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• Pilot study of solar/hybrid/storage system for vertical farming under tropical climate condition with a case study at Malaysia. • Energy utilization and management via optimized building geometry modeling integrated with energy yield estimation tool to evaluate the potential of integrating green energy into urban agriculture. • Comprehensive analysis and assessments including technological, economic and environmental aspects of the proposed work. • The proposed work is evaluated under different design configuration (grid connected, stand alone, hybrid, storage etc) considering various optimization and design requirements and real-life constraints. • Comparative studies with hypothetical model and verification with additional energy modeling tool. Human population is projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and strike 11.2 billion by 2100. Residence shift from countryside to cities will occur and the human population resides in the cities is envisaged to rise from 55% to 68%. Vertical farming was proposed to address food insecurity caused by overcrowded population and farmland shortages. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of vertical farming in the Asia Pacific is forecasted to grow at 22.1% with a market size reaching USD 2,101.0 million by 2024. Malaysian government encourages the implementation of vertical farming as the production of major agricultural commodities has contracted by 3.4% from 2015 to 2017. However, high energy consumption is one of the shortcomings of a vertical farm as the estimated annual energy consumption for each square meter of growing area is 3500 kW h. Thus, this paper proposes an optimized building geometry modeling integrated with energy yield estimation tool to evaluate the potential of integrating green energy into urban agriculture. This research examines the load demand in the vertical farming systems and develops solar/hybrid/storage for vertical farming system with energy yield, performance ratio, economics and environmental assessments. Preliminary resources assessment by analyzing the solar radiation of the sites was carried out at stage 1. At stage 2, load consumption was calculated, and specifications of the system were justified. Stage 3 included the development of solar PV system for the vertical farms, the economic evaluation in the context of net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and investigation of the environmental impact. Grid-connected and standalone solar PV systems were developed for comparative studies. The estimated daily energy consumption for vertical farms in Selangor and Kuching was 430.116 kW h and 1002.024 kW h. Energy generated by grid-connected solar PV systems supported 11.6% and 8.35% of the load consumption in Selangor and Sarawak. The performance ratios of grid-connected solar PV systems in both selected sites were 82.22% and 82.56%. The finding proved that proposed work has significantly reduced the dependency of the utility grid. Additionally, the LCOE with solar PV integration vertical farming system appeared to be lower than the LCOE of the grid and lower CO 2 emission. This paper serves as a reference guide to the vertical farming stakeholders, national policy-decision makers and non-profit organizations who planned for similar initiatives especially those within the tropical climate regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sunbelt countries can develop reliable solar-dominant grids in the absence of wind. • Policymakers should be highly sceptical of low solar technical potential estimates. • Zero energy emissions Malaysia requires about 0.7 TW solar, 2 TWh pumped hydro. • Sarawak-Peninsular Malaysia interconnection reduces storage needs, but not costs. • Inclusion of about 0.4% hydrogen or synthetic methane reduces storage needs and cost. Three-quarters of the global population lives in the sunbelt region (±35o latitude) with excellent access to solar resources. Wind resources at the equator are very limited, while supply chain and permitting delays are slowing wind deployment at a global scale. This paper investigates the potential for solar photovoltaic-dominant 100% renewable grids to be developed in sunbelt countries through a case study of Malaysia. It was expected that the technical potential for solar photovoltaics and off-river pumped hydro would be far in excess of what is required to decarbonise Malaysia's electricity grids. A Geographic Information System analysis determined that Malaysia has the potential to deploy approximately 8.5 Terawatts of terrestrial photovoltaics and 25 Terawatts of marine floating solar on calm oceans. There are roughly 450 Terawatt-hours of energy storage available in the form of off-river (closed-loop) pumped hydro energy storage. A least-cost, 16-year hourly energy balance model was used to determine that an affluent, fully electrified, highly interconnected Malaysia could greatly reduce emissions through the deployment of 660 Gigawatts of photovoltaics and 2200 Gigawatt-hours of pumped hydro, supported by small amounts of hydrogen-based gas peaking. All-in costs for such a fully decarbonised energy system were modelled to be in the range of 95–103 USD per Megawatt-hour. A Sarawak-Peninsular Malaysia interconnected grid could produce a similar electricity cost to two separate grids while reducing the long-term energy storage needs by approximately 33%. Inclusion of about 3 Terawatt-hours (0.1% of average annual generation at 20 Megawatt-hours/capita/year demand) of hydrogen, synthetic methane, or legacy fossil fuels could further reduce long-term energy storage needs by about 30% by helping to ride through occasional prolonged cloudy periods. Policymakers in sunbelt countries should be highly sceptical of technical potential estimates that suggest limited area for solar photovoltaics. Sunbelt countries can comfortably proceed with the development of cheap, reliable solar-dominant grids primarily supported by pumped hydro energy storage and inter-regional transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has focused on the design and sizing of standalone photovoltaic systems. Unfortunately, due to highly fluctuating levels of solar energy and the power supply generated not coinciding with energy demand, high capacity of generation and energy storage systems are required to provide a highly reliable supply. However, a highly reliable system tends to produce high excess energy which needs to be discarded as