scholarly journals Selection of the Most Sustainable Renewable Energy System for Bozcaada Island: Wind vs. Photovoltaic

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Oğuz ◽  
Ayşe Eylül Şentürk
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Unit Cost ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Photovoltaic Power

Energy production without destroying the environment has been one of the most crucial issues for people living in today’s world. In order to analyze whole environmental and/or economic impacts of the energy production process, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) are widely used. In this study, two distinct renewable energy systems are assessed. First, a land-based wind farm, which has been operating in Bozcaada Island since 2000, is compared to a proposed solar photovoltaic power plant in terms of Energy Pay-Back Time (EPBT) periods and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and life cycle cost. The energy production process including the recycling phase evaluated “from cradle to grave” using GaBi software for both cases. All scenarios are compared by considering different impact categories such as global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP). Following this, levelized unit cost to produce 1 MWh electricity (LUCE) is calculated for both systems. This study revealed that LCA and LCCA are useful and practical tools that help to determine drawbacks and benefits of different renewable energy systems considering their long-term environmental and economic impacts. Our findings show that onshore wind farms have a number of benefits than proposed photovoltaic power plants in terms of environmental and cost aspects.

scholarly journals Optimizing the selection of sustainability measures to minimize life-cycle cost of existing buildings

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moatassem Abdallah ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes ◽  
Liang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Optimization Model ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Selection Of

Buildings have significant impacts on the environment and economy as they were reported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2009 to account for 40% of the global energy consumption. Building owners are increasingly seeking to integrate sustainability and green measures in their buildings to minimize energy and water consumption as well as life-cycle cost. Due to the large number of feasiblecombinations of sustainability measures, decision makers are often faced with a challenging task that requires them to identify an optimal set of upgrade measures to minimize the building life-cycle cost. This paper presents a model for optimizing the selection of building upgrade measures to minimize the life-cycle cost of existing buildings while complying with owner-specified requirements for building operational performance and budget constraints. The optimization model accounts for initial upgrade cost, operational cost and saving, escalation in utility costs, maintenance cost, replacement cost, and salvage value of building fixtures and equipment, and renewable energy systems. A case study of a rest area building in the state of Illinois in the United States was analyzed to illustrate the unique capabilities of the developed optimization model. The main findings of this analysis illustrate the capabilities of the model in identifying optimal building upgrade measures to achieve the highest savings of building life-cycle cost within a user-specified upgrade budget; and generating practical and detailed recommendations on replacing building fixtures and equipment and installing renewable energy systems.

scholarly journals Is Investing in Companies Manufacturing Solar Components a Lucrative Business? A Decision Tree Based Analysis

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 499
Author(s):  
Sebastian Klaudiusz Tomczak ◽  
Anna Skowrońska-Szmer ◽  
Jan Jakub Szczygielski
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Pv Systems ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
A Company

In an era of increasing energy production from renewable sources, the demand for components for renewable energy systems has dramatically increased. Consequently, managers and investors are interested in knowing whether a company associated with the semiconductor and related device manufacturing sector, especially the photovoltaic (PV) systems manufacturers, is a money-making business. We apply a new approach that extends prior research by applying decision trees (DTs) to identify ratios (i.e., indicators), which discriminate between companies within the sector that do (designated as “green”) and do not (“red”) produce elements of PV systems. Our results indicate that on the basis of selected ratios, green companies can be distinguished from the red companies without an in-depth analysis of the product portfolio. We also find that green companies, especially operating in China are characterized by lower financial performance, thus providing a negative (and unexpected) answer to the question posed in the title.

scholarly journals Solar Power System Planning and Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 367
Author(s):  
Yosoon Choi
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Power System ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
System Planning ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Production Techniques

With growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the security of conventional energy supplies, and the environmental safety of conventional energy production techniques, renewable energy systems are becoming increasingly important and are receiving much political attention [...]

scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of a Geothermal Power Plant: Comparison of the Environmental Performance with Other Renewable Energy Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Basosi ◽  
Roberto Bonciani ◽  
Dario Frosali ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Geothermal Power Plant ◽  
A Value ◽  
Geothermal Power

A life cycle analysis was performed for the assessment of the environmental performances of three existing Italian power plants of comparable nominal power operating with different sources of renewable energy: Geothermal, solar, and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The results are characterized by employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the ReCiPe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the ReCiPe 2016 method at the endpoint level. The midpoint results demonstrate a good eco-profile of the geothermal power plant compared to other renewable energy systems and a definite step forward over the performance of the national energy mix. The Eco-Point single score calculation showed that wind energy is the best technology with a value of 0.0012 Eco-points/kWh, a result in line with previously documented life cycle analysis studies. Nevertheless, the geothermal power plant achieved a value of 0.0177 Eco-points/kWh which is close to that calculated for the photovoltaic plant (0.0087 Eco-points/kWh) and much lower than the national energy mix one (0.1240 Eco-points/kWh). Also, a scenario analysis allowed for a critical discussion about potential improvements to the environmental performance of the geothermal power plant.

