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Affordable and clean energy for any rural community is crucial for the sustainable development of the community and the nation at large. The utilization of diesel-based power generation is one of the barriers to the sustainable development of these communities. Such generations require fuel that has a volatile market price and emits massive greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents the design, modeling, and simulation of a hybrid power system for a rural area in the Sultanate of Oman that aims to reduce daily consumption of diesel fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) is utilized to model multiple energy mix hybrid systems and to propose the best optimal energy mix system for a selected community. In addition, Electrical Transient Analyzer Program (ETAP) software is employed to assess hybrid system operational performances, such as bus voltage profiles and active and reactive power losses. This study revealed that the PV–wind–diesel system is the optimal energy mix hybrid microgrid for the Al-Dhafrat rural area in Oman, with a net present cost of USD 14.09 million. Compared to the currently operating diesel-based system, the deployment of this microgrid can reduce the levelized cost of energy, diesel fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions per year by 54.56%, 70.44%, and 70.40%, respectively. This study confirms that the Sultanate of Oman has a substantial opportunity to install a hybrid microgrid system for rural diesel-based communities to achieve sustainable development in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of studies on sustainable development. The majority of research focuses on developed countries and issues that are incompatible with developing nations. This study addresses a gap in the literature by reviewing the research on developed and developing economies, as well as their social and environmental boundaries, under the renewable energy and sustainable development (RESD) nexus. It also explores how RESD may be applied in extreme situations such as population increase, energy supply disruptions, and transportation shortfalls. The fundamental contribution of this paper is to provide detailed debate from the perspective of economic growth hypotheses and their relationship with energy usage and renewable energy solutions for sustainable growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the energy efficiency of residential and non-residential buildings is a crucial point towards the development of the sustainable cities of the future. To reach such a goal, the commonly employed intervention measures (for instance, on facades and glass) are not sufficient and efforts in reaching a fully renewable energy generation are mandatory. In this context, this paper discusses the applicability of a system with solar and biomass as the main energy sources in different climates for heating, cooling, domestic hot water and electricity generation in office buildings. The energy system includes solar thermal collectors with thermoelectric generators, a biomass boiler, a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle and an adsorption chiller. The results showed that the system can operate with a share of renewables higher than 70% for all energy needs, with up to 80% of the overall energy demand supplied only by solar and biomass sources even in the northern locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources are environmentally friendly and cost-efficient. However, the problem with these renewable resources is their heavy reliance on weather conditions. Thus, at times, these solutions are not guaranteed to meet the required demand all the time. For this, hybrid microgrids are introduced, which have a combination of both renewable energy sources and non-renewable energy resources. In this paper, a cost-efficient optimization algorithm is proposed that minimizes the use of non-renewable energy sources. It maximizes the use of renewable energy resources by meeting the demand for utility grids. Real data based on the load and demand of the utility grids in Italy is used, and a system that determines the optimal sizing of the microgrid and a daily plan is introduced to optimize the renewable resources operations. As part of the proposal, the objective function for the operation and planning of the microgrid in such a way to minimize cost is formulated. Moreover, a variant of the PSO algorithm named recurrent PSO is implemented. The recurrent PSO algorithm solves the proposed optimization objective function by minimizing the cost for the installation and working of the microgrid. Afterwards, the energy management system algorithm lays out a plan for the daily operation of the microgrid. The performance of the system is evaluated using different state-of-the-art optimization methods. The proposed work can help minimize the use of diesel generators, which not only saves financial resources but also contributes toward a green environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency and low-carbon energy systems are increasingly taken into account in seaports, due to climate change challenges and the evolution of environmental regulations. Thus, technological breakthroughs must be brought to numerous systems in harbors, such as harbor cranes, seaport vehicles, or the power supply of berthed vessels. These aspects may require the establishment of a microgrid in the harbor area. Microgrids have been subjected to a wide development on the mainland and islands, mostly for domestic loads. However, these are still scarce in harbor areas. Their development in such places faces several challenges, such as high power requirements, monitoring and management of a wide range of loads, energy policy framework, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a microgrid involves a study of sizing and of energy management, to avoid prohibitive costs and to verify load requirements. This paper provides a literature survey related to the development of microgrids in seaport areas. Firstly, the main components that occur in harbor microgrids are listed, and then a review of studies dealing with sizing and energy management is proposed. Finally, from this survey, innovative concepts and barriers are listed, with an up-to-date review of microgrid development in seaports worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]