scholarly journals Impact of PV System Tracking on Energy Production and Climate Change

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 5348
Author(s):  
Waqas Ahmed ◽  
Jamil Ahmed Sheikh ◽  
M. A. Parvez Mahmud

Green energy by PV systems reduces the dependence on fossil fuel-based power plants. Maximizing green energy to meet the demand reduces the burden on conventional power plants, hence lesser burning and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. For this purpose, this study draws a relationship between tracking schemes of the PV systems to GHG mitigation potential. The best fit location for detailed analyses is selected among the 15 most populous cities of Australia. The solar radiation potential is increased to 7.78 kWh/m2/d through dual axes tracking compared to 7.54, 6.82, 5.94, 5.73 kWh/m2/d through the one axis, azimuth based, fixed-tilted, and fixed-horizontal surface schemes, respectively. Through the dual axes tracking scheme, a 1 MW PV system per annum energy output avoids the burning of 796,065.3 L of gasoline, 4308.7 barrels of crude oil which is equal to the mitigation of 1852.7 tCO2 equivalent GHGs. Concisely, the PV system, through its green energy output, can avoid the release of greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel plants to tackle climate change more effectively.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 586
Author(s):  
Fadhil Y. Al-Aboosi ◽  
Abdullah F. Al-Aboosi

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have demonstrated growing competitiveness as a viable alternative to fossil fuel-based power plants to mitigate the negative impact of fossil energy sources on the environment. Notwithstanding, solar PV technology has not made yet a meaningful contribution in most countries globally. This study aims to encourage the adoption of solar PV systems on rooftop buildings in countries which have a good solar energy potential, and even if they are oil or gas producers, based on the obtained results of a proposed PV system. The performance of a rooftop grid-tied 3360 kWp PV system was analyzed by considering technical, economic, and environmental criteria, solar irradiance intensity, two modes of single-axis tracking, shadow effect, PV cell temperature impact on system efficiency, and Texas A&M University as a case study. The evaluated parameters of the proposed system include energy output, array yield, final yield, array and system losses, capacity factor, performance ratio, return on investment, payback period, Levelized cost of energy, and carbon emission. According to the overall performance results of the proposed PV system, it is found to be a technically, economically, and environmentally feasible solution for electricity generation and would play a significant role in the future energy mix of Texas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqas Ahmed ◽  
Jamil Ahmed Sheikh ◽  
Muhammad Nouman ◽  
Mian Farhan Ullah ◽  
M. A. Parvez Mahmud

Abstract Background Households, as end energy users, consume grid electricity to meet their energy demands. However, grids across the globe for energy production are majorly based on fossil fuel technology and make the highest contributions to global warming and climate change due to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. This generic study aims to investigate the minute role of a single-end energy consumer in GHG mitigation by switching to a rooftop PV system to meet his energy demands and trading surplus energy to the grid through its techno-economic analysis. Method For the study impact, NASA Meteorological Data are used to select an ideal single energy user equipped with a 10-kW PV system based on annual average daily solar radiation and ambient temperature through MATLAB/Simulink, for 11 populous cities in Pakistan. Helioscope software is used to select tilt and azimuthal angles to maximize the solar radiation intercept. Afterward, RETScreen software is used for cost, financial and GHG analysis. Result and conclusion A single end energy user equipped with a 10-kW PV system switched to a green energy source from a fossil fuel-based grid has the potential to avoid the burning of 3570.6 L of gasoline by producing 16,832 kWh of green energy per annum, while financially recovering the 10-kW PV system’s 7337$ grid-tied investment in 5 years (equity) and in 9 years (equity) in a 9077$ stand-alone system over its 25-year life. This approach provides relief to end energy users from high priced grid electricity through environmental friendliness by mitigating 8.3 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions per annum from energy production, while providing relief to the main grid by grid stabilization through peak shaving, in the broad sense.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7793
Author(s):  
Waqas Ahmed ◽  
Jamil Ahmed Sheikh ◽  
Shahjadi Hisan Farjana ◽  
M. A. Parvez Mahmud

