scholarly journals Archimedean screw as fish-friendly turbines for harnessing hydropower potential

2021 ◽  
Vol 286 ◽  
pp. 02007
Author(s):  
Cristian Purece ◽  
Lilica Corlan

Hydraulic energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy today. It is also a complementary source to other renewable energy sources, being the only one that offers an important nonpolluting storage capacity (through pump storage facilities). Another essential quality of hydraulic energy is its ability to regulate the energy system to allow the integration of other sources, in which the process of generating energy depends on factors that cannot be controlled (sun, wind, etc.). However, hydropower plants can damage ecosystems, especially by affecting fish within their turbines. Usually, fish cannot pass unharmed through most of the turbines. The main exceptions generally include some low head (below 8 m) turbines, such as the Very Low Head (VLH) turbine and the screw turbine, but lately strategies have also been developed for high head hydropower plants such as: fish passage facilities and fish friendly turbines such as Alden turbine, Minimal Gap Runner turbine (MGR). However, this article only deals with screw-type turbines, low-head fish-friendly turbines and how to implement them in order to obtain sustainable green energy.

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 93-101
Author(s):  
T.A. Zheliezna ◽  
A.I. Bashtovyi

The aim of the work is to analyze possible ways of decarbonization of the EU heat supply sector. The task of the work is to identify the most promising areas and develop appropriate recommendations for Ukraine. The heat supply sector of the EU and Ukraine needs decarbonization, for which there is a big potential and different areas of implementation of relevant measures. In Europe, such a strategy is set out in the Roadmap for decarbonization of the EU heating sector until 2050, the main provisions of which are in line with objectives of the European Green Deal and the EU Strategy on Heating and Cooling. European experts have developed the concept of a smart energy system, which was taken into account when preparing the Roadmap for decarbonization of the EU heating sector until 2050. A number of carried out studies have shown that a smart energy system with 50% district heating integrated with other parts of the overall energy system is more efficient than a conventional energy system or the one based on decentralized heat supply, in terms of the possibility of using a high share of renewable energy. It is recommended for Ukraine to finalize the Concept of green energy transition until 2050, taking into account European approaches to the development of heating systems and the use of modern biofuels. It is also recommended to expand the current Concept of heat supply of Ukraine to the level of a strategy with an emphasis on the development of district heating systems, wide involvement of renewable energy sources and new technologies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose M. Gonzalez ◽  
James Tomlinson ◽  
Eduardo A. Martínez-Ceseña ◽  
Emmanuel Obuobie ◽  
Mathaios Panteli ◽  
...  

<p>The penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) such as solar PV and wind is rapidly growing in many countries. Due to the RES intermittency, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the balance between energy generation and demand at any time. In this context, it is necessary to use other energy generation technologies, such as hydropower, a controllable renewable source that may already be available as a means to provide energy balance. Hydropower, through hydropeaking, is considered a flexible solution to this challenge as it can quickly help manage the fluctuations in the generation-demand balance due to the highly RES intermittency. Hydropeaking plants usually supply energy at maximum capacity during on-peak periods, whereas they run at low power output during off-peak periods. However, this operating scheme leads to heavy hydrological alteration downstream of the hydropower plants because of short-term fluctuations in turbined flows motivated by the integration of intermittent RES. In this work, an integrated and spatially distributed river-basin and energy system co-simulation model is used to evaluate the hydrological alteration produced by varying penetration levels of intermittent RES in Ghana's national power system. Results show that the spatial and temporal distribution of hydrological alteration, correlated with intermittent RES penetration levels, varies according to the hydropower plants' location within the power system and the intermittent renewable resources seasonality throughout the year.</p>


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Sejkora ◽  
Lisa Kühberger ◽  
Fabian Radner ◽  
Alexander Trattner ◽  
Thomas Kienberger

The energy transition from fossil-based energy sources to renewable energy sources of an industrialized country is a big challenge and needs major systemic changes to the energy supply. Such changes require a holistic view of the energy system, which includes both renewable potentials and consumption. Thereby exergy, which describes the quality of energy, must also be considered. In this work, the determination and analysis of such a holistic view of a country are presented, using Austria as an example. The methodology enables the calculation of the spatially resolved current exergy consumption, the spatially resolved current useful exergy demand and the spatially resolved technical potential of renewable energy sources (RES). Top-down and bottom-up approaches are combined in order to increase accuracy. We found that, currently, Austria cannot self-supply with exergy using only RES. Therefore, Austria should increase the efficiency of its energy system, since the overall exergy efficiency is only at 34%. The spatially resolved analysis shows that in Austria the exergy potential of RES is rather evenly distributed. In contrast, the exergy consumption is concentrated in urban and industrial areas. Therefore, the future energy infrastructure must compensate for these spatial discrepancies.


