Renewable & Green

Energy
BY- DR. PRADHI RAJEEV
• Green energy can be defined as the energy source, which has zero or minimum environmental impact, as more
environmentally benign and more sustainable, and produced from solar, hydro, biomass, wind, geothermal, etc.

• In order to be deemed green energy, a resource cannot produce pollution, such as is found with fossil fuels. This
means that not all sources used by the renewable energy industry are green. For example, power generation that
burns organic material from sustainable forests may be renewable, but it is not necessarily green, due to the
CO2 produced by the burning process itself.

• Clean energy are those types which do not release pollutants into the air, and renewable energy comes from
sources that are constantly being replenished, such as hydropower, wind power or solar energy.

• Renewable energy can supply two-thirds of the total global energy demand, and contribute to the bulk
of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction that is needed between now and 2050 for limiting average global
surface temperature increase below 2 °C.

•
• Renewable energy is expanding rapidly.
• Growth is greatest in China, which now constitutes 28%,
26%, and 35% of the global capacity of hydro, solar, and
wind power, respectively.
• Hydropower has the largest environmental impacts, mostly
because of habitat loss and fragmentation caused by
impoundment reservoirs and roads needed for dam
construction and maintenance. Dams block animal migration
and disrupt river flows, creating homogenized conditions
favoring non-native species. Hydropower also generates
greenhouse gases, especially methane, particularly in the
tropics.
• Wind power kills 100 000 s of birds and bats every year.
Wind farms can affect bird migrations and trigger population
declines. Wind turbines increase ambient temperature and
noise, harming some native species.
• Solar energy is the fastest growing renewable, but its
impacts are poorly known. More research is needed in this
area.
Green energy resources and technologies are a key
component of sustainable development for three main
reasons (Dincer and Rosen, 2005):
• They generally cause less environmental impact than
other energy sources. The variety of green energy
resources provides a flexible array of options for their
use.
• They cannot be depleted. If used carefully in
appropriate applications, green energy resources can
provide a reliable and sustainable supply of energy
almost indefinitely.
• They favor system decentralization and local solutions
that are somewhat independent of the national
network, thus enhancing the flexibility of the system
and providing economic benefits to small isolated
populations. Also, the small scale of the equipment
often reduces the time required from initial design to
operation, providing greater adaptability in responding
to unpredictable growth and/or changes in energy
demand.
Thus, it can be said that green energy and
technologies, which are abundantly available, can
help:
• provide a more environmentally benign and more
sustainable future,
• increase energy security,
• facilitate or necessitate the development of new,
clean technologies
• reduce air, water and soil pollution and the loss of
forests,
• reduce energy-related illnesses and deaths,
• reduce or stop conflicts among countries regarding
energy reserves, etc.
• Around two-thirds of global GHG
emissions is attributed to fossil fuel
energy supply and use.
• The agreed Paris Climate target of well
below 2° implies zero energy CO2
emissions in the coming fifty years.
• A more ambitious target of only 1.5°
implies even faster reductions.
• The energy transition must reduce
emissions substantially, while ensuring
that sufficient energy is available for
economic growth.
• The analysis shows that the CO2
emissions intensity of global economic The result is an annual decline of energy related CO2 emissions by 2.6%
activity needs to be reduced by 85% on average, or 0.6 Gigatonnes (Gt) on absolute terms, resulting in 9.7 Gt of
between 2015 and 2050, and CO2 energy CO2 emissions per year in 2050. This is represented by the REmap
emissions need to decline by more than Case. This scenario is compared to the Reference Case that represents the
70% compared to the Reference developments in energy use and its mix if the world follows policies that
Case in 2050. are currently in place and under consideration. According to the baseline,
or the so-called Reference Case of IRENA, energy CO2 emissions
increases by 6% from 33 Gt in 2015 to 35 Gt in 2050.
• The levelized cost of electricity from solar photovoltaics has fallen by an astounding 73% between 2010 and
2017, and for electricity from onshore wind cost have fallen by 23%.
• IRENA analysis estimates that by 2020, all renewables technologies currently in commercial use will be
cost-competitive with fossil-fuels in many parts of the world, and even undercut them significantly in many
cases.
• Policy mechanisms such as auctions have contributed to lowering prices. World-wide recent tenders have
resulted in record-breaking prices: in recent years utility scale solar PV and onshore wind projects are offered
at US cents 2–3 per kWh under the best conditions.
• These prices are below this of conventional fossil and nuclear generation, in some cases even below the
operating cost of existing conventional plant.
• According to the REmap analysis, share of renewables in power generation would need to increase from
around one-quarter in 2015 to around 60% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 for energy sector decarbonization.
• The substantial annual growth rate of 0.7% of renewables in total generation over the past five years needs to
more than double to realise these.
 Solar Power Energy
• In the last decade alone, solar has experienced an average annual growth rate of 42%. Thanks to strong federal
policies like the solar Investment Tax Credit, rapidly declining costs, and increasing demand across the private and
public sector for clean electricity, there are now more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity
installed nationwide, enough to power 18.6 million homes.

• Recently, India achieved 5th global position in solar power deployment by surpassing Italy.

• Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years from 2.6 GW in March,2014 to 30
GW in July, 2019.

• Presently, solar tariff in India is very competitive and has achieved grid parity.
• National Institute of Solar Energy has assessed the Country’s solar potential of about 748 GW assuming 3% of
the waste land area to be covered by Solar PV modules.
• Solar energy has taken a central place in India's National Action Plan on Climate Change with National Solar
Mission as one of the key Missions.
• National Solar Mission (NSM) was launched on 11th January, 2010. NSM is a major initiative of the
Government of India with active participation from States to promote ecological sustainable growth while
addressing India’s energy security challenges. It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global
effort to meet the challenges of climate change.
• The Mission’s objective is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy conditions
for solar technology diffusion across the country as quickly as possible.
• The Mission targets installing 100 GW grid-connected solar power plants by the year 2022.
• This is line with India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDCs) target to achieve about 40
percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources and to reduce
the emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent from 2005 level by 2030.
 Solar-driven combined cycle power plant
• Combined cycles (CC), comprising a Brayton cycle gas turbine with a Rankine-cycle
steam turbine, are an attractive option for the power generation industry.
• The high efficiency of CCs, and their use of relatively inexpensive fuel, contribute to
their increasing popularity (Barker, 1995).
• The operating temperature of gas turbines is today in the range of 1000–1350°C, and
newer models operating at even higher temperatures are expected soon.
• Solar energy could effectively serve as the high temperature heat source driving a
CC, since the increased efficiency offsets the high initial investment required in solar
applications, producing a more effective solar electricity generation system.
Brayton cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that
describes the operation of certain heat engines that
have air or some other gas as their working fluid.

Rankine cycle or Rankine Vapor Cycle is the

process widely used by power plants such as coal-
fired power plants or nuclear reactors. In this
mechanism, a fuel is used to produce heat within
a boiler, converting water into steam which then
expands through a turbine producing useful work.
This is a thermodynamic cycle which
converts heat into mechanical energy—which usually
gets transformed into electricity by electrical
generation.
The full potential of solar/CC combination based on following principles:
1. supply solar heat to the topping Brayton cycle (II) to achieve the highest possible conversion efficiency,
2. Supply solar heat at the highest temperature of the topping cycle to achieve the highest possible solar contribution
(100% solar at design conditions),
3. Hybrid (solar and fossil fuel) operation to provide dispatchable full capacity at all times without solar-specific
restrictions on the plant’s operation.

Solar Concentartion off-tower (SCOT)

A hyberboloid reflector is installed at the tower top, redirecting the

concentrated solar radiation towards a lower focal region near ground
level.
• High performance
• Low installation cost
 Small hybrid solar power system
• Mini-hybrid solar power plant integrating a field of solar concentrators, two superposed Organic Rankine Cycles
(ORC) and a (bio-)Diesel engine.
• The Organic Rankine Cycles include hermetic scroll expander-generators1 and the sun tracking solar collectors are
composed of rows of flat mirror bands (CEP) arranged in a plane, that focus the solar energy onto a collector tube
similar to those used in SEGS plants in California.
• Waste heat from both the exhaust gases and the block cooling of the thermal engine are also heat sources for the
ORCs. Such units meet electricity, cooling and pumping needs of remote settlements. The thermal engine
guarantees a minimum level of both power and heat availability at night or during cloudy periods.
• Laboratory tests, made with the superposed ORCs only, confirmed adequate operational characteristics with good
performances over a broad range of conditions. A few preliminary tests on the site of the solar power plant when
coupled with the engine confirmed a reasonable behavior and the interest of the concept even at part load or during
sharp variations of the thermal supply.
• Measured First Law efficiency of electricity production
in hybrid mode is of the order of 41% when considering
only the fossil fuel input (total electrical power/LHV of the
fuel).
• This already represents an efficiency increase of close to
50% compared to the Diesel engine alone.
• However due to an oversizing of the turbines and a lower
solar collector efficiency than expected, the conversion
operated at very partial load and the efficiency in mode
“solar only” was only of 7.74%. The latter is 35% below the
expected performance because the operations were far from
the expected nominal values of the ORCs .
 Solar Photovoltaic System
A photovoltaic (PV) system is composed of one or more solar panels combined with an inverter and other
electrical and mechanical hardware that use energy from the Sun to generate electricity. PV systems can vary
greatly in size from small rooftop or portable systems to massive utility-scale generation plants. Although PV
systems can operate by themselves as off-grid PV systems, this article focuses on systems connected to the
utility grid, or grid-tied PV systems.
The light from the Sun, made up of packets of energy called photons, falls onto a solar panel and creates
an electric current through a process called the photovoltaic effect. Each panel produces a relatively small
amount of energy, but can be linked together with other panels to produce higher amounts of energy as
a solar array. The electricity produced from a solar panel (or array) is in the form of direct current (DC).
Although many electronic devices use DC electricity, including your phone or laptop, they are designed to
operate using the electrical utility grid which provides (and requires) alternating current (AC). Therefore, in
order for the solar electricity to be useful it must first be converted from DC to AC using an inverter. This AC
electricity from the inverter can then be used to power electronics locally, or be sent on to the electrical
grid for use elsewhere.
Concentrated solar power (CSP)
Concentrated solar power (CSP), uses mirrors to concentrate solar rays. These rays heat fluid,
which creates steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity. CSP is used to generate
electricity in large-scale power plants.
A CSP power plant usually features a field of mirrors that redirect rays to a tall thin tower. One of
the main advantages of a CSP power plant over a solar PV power plant is that it can be equipped
with molten salts in which heat can be stored, allowing electricity to be generated after the sun
has set.
 Wind Power
• Global installed wind-generation capacity onshore and offshore has increased by a factor of almost 75 in the past two
decades, jumping from 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in 1997 to some 564 GW by 2018, according to IRENA.
• Production of wind electricity doubled between 2009 and 2013, and in 2016 wind energy accounted for 16% of the
electricity generated by renewables.
• Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating wind power are sometimes
remote ones.
• Offshore wind power offers tremendous potential.
• Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion. This is transformed into
electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy conversion systems.
• Wind first hits a turbine’s blades, causing them to rotate and turn the turbine connected to them. That changes the
kinetic energy to rotational energy, by moving a shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing
electrical energy through electromagnetism.
• The amount of power that can be harvested from wind depends on the size of the turbine and the length of its
blades.
• The output is proportional to the dimensions of the rotor and to the cube of the wind speed.
• Theoretically, when wind speed doubles, wind power potential increases by a factor of eight.
• In 1985, typical turbines had a rated capacity of 0.05 megawatts (MW) and a rotor diameter of 15 metres.
• Today’s new wind power projects have turbine capacities of about 2 MW onshore and 3–5 MW offshore.
• Commercially available wind turbines have reached 8 MW capacity, with rotor diameters of up to 164 metres.
• The average capacity of wind turbines increased from 1.6 MW in 2009 to 2 MW in 2014.
• India currently has the fourth highest wind installed capacity in the world with total installed capacity of 39.25
GW (as on 31st March 2021) and has generated around 60.149 Billion Units during 2020-21. Major production
states are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh.
Land-Based Wind Energy: Wind turbines can be used as stand-alone applications, or they can be connected to a utility
power grid or even combined with a photovoltaic (solar cell) system. For utility-scale (megawatt-sized) sources of wind
energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form a wind plant, also referred to as a wind
farm. Stand-alone wind turbines are typically used for water pumping or communications. However, homeowners,
farmers, and ranchers in windy areas can also use wind turbines as a way to cut their electric bills. Land-based wind
turbines range in size from 100 kilowatts to as large as several megawatts.