Spatio-temporal ensemble predictions for wind and solar energy combining dispersion modelling methods and machine learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Schicker ◽  
Petrina Papazek ◽  
Elisa Perrone ◽  
Delia Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Random Forest ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Processing Algorithm ◽  
Post Processing ◽  
Processing Methods ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems

<p>With the increasing usage of renewable energy systems to meet the climate agreement aims accurate predictions of the possible amount of energy production stemming from renewable energy systems are needed. The need for such predictions and their uncertainty is manifold: to estimate the load on the power grid, to take measures in case of too much/not enough renewable energy with reduced nuclear energy availability, rescheduling/adjusting of energy production,  maintenance, trading, and more. Furthermore, TSOs and energy providers need the information as finegrained, spatially and temporarily, as possible, on third level hub or even on solar farm / wind turbine level for a comparatively large area.</p><p>These needs pose a challenge to numerical weather prediction (NWP) post-processing methods. Typically, one uses selected NWP fields aswell as observations, if available, as input in post-processing methods. Here, we combine two post-processing methods namely a neural network and random forest approach with the Flex_extract algorithm. Flex_extract is the pre-processing algorithm for the langrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the trajectory model FLEXTRA. Flex_extract uses the three-dimensional wind fields of the NWP model and calculates additionally the instantaneous surfaces fluxes. Thus, coupling Flex_extract with a machine learning post-processing algorithm enables the usage of native NWP fields with a higher vertical accuracy than pressure levels. To generate an ensmeble in post-processing from deterministic sources different tools are available. Here, we will apply the Schaake Shuffle. </p><p>In this study a neural network and random forest approach for probabilistic forecasting with a high horizontal grid resolution (1 km ) as well as a high temporal forecasting frequency of wind speed and global horizontal irradiance for Austria will be presented. Evaluation will be carried out against gridded analysis fields and observations.</p>

Electronic Structure of h-WO3 and CuWO4 Nanocrystals, Harvesting Materials for Renewable Energy Systems and Functional Devices

2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 2188-2193 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.V. Atuchin ◽  
I.B. Troitskaia ◽  
O.Yu. Khyzhun ◽  
V.L. Bekenev ◽  
Yu.M. Solonin
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Valence Band ◽  
Photoelectron Spectroscopy ◽  
Emission Spectroscopy ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Valence Band Region

— The electronic structure of hexagonal WO3 and triclinic CuWO4 nanocrystals, prospective materials for renewable energy production and functional devices, has been studied using the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) methods. The present XPS and XES results render that the W 5d-and O 2p-like states contribute throughout the whole valence-band region of the h-WO3 and CuWO4 nanocrystalline materialls, however maximum contributions of the O 2p-like states occur in the upper, whilst the W 5d-like states in the lower portions of the valence band, respectively.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact of Energy Systems Integrated with Electrochemical Accumulators and Powered by Renewable Energy Sources in a Life-Cycle Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2770
Author(s):  
Anna Stoppato ◽  
Alberto Benato ◽  
Francesco De Vanna
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Storage Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Renewable Sources ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective

The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of storage systems integrated with energy plants powered by renewable sources. Stationary storage systems proved to be a valid solution for regulating networks, supporting frequency, and managing peaks in electricity supply and demand. Recently, their coupling with renewable energy sources has been considered a strategic means of exploiting their high potential since it permits them to overcome their intrinsic uncertainty. Therefore, the storage systems integration with distributed generation can improve the performance of the networks and decrease the costs associated with energy production. However, a question remains regarding the overall environmental sustainability of the final energy production. Focusing on electrochemical accumulators, the problems mainly concern the use of heavy metals and/or impacting chemical components of storage at the center of environmental hazard debates. In this paper, an environmental assessment from a life-cycle perspective of the hybrid energy systems powered by fossil and renewable sources located on two non-interconnected minor islands is presented. Existing configurations are compared with new ones obtained with the addition of batteries for the exploitation of renewable energy. The results show that, for batteries, the assembly phase, including raw material extraction, transport, and assembly, accounts for about 40% of the total, while the remaining part is related to end-of-life processes. The reuse and recycling of the materials have a positive effect on overall impacts. The results also show that the overall impact is strongly related to the actual energy mix of the place where batteries are installed, even if it is usually lower than that of the solution without the batteries. The importance of a proper definition of the functional unit in the analysis is also emphasized in this work.

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