The Value of Solar Photovoltaics in an Isolated Competitive Electricity Market: a Case Study of Singapore

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Anton Finenko ◽  
Gautam Jindal ◽  
Anthony D Owen ◽  
Jacqueline Tao ◽  
Liu Xiying

With a view of achieving its obligations under the global climate change regime, and low technical potential for other renewable energy technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) is the main focus for Singapore to generate low carbon electricity. However, a high penetration of PV in Singapore’s electricity market would result in a number of costs and benefits that need to be quantified in order to ensure prudent government policies for “supporting” the widespread adoption of PV in Singapore. The quantification of these costs and benefits would allow policymakers to realize the true “value” of solar PV for Singapore and would address the limitations of relying on the levelised cost of electricity metric. This paper provides an assessment of the societal value that PV would bring to Singapore, essentially an isolated power system with a liberalized electricity market. For the purpose of this study, the determination of the value of solar involves quantifying the savings due to the merit order effect, costs due to additional frequency control services, and net avoidance of CO2 emissions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Anton Finenko ◽  
Gautam Jindal ◽  
Anthony D Owen ◽  
Jacqueline Tao ◽  
Liu Xiying

With a view of achieving its obligations under the global climate change regime, and low technical potential for other renewable energy technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) is the main focus for Singapore to generate low carbon electricity. However, a high penetration of PV in Singapore’s electricity market would result in a number of costs and benefits that need to be quantified in order to ensure prudent government policies for “supporting” the widespread adoption of PV in Singapore. The quantification of these costs and benefits would allow policymakers to realize the true “value” of solar PV for Singapore and would address the limitations of relying on the levelised cost of electricity metric. This paper provides an assessment of the societal value that PV would bring to Singapore, essentially an isolated power system with a liberalized electricity market. For the purpose of this study, the determination of the value of solar involves quantifying the savings due to the merit order effect, costs due to additional frequency control services, and net avoidance of CO2 emissions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
John Vourdoubas

The possibility of using fuel cells powered by solar hydrogen for energy generation in greenhouses with reference to the island of Crete, Greece has been examined. Change of fossil fuels used in greenhouses with renewable energies and sustainable energy technologies is very important for mitigation of climate change. Various renewable energy sources and low carbon emission technologies including geothermal energy, biomass, solar photovoltaics and co-generation systems have been used so far. Use of solar photovoltaics for generating electricity consumed in water electrolysis for hydrogen production has been investigated. Hydrogen feeding a proton exchange membrane fuel cell co-generating electricity and heat was used in a greenhouse located in Crete, Greece. The system could be useful in a stand-alone greenhouse with annual specific energy consumption at 150 KWh/m2. A solar photovoltaic system with nominal power at 33.33 KWp powering an electrolytic cell at 5.71 KW could produce annually 2,083 kg hydrogen. The hydrogen could feed a fuel cell at 1.71 KWel generating annually all the electricity required in a greenhouse of 1,000 m2. Co-produced heat could also cover 11.11% of the annual heat requirements in the greenhouse. It was found though that the overall electric efficiency of the system was very low at 4.5%. The low overall efficiency and the size of the solar-PV required indicate that the abovementioned energy system is not suitable in commercial agricultural greenhouses.


Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 106 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Xydis ◽  
Nick Vlachakis

Topics such as energy demand, energy security and greenhouse emissions have made countries around the world turn to more environmentally friendly resources to produce electricity. Due to their stochastic behaviour (particularly wind energy and solar photovoltaics (PV)), the energy producers that are renewable energy driven need concrete financial mechanisms in order to sell their generated electricity under uncertainty in a highly competitive environment. In this work, the application of the Feed-in Premium (FiP) policy in the Greek wholesale liberalised electricity market is compared against a multiple revenue stream tactic. The investigation of the financial performance is conducted in terms of Net Present Value and Complete Payback Period of a 10 MW wind park and a 2 MW solar PV park and is questioned under a multiple revenue stream approach. It was found for projects that offer at least 75% of their electricity production to the market, if their operation licence is extended for five more years, incentivising them to participate in the FiP scheme, instead of the Feed-in-Tariff one, this will increase their profitability in most cases, for both wind and PV projects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Kariuki Kibaara ◽  
D. K. Murage ◽  
P. Musau ◽  
M. J. Saulo

Globally, attention has majorly been focused on pollution and exhaustion of fossil fuels allied to the conventional energy sources while the non-conventional energy/renewable energy sources have always been considered clean and environmentally friendly. Of the two, the non-conventional (renewable) is being preferred because it is believed to be more environmentally friendly. Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) especially Solar Photovoltaics have seen many plants being constructed to either supplement the grid or as alternatives for those far from the grid. Solar Photovoltaics plants occupy large tracts of land which would have been used for other economic activities for revenue generation such as agriculture, forestry or tourism in archaeological sites.  The negative impacts slow down the application of Solar PV , but a modelling tool that can easily and quantitively assess the impacts in monetary form would accelerate the Solar PV application. The work presents a developed modelling tool that is able to assess not only the techno-economic impacts but also the environmental impacts in monetary form, for one to be able to determine the viability of a plant in a given region. The results are compared with those of HOMER software.


2014 ◽  
pp. 70-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Bashmakov ◽  
A. Myshak

This paper investigates costs and benefits associated with low-carbon economic development pathways realization to the mid XXI century. 30 scenarios covering practically all “visions of the future” were developed by several research groups based on scenario assumptions agreed upon in advance. It is shown that with a very high probability Russian energy-related GHG emissions will reach the peak before 2050, which will be at least 11% below the 1990 emission level. The height of the peak depends on portfolio of GHG emissions mitigation measures. Efforts to keep 2050 GHG emissions 25-30% below the 1990 level bring no GDP losses. GDP impact of deep GHG emission reduction - by 50% of the 1990 level - varies from plus 4% to minus 9%. Finally, very deep GHG emission reduction - by 80% - may bring GDP losses of over 10%.


2019 ◽  
pp. 20-45

This article examines how the global climate change discourse influences the implementation of national science policy in the area of energy technology, with a focus on industry and science collaborations and networks. We develop a set of theoretical propositions about how the issues in the global discourse are likely to influence research agendas and networks, the nature of industry-science linkages and the direction of innovation. The plausibility of these propositions is examined, using Estonia as a case study. We find that the global climate discourse has indeed led to the diversification of research agendas and networks, but the shifts in research strategies often tend to be rhetorical and opportunistic. The ambiguity of the global climate change discourse has also facilitated incremental innovation towards energy efficiency and the potentially sub-optimal lock-in of technologies. In sum, the Estonian case illustrates how the introduction of policy narratives from the global climate change discourse to the national level can shape the actual policy practices and also networks of actors in a complex and non-linear fashion, with unintended effects.


Author(s):  
Jonas Sonnenschein

Rapid decarbonization requires additional research, development, and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies. Various financing instruments are in place to support this development. They are frequently assessed through indicator-based evaluations. There is no standard set of indicators for this purpose. This study looks at the Nordic countries, which are leading countries with respect to eco-innovation. Different indicators to assess financing instruments are analysed with respect to their acceptance, the ease of monitoring, and their robustness. None of the indicators emerges as clearly superior from the analysis. Indicator choice is subject to trade-offs and leaves room for steering evaluation results in a desired direction. The study concludes by discussing potential policy implications of biases in indicator-based evaluation.


Author(s):  
Damilola S Olawuyi

Despite increasing political emphasis across the Middle East on the need to transition to lower carbon, efficient, and environmentally responsible energy systems and economies, legal innovations required to drive such transitions have not been given detailed analysis and consideration. This chapter develops a profile of law and governance innovations required to integrate and balance electricity generated from renewable energy sources (RES-E) with extant electricity grid structures in the Middle East, especially Gulf countries. It discusses the absence of renewable energy laws, the lack of legal frameworks on public–private partnerships, lack of robust pricing and financing, and lack of dedicated RES-E institutional framework. These are the main legal barriers that must be addressed if current national visions of a low-carbon transition across the Middle East are to move from mere political aspirations to realization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6517
Author(s):  
Innocent Chirisa ◽  
Trynos Gumbo ◽  
Veronica N. Gundu-Jakarasi ◽  
Washington Zhakata ◽  
Thomas Karakadzai ◽  
...  

Reducing vulnerability to climate change and enhancing the long-term coping capacities of rural or urban settlements to negative climate change impacts have become urgent issues in developing countries. Developing countries do not have the means to cope with climate hazards and their economies are highly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, and coastal zones. Like most countries in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe suffers from climate-induced disasters. Therefore, this study maps critical aspects required for setting up a strong financial foundation for sustainable climate adaptation in Zimbabwe. It discusses the frameworks required for sustainable climate adaptation finance and suggests the direction for success in leveraging global climate financing towards building a low-carbon and climate-resilient Zimbabwe. The study involved a document review and analysis and stakeholder consultation methodological approach. The findings revealed that Zimbabwe has been significantly dependent on global finance mechanisms to mitigate the effects of climate change as its domestic finance mechanisms have not been fully explored. Results revealed the importance of partnership models between the state, individuals, civil society organisations, and agencies. Local financing institutions such as the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) have been set up. This operates a Climate Finance Facility (GFF), providing a domestic financial resource base. A climate change bill is also under formulation through government efforts. However, numerous barriers limit the adoption of adaptation practices, services, and technologies at the scale required. The absence of finance increases the vulnerability of local settlements (rural or urban) to extreme weather events leading to loss of life and property and compromised adaptive capacity. Therefore, the study recommends an adaptation financing framework aligned to different sectoral policies that can leverage diverse opportunities such as blended climate financing. The framework must foster synergies for improved impact and implementation of climate change adaptation initiatives for the country.


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