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This paper explores the role of electricity in the transition to renewable energy to mitigate climate change. A systematic literature review with the Scopus database identified 92 papers relevant to the renewable electricity transition. A PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) review of the papers provided a multidisciplinary analysis. The Paris Agreement created a global movement for carbon neutrality to address the threats of climate change, calling for a transition to renewable electricity to lead the way and expand into new sectors and regions. Although smaller renewable technologies are ramping up, complexities thwarting the transition include locked-in assets, high upfront costs, variability of solar and wind energy, infrastructure, difficulty in decarbonizing transportation and industry, material resource constraints, and fossil fuel support. This research found that renewables are not replacing fossil fuels to date but adding further energy demands, so that greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2021 despite an increased renewable electricity share. Without a major shift in the trillions of dollars of subsidies and investment away from fossil fuels to renewables, catastrophic climate change is predicted. This paper found that the Paris Agreement's commitment to net-zero carbon and the transition to renewable electricity are undermined by record-high levels of subsidies and financing for fossil fuel industry expansion. Transitioning to a climate-neutral economy requires an investment away from fossil fuels into renewable energy ecosystems. Renewable electricity provides possibilities to realize sustainable development goals, climate stabilization, job creation, a green economy, and energy security with careful planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ageing of coal-fired power stations in South Africa has led to regular power outages. Therefore, the country will need to urgently increase its electricity capacity to meet further energy demand from growing urbanization and population growth. This challenge has increased interest in alternative energy sources, such as renewable energy (RE). South Africa is gradually implementing appropriate renewable energy practices, reducing carbon emissions, cleansing the air, and assuring a more sustainable future. This paper summarizes the availability, current state, and future potential of renewable energy choices in South Africa. This paper also evaluates specific policy measures and government actions aimed at eliminating barriers and increasing renewable energy deployment in the future. It also considers the South African network's specialized techno-economic analysis. The findings show that South Africa is still heavily reliant on coal, with 78% of the current installed capacity coming from coal power in 2022, compared to 9.3% for solar and wind energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews and assesses India's energy policy in the context of its commitment to achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. It emphasizes the central role of green electrification, particularly through the expansion of solar power capacity. It discusses policies outside the energy sector that need to be part of a strategy of achieving this target, including the use of information technology, infrastructure development, and transportation. Furthermore, it examines possible policy options for accelerating the target date to 2050, especially with the use of carbon capture to manage the transition from the current heavy use of coal. The paper also discusses the possible financial and growth implications of various strategy options, arguing that feasible external financing commitments can allow India to achieve net-zero goals without sacrificing economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a probabilistic model with the aim to reduce the solar energy operation cost and CO2 emissions of a multi-carrier microgrid. The MCMG in this study includes various elements such as combined heat and power (CHP), electrical heat pump (EHP), absorption chiller, solar panels, and thermal and electrical storages. A MILP model is proposed to manage the commitment of energy producers, energy storage equipment, the amount of selling/buying of energy with the upstream network, and the energy consumption of the responsible electrical loads for the day-ahead optimal operation of this microgrid. The proposed operation model is formulated as a multi-objective optimization model based on two environmental and economic objectives, using a weighted sum technique and a fuzzy satisfying approach. In this paper, the 2 m + 1-point estimate strategy has been used to model the uncertainties caused by the output power of solar panels and the upstream power supply price. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed model, and also for minimizing cost and CO2 emissions, the simulation was conducted on two typical cold and hot days. Numerical results show the proposed model's performance and the effect of electrifying the heating and cooling of the microgrid through the EHP unit on greenhouse gas emissions in the scenarios considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the dual-carbon objective, the call for low-carbon attributes in integrated energy systems is ascending, with an amplified imperative to integrate wind and solar power efficiently. This study introduces an advanced low-carbon optimization framework for integrated energy systems, incorporating a sophisticated time-differentiated carbon accounting mechanism attentive to consumer emissions. A nuanced carbon accounting model is crafted to assess consumer emissions with greater accuracy. Predicated on these emissions, a refined low-carbon demand response model is articulated, factoring in the influence of carbon emission factors pertinent to electricity and heat procurement on user conduct. This model integrates the consideration of heat reclaimed from methanation processes, which in turn informs the carbon emission factors associated with purchased heat, and evaluates the subsequent optimization impact on the system. The proposed model is designed to curtail the system's operational expenditures and is operationalized via the CPLEX solver. Through the establishment of various scenarios for evaluative comparison, the model is corroborated to substantially augment the system's proficiency in assimilating wind and solar energy, markedly curtail carbon emissions, and facilitate a sustainable and cost-efficient operation of the integrated energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel multi-objective robust optimization model of an integrated energy system with hydrogen storage (HIES) considering source–load uncertainty is proposed to promote the low-carbon economy operation of the integrated energy system of a park. Firstly, the lowest total system cost and carbon emissions are selected as the multi-objective optimization functions. The Pareto front solution set of the objective function is applied by compromise planning, and the optimal solution among them is obtained by the maximum–minimum fuzzy method. Furthermore, the robust optimization (RO) approach is introduced to cope with the source–load uncertainty effectively. Finally, it is demonstrated that the illustrated HIES can significantly reduce the total system cost, carbon emissions, and abandoned wind and solar power. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method is verified by analyzing the influence of multi-objective solutions and a robust coefficient on the Chongli Demonstration Project in Hebei Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapidly evolving mobile technologies, the number of cellular base stations (BSs) has significantly increased to meet the explosive demand for mobile services and applications. In turn, this has significantly increased the capital and operational expenses, due to the increased electricity prices and energy consumption. To generate electricity, power plants mainly rely on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable energy resources. As a result, CO 2 emissions also increase, which adversely affect health and environment. For wireless access technologies and cellular networks, BSs are the largest power consumer, and the network energy consumption is mainly dominated by the network infrastructure, which makes the telecommunications sector liable for energy consumption as well as CO 2 emissions around the globe. Alternatively, solar energy is considered as an eco-friendly and economically attractive solution, due to its cost-effectiveness and sustainability. In this paper, the potentials of photovoltaic (PV) solar power to energize cellular BSs in Kuwait are studied, with the focus on the design, implementation, and analysis of off-grid solar PV systems. Specifically, system components, such as the number of PV panels, batteries, and converters needed for the design are determined and evaluated via HOMER software, with the focus on minimizing the net present cost (NPC). A comparison between various PV, diesel generator (DG), and battery bank (BB) system configurations is also performed. Moreover, a comparison of system deployment area will be presented for different PV panels that have different output power and panel sizes, in addition to utilizing a solar tracking system. It is revealed that utilizing a hybrid system configuration (i.e., PV-DG-BB) decreases fuel consumption per year by almost 95% in comparison to the conventional DG-only based electric systems. Not only that, but utilizing a pure off-grid solar PV system (i.e., PV-BB) can significantly reduce the total NPC while completely eliminating CO 2 emissions; however, at the expense of more land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of electricity in rural communities implies inequality of access to information and opportunities among the world's population. Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) represent a promising solution to address this situation given their portability and their potential contribution to avoiding carbon emissions. However, the sizing methodologies for these systems deal with some issues, such as the uncertainty of renewable resources. In this work, we propose a sizing methodology that includes long short-term memory (LSTM) cells to predict weather conditions in the long term, multivariate clustering to generate different weather scenarios, and a nonlinear mathematical formulation to find the optimal sizing of an HRES. Numerical experiments are performed using open-source data from a rural community in the Pacific Coast of Mexico as well as open-source programming frameworks to allow their reproducibility. We achieved an improvement of 0.1% in loss of load probability in comparison to the seasonal naive method, which is widely used in the literature for this purpose. Furthermore, the RNN training stage takes 118.42, 2103.35, and 726.71 s for GHI, wind, and temperature, respectively, which are acceptable given the planning nature of the problem. These results indicate that the proposed methodology is useful as a decision-making tool for this planning problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions from traditional drying methods, this research investigated the use of microwave technology for drying Standard Thai Rubber (STR) in Thailand. Commercial microwave ovens were modified and integrated with the microwave emitting power control system to maintain the appropriate temperature levels to evaporate the moisture from rubber. Throughout the drying process, the temperature of the rubber was measured both internally and outside. The results revealed that STR5L and STR20 could be dried satisfactorily and met the requirements for standard Thai rubber properties by utilizing 500 W for 140 and 120 min, respectively. By keeping the temperatures less than 150 °C, rubbers' molecular structure is not destroyed from internal heat stress. Although utilizing less power for a longer period of time is possible, more energy was used, which is unfavorable. Compared to traditional hot air drying technologies, which take approximately 4–6 h for the drying process, microwave technology potentially reduces the drying time by half or more. If solar energy is used to supply electrical energy, 300,000 tons of Carbon dioxide can potentially be eliminated annually in the STR drying industry in Thailand by promoting approximately 1115 MW of Photovoltaic technology installations with the solar resources in southern Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly declining costs of renewable energy technologies have made solar and wind the cheapest sources of energy in many parts of the world. This has been seen primarily as enabling the rapid decarbonization of the electricity sector, but low-cost, low-carbon energy can have a great secondary impact by reducing the costs of energy-intensive decarbonization efforts in other areas. In this study, we consider, by way of an exemplary carbon capture and utilization cycle based on mature technologies, the energy requirements of the "industrial carbon cycle", an emerging paradigm in which industrial CO2 emissions are captured and reprocessed into chemicals and fuels, and we assess the impact of declining renewable energy costs on overall economics of these processes. In our exemplary process, CO2 is captured from a cement production facility via an amine scrubbing process and combined with hydrogen produced by a solar-powered polymer electrolyte membrane, using electrolysis to produce methanol. We show that solar heat and electricity generation costs currently realized in the Middle East lead to a large reduction in the cost of this process relative to baseline assumptions found in published literature, and extrapolation of current energy price trends into the near future would bring costs down to the level of current fossil-fuel-based processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, buildings are responsible for more than one third of the total final energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. In the last twenty years, the European Union has published a succession of energy performance of building directives to define and ensure the fulfilment of a series of objectives regarding greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, energy efficiency and energy generation from renewable sources in buildings. For its part, Spain is adapting its legal framework, transposing these directives with the aim of achieving greater energy efficiency and sustainability for buildings. Under this context, an energy, economic and environmental assessment is performed to analyze the impact of these regulatory changes on a single-family home including a photovoltaic installation for self-consumption with surpluses and/or a solar thermal installation for domestic hot water supply, located in each one of the eight thousand one hundred thirty-one municipalities that make up Spain. The energy behavior of the original house is compared with that obtained after it is updated with these new facilities. The transient system simulation tool is used for the energy study. The results show that the European objectives are far exceeded. The energy savings achieved range from 67% to 126%, carbon dioxide emissions decrease by 42% to 100% and energy bills are reduced in cost by 32% to 81%. The findings of this work can be used by policymakers as guidelines for the development of national strategic plans and financial incentives for the promotion of small-scale residential photovoltaic and solar thermal applications, as well as by designers, supervisors, managers and developers to include them in their projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]