Future of renewable energy in India for sustainable development

Renewable energy (wind energy, solar power, geothermal energy and tidal power) is the inexhaustible energy resulted from contineous regeneration. The main features of renewable energy is that it can be obtained without damaging the environment. It has been found that renewable energy sources have the ability to give solutions to environmental related problems being faced by mankind. India is highly populated country on this planet and has more energy demand. The renewable energy is one of the major options to meet this quality. Today, renewable energy account for 37% of India’s most energy consumptions. In this paper, efforts have been made to discuss the future of renewable energy of our country.

Monitoring, Predicting, and Optimizing Energy Consumptions

Energy consumption and, consequently, the associated costs (e.g., environmental and monetary) concern most individuals, companies, and institutions. Platforms for the monitoring, predicting, and optimizing energy consumption are an important asset that can contribute to the awareness about the ongoing usage levels, but also to an effective reduction of these levels. A solution is to leave the decisions to smart system, supported for instance in machine learning and optimization algorithms. This chapter involves those aspects and the related fields with emphasis in the prediction of energy consumption to optimize its usage policies.

Efficiency of Energy Consumption between Reinforced Concrete Structure and Cross-Laminated Timber Based Hybrid Structure in East Asian Cities

From the environmental perspective, wooden structures are favorable insulators that are suitable for carbon fixation and wooden-related products are considered the most sustainable material. Research has indicated that wooden structures have superior energy-saving performance compared to reinforced concrete (RC) structures. In this study, a CLT-based hybrid structure system that potentially improves the efficiency of energy consumption is proposed. The proposed hybrid structure system, which preserved original RC beams, columns and replaced CLT floors and walls, has less building weight compared to the original RC building. Additionally, less energy required for the manufacturing of building materials in the renovation of the aged building is achieved, compared to building a new CLT building. The energy consumptions for buildings with heights of 10 stories were compared. CLT and RC were selected as benchmark building materials to compare the energy-saving efficiencies with the proposed hybrid structure system. In addition, to examine the energy consumption differences at different latitudes, the energy consumptions in Taipei, Tokyo, Harbin, and Singapore were compared as well. The simulation results indicate the proposed hybrid structure system, which comprises RC beams and columns and CLT floors and walls, and has an energy-saving efficiency close to that of a CLT structure, by approximately 3–5% higher, however, had a superior energy consumption performance to the RC structure. In general, the proposed hybrid structure system can be effectively used for old building renewal in the selected Asian cities.

Energy-Saving Technology Opportunities and Investments of the Italian Foundry Industry

The foundry industry is regarded as one of the most energy-intensive industrial sector due to its energy consumption up to 9 MWh/ton of produced metal. As a result, many companies are trying to increase the energy efficiency of their foundry plants. Since many energy-saving technologies are proposed by manufacturers and the literature, choosing the most appropriate one is a difficult task. Moreover, being updated with the available energy-saving solutions is complicated because of the quick technology advances. Consequently, this paper aims at investigating the recent and future opportunities and investments for reducing the energy consumptions of the technologies of Italian foundry companies. Additionally, it aims at presenting a list of available technological solutions validated by Italian experts. To this end, the Energy Audits developed by 231 plants were analyzed to extract the implemented and planned interventions. Furthermore, the economic data available within the Energy Audits were studied to determine the advantages of a given technological solutions compared to the others. It emerged that the companies are strongly investing in increasing the efficiency of the auxiliary systems such as compressors and motors. The outcomes of this study can assist both researchers and energy managers in choosing the most appropriate energy-saving solutions.

Comprehensive Methodology to Evaluate Parasitic Energy Consumption for Different Types of Dual-Axis Sun Tracking Systems

A dual-axis sun tracking system is an essential strategy to maximize the optical efficiency of harnessing solar energy. However, there is no significant study yet to optimize the net performance of the photovoltaic (PV) or concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system equipped with a dual-axis sun tracking system. Parasitic energy loss associated with the power consumption of the sun tracking system is one of the major concerns for the solar industrial players. To address this issue, a comprehensive methodology has been developed to evaluate the yearly cumulative range of motion for dual-axis sun tracking systems in the cases of with and without fixed parking positions across the latitudes ranging from 45°N to 45°S. The parasitic energy consumptions have been investigated for three selected types of dual-axis sun tracking systems, i.e., the azimuth-elevation sun tracking system (AE-STS), polar dual-axis sun tracking system (PD-STS), and horizontal dual-axis sun tracking system (HD-STS). The simulated results indicate that the dual-axis sun tracking system with the nonfixed parking (or stow) position has lower yearly cumulative parasitic energy consumption with respect to the sun tracking system with a fixed parking position. Lastly, our simulation result has shown that the parasitic energy consumption of the sun tracking is relatively smaller to that of the electrical energy generated by the concentrator photovoltaic system with the ratio between 0.15% and 0.29% for AE-STS, between 0.15% and 0.30% for PD-STS, and between 0.17% and 0.35% for HD-STS.

Economic Feasibility Study of Community Scale Reverse Osmosis Plants in Jaipur, Rajasthan

This study presents a performance analysis in terms of energy and other costs related to the unit cost of water produced in 16 identical community scale reverse osmosis units installed at Jaipur. The energy consumptions indicated that these plants suffer from accelerated fouling of membranes due to scaling by hardness causing substances, which results in a significant loss of useful life of the membranes. The study shows that the overall cost of water production has four major components. Energy cost varies between Rs. 0.025 and 0.079 per litre. Salary cost varies between Rs. 0.04 to 0.20 per litre. Spares and chemical cost varies between Rs. 0.01 to 0.04 per litre. In addition, repayment of capital invested has also been considered with and without solar integration to arrive at realistic cost estimates over a perceived life cycle of the system. The breakeven achieved by selling 4600–5200 litre water @ Rs. 0.2 per litre per day if repayment of capital investment is not considered, as these units were installed under CSR, while it varies between 8800 and 9600 litre if repayment of capital investment is also considered as an independent business venture. This analysis substantiates that potential exists for the long-term sustainability of these systems.

Energy Efficiency Initiatives for A Hospital Building in Malaysia

In the past decades, research about energy consumption reduction has become a trend due to concern of energy wastage that leads to the negative impact on the environment. Commercial sector produces higher energy consumption compared to other sectors in Malaysia and hospital building is one of the highest energy consumptions in the commercial sector. Continuous operation time and complexity of engineering system are some of the reasons for high energy consumptions in hospital buildings that leads to high energy costs. This study examines the electricity load apportioning for a hospital building in Selangor, Malaysia through a detailed energy audit. From the energy audit, several Energy Efficiency Initiatives (EEI) were identified in reducing the energy usage in hospital: room temperature control, efficient lighting system, efficient unit for Air-Conditioning Split Unit (ACSU) and Variable Speed Drive (VSD) installation. The EEIs is expected to produce a total electricity saving of 1,250,692 kWh/year, equivalent to a cost saving of RM 421, 706/year and total emission reduction of 869 tonnes CO2 per year.