of energy produced is related to Khalkhal geothermal energy at $ 0.144.