A major challenge for developing countries is access to electricity in rural area for accelerating its growth. There are significant impediment from the utilities to extend either improved service to the rural user or provide extended hours of supply through conventional grid supply. In developing countries, the most significant challenges are technologies used to upgrade and methods for electrification, which results in poor reliability of supply and high distribution losses, leading to hindering both economic and social development, so energy planners have suggested a hybrid energy system for the electrification of rural areas. This study investigates green energy based integrated generation for rural loads. This proposed system can orchestrate with the grid as well as with the renewable energy-based generator. The wind energy has a natural variance, to satisfy the energy demand during the nocturnal and overcast period a complementary renewable energy generator is critical, or an energy storage mechanism is needed to meet the energy demand. This type of pooled exploitation and interconnection is used to improve the reliability and resilience of the grids. The integration of distributed and clean energy resource like wind generation will reduce fossil fuel emissions and provides electricity in areas which are limitedly served by unified electrical infrastructure. Hence, it is expected to develop/modify technologies available for harnessing renewable energy sources. A MATLAB/Simulink is used to build a model for a grid-wind based integrated generation. Results obtained from MATLAB/Simulink are a close match with a practical system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoto Takatsu ◽  
Hooman Farzaneh

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, energy security and vulnerability have become critical issues facing the Japanese energy system. The integration of renewable energy sources to meet specific regional energy demand is a promising scenario to overcome these challenges. To this aim, this paper proposes a novel hydrogen-based hybrid renewable energy system (HRES), in which hydrogen fuel can be produced using both the methods of solar electrolysis and supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of biomass feedstock. The produced hydrogen is considered to function as an energy storage medium by storing renewable energy until the fuel cell converts it to electricity. The proposed HRES is used to meet the electricity demand load requirements for a typical household in a selected residential area located in Shinchi-machi in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. The techno-economic assessment of deploying the proposed systems was conducted, using an integrated simulation-optimization modeling framework, considering two scenarios: (1) minimization of the total cost of the system in an off-grid mode and (2) maximization of the total profit obtained from using renewable electricity and selling surplus solar electricity to the grid, considering the feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme in a grid-tied mode. As indicated by the model results, the proposed HRES can generate about 47.3 MWh of electricity in all scenarios, which is needed to meet the external load requirement in the selected study area. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the system in scenarios 1 and 2 was estimated at 55.92 JPY/kWh and 56.47 JPY/kWh, respectively.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 682
Author(s):  
Zita Szabó ◽  
Viola Prohászka ◽  
Ágnes Sallay

Nowadays, in the context of climate change, efficient energy management and increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix are helping to reduce greenhouse gases. In this research, we present the energy system and its management and the possibilities of its development through the example of an ecovillage. The basic goal of such a community is to be economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable, so the study of energy system of an ecovillage is especially justified. As the goal of this community is sustainability, potential technological and efficiency barriers to the use of renewable energy sources will also become visible. Our sample area is Visnyeszéplak ecovillage, where we examined the energy production and consumption habits and possibilities of the community with the help of interviews, literature, and map databases. By examining the spatial structure of the settlement, we examined the spatial structure of energy management. We formulated development proposals that can make the community’s energy management system more efficient.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2045
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Garavaso ◽  
Fabio Bignucolo ◽  
Jacopo Vivian ◽  
Giulia Alessio ◽  
Michele De Carli

Energy communities (ECs) are becoming increasingly common entities in power distribution networks. To promote local consumption of renewable energy sources, governments are supporting members of ECs with strong incentives on shared electricity. This policy encourages investments in the residential sector for building retrofit interventions and technical equipment renovations. In this paper, a general EC is modeled as an energy hub, which is deemed as a multi-energy system where different energy carriers are converted or stored to meet the building energy needs. Following the standardized matrix modeling approach, this paper introduces a novel methodology that aims at jointly identifying both optimal investments (planning) and optimal management strategies (operation) to supply the EC’s energy demand in the most convenient way under the current economic framework and policies. Optimal planning and operating results of five refurbishment cases for a real multi-family building are found and discussed, both in terms of overall cost and environmental impact. Simulation results verify that investing in building thermal efficiency leads to progressive electrification of end uses. It is demonstrated that the combination of improvements on building envelope thermal performances, photovoltaic (PV) generation, and heat pump results to be the most convenient refurbishment investment, allowing a 28% overall cost reduction compared to the benchmark scenario. Furthermore, incentives on shared electricity prove to stimulate higher renewable energy source (RES) penetration, reaching a significant reduction of emissions due to decreased net energy import.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2771
Author(s):  
Leszek Kotulski ◽  
Artur Basiura ◽  
Igor Wojnicki ◽  
Sebastian Siuchta

The use of formal methods and artificial intelligence has made it possible to automatically design outdoor lighting. Quick design for large cities, in a matter of hours instead of weeks, and analysis of various optimization criteria enables to save energy and tune profit stream from lighting retrofit. Since outdoor lighting is of a large scale, having luminaires on every street in urban areas, and since it needs to be retrofitted every 10 to 15 years, choosing proper parameters and light sources leads to significant energy savings. This paper presents the concept and calculations of Levelized Cost of Electricity for outdoor lighting retrofit. It is understood as cost of energy savings, it is in the range from 23.06 to 54.64 EUR/MWh, based on real-world cases. This makes street and road lighting modernization process the best green “energy source” if compared with the 2018 Fraunhofer Institute cost of electricity renewable energy technologies ranking. This indicates that investment in lighting retrofit is more economically and ecologically viable than investment in new renewable energy sources.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 03006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bekzhan Mukatov ◽  
Ravil Khabibullin

The article describes the main factors determining the development of renewable energy sources in the world. The assessment of the applicability of foreign RES development strategies to Kazakhstan’s energy system has been made. The main tasks facing Kazakhstan’s energy system with large-scale implementation of renewable energy were formulated. On the basis of the analysis and performed calculations recommendations and basic principles have been made on development strategy of renewable energy sources in the Republic of Kazakhstan.


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