Renewable Energy

PANKAJ KUMAR
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Annamalai University
 Present Energy
Resources
• Fossil fuels - coal, oil, gas are all of limited
amounts. Cant be replaced.

• Nuclear fuels -limited amounts of uranium for

nuclear fission reactors but reprocessing of
fuel possible.

• Difficult to estimate how long these fuels will

last - but is it sustainable economically or
environmentally?
 Sustainable situation

• Renewable energy resources are being

replaced / generated at the same rate that
they are being utilised.

• Hence they will last indefinitely.

 History and Definition
• First use as early
as 5000 B.C. •Wind is a form of solar
• First used to energy.
generate •Caused by uneven
electricity in heating of atmosphere
Denmark as early
as 1890. by the Sun, irregularities
of the Earth’s surface,
• Now, wind-
generated and rotation of the Earth.
electricity is very •The amount and speed
close in cost to of wind depends on the
the power from Earth’s terrain and other
conventional factors.
utility generation
 Renewable Energy
• What is renewable energy?
• Why is it needed?
• Targets exist for renewable energy to
generate 10% of electricity by 2010 and
20% by 2020!
• Can these be achieved?
• What forms of renewable energy will
deliver these targets?
 The DTI List of
Renewable Resources
Wind, Wave and Hydro Power

Photovoltaics Active Solar Heating

Municipal and General Wastes

Landfill Gas Geothermal

Agricultural and Forestry Wastes

Energy Crops Fuel Cells

 Forms of Renewable
Energy

• All sources of energy ultimately come from the

sun.
• This is particularly obvious in the case of
renewable energies.
 Solar Radiation
• solar heating panels/passive
• solar power generation
• solar cells / photovoltaic cells
 Solar cells
• convert light into a small electrical output -
milliwatts output.
• need a bank/array of cells for useful output.
• cost of cells is high but reducing.
• efficiency of cells is up to 23%/ improving.
 Solar Panels
• are situated on roof of building.
• absorb heat in the form of radiation from sun.
• basically system is like a domestic central heating
radiator painted black/insulated.
• provides “topping up” of domestic hot water.
 Solar Roof tiles
(Solar Grants now available)

Roof mounted solar

panels (Solar
century)

Integrated solar tiles installed by Solar Century

on a current development in Milton Keynes by
English partnership and Bloor homes
Innovative SunSlates installation by
Solar century for Liang Homes
 Solar Power Generation
• located in desert/high intensity/long sunlight
hours
• parabolic mirrors reflect/focus sun’s rays onto
metal water pipe located along focal axis of
mirrors.
• High temperature produced - steam -
electrical power generated
Wind Turbines
Horizontal-Axis Wind
Turbine
Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine
 Windpower
• Each windturbine can produce between 1/4
and 2 MW of electrical power.
• Windfarm needs to be located where there is a
relatively high average wind speed.
• Advantages?
• Disadvantages?
 Calculation of number of
households supplied by a
windfarm
• Assume 24 windturbines each generating
0.25 MW for 70% of time.
• In a year this amounts to 3.66 x 107kwhr.
• If this figure is divided by average amount
of electricity used by a consumer ie 10,607
kwhr in a year,
• Answer is 3600 consumers.
• But 166 of these wind farms = 1000Mw
power station!
Offshore Wind
Turbines
 Offshore Wind
Cluster Features
• Larger average wind speed than onshore

• Easier planning consent

• Technical expertise exists from oil rig experience

• Suitable location
 Advantages and
Disadvantages
• Wind is free, •Not always predictable.
wind farms need •Price of land.
no fuel.
•Changing landscape.
• Produces no •Can kill birds -
waste or migrating flocks tend to
greenhouse like strong winds.
gases. •Can affect television
• The land beneath reception if you live
can usually still nearby.
be used for •Noisy. A wind generator
farming. makes a constant, low,
"swooshing" noise day
• Wind farms can and night.
be tourist
Hydroelectric Power