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are widely used to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHG), due to their green renewable nature. However, environmental factors such as bird drops, shade, pollution, etc., accommodation on PV panels surface reduce photons transmission to PV cells, which results in lower energy yield and GHG mitigation potential of PV system. In this study, the PV system’s energy and GHG mitigation potential loss is investigated under environmental stresses. Defects/hotspots caused by the environment on PV panel surface have unknown occurrence frequency, time duration, and intensity and are highly variable from location to location. Therefore, different concentrations of defects are induced in a healthy 12 kWp PV system. Healthy PV system has the potential to avoid the burning of 3427.65 L of gasoline by 16,157.9 kWh green energy production per annum. However, in 1% and 20% defective systems, green energy potential reduces to 15,974.3 and 12,485.6 kWh per annum, respectively. It is equivalent to lesser evasion burning of 3388.70, and 2648.64 L of gasoline, respectively. A timely solution to defective panels can prevent losses in the PV system to ensure optimal performance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richao Cong ◽  
Makoto Saito ◽  
Tomohiro Oda ◽  
Tetsuo Fukui ◽  
Ryuichi Hirata ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The quantification of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an important task in combating climate change. Emission inventories that include spatially explicit emission estimates facilitate the accurate tracking of emission changes, identification of emission sources, and formulation of policies for climate-change mitigation. Many currently available gridded emission estimates are based on the disaggregation of country- or state-wide emission estimates, which may be useful in describing city-wide emissions but are of limited value in tracking changes at subnational levels. Urban GHG emissions should therefore be quantified with a true bottom-up approach. Results: Multi-resolution, spatially explicit estimates of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, were derived. Spatially explicit emission data were collected for point (e.g., power plants and waste incinerators), line (mostly traffic), and area (e.g., residential and commercial areas) sources. Emissions were mapped on the basis of emission rates calculated for source locations. Activity, emissions, and spatial data were integrated, and the results were visualized using a geographic information system approach. Conclusions: The annual total FFCO2 emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis in 2014 were 44,855 Gg CO2, with the road-transportation sector (16,323 Gg CO2) accounting for 36.4% of the total. Spatial emission patterns were verified via a comparison with the East Asian Air Pollutant Emission Grid Database for Japan (EAGrid-Japan), which demonstrated the applicability of this methodology to other prefectures and therefore the entire country.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richao Cong ◽  
Makoto Saito ◽  
Tetsuo Fukui ◽  
Ryuichi Hirata ◽  
Akihiko Ito

Abstract Background: The quantification of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an important task in combating climate change. Emission inventories that include spatially explicit emission estimates facilitate the accurate tracking of emission changes, identification of emission sources, and formulation of policies for climate-change mitigation. Many currently available gridded emission estimates are based on the disaggregation of country- or state-wide emission estimates, which may be useful in describing city-wide emissions but are of limited value in tracking changes at subnational levels. Urban GHG emissions should therefore be quantified with a true bottom-up approach. Results: Multi-resolution, spatially explicit estimates of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, were derived. Spatially explicit emission data were collected for point (e.g., power plants and waste incinerators), line (mostly traffic), and area (e.g., residential and commercial areas) sources. Emissions were mapped on the basis of emission rates calculated for source locations. Activity, emissions, and spatial data were integrated, and the results were visualized using a geographic information system approach.Conclusions: The annual total FFCO2 emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis in 2014 were 43,916 Gg CO2, with the road-transportation sector (16,323 Gg CO2) accounting for 37.2% of the total. Spatial emission patterns were verified via a comparison with the East Asian Air Pollutant Emission Grid Database for Japan (EAGrid-Japan) and the Open‐source Data Inventory for Anthropogenic CO2 (ODIAC), which demonstrated the applicability of this methodology to other prefectures and therefore the entire country.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richao Cong ◽  
Makoto Saito ◽  
Tetsuo Fukui ◽  
Ryuichi Hirata ◽  
Akihiko Ito

Abstract Background: The quantification of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an important task in combating climate change. Emission inventories that include spatially explicit emission estimates facilitate the accurate tracking of emission changes, identification of emission sources, and formulation of policies for climate-change mitigation. Many currently available gridded emission estimates are based on the disaggregation of country- or state-wide emission estimates, which may be useful in describing city-wide emissions but are of limited value in tracking changes at subnational levels. Urban GHG emissions should therefore be quantified with a true bottom-up approach. Results: Multi-resolution, spatially explicit estimates of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, were derived. Spatially explicit emission data were collected for point (e.g., power plants and waste incinerators), line (mostly traffic), and area (e.g., residential and commercial areas) sources. Emissions were mapped on the basis of emission rates calculated for source locations. Activity, emissions, and spatial data were integrated, and the results were visualized using a geographic information system approach.Conclusions: The annual total FFCO2 emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis in 2014 were 43,916 Gg CO2, with the road-transportation sector (16,323 Gg CO2) accounting for 37.2% of the total. Spatial emission patterns were verified via a comparison with the East Asian Air Pollutant Emission Grid Database for Japan (EAGrid-Japan) and the Open‐source Data Inventory for Anthropogenic CO2 (ODIAC), which demonstrated the applicability of this methodology to other prefectures and therefore the entire country.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Ou ◽  
Christopher Roney ◽  
Jameel Alsalam ◽  
Katherine Calvin ◽  
Jared Creason ◽  
...  

