Sustainable Energy Science

Pollution represents a major issue, and so does the ability to utilize, when available, renewable energy sources instead of traditional ones. If, on the one hand, it is possible to utilize renewable energy sources in many contexts, on the other hand they are not exploited because of the high cost of the initial investment needed for the installation of these systems, above all when domestic usage is taken into account. This paper proposes a quantitative approach able to forecast the profitability of the introduction of domestic solar thermal systems operating in parallel with the most common systems for heating domestic sanitary water. The approach is developed firstly by analyzing the most common system for heating sanitary water from both the engineering and economic point of view. At the same time the technical-economic solutions related to the most commercialized solar heating systems, and their compatibility with the most common traditional heating systems are studied. This is carried out by using a differential economic analysis of different possible scenarios in which different matches between traditional and solar heating systems are shown, and their profitability is assessed as a function of the power installed.

This paper gives an overview of the opportunities that exist for combining wind power and hydrogen (H2) production in weak grids. It is described how H2 storage can be applied in both isolated and grid-connected systems, and how the produced H2 can be utilized for stationary energy supply and/or as a fuel for transportation. The paper discusses the benefits and limitations of the different H2 storage applications, and presents a logistic simulation model for performance evaluation of wind-H2 plants. A case study simulating the use of excess wind power in a weak distribution grid to produce H2 for vehicles has been presented. It is shown that the penetration of wind power can be significantly increased by introducing electrolytic H2 production as a controllable load. The results also indicate that there are large benefits of using the grid as backup for H2 production in periods with low wind speed, regarding the H2 storage sizing and the electrolyser operating conditions.

Heat loss from buildings has a considerable share in waste of energy especially in Turkey since no or little insulation is used in existing and new buildings. Therefore, energy savings can be obtained by determining of heat loss characteristics with using proper thickness of insulation. For this purpose, in this study, calculations of optimum insulation thickness are carried out on a prototype building in Bursa as a sample city. Considering long term and current outdoor air temperature records (from 1992 to 2005), degree-hour (DH) values are calculated, and the variation of annual energy requirement of the building is investigated for various architectural design properties (such as air infiltration rate, glazing type, and area). Then, the effects of the insulation thickness on the energy requirement and total cost are presented. Based on life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, the optimum insulation thicknesses are determined for different fuel types. As a conclusion, the length of the heating period is average 221 days, and the mean heating DH value is found as 45 113.2 besides changing between 38 000 and 55 000. The optimum insulation thicknesses for Bursa vary between 5.3 and 12.4 cm depending on fuel types. In addition to this, the variation in Turkey is more dramatically.

The prospects for urban wind power are discussed. A roof-mounted ducted wind turbine, which uses pressure differentials created by wind flow around a building, is proposed as an alternative to more conventional approaches. Outcomes from tests at model and prototype scale are described, and a simple mathematical model is presented. Predictions from the latter suggest that a ducted turbine can produce very high specific power outputs, going some way to offsetting its directional sensitivity. Further predictions using climate files are made to assess annual energy output and seasonal variations, with a conventional small wind turbine and a photovoltaic panel as comparators. It is concluded that ducted turbines have significant potential for retro-fitting to existing buildings, and have clear advantages where visual impact and safety are matters of concern.

Over the past few years, hydrogen has been recognized as a suitable substitute for present vehicular fuels. This paper covers the economic analysis of one of the most promising hydrogen production methods-using wind energy for producing hydrogen through electrolysis of seawater-with a concentration on the Indian transport sector. The analysis provides insights about several questions such as the advantages of offshore plants over coastal installations, economics of large wind-machine clusters, and comparison of cost of producing hydrogen with competing gasoline. Robustness of results has been checked by developing several scenarios such as fast/slow learning rates for wind systems for determining future trends. Results of this analysis show that use of hydrogen for transportation is not likely to be attractive before 2012, and that too with considerable learning in wind, electrolyzer and hydrogen storage technology.

This paper surveys the development of the policies supporting the introduction of wind electricity in Denmark in the last 15 years, with special attention to the new policy introduced after a 2-year long debate. The aim of this paper is to explore the roles of financial support, policy certainty and planning constraints in the diffusion of wind electricity in Denmark and the reasons prompting the change of the system in the current decade. It is discovered that political uncertainty has badly affected the effectiveness of the feed-in law in the years immediately after its introduction. With regard to the new system, it is concluded that the change has been prompted by generous conditions under the feed-in law and by the desire to facilitate the modernisation of old turbines. It is also concluded that incentive-based systems can be more effective than tradable quotas in promoting the modernisation of renewable plants. This finding is relevant to the development of energy policy in countries such as Germany and Spain, where the average age of wind turbines is much younger than those existing in Denmark.

This comment aims at critically analyzing some of the economic efficiency issues that are raised in the paper by Muñoz et al. [2007. Harmonization of renewable electricity feed-in laws in the European Union. Energy Policy 35, 3104-3114] on the harmonization of feed-in law schemes for renewable electricity in the European Union. We comment on the choice between green certificate systems and feed-in laws, but pay particular attention to the implementation and design of a harmonized feed-in law scheme. In the comment we argue first that the approach suggested by Muñoz et al. tends to downplay many of the practical difficulties in assessing the real costs facing investors in renewable electricity, not the least since the presence of regulatory uncertainty about the marginal costs of renewable electricity may be essential for the choice between different support systems. Concerning the benefit side of renewable electricity promotion, the Muñoz et al. (2007) paper builds on an interpretation of the EU Renewables Directive that provides plenty of room for national priorities and that therefore essentially implies that harmonized support premiums per se are of little value. We argue instead that a harmonized system should primarily address the international spillover effects from renewable electricity promotion, not the least those related to improved security of supply in Europe. There exists then a strong case for disregarding the specific national benefits of renewable electricity production in the design of harmonized support systems, and for instead considering international-perhaps at the start bilateral-policy support coordination based on entirely uniform support levels.