Renewable Energy Source

 History and Basics
• The earliest •Water flows from a
reference from 4th high potential energy
century BC Greek (high ground) to lower
literature. “hydro” potential energy (lower
comes from the ground), the potential
Greek word for energy difference is
“water.” partially converted into
• By 1980, electric energy through
accounted for 25% the use of a generator.
of global electricity •There are two major
and 5% of total designs in use that
world energy use, utilize water to produce
totalling 2,044 electricity
billion kilowatt
 Hydroelectric
• Currently largest source of electricity from
renewables.
• Needs guaranteed supply of water.
• Kinetic energy of water rotates turbines which
generate electricity.
 Hydroelectric Dam
• Advantages:
– The energy is •Disadvantages:
virtually free. –Expensive to build.
– No waste or –Environmental
pollution
concerns upstream
– Reliable and downstream
– Can cope with
–Siting
peaks in demand.
– Can increase to full
power very quickly,
unlike other power
stations.
– Electricity can be
generated
constantly.
 Ocean Energies

Waves, tides, ocean currents,

ocean thermal energy
 General Information
• 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by
oceans
• Huge potential: “a mere .1% of total
energy potential in oceans would satisfy
all of mankind’s energy needs five times
over.”
• United States faces siting challenges and
economic obstacles
• Europe: leader in ocean energies
• Exploiting Location and natural geography
– Winds blown across Atlantic (West -> East)
create bigger waves -> more energy potential
– Areas for underwater currents and tides
 Tidal Power
• Damming estuaries, water flows through turbines
– One method: ebb generation
– High and low tides are very predictable
– Can only produce electricity at certain times
• Not many places in the world where it’s efficient
– 5-10 meter difference between high and low tides
• High costs to build deters private investors
• Negative impact on estuarine ecosystems
 Tidal Power
• Located at some coastal sites - usually
estuaries and bays with large tidal range.
• Shape of coastal site above and below sea
level determines range eg Bay of Funday,
Severn.
• At high tide reservoir of water is created
which is allowed to ebb through turbines
located in dam.
• Expensive construction.
 Ocean Thermal Energy
Conversion (OTEC)
• Hawaii can exploit this technology because of its
location near the equator
• Sun heats water to depths of 100 meters to
temperatures around 24-30 degrees Celsius
– Flashing into steam
– Cold water from deeper in ocean condenses the steam,
produces desalinated water!
• OTEC can serve much of Hawaii’s energy needs,
but not really any of the contiguous United States
 Wave Power
Land Installed
Marine Powered
Energy
Transformer on
Islay, West Coast
of Scotland.
Wavegen Co.

LIMPET provides 500kW of electricity

for the National Grid Three floating wave power
stations at Lewis/1 MW each
 Geothermal

Exploiting Earth’s temperatures to

produce electricity and heat our
homes.
 Advantages
• Reliability – the Earth’s heat provides a constant
source of energy
• Low impact on environment
• Room for improvement: 2,300 MW in 2004,
D.O.E. estimates could be 15,000 MW by 2014
• Hot Dry Rock
– How does it work?
– If the technology works, we could tap geothermal energy
ANYWHERE!
 Disadvantages
• Depletion of water
– Re-injecting water
– Earthquakes…should plants be responsible?
• Heat depletion
– Natural cooling of Earth’s crust cannot be avoided
– Plants become less and less efficient
• Economics
– Building costs: $1175-1750 per kW installed capacity
– Geothermal areas aren’t always near electricity grids…
 Biomass
• cycle of sunlight - photosynthesis - plant growth -
absorption of CO2 - emission of O2.
• combustion of wood - heat
• some plants - alcohol
• decomposition - methane/landfill gas/fuel for
heating.
Straw Burning
Power Plant
Lorry leaving
plant after
delivering straw

– Elean Power station near Ely,Cambridgeshire

generates 36MW of electricity and is the worlds
largest such facility. It supplies 80,000 homes
with electricity.
 Pollution Reduction

• Over 20 years, a 100-megawatt

plant avoids 3 million tons of carbon
dioxide.

• 1000 kWh of solar power saves:

– 8 pounds of sulfur dioxide
– 5 pounds of nitrogen oxide
– 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide