scholarly journals Electric Two-Wheeler Vehicle Integration into Rural Off-Grid Photovoltaic System in Kenya

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 7956
Author(s):  
Aminu Bugaje ◽  
Mathias Ehrenwirth ◽  
Christoph Trinkl ◽  
Wilfried Zörner

In both rural and urban areas, two-wheeler vehicles are the most common means of transportation, contributing to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Transitioning to electric two-wheeler vehicles can help reduce GHG emissions while also increasing the socioeconomic status of people in rural Kenya. Renewable energy systems can play a significant role in charging electric two-wheeled vehicles, resulting in lower carbon emissions and increased renewable energy penetration in rural Kenya. As a result, using the Conventional and Renewable Energy Optimization (CARNOT) Toolbox in the MATLAB/Simulink environment, this paper focuses on integrating and modeling electric two-wheeled vehicles (e-bikes) into an off-grid photovoltaic Water-Energy Hub located in the Lake Victoria Region of Western Kenya. Electricity demand data obtained from the Water-Energy Hub was investigated and analyzed. Potential solar energy surplus was identified and the surplus was used to incorporate the electric two-wheeler vehicles. The energy consumption of the electric two-wheeler vehicles was also measured in the field based on the rider’s driving behavior. The modeling results revealed an annual power consumption of 27,267 kWh, a photovoltaic (PV) electricity production of 37,785 kWh, and an electricity deficit of 370 kWh. The annual results show that PV generation exceeds power consumption, implying that there should be no electricity deficit. The results, however, do not represent the results in hourly resolution, ignoring the impact of weather fluctuation on PV production. As a result, in order to comprehend the electricity deficit, hourly resolution results are shown. A load optimization method was designed to efficiently integrate the electric 2-wheeler vehicle into the Water-Energy Hub in order to alleviate the electricity deficit. The yearly electricity deficit was decreased to 1 kWh and the annual electricity consumption was raised by 11% (i.e., 30,767 kWh), which is enough to charge four more electric two-wheeler batteries daily using the load optimization technique.

Author(s):  
Aminu Bugaje ◽  
Mathias Ehrenwirth ◽  
Christoph Trinkl ◽  
Wilfried Zörner

Two-wheeler vehicles are the most significant mode of transportation for Kenyans in both rural and urban regions thereby contributing to local air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The transition to electric two-wheeler vehicles can make a significant contribution to reducing GHG and improving the socio-economic lives of people living in rural Kenya. Re-newable energy systems can considerably contribute to the charging of electric two-wheeled vehicles, thus leading to the reduction of carbon emissions and the expansion of renewable energy penetration in rural Kenya. Therefore, this paper focuses on integrating and modelling electric two-wheeled vehicles (e-bikes) into an off-grid photovoltaic Water-Energy Hub located in the Lake Victoria Region of Western Kenya using the Conventional and Renewable Energy Opti-mization (CARNOT) Toolbox in MATLAB / Simulink. Electricity demand data obtained from the Water-Energy Hub was investigated and analysed. Potential solar energy surplus was identified and electric two-wheeler vehicles were integrated based on the surplus. A field measurement investigation on the energy consumption of the electric two-wheeler vehicles based on the rider’s driving behaviour was also carried. The annual electricity demand of 27,267 kWh, photovoltaic (PV) electricity production of 37,785 kWh with an electricity deficit of 370 kWh were obtained from the simulation results. To reduce the electricity deficit, a load optimisation algorithm was de-veloped to optimally integrate the electric 2-wheeler vehicle into the Water-Energy Hub. It was found that using the load optimisation algorithm, the annual electricity deficit was reduced to 1 kWh and the annual electricity demand was increased by 11% (30,767 kWh) which is enough to charge 4 additional electric two-wheeler batteries daily.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Diaz ◽  
Joshua G. Behr ◽  
Rafael Landaeta ◽  
Francesco Longo ◽  
Letizia Nicoletti

U.S. regions are expected to follow the national trend towards investment in renewable energy as part of their electricity portfolio. The progress of energy portfolios that typically involves traditional methods, such as centralized nuclear and coal-fired generation, and towards cleaner- and renewable-source generation will impact economic growth and public health. Renewable electricity production must strike a balance among cost, reliability, and compatibility. The economic and health benefits obtained from developing an efficient energy portfolio make renewable energy alternatives an important consideration for regions endowed with natural resources. A portfolio mix of production method that considers the economic benefits while limiting adverse health and environmental impacts is attractive. This research proposes a System Dynamics simulation framework to support policy-making efforts in assessing the impact of energy portfolios. The authors demonstrate the utility of the framework by means of analyzing data that pertain to the U.S. Hampton Roads - Peninsula Region.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5800
Author(s):  
Ayat Ali Saleh ◽  
Tomonobu Senjyu ◽  
Salem Alkhalaf ◽  
Majed A. Alotaibi ◽  
Ashraf M. Hemeida