AbstractStabilizing climate change well below 2 °C and towards 1.5 °C requires comprehensive mitigation of all greenhouse gases (GHG), including both CO2 and non-CO2 GHG emissions. Here we incorporate the latest global non-CO2 emissions and mitigation data into a state-of-the-art integrated assessment model GCAM and examine 90 mitigation scenarios pairing different levels of CO2 and non-CO2 GHG abatement pathways. We estimate that when non-CO2 mitigation contributions are not fully implemented, the timing of net-zero CO2 must occur about two decades earlier. Conversely, comprehensive GHG abatement that fully integrates non-CO2 mitigation measures in addition to a net-zero CO2 commitment can help achieve 1.5 °C stabilization. While decarbonization-driven fuel switching mainly reduces non-CO2 emissions from fuel extraction and end use, targeted non-CO2 mitigation measures can significantly reduce fluorinated gas emissions from industrial processes and cooling sectors. Our integrated modeling provides direct insights in how system-wide all GHG mitigation can affect the timing of net-zero CO2 for 1.5 °C and 2 °C climate change scenarios.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richao Cong ◽  
Makoto Saito ◽  
Tetsuo Fukui ◽  
Ryuichi Hirata ◽  
Akihiko Ito

Abstract Background: The quantification of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an important task in combating climate change. Emission inventories that include spatially explicit emission estimates facilitate the accurate tracking of emission changes, identification of emission sources, and formulation of policies for climate-change mitigation. Many currently available gridded emission estimates are based on the disaggregation of country- or state-wide emission estimates, which may be useful in describing city-wide emissions but are of limited value in tracking changes at subnational levels. Urban GHG emissions should therefore be quantified with a true bottom-up approach. Results: Multi-resolution, spatially explicit estimates of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2 ) emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, were derived. Spatially explicit emission data were collected for point (e.g., power plants and waste incinerators), line (mostly traffic), and area (e.g., residential and commercial areas) sources. Emissions were mapped on the basis of emission rates calculated for source locations. Activity, emissions, and spatial data were integrated, and the results were visualized using a geographic information system approach. Conclusions: The annual total FFCO2 emissions from the Tokyo Metropolis in 2014 were 44,855 Gg CO2 , with the road-transportation sector (16,323 Gg CO2 ) accounting for 36.4% of the total. Spatial emission patterns were verified via a comparison with the East Asian Air Pollutant Emission Grid Database for Japan (EAGrid-Japan), which demonstrated the applicability of this methodology to other prefectures and therefore the entire country.


Author(s):  
Farshid Zabihian ◽  
Alan S. Fung

Nowadays, the global climate change has been a worldwide concern and the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions are considered as the primary cause of that. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) divided countries into two groups: Annex I Parties and Non-Annex I Parties. Since Iran and all other countries in the Middle East are among Non-Annex I Parties, they are not required to submit annual GHG inventory report. However, the global climate change is a worldwide phenomenon so Middle Eastern countries should be involved and it is necessary to prepare such a report at least unofficially. In this paper the terminology and the methods to calculate GHG emissions will first be explained and then GHG emissions estimates for the Iranian power plants will be presented. Finally the results will be compared with GHG emissions from the Canadian electricity generation sector. The results for the Iranian power plants show that in 2005 greenhouse gas intensity for steam power plants, gas turbines and combined cycle power plants were 617, 773, and 462 g CO2eq/kWh, respectively with the overall intensity of 610 g CO2eq/kWh for all thermal power plants. This GHG intensity is directly depend on efficiency of power plants. Whereas, in 2004 GHG intensity for electricity generation sector in Canada for different fuels were as follows: Coal 1010, refined petroleum products 640, and natural gas 523 g CO2eq/kWh, which are comparable with same data for Iran. For average GHG intensity in the whole electricity generation sector the difference is much higher: Canada 222 vs. Iran 610g CO2eq/kWh. The reason is that in Canada a considerable portion of electricity is generated by hydro-electric and nuclear power plants in which they do not emit significant amount of GHG emissions. The average GHG intensity in electricity generation sector in Iran between 1995 and 2005 experienced 13% reduction. While in Canada at the same period of time there was 21% increase. However, the results demonstrate that still there are great potentials for GHG emissions reduction in Iran’s electricity generation sector.


Author(s):  
Jian Ma ◽  
Oliver Hemmers

A thermoeconomic analysis of microalgae co-firing process for fossil fuel-fired power plants is studied. A process with closed photobioreactor and artificial illumination is evaluated for microalgae cultivation, due to its simplicity with less influence from climate variations. The results from this process would contribute to further estimation of process performance and investment. The concept of co-firing (coal-microalgae or natural gas-microalgae) includes the utilization of CO2 from power plant for microalgal biomass culture and oxy-combustion of using oxygen generated by biomass to enhance the combustion efficiency. As it reduces CO2 emission by recycling it and uses less fossil fuel, there are concomitant benefits of reduced GHG emissions. The by-products (oxygen) of microalgal biomass can be mixed with air or recycled flue gas prior to combustion, which will have the benefits of lower nitrogen oxide concentration in flue gas, higher efficiency of combustion, and not too high temperature (avoided by available construction materials) resulting from coal combustion in pure oxygen. Two case studies show that there are average savings about $0.386 million/MW/yr and $0.323 million/MW/yr for coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants, respectively. These costs saving are economically attractive and demonstrate the promise of microalgae technology for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.


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