Energy plays a crucial role in the modern world. The acquisition and consumption of energy is unfortunately associated not only with economic development or the facilitation of everyday life, but also with a negative impact on the environment. To prevent these, measures are being taken which are part of a broad programme referred to as sustainable energy development (SED). A special place among energy consumers is occupied by households, as access to energy is a fundamental factor affecting the quality of life. The aim of this paper is to look at and assess the current situation of the household sector in the EU energy market in the context of SED and to point out similarities and differences between EU countries. The analysis considers factors based on SED indicators: final energy consumption per capita, energy prices offered to households, and the share of renewable energy in household energy consumption. The k-means method was used as a research tool. The results obtained indicate f... [more]

This paper demonstrates a smart energy management scheme for solar photovoltaic-biomass integrated grid-interactive microgrid cluster system. Three interconnected microgrids were chosen as a cluster of microgrids for validation of the proposed community energy management scheme. In this work, a Global System for Mobile (GSM)-based bidirectional communication technique was adopted for real-time coordination among the renewable energy sources and loads. To realize the common phenomenon of local grid outage in rural distribution networks, a practical case study is designed in this work. The optimized scheduling of the energy sources and loadsof different microgrids and the distribution grid were implemented to ensure zero loss of power supply probability (LPSP) for dynamic load profiles. The laboratory-scale prototype of the proposed microgrid clustering was first developed in this work by establishing real-time communication among multiple energy sources and loads through different energ... [more]

The present paper deals with issues related to activities undertaken by local government. The article focuses on the identification and assessment of the significance of local government’s different bottom-up initiatives that support development of local entrepreneurship. The article also indirectly discusses the importance of activities referring to energy efficiency. Through the digitization process and by using digital tools, LGs realize projects, improve local actors’ awareness, and finally achieve new challenges such as a higher proportion of gross final energy consumption being from renewable sources. The aim of the paper is to present the relationship between the LGs’ entrepreneurial activities, which we call bottom-up initiatives, and the local entrepreneurship level, understood as the number of entrepreneurs active on the territory of a LG. This paper presents the results of research carried out on the bottom-up initiatives undertaken by Polish local governments to support ent... [more]

This paper proposes an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller for grid-connected doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind energy conversion systems (WECS). It aims at extracting maximum power from the wind by tracking the maximum power peak regardless of wind speed. The proposed MPPT controller implements an ANFIS approach with a backpropagation algorithm. The rotor speed acts as an input to the controller and torque reference as the controller’s output, which further inputs the rotor side converter’s speed control loop to control the rotor’s actual speed by adjusting the duty ratio for the rotor side converter. The grid partition method generates input membership functions by uniformly partitioning the input variable ranges and creating a single-output Sugeno fuzzy system. The neural network trained the fuzzy input membership according to the inputs and alter the initial membership functions. The simulation results have bee... [more]

The present article deals with the concept of the non-metallic flat plate liquid solar collector and its evaluation. The innovative concept lies in the elimination of metal parts of the solar collector and their replacement by the foam glass block, which significantly reduces the energy and material demands of the production process. The evaluation of the collector took place in two phases, the first was focused on the numerical evaluation, which resulted in the compilation of a theoretical curve of the efficiency of the solar collector. The second phase was focused on verifying the basic functionality of the concept based on the results obtained from experimental tests of the collector, which confirmed the functionality of the concept and revealed several areas that will need to be addressed in the further development of the prototype.

Various environmental policy instruments supporting the development of renewable energy are used on an increasing scale as part of the policy of mitigating climate change and more. In our paper, we examine the influence of environmental policy stringency on renewable energy production in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia for the period 1993−2012 after controlling for gross domestic product per capita growth, CO2 emissions per capita and income inequality. We use the Panel Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributive Lag model to analyze the long-run and the short-run relationship between restrictiveness of environmental policy and renewable energy generation. The results reveal that, in the long run, a more stringent environmental policy has a positive impact both on the increase in the absolute volume of renewable energy production, as well as on the replacement of energy from fossil sources. Our main findings indicate that renewable energy production is positively inf... [more]

This paper proposes an energy management system (EMS) for battery storage systems in grid-connected microgrids. The battery charging/discharging power is determined such that the overall energy consumption cost is minimized, considering the variation in grid tariff, renewable power generation and load demand. The system is modeled as an economic load dispatch optimization problem over a 24 h horizon and solved using mixed integer linear programming (MILP). This formulation, therefore, requires knowledge of the expected renewable energy power production and load demand over the next 24 h. To achieve this, a long short-term memory (LSTM) network is proposed. The receding horizon (RH) strategy is suggested to reduce the impact of prediction error and enable real-time implementation of the EMS that benefits from using actual generation and demand data on the day. At each hour, the LSTM predicts generation and load data for the next 24 h, the dispatch problem is then solved and the battery... [more]

The demand for fossil fuels is increasing because of globalization and rising energy demands. As a result, many nations are exploring alternative energy sources, and hydrogen is an efficient and practical alternative fuel. In the transportation industry, the development of hydrogen-powered cars aims to maximize fuel efficiency and significantly reduce exhaust gas emission and concentration. The impact of using hydrogen as a supplementary fuel for spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) engines on engine performance and gas emissions was investigated in this study. By adding hydrogen as a fuel in internal combustion engines, the torque, power, and brake thermal efficiency of the engines decrease, while their brake-specific fuel consumption increase. This study suggests that using hydrogen will reduce the emissions of CO, UHC, CO2, and soot; however, NOx emission is expected to increase. Due to the reduction of environmental pollutants for most engines and the related environme... [more]

In this study, we analyze observational and predicted wind energy datasets of the lower 48 states of the United States, and we intend to predict an optimal map for new turbines placement. Several approaches have been implemented to investigate the correlation between current wind power stations, power capacity, wind seasonality, and site selection. The correlation between stations is carried out according to Pearson correlation coefficient approach joined with the spherical law of cosines to calculate the distances. The high correlation values between the stations spaced within a distance of 100 km show that installing more turbines close to the current farms would assist the electrical grid. The total power capacity indicates that the current wind turbines are utilizing approximately 70% of the wind resources available in the turbine’s sites. The Power spectrum of Fourier’s spectral density indicates main, secondary, and harmonic frequencies correspond to yearly, semiyearly, and daily... [more]

Considering rising pollution as well as fuel expenses, it has now become critical to transition to a sustainable method of transportation. As a result, automakers have begun to spend on research and development in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. The amount of EVs has expanded rapidly in recent years. This is owing to new improved technology, particularly in electric motor engineering, as well as government initiatives to limit the level of environmental impact produced by combustion engines. Because EVs are powered by electricity, implementing their charging stations presents certain complications. In this paper, we have discussed the different types of EVs, such as BEVs, FCEVs, HEVs, PHEVs, and REHEVs. Even though the capacity of many of these electric car models has been substantially enhanced within the past few years, some challenges remain as a selection barrier for several customers. Considering these challenges, we have also implemented a fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS-based unified model... [more]

Improving the efficiency of renewable energy and electricity utilization is an urgent problem for China under the objectives of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. This paper proposes an optimization scheduling method of electric vehicles (EV) combined with wind and photovoltaic power based on the Frank-Copula-GlueCVaR. First, a joint output model based on copula theory was built to describe the correlation between wind and photovoltaic power output. Second, the Frank-Copula-GlueCVaR index was introduced in a novel way. Operators can now predetermine the future wind-photovoltaic joint output range based on this index and according to their risk preferences. Third, an optimal scheduling model aimed at reducing the group charging cost of EVs was proposed, thereby encouraging EV owners to participate in the demand response. Fourth, this paper: proposes the application of a Variant Roth−Serve algorithm; regards the EV group as a multi-intelligent group; and finds the Pareto optimal s... [more]

The rising adoption of renewable energy sources means we must turn our eyes to limitations in traditional energy systems. Intermittency, if left unaddressed, may lead to several power-quality and energy-efficiency issues. The objective of this work is to develop a working tool to support photovoltaic energy forecast models for real-time operation applications. The current paradigm of intra-hour solar-power forecasting is to use image-based approaches to predict the state of cloud composition for short time horizons. Since the objective of intra-minute forecasting is to address high-frequency intermittency, data must provide information on and surrounding these events. For that purpose, acquisition by exception was chosen as the guiding principle. The system performs power measurements at 1 Hz frequency, and whenever it detects variations over a certain threshold, it saves the data 10 s before and 4 s after the detection point. A multilayer perceptron neural network was used to determin... [more]

This paper presents the design of a hybrid excited flux switching Vernier machine. This machine is designed to serve in renewable energy conversion applications, such as a wind turbine generator, or tidal turbine generator. After introducing this original structure, a design based on finite element models is conducted. The specifications correspond to relatively low power direct drive wind or tidal turbine applications. The rated power is set to 10 kW, with a rated speed of 300 rpm. Mainly the electromagnetic design is presented. Aspects related to the realization of a prototype are also presented, and an experimental study is included.

For improving the hydrolytic stability of sulfonated polyimides consisting of five membered anhydrides, novel sulfonated polyimides (NSPIs) were prepared via polymerization of 3,3′,4,4′-benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA), with a novel diamine monomer with a pendant sulfonic acid group and 4,4-oxydianiline. Water uptake of this NSPI with an excellent film-forming ability was almost equal to that of Nafion® 117, while their ion exchange capacity (IEC) was 22% higher than Nafion® 117. The loss in weight decreased by 53% and loss in IEC decreased by 66% compared to that of Nafion® 117; both were used to quantitatively measure hydrolytic stability, and radical oxidative stability also increased by 75% when compared with Nafion® 117. Mechanically, this NSPI was superior, and its proton conductivity was higher than Nafion® 117 at elevated temperatures. All these improvements were due to the introduction of this pendant group. Taken together, we herein report a promising renewable... [more]

There is a need to reduce carbon-based energy and replace it with clean energy in order to counteract the negative effects of climate change. The increase in renewable energy sources may result in savings and the increasing cost of maintaining carbon-based energy. Worldwide involvement is required. The fulfillment of conditions by individual states does not solve the problem. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed economic growth. It turns out that economic growth is not always associated with increased investments in RES (existing or emerging new clean energy points). We have a new epidemiological threat—Delta—which could become large. This will not improve the situation. Germany is an exemplary country for benchmarking in the field of renewable energy. The worrying fact is that Poland, despite economic growth, does not achieve an even growth in RES. Each of us is required to be involved, to be open to innovation and to act in accordance with the energy policy of the European Union. Basic m... [more]

Techno-economic viability assessments of rural electrification projects, especially those that integrate renewable energy technologies, typically look at system design optimization that would yield the most favorable cost and investment scenarios. However, the true viability of these projects relies more importantly on their impact to the rural communities while ensuring positive financial returns to the project developers. This paper aims to expand the viability assessment of electrification projects in off-grid island communities in order to mainly address the apparently opposing needs of the major stakeholders at play by developing a viability assessment framework considering the techno-economic dimensions as well as the socio-economic impacts to the consumers. The analysis follows a two-phase approach, where system design optimization and financial impact calculations are done in the first phase and the socio-economic viability is accomplished in the second phase. Results suggest t... [more]

The propagation of hybrid power systems (solar−diesel−battery) has led to the development of new energy management system (EMS) strategies for the effective management of all power generation technologies related to hybrid microgrids. This paper proposes two novel EMS strategies for isolated hybrid microgrids, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses using simulations. The proposed strategies are different from the EMS strategies reported thus far in the literature because the former enable the real-time operation of the hybrid microgrid, which always guarantees the correct operation of a microgrid. The priority EMS strategy works by assigning a priority order, while the optimal EMS strategy is based on an optimization criterion, which is set as the minimum marginal cost in this case. The results have been obtained using MATLAB/Simulink to verify and compare the effectiveness of the proposed strategies, through a dynamic microgrid model to simulate the conditions of a real-time oper... [more]

There was an unprecedented growth of SHP (small hydropower) in Japan during recent years because the government has provided a high FIT (USD 0.32/kWh) for SHP development projects of less than 200 kW. The public and private sectors are committed to harnessing this natural energy to achieve the renewable energy goal as well as to improve local communities social and economic conditions. This paper will discuss about renewable energy initiatives by a food corporation enterprise (FCOOP) based in Fukuoka prefecture of Japan to reduce their net carbon emissions. A detailed approach for social enterprises-based SHP development has been discussed which will be a role model concept for other social enterprises in Japan and in the world that are willing to reduce CO2 emissions. Also, this kind of project connects urban stake holders with local community where resources are available and it leads to development of the local community living standards. As a demonstrated example, a case study of a... [more]

The Agrophotovoltaic (APV) system is a novel concept in the field of Renewable Energy Systems. This system enables the generation of solar energy via photo-voltaic (PV) modules above crops, to mitigate harmful impact on food production. This study aims to develop a performance evaluation model for an APV system in a temperate climate region, such as South Korea. To this end, both traditional electricity generation models (solar radiation-based model and climate-based model) of PV modules and two major machine learning (ML) techniques (i.e., polynomial regression and deep learning) have been considered. Electricity generation data was collected via remote sensors installed in the APV system at Jeollanam-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services in South Korea. Moreover, economic analysis in terms of cost and benefit of the subject APV system was conducted to provide information about the return on investment to farmers and government agencies. As a result, farmers, agronomists, an... [more]

Coastal and terrestrial fisheries communities in Europe, often economically marginalised, are likely to face severe impacts as climate change becomes more acute. Although progress on climate mitigation and adaptation from national governments remains slow, local development actions can also address these impacts from the bottom up. In this paper we analyse the Fisheries and Sea Operational Programme 2014−2020 and 36 Local Development Strategies prepared within the framework of this programme for the case of Poland. The strategies, which were prepared by cross-sectoral, area-based partnerships known as Fisheries Local Action Groups, are analysed using a content analysis approach. The aim was to assess the degree to which local stakeholders sought to address the climate challenge. We found that the mitigation of climate impacts and the development of renewable energy did not feature prominently in the analysed documents, suggesting that both central policymakers and local stakeholders in... [more]

Within China’s renewable energy industry, the importance of the solar photovoltaic industry has been increasingly recognized. Many Chinese provinces have adopted various measures to develop the solar photovoltaic industry. This study used the diamond model and the analytic hierarchy process to clarify the relative importance of the determinants of the development of the solar photovoltaic industry. A total of 22 determinants in six categories (i.e., factor condition; demand condition; firm strategy, structure, and rivalry; related and support industries; government; and chance) were analyzed. The results show that besides factor condition, demand condition and firm strategy, structure, and rivalry have also had a strong influence on the development of China’s photovoltaic industry. The findings also indicate that some traditional factors, such as labor costs and acquiring land, are very important to the development of the solar photovoltaic industry. The relative importance of the dete... [more]

Despite their simplicity, photovoltaic (PV) modules are often arranged in structures that can be affected by severe and complex wind loads: in this context, the wind flow and the dynamic excitation induced by vortex shedding can introduce unexpected aeroelastic responses. This work introduces a novel wind tunnel application of experimental techniques to address this issue by the use of flow visualisation and video postprocessing, through the optical flow algorithm. Numerical simulations based on unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier−Stokes (RANS) models are performed and compared against the experimental wind tunnel tests on a PV panel that was also instrumented with pressure taps. A setup with a 65∘ tilt angle was examined because, based on preliminary analyses, it was considered interesting for the free flow−wake transition associated with the dynamic response of the PV panel. The comparison of the experimental and numerical average wind fields supported that the proposed optical flow me... [more]

The multiple uncertainties in a microgrid, such as limited photovoltaic generations, ups and downs in the market price, and controlling different loads, are challenging points in managing campus energy with multiple microgrid systems and are a hot topic of research in the current era. Microgrids deployed at multiple campuses can be successfully operated with an exemplary energy management system (EMS) to address these challenges, offering several solutions to minimize the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, maintenance costs, and peak load demands of the microgrid infrastructure. This literature survey presents a comparative analysis of multiple campus microgrids’ energy management at different universities in different locations, and it also studies different approaches to managing their peak demand and achieving the maximum output power for campus microgrids. In this paper, the analysis is also focused on managing and addressing the uncertain nature of renewable energies, considering the... [more]

The paper deals with the exposition of the main barriers and drivers of renewable energy usage in rural communities. Climate change mitigation is causing governments, policymakers, and international organizations worldwide to embark on policies, leading to increased use of renewable energy sources and improvement of energy efficiency. Climate change mitigation actions, including the Green Deal strategy in the EU, require satisfying the expanding energy demand and complying with the environmental restrictions. At the same time, the prevailing market structure and infrastructure relevant to the energy systems are undergoing a crucial transformation. Specifically, there has been a shift from centralized to more decentralized and interactive energy systems that are accompanied by a low-carbon energy transition. Smart Grid technology and other innovations in the area of renewable energy microgeneration technologies have enabled changes in terms of the roles of energy users: they can act as... [more]

Design strategies for achieving reliable, affordable, and clean electricity are crucial for energy sustainability. Attaining it requires managing the three core factors (TCF) of the energy trilemma (ET) to increase reliability (energy equity), minimize the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) (energy equity), and avoid potential CO2 emission (environmental sustainability) simultaneously. This paper aims to present a design strategy for the hybrid energy system microgrid (HESM) model, consisting of a distributed rooftop solar PV (DRSP), battery, and diesel-generator to meet the increasing demand while balancing the TCF of the ET. The design strategy was applied in a cluster of 11 households in Gilutongan Island, Cebu, Philippines, where there is no open land space for a solar PV microgrid system. This study used PVSyst and HOMER Pro software to perform the techno-enviro-economic (TEE) analysis to select all feasible system configurations (FSCs). To identify the optimal FSC, a scoring me... [more]