This work introduces multi-objective water cycle algorithm (MOWCA) to find the accurate location and size of distributed energy resource (DERs) considering different load models for two seasons (winter, and summer). The impact of uncertainties produced from load and renewable energy resource (RES) such as wind turbine (WT) and photovoltaic (PV) on the performance of the radial distribution system (RDS) are covered as this is closer to the real operation condition. The point estimate method (PEM) is applied for modeling the RES uncertainties. An optimization technique is implemented to find the multi-objective optimal allocation of RESs in RDSs considering uncertainty effect. The main objectives of the work are to maximize the technical, economic and environmental benefits by minimizing different objective functions such as the dissipated power, the voltage deviation, DG cost and total emissions. The proposed multi-objective model is solved by using multi-objective water cycle algorithm (MOWCA), considering the Pareto criterion with nonlinear sorting based on fuzzy mechanism. The proposed algorithm is carried out on different IEEE power systems with various cases.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3542
Author(s):  
Paweł Tomczyk ◽  
Mirosław Wiatkowski

Hydropower in Europe is playing an increasingly important role as a renewable source of energy. Its share of the final energy consumption varies from country to country, posing different challenges in each. The European Union member states are obliged, according to energy policy, to increase the share of renewable energy. This article presents the challenges related to the development of hydropower in four countries with different shares of domestic electricity production from hydropower plants: Albania (100% share in 2019), Slovenia (25.7%), Poland (1.1%), and Estonia (0.3%). Particular attention is paid to the issues of rational management of water resources in connection to Europe’s energy policy. As a result of the case study analysis, the challenges in the development of hydropower are identified, as well as ways to solve them. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of social, economic, environmental and climate change factors on the development of hydropower was conducted. At present, whether the assumed goals of the European Union’s energy policy will be achieved is impossible to determine for the whole of Europe. Achieving these goals will be possible only after individual countries prepare comprehensive reports on the topics of renewable energy sources, including hydropower.


2016 ◽  
pp. 203-226
Author(s):  
Rafael Diaz ◽  
Joshua G. Behr ◽  
Rafael Landaeta ◽  
Francesco Longo ◽  
Letizia Nicoletti

U.S. regions are expected to follow the national trend towards investment in renewable energy as part of their electricity portfolio. The progress of energy portfolios that typically involves traditional methods, such as centralized nuclear and coal-fired generation, and towards cleaner- and renewable-source generation will impact economic growth and public health. Renewable electricity production must strike a balance among cost, reliability, and compatibility. The economic and health benefits obtained from developing an efficient energy portfolio make renewable energy alternatives an important consideration for regions endowed with natural resources. A portfolio mix of production method that considers the economic benefits while limiting adverse health and environmental impacts is attractive. This research proposes a System Dynamics simulation framework to support policy-making efforts in assessing the impact of energy portfolios. The authors demonstrate the utility of the framework by means of analyzing data that pertain to the U.S. Hampton Roads - Peninsula Region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 01-09
Author(s):  
Emeka Nkoro ◽  
Nenubari Nenubari Ikue-John ◽  
God’sgrace I. Joshua

This paper investigated this disparity in the literature using Nigeria data from 1980 to 2016. In doing this, energy consumption was disaggregated, and their impacts on economic growth investigated using a modified Ordinary Least Square technique which allows for time gaps in the model. It was observed that only renewable energy impacted on economic growth in the long-run whereas non-renewable energy component impacted on economic growth in the short-run. Therefore, the study sees the impact of energy consumption on economic growth to be indistinct in Nigeria within the period under review. This further buttresses the need for improvement in electricity production and distribution in Nigeria. Given the importance of energy consumption on productivity, the study, therefore, suggests policies/measures that will bring about increasing the supply or improvement of energy production in the country.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Victoria I. Bushukina ◽  

