Search

According to UNDP Policy Note 2014, only 23% of Yemen rural community have access to electricity – having connected to national grid or use small isolated generating units – while the country is one of the richest in solar energy with over 3000 h per year clean blue sky. The objectives of this paper is to concentrate on the utilization and the cost effectiveness of photovoltaic solar energy for electrification of Yemeni rural and desert communities, which will result in enhancing education, culture, science, medical services, and improve the living conditions in rural areas. Otherwise, energy poverty that is a facet of a multidimensional poverty in Yemen will persists because the possibility of connecting rural communities to the national grid, even in the next ten years, is invisible due to major political and financial problems that the country is facing. Moreover, PV energy is environmentally clean and has proved to be one of the best solutions for rural electrification in many countries worldwide due to noticeable drop of PV systems prices with the advance in PV technology. Accordingly, it should be the best solution for rural electrification in Yemeni as well. The paper demonstrates the cost effectiveness and the design procedure of utilization of solar energy for rural and desert communities in Yemen using a number of subsequent cases typical to Yemeni communities and provides also a practical study to support Bedouin backpackers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of renewable energy technologies (RET), like solar and wind power plants, into a power system introduces both expansion and operational challenges. Earlier studies have indicated the requirements for additional backup power facilities requirements for every addition of RET plants, due to the unique generation characteristics of these RET plants. Of late, alternative strategies of creating power storage facilities using power from RETs and drawing constant supply from such storage facilities are drawing the attention of power system planners. In this paper, generation expansion planning (GEP) mathematical modeling studies are carried for a candidate power system, to study the impact of introduction of solar power plant with storage facility. The study is planned in a four-level hierarchy, based on (a) investment strategies of introducing solar plants as an alternative candidate plant or as a replacement of existing high emission plants (HEP) (b) whether the solar plant with storage (SPWS) or with no storage (SPWNS) capacity and (c) inclusion of treatment/penalty costs on emissions from high emission plants. The sensitivity of the system performance factors, like, the capacity added, overall costs and EENS for variations in assumed Forced outage rate (FOR%) for SPWNS and SPWS is also carried for assumed solar penetration levels of 5–10% and 10–20% for 6-year and 14-year planning horizons. The system performance was highly sensitive to the assumed FOR%. The model investigations offer an encouraging scenario in power system planning when SPWS is introduced as an alternative investment candidate plants into the system. This study, while attempting to illustrate the complexity of decision making process in introducing solar plants into an existing system provides a four-level hierarchy in understanding comprehensive set of policy issues that might arise in GEP and enables planners to adopt situation-specific solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has an active participation in global solar energy contribution through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) and its many states are also walking hand in hand with the national government through individual state solar policies. The state of Gujarat, through the ‘Gujarat Solar Power Policy 2009 (GSPP 2009)’, has been leading the country in solar power generation. The feed-in-tariff based GSPP 2009 is a unique experiment of the state to develop individual solar projects as well as public-private partnership based large-scale ‘solar parks’. Of the about 2700 MW (in September 2014) installed solar energy capacity in India, Gujarat occupies a share of more than 900 MW. This paper, through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with project developers involved in implementation of the Charanka solar park, Gujarat, investigates the industry perspectives on the GSPP 2009. With an installed capacity of 216 MW (in April 2012), the Charanka Solar Park is the Asia׳s largest solar park. Findings from this study indicate that the attractive fixed feed-in-tariff and strong implementation mechanisms are the key strengths of the policy. On the other hand, the key challenges are lack of trust of financial institutions on solar energy projects, and tradability and bankability of the solar power purchase agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Solar photovoltaic (PV) power is a new and green energy source. China has significant opportunities for solar energy utilization with its huge solar resource. The solar PV power in China has developed for 50 years, and experienced a rapid progress in the last 10 years. To address the needs of the fast growth of the PV power industry in China, it is critical to identify, analyze and understand the growth path and the characteristics of the industry. This paper summarizes the status of the solar energy resources and the development of the solar PV power industry in China, and puts forward the main factors that impacted the development of the industry. A study refers to the selected five main factors the factors are: technology research and development, industrial plans, laws and regulations, electricity price policies, and projects incentive policies. A multifaceted approach including literature survey, statistical data investigation, law review, and regulation and policy study are adopted to investigate these factors. Analysis of the typical events, the growth process and the characteristics of the five factors, allows the establishment of growth route models. The results can be a useful reference for the development of solar PV power industry in China and other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]