Distributed Wind Energy : When wind turbines of any size are installed on the "customer" side of the electric meter, or
are installed at or near the place where the energy they produce will be used, they're called "distributed wind. Distributed
energy resources refer to a variety of small, modular power-generating technologies that can be combined to improve the
operation of the electricity delivery system.

Offshore Wind Energy : Offshore wind turbines tend to be massive, and taller than the Statue of Liberty.
They do not have the same transportation challenges of land-based wind installations, as the large components can be
transported on ships instead of on roads.
These turbines are able to capture powerful ocean winds and generate vast amounts of energy.
America's first offshore wind farm, located in Rhode Island, off the coast of Block Island, powered up in December 2016.
Types of wind turbines
HORIZONTAL-AXIS TURBINES: Most commonly, they have three blades and operate
"upwind," with the turbine pivoting at the top of the tower so the blades face into the wind.
Horizontal-axis wind turbines are what many people picture when thinking of wind turbines.
VERTICAL-AXIS TURBINES : Vertical-axis wind turbines come in several varieties,
including the eggbeater-style Darrieus model, named after its French inventor.
These turbines are omnidirectional, meaning they don’t need to be adjusted to point into the wind
to operate.
 Challenges of Wind Power
•Wind power must still compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Even though the cost of wind
power has decreased dramatically in the past several decades, wind projects must be able to compete economically with the
lowest-cost source of electricity, and some locations may not be windy enough to be cost competitive.
•Good land-based wind sites are often located in remote locations, far from cities where the electricity is
needed. Transmission lines must be built to bring the electricity from the wind farm to the city. However, building just a few
already-proposed transmission lines could significantly reduce the costs of expanding wind energy.
•Wind resource development might not be the most profitable use of the land. Land suitable for wind-turbine installation
must compete with alternative uses for the land, which might be more highly valued than electricity generation.
•Turbines might cause noise and aesthetic pollution. Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the
environment compared to conventional power plants, concern exists over the noise produced by the turbine blades and visual
impacts to the landscape.
•Wind plants can impact local wildlife. Birds have been killed by flying into spinning turbine blades. Most of these problems
have been resolved or greatly reduced through technology development or by properly siting wind plants. Bats have also been
killed by turbine blades, and research is ongoing to develop and improve solutions to reduce the impact of wind turbines on
these species. Like all energy sources, wind projects can alter the habitat on which they are built, which may alter the
suitability of that habitat for certain species.
 Bioenergy
Bioenergy use falls into two main categories: “traditional” and “modern”.
Traditional use refers to the combustion of biomass in such forms as wood, animal waste and traditional charcoal.
Modern bioenergy technologies include liquid biofuels produced from bagasse and other plants; bio-refineries; biogas
produced through anaerobic digestion of residues; wood pellet heating systems; and other technologies.
About three-quarters of the world’s renewable energy use involves bioenergy, with more than half of that consisting of
traditional biomass use.
Bioenergy accounted for about 10% of total final energy consumption and 1.9% of global power generation in 2015.
Biomass has significant potential to boost energy supplies in populous nations with rising demand, such as Brazil, India and
China. It can be directly burned for heating or power generation, or it can be converted into oil or gas substitutes.
Liquid biofuels, a convenient renewable substitute for gasoline, are mostly used in the transport sector.
Brazil is the leader in liquid biofuels and has the largest fleet of flexible-fuel vehicles, which can run on bioethanol – an
alcohol mostly made by the fermentation of carbohydrates in sugar or starch crops, such as corn, sugarcane or sweet sorghum.
 Geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is heat derived within the sub-surface of the earth.
Water and/or steam carry the geothermal energy to the Earth’s surface.
Depending on its characteristics, geothermal energy can be used for heating and cooling purposes or be harnessed to generate
clean electricity. However, for electricity, generation high or medium temperature resources are needed, which are usually
located close to tectonically active regions.
This key renewable source covers a significant share of electricity demand in countries like Iceland, El Salvador, New Zealand,
Kenya, and Philippines and more than 90% of heating demand in Iceland.
The main advantages are that it is not depending on weather conditions and has very high capacity factors; for these reasons,
geothermal power plants are capable of supplying baseload electricity, as well as providing ancillary services for short and long-
term flexibility in some cases.
Technologies for direct uses like district heating, geothermal heat pumps, greenhouses, and for other applications are widely
used and can be considered mature. The technology for electricity generation from hydrothermal reservoirs with naturally high
permeability is also mature and reliable, and has been operating since 1913. Many of the power plants in operation today are dry
steam plants or flash plants (single, double and triple) harnessing temperatures of more than 180°C. However, medium
temperature fields are more and more used for electricity generation or for combined heat and power thanks to the development
of binary cycle technology, in which geothermal fluid is used via heat exchangers to heat a process fluid in a closed loop.
Additionally, new technologies are being developed like Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), which are in the demonstration
stage.
Ocean or Marine energy
Tides, waves and currents can be used to produce electricity. Although still at the research and
development stage and not yet commercially available, promising ocean technologies include:
Wave energy, whereby converters capture the energy contained in ocean waves and use it to generate
electricity. Converters include oscillating water columns that trap air pockets to drive a turbine;
oscillating body converters that use wave motion; and overtopping converters that make use of height
differences.
Tidal energy, produced either by tidal-range technologies using a barrage (a dam or other barrier) to
harvest power between high and low tide; tidal-current or tidal-stream technologies; or hybrid
applications.
Salinity gradient energy, arising from differing salt concentrations, as occurs where a river empties
into an ocean. Demonstration projects use "pressure retarded osmosis", with freshwater flowing
through a membrane to increase the pressure in a tank of saltwater; and "reverse electro dialysis" with
ions of salt passing through alternating tanks of salt- and freshwater.
Ocean thermal energy conversion, which generates power from the temperature difference between
warm surface seawater and cold seawater at 800–1,000 metres depth.
Hydropower
Hydropower is energy derived from flowing water. More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks
used waterpower to run wheels for grinding grain; today it is among the most cost-effective means of
generating electricity and is often the preferred method where available. In Norway, for example, 99%
of electricity comes from hydropower. The world’s largest hydropower plant is the 22.5 gigawatt Three
Gorges Dam in China. It produces 80 to 100 terawatt-hours per year, enough to supply between 70
million and 80 million households.
Small-scale micro-hydropower projects can make a big difference to communities in remote locations.
The basic principle of hydropower is using water to drive turbines. Hydropower plants consist of two
basic configurations: with dams and reservoirs, or without. Hydropower dams with a large reservoir
can store water over short or long periods to meet peak demand. The facilities can also be divided into
smaller dams for different purposes, such as night or day use, seasonal storage, or pumped-storage
reversible plants, for both pumping and electricity generation. Hydropower without dams and
reservoirs means producing at a smaller scale, typically from a facility designed to operate in a river
without interfering in its flow. For this reason, many consider small-scale hydro a more
environmentally-friendly option.