Renewable Energy Resources
Challenges and Prospects
Prepared By
Ashraf Mohamed Hemeida
Professor and Chairman
Electrical Engineering Department
 Impact of Renewable energy resources on The Electric
Power Systems:
 Renewable energy resources is a less environmentallyfriendly electrical energy sources.
 This trend places new challenges to the electric
system operator in assuring both angle and voltage
stability of the system.
 This need becomes more significant with the increase
in penetration levels of renewable generation sources.
Types of Renewable Energy Resources
 Solar.
 Wind.
 Geothermal.
 Biomass.
 Hydro Energy.
 Ocean Energy (Tidal).
 Solar Energy:
 The sun is ultimately the source of all energy
supplies, except for nuclear and geothermal
energy.
 The earth’s sun makes more energy in one
second than the amount six billion nuclear
power plants would produce in a year.
 Solar energy participate in
applications can be discussed as:
four
Solar Electric Systems
 Photovoltaic (PV) systems use sunlight to
generate electricity. A PV panel is made up of
many individual solar cells, all of which are
covered with a protective sheet of glass in a PV
module or panel.
Solar Thermal Systems
Solar Thermal Genera;on Systems
 Solar thermal systems take advantage of heat produced
by concentrating the sun's rays onto a small location
with mirrored reflectors.
Hybrid Solar Electric/Thermal Systems
 Solar systems that produce both electricity and heated
air (PV/T) can generate 2‐3 times more energy than a
standalone PV system for approximately 25% more
cost.
Wind Energy
 Wind power is one of the most
efficient, deployable, scalable
and
affordable
renewable
energy technologies.
 Wind Many areas in Maryland
(U.S.A) have wind speeds
high enough to generate
significant energy for homes,
businesses and agriculture.
Egyptian Wind Map
 Advantages of Wind Energy
 High net energy yield
 Renewable and free Very clean source of energy
 No pollution (air or water) during operation
 Long operating life
 Low operating/maintenance costs
 Can be quickly built; not too expensive
 Now almost competitive with hydro and fossil fuels
 Land can be used for other purposes
 Can combine wind and agricultural farms
 disadvantages of Wind Energy
 Low energy density of wind, i.e. Must use large areas of land
 Geothermal Energy
• How it works
– Geothermal power plants
• Use earth’s heat to power steam turbines
– Geothermal direct use
• Use hot springs (etc) as heat source
– Geothermal heat pumps
• Advantages
– Renewable
– Easy to exploit in some cases
– CO2 production less than with fossil fuels
– High net energy yield
• Disadvantages
– Not available everywhere
– H2S pollution
– Produces some water pollution (somewhat similar to
mining)
 Hydro Energy
• Advantages
– Cheap to operate
• Long life and lower operating costs than all other power plants
– Renewable
– High yield
• Lower energy cost than any other method
– Pretty plentiful
• Some countries depend almost entirely on it
– Not intermittent (if reservoir is large enough)
– Reservoirs have multiple uses
• Flood control, drinking water, aquaculture, recreation
– Less air pollution than fossil fuel combustion
 Hydro Energy
 Disadvantages:
 Human population displacement
 More significant breeding ground for
disease
 Reduces availability of water downstream
 Ecosystem impacts
 Water pollution problems
 Air pollution
 Decommissioning is a big problem
 Biomass Energy
– Biomass energy is the use of living and recently dead
biological material as an energy source
– Ultimately dependent on the capture of solar energy
and conversion to a chemical (carbohydrate) fuel
– Theoretically it is a carbon neutral and renewable
source of energy
 How it works?
 Traditional: forest management, using wood as fuel
 Use of biodegradable waste
 Biomass Energy
 How it works?
 Recent interest in agricultural production of energy crops
 Should be high yield and low maintenance
 Does not have to be a food crop
 Recent interest in bioengineered (GM) plants as fuel sources
 Production of a liquid or gaseous biofuel
 Biogas due to the breakdown of biomass in the absence of O2
 Includes capture of landfill methane
 Bioethanol from fermentation, often from corn. Cellulosic
bioethanol is usually from a grass (switchgrass)
 Biodiesel from rapeseed and other sources
 Biomass Energy
• Advantages
–
–
–
–
Versatile
Renewable
No net CO2 emissions (ideally)
Emits less SO2 and NOx than fossil fuels
• Disadvantages
– Low energy density/yield
• In some cases (eg, corn-derived bioethanol) may yield no net energy
– Land conversion
• Biodiversity loss
• Possible decrease in agricultural food productivity
– Usual problems associated with intensive agriculture
•
•
•
•
Nutrient pollution
Soil depletion
Soil erosion
Other water pollution problems
 Geothermal Energy
 Geothermal power plants
 Use earth’s heat to power steam turbines
 Geothermal direct use
 Use hot springs (etc) as heat source
 Geothermal heat pumps
• Advantages




Renewable
Easy to exploit in some cases
CO2 production less than with fossil fuels
High net energy yield
• Disadvantages
 Not available everywhere
 H2S pollution
 Produces some water pollution (somewhat similar to mining)
 Tidal Power (wave Power)
 Advantages
 No pollution
 Renewable resource
 More efficient than wind because of the density
of water
 Predictable source of energy vs. wind and solar
 Second generation has very few disadvantages
– Does not affect wildlife
– Does not affect silt deposits
– Less costly – both in building and maintenance
 Disadvantages
 Presently costly
 Expensive to build and maintain
 A 1085MW facility could cost as much as 1.2 billion
dollars to construct and run
 Connection to the grid
 Technology is not fully developed
 Barrage style only produces energy for about 10 hours out
of the day.
 Barrage style has environmental affects
 Such as fish and plant migration
 Silt deposits
 Local tides change- affects still under study
‫اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد‬
‫كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم‬
‫إنك حميد مجيد‬
‫اللهم بارك على محمد وعلى آل محمد‬
‫كما باركت على إبراهيم وعلى آل‬
‫إبراهيم إنك حميد مجيد‬