Posts Tagged ‘Environmental Protection’

Management of Renewable Energies and Environmental Protection, Part I

August 13th, 2022

Abstract: The purpose of this project is to present an overview of renewable energy sources,Guest Posting major technological developments and case studies, accompanied by applicable examples of the use of sources. Renewable energy is the energy that comes from natural resources: The wind, sunlight, rain, sea waves, tides, geothermal heat, regenerated naturally, automatically. Greenhouse gas emissions pose a serious threat to climate change, with potentially disastrous effects on humanity. The use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) together with improved Energy Efficiency (EE) can contribute to reducing energy consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, as a consequence, preventing dangerous climate change. At least one-third of global energy must come from different renewable sources by 2050: The wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal, wave, biomass, etc. Oil and natural gas, classical sources of energy, have fluctuating developments on the international market. A second significant aspect is given by the increasingly limited nature of oil resources. It seems that this energy source will be exhausted in about 50 years from the consumption of oil reserves in exploitation or prospecting. “Green” energy is at the fingertips of both economic operators and individuals. In fact, an economic operator can use such a system for both own consumption and energy trading on the domestic energy market. The high cost of deploying these systems is generally depreciated in about 5-10 years, depending on the installed production capacity. The “sustainability” condition is met when projects based on renewable energy have a negative CO2 or at least neutral CO2 over the life cycle. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) are one of the environmental criteria included in a sustainability analysis, but is not enough. The concept of sustainability must also include in the assessment various other aspects, such as environmental, cultural, health, but must also integrate economic aspects. Renewable energy generation in a sustainable way is a challenge that requires compliance with national and international regulations. Energy independence can be achieved: – Large scale (for communities); – small-scale (for individual houses, vacation homes or cabins without electrical connection).

Keywords: Environmental Protection, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Energy, The Wind, Sunlight, Rain, Sea Waves, Tides, Geothermal Heat, Regenerated Naturally.

Introduction

The purpose of this project is to present an overview of renewable energy sources, major technological developments and case studies, accompanied by applicable examples of the use of sources.

Renewable energy is the energy that comes from natural resources: The wind, sunlight, rain, sea waves, tides, geothermal heat, regenerated naturally, automatically.

Greenhouse gas emissions pose a serious threat to climate change, with potentially disastrous effects on humanity. The use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) together with improved Energy Efficiency (EE) can contribute to reducing energy consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, as a consequence, preventing dangerous climate change.

At least one-third of global energy must come from different renewable sources by 2050: The wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal, wave, biomass, etc.

Oil and natural gas, classical sources of energy, have fluctuating developments on the international market. A second significant aspect is given by the increasingly limited nature of oil resources. It seems that this energy source will be exhausted in about 50 years from the consumption of oil reserves in exploitation or prospecting.

“Green” energy is at the fingertips of both economic operators and individuals.

In fact, an economic operator can use such a system for both own consumption and energy trading on the domestic energy market. The high cost of deploying these systems is generally depreciated in about 5-10 years, depending on the installed production capacity.

The “sustainability” condition is met when projects based on renewable energy have a negative CO2 or at least neutral CO2 over the life cycle.

Emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) are one of the environmental criteria included in a sustainability analysis, but is not enough. The concept of sustainability must also include in the assessment various other aspects, such as environmental, cultural, health, but must also integrate economic aspects.

Renewable energy generation in a sustainable way is a challenge that requires compliance with national and international regulations.

Energy independence can be achieved:

Large scale (for communities)
Small-scale (for individual houses, vacation homes or cabins without electrical connection)
Today, the renewable energy has gained an avant-garde and a great development also thanks to governments and international organizations that have finally begun to understand its imperative necessity for humanity, to avoid crises and wars, to maintain a modern life (we can’t go back to caves).

Materials and Methods

Solar Energy

Solar energy means the energy that is directly produced by the transfer of light energy radiated by the Sun into other forms of energy. This can be used to generate electricity or to heat the air and water. Although solar energy is renewable and easy to produce, the main problem is that the sun does not provide constant energy over a day, depending on the day-night alternation, weather conditions, season.

Solar Panels generate electricity approx. 9h/day (the calculation is minimal, the winter is 9 h), feeding the consumers and charging the batteries at the same time.

Solar installations are of two types: Thermal and photovoltaic.

Photovoltaics produce electricity directly, thermal ones help save 75% of other fuels (wood, gas) per year. A house that has both solar installations (with photovoltaic and vacuum thermal panels) can be considered “energy independence” (because the energy accumulated in the day is then sent to the grid and used as needed).

The use of solar radiation for the production of electricity can be done by several methods:

The use of photovoltaic modules – by capturing the energy of the photons coming from the sun and storing it in free electrons, thereby generating an electric current, solar photovoltaic panels generating electricity
The use of solar towers
Using Parabolic Concentrators – This type of concentrator consists of a gutter-shaped parabolic mirror that concentrates solar radiation on a pipe. A working fluid is circulating in the duct which is generally an oil that takes up the heat to give it water to produce the steam that drives the turbine of an electric generator. The concentrator requires adjusting the posture position of the sun in the apparent daytime displacement
Using the Dish-Stirling system
Solar installations work even when the sky is dark. They are also resistant to hail (in the case of the best panels).

Solar-thermal systems are mainly made with flat-bottomed solar collectors or vacuum tubes, especially for smaller solar radiation in Europe. In the energy potential assessments, applications concerning water heating or enclosures/swimming pools (domestic hot water, heating, etc.) were considered.

Locations for solar-thermal applications (thermal energy).

In this case, any available space can be used if:

Allows the location of solar thermal collectors
Preferential orientation to the South and inclination according to