a dump load, which is proving to be a major concern. For this reason, this paper proposes to use the excess energy for hydrogen production, which will then be sold to local consumers. This paper presents a comparison of optimization design and economic analysis of a standalone photovoltaic with a battery system and a standalone photovoltaic with battery-hydrogen production system using an iterative technique. For the feasibility study of the standalone photovoltaic with a battery and with a hydrogen production system, the proposed minimum hydrogen-selling price is determined by breakeven analysis and is compared to the past references' hydrogen-selling prices and gasoline prices. • Optimization design, modeling, and economic analysis of SAPV without and with hydrogen production system were studied. • Iterative technique was used in optimization process. • Optimization results for SAPVBS and SAPVBHPS were compared. • Breakeven point analysis of the payback period and the return of investment were used to determine hydrogen-selling price. • Theminimum hydrogen-selling price was compared to the past published hydrogen-selling prices and Malaysia's gasoline prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote the growth of renewable energy sector in Malaysia, feed-in tariff (FiT) mechanism has been introduced by Malaysian government in 2011, in accordance with Renewable Energy Act 2011 and Sustainable Energy Development Authority Act 2011. The tariff was enacted to overcome the shortcomings identified in the small renewable energy power (SREP) Program from 2001 to 2010. This paper highlighted some measures adopted to rectify the shortcomings identified during SREP, and the role of Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) in achieving the above mentioned task. The paper also includes the latest progress on renewable energy projects, especially those related to solar photovoltaic system. It is predicted that solar energy will become the main source of renewable energy in Malaysia by the year 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzed the potential implementation of hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/wind turbine/diesel system in southern city of Malaysia, Johor Bahru. HOMER (hybrid optimization model for electric renewable) simulation software was used to determine the technical feasibility of the system and to perform the economical analysis of the system. There were seven different system configurations, namely stand-alone diesel system, hybrid PV–diesel system with and without battery storage element, hybrid wind–diesel system with and without battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with and without storage element, will be studied and analyzed. The simulations will be focused on the net present costs, cost of energy, excess electricity produced and the reduction of CO2 emission for the given hybrid configurations. At the end of this paper, PV–diesel system with battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with battery storage element and the stand-alone diesel system were analyzed based on high price of diesel. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Solar energy is one of renewable energy sources which have potential for future energy applications. New technology developments in solar energy utilization are expected to result in the improvement of the photovoltaic performance with lower production cost. This will increase the demand and viability for commercial applications. The current popular technology converts solar energy into electricity and heat separately. The photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) hybrid system is designed to generate thermal and electrical energy simultaneously. It is well known that using a hybrid system can eliminate the need for external source of electrical energy. This paper presents research and development activity being carried out at Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in order to realise the technology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines solar photovoltaic (PV) in Malaysia. First, it analyzes the current energy demand in Malaysia and discusses some of the national policies and the installations of solar PV in urban and rural areas in the country. Next, the general Feed-In Tariff (FiT) scheme is explained, indicating its potential as one of the investment options for Malaysians. Finally, the loan financing option for solar PV is presented, providing examples that have been implemented in other countries, as well as explaining the Green Technology Financing Scheme (GTFS) for companies and the proposed soft loan scheme for individual households in Malaysia. It also analyses the impact of the proposed interest rate to household consumers in Malaysia, in terms of total profit, net present value and internal rate of return. It is found that the FiT scheme could potentially help in increasing renewable energy penetration, particularly for solar PV. To provide upfront capital for solar PV installation, it is shown that the GTFS is a good financial source for companies while for individual home owners, a soft loan facility from banking institutions is a feasible source if the interest rate is 5% or less. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Predicted to be the clean energy of tomorrow, solar energy has been in the forefront of energy development in many developed countries and a potential source of energy to developing countries like Malaysia. This paper presents Malaysia''s solar energy or solar photovoltaic developmental outlook. The study is done by first looking into the country''s energy policies related to solar energy. Key players in the solar energy development such as government institutions are introduced. Early solar energy programmes and a key project called Malaysia Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) as well as its successful initiatives will be presented. Measures which have taken by the government of Malaysia including attractive incentives to encourage solar photovoltaic development, the country''s potential in solar energy, foreign investments and future directions as well a feed-in tariff scheme will be presented in length to provide a broad spectrum of solar energy development in Malaysia. The outlook has been positive and the country is active in promoting solar as an alternative energy and is aware of benefits it will bring toward its economic development in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]