The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical and practical aspects of investment activities in the field of renewable energy in the world and in Russia. To achieve this goal, during the development of theoretical material, a systematic analysis of existing approaches to the assessment of financing mechanisms for renewable energy projects was carried out. Statistical and econometric research tools include correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis. The article examines the development of renewable energy, its benefits, and investments in the industry. The financial risks and barriers associated with financing renewable energy projects are considered. The development of the industry over the past 10 years is analyzed, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the electricity industry in general and on renewable energy in a number of countries. It is established that the world is shifting to the use of renewable energy sources, and in Russia they are not being given due attention. It is revealed that the existing thermal generation units in Russia are of great age and are to be decommissioned in the near future. The current state of renewable energy in Russia, measures to support it and the rate of its development are investigated. The technical potential of wind and solar power plants in the Russian Federation is considered within the aim of diversifying electricity production. The factors that negatively affect the development of the renewable energy industry are identified.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bandana Mahapatra ◽  
Srikant Patnaik ◽  
Anand Nayyar

Background: The scaling up of the MANETs is an important criterion to consider since the nodes have to maintain the updated routing information. Generally, agents are deployed to balance the load. However, a single agent performance may not be satisfactory, if the network has a large set of nodes. Hence, the agents are necessary once the network size increases, but the launching of Agents in the network involves computational complexity, power consumption and in turn, increase network traffic. This paper addresses the impact of multiple agent deployments in MANETs to quantify the favourable number of Agents in MANETs that can balance the computational overhead as well as the performance gain by involving multiple agents in MANETs. Methods: The behavior of a varying number of agents in a dynamic network environment launched by a node is analysed across different network metrics. After that, considering all the constraints affecting the network performance, the optimal number of agents is determined using F-Min- Constrained optimization technique. Result: The Perito-optimal points are generated that shows the approximately near most optimal points to the exact solution. Conclusion: The paper tries to strike a balance between the constraints like power consumption involved in the launch of Multiple Agents in the network.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Wasiuta

Abstract BackgroundThe characteristic feature of modern energy sector in the EU is the development of environmentally friendly technologies based on renewable energy sources (RES). The use of alternative and RES contributes to resolving not only energy efficiency issues, but many of the environmental, economic and social problems. RES are also one of the priorities of the world's low carbon policy and reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Growing electrical energy consumption and increasing integration of RES in power systems have led to new challenges, thus it is required to investigate and properly analyze the impact of integrated RES on the power system as a substitute for fossil fuel resources.ResultsThe aim of the article is to show the possibilities of developing RES in Poland in the context of environmental protection, energy self-sufficiency and international obligations. The depletion of primary energy sources and the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere forces undertaking certain activities, aimed at seeking substitutes for fossil fuels. According to the author’s analysis, RES are the best and safest substitutes for traditional energy resources such as fossil fuel.ConclusionsThe author examines electricity production mix in EU counties and compares it to Polish energy sector. Taking into consideration the transmission network density in Poland, while energy sector changes its structure and expands, the mix of technologies deployed to produce electricity determines the associated burden on transmission networks. Polish energy sector development in the context of modernization of transmission grid provides an opportunity for investors to prepare the energy system for increasing the share of renewable energy sources. In the process of implementing the appropriate solution, the experiences of other countries that have significantly increased the share of renewable energy in the past could be used. This article presents the main areas of action that may facilitate the further integration of different energy sources in the specific context of Poland's changing energy system. Not all integration options will be important for Poland at the same time.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernestina Mawushie Amewornu ◽  
Nnamdi I. Nwulu

Purpose This research studies the impact of introducing distributed generators (DGs) into a distribution network. The aim of this paper is to optimally site DGs based on economic, environmental and reliability indices are presented. Design/methodology/approach The considered network was modelled by using the network’s line parameters and capacity of the load bus with the help of Power System Analysis Toolbox. The location of the DG is based on voltage stability index and power loss reduction index. The DG energy sources considered are the diesel generator, solar photo-voltaic (PV) and wind generator, and the objectives were to minimize cumulative cost while maximizing reliability of the network. The Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modelling System was used for the mathematical modelling. Findings The obtained results in the cases of introducing renewable energy into a network improves network performance. The benefits of renewable energy on the distribution network measured in terms of electricity production cost, gas emission cost, fuel cost and value of energy not supplied were positive. The research also showed that the total benefit of renewable energy reduces as the price of the renewable generators increases. Originality/value This paper introduces a new approach to determining the optimal location of DG for reducing line losses and improved voltage profile. A new cost modelling function based on external grid power transfer cost, technical losses and cost because of the various energies source is also introduced.


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