Energy Sustainability Through Green Energy

The renewable energy sources include the clean green technology, which motivates a healthy environment but also encourages using them in rural areas where grid supply is not available. The fundamentals of solar photovoltaic technologies and their sustainability on the earth are discussed in this chapter. The various internal phenomena that occur in the sun and the solar spectrum are discussed. The various applications of photovoltaics and modeling of the solar cell are also discussed.

In a developing country like India, having the second largest population and agriculture as the source of income to nearly 60 % of the total population, post-harvest and storage loss is a major quandary, which needs to be addressed in due diligence. Many food preservation techniques like cold storage, drying, etc., have been evolved out over the years to tackle the above losses. The major constraint is that almost all the technologies are utilizing fossil fuel resources, which are depleting very fast and wise use of these precious resources are preferred for long-term energy sustainability. Therefore, sustainable methods for food preservation are the need of the hour. Solar drying is one of the best choices in this context. Different models of solar dryers have been developed and good quantum of research is progressing in most of the countries to propagate the solar drying technology for value addition of agriculture products. The solar drying technology is a classical example to showcase how sun’s free energy could be effectively utilized for the benefit of mankind. This chapter explains the different types of dryers, different aspects of solar drying, parameters involved in the drying process and the economic analysis to analyse the feasibility of the solar drying system. Case studies of a few of the successful installations are also included.

The global environmental scene has changed fiercely over the last century. The changing scenario demands a greater concern and action-oriented enabling policy framework for the use of sustainable and renewable energy. The Government of India has taken necessary cognizance of the global developments and has initiated several green and environment friendly policy measures under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. One of the initiatives taken by the government is the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). This chapter discusses the objectives of JNNSM and the developments made so far to improve the share of solar energy, ensure supply security, and reduce energy poverty in India.

Wind power is gaining a stronger position in the Indian electricity market, mainly due to preferential feed-in tariff and other incentives given by the Central and State governments. This chapter assesses the growth of the Indian wind market compared to other leading markets in the globe. Then, State-level progress is discussed in detail. The chapter reviews policy measures and incentive schemes devised by the Central government, State government, and regulatory bodies to achieve the desired objectives. The authors discuss the challenges of increasing wind penetration in India and conclude with steps to achieve greater wind penetration through active participation of the Central and State governments and the regulatory bodies by working cohesively and collaboratively to iron out implementation failures and take appropriate measures for successful implementation of various rules, regulations, and policies.

Wind power plays an important role in the development of country’s economy as it reduces country’s dependency on fossil fuels. Wind energy generally categorized as a clean, environmentally friendly, and renewable source of energy. India is blessed with an immense amount of renewable energy resources, and wind energy is one of the promising sources for energy supply option. The demand of electricity has grown significantly in recent past years, and India depends widely in coal and oil to meet energy demands. In recent past years, there has been intense research activities carried out in the development, production, and distribution of energy in India, which results in the development of the need for new sustainable energy due to limited fossil fuel resources and problem associated with the environment (smog, acid rain, and greenhouse gasses emission). Development and promotion of non-conventional sources of energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and bio-energy are also getting continuous attention. Wind energy is non-polluting source of energy, and its mature technology and comparatively low cost make it promising and primary non-conventional energy source in India. The gross wind power capacity in the country is estimated about 49,000 MW, and a capacity of 21,264 MW up to May 2014 has been added so far through wind. Continued research and development to increase the value of forecasting power performance, reducing the uncertainties related to engineering integrity, enabling large-scale use, and minimizing environmental impact are some of the areas needing concerted efforts in wind energy. These efforts are also expected to make wind power more reliable and cost competitive with conventional technologies in the future for an environmental sustainability.

There are three urgencies in the UK climate and energy policies: (i) reducing greenhouse gas emissions, specifically CO₂ by 80 %, by 2050, (ii) decreasing fossil fuel consumption especially built environment sector and (iii) reducing dependence on imported energy. Buildings account for 40 % of the total non-transport energy consumption both in UK and EU; therefore, reduction of energy consumption in the built environment will make a significant contribution in meeting these targets. On average, UK residents spend between 2.7 and 8.4 % on gas and electricity bills. Water bills also account for 0.5–3 % of their income. These scenarios make it important to consider green building design and reduce the social, environmental and economic impacts building are creating on us. Sustainability through green building design should encompass “cradle-to-grave analysis”. Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings. BREEAM was launched in 1990 and sets the standard best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation. The assessment uses measures of performance against established benchmarks. This chapter will highlight interesting features of achieving sustainable development through green building design.

Most developed countries have set an objective to reduce their energy consumption and green house gas emissions. In most countries, the building sector is the largest energy consumer. This sector offers a significant potential for improved energy efficiency through the use of high-performance insulation and energy-efficient systems. For existing buildings, renovation has a high priority in many countries, because these buildings represent a high proportion of energy consumption and they will be present for decades to come. Several studies have shown that the best way to reduce the energy consumption in buildings remains the reduction of heat losses through the envelope. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in the highly insulating materials such as aerogels. Due to their highly insulating characteristics, aerogels are becoming one of the most promising materials for building insulation. Although the cost of aerogel-based materials remains high for cost-sensitive industries such as building industry, this cost is expected to decrease in the following years as a result of the advancement in the aerogel production technologies as well as the large-scale material production leading to lower unit costs. In this study, a brief review on aerogel applications in buildings is presented. Some examples of opaque aerogel-based materials and translucent aerogel-based systems are illustrated. Then, a new insulating rendering based on silica aerogels is presented. Its impact on energy performance for different houses is examined.

The increasing level of greenhouse gas emissions and the rise in fuel prices are the main reasons for efforts to effectively use various sources of renewable energy. One of the effective ways to reduce the consumption of fuel is by using thermal energy storages. The use of a latent heat storage (LHS) system using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and has the advantages of high-energy storage density and isothermal nature of the storage process. Nowadays, for using lightweight materials in buildings, architects need lightweight thermal storages, hence the use of PCMs started. In this chapter, the authors discuss the benefits of using PCMs as thermal mass instead of the common thermal mass. Next, the characteristics of PCMs, their categories, and building applications that can use PCMs as thermal mass are discussed. Finally PCMs can provide benefits for lightweight buildings as thermal mass for reducing building loads and fuel consumption.

Renewable energy sources are time-dependent in nature and the effective utilization of devices based on renewable energy requires appropriate energy storage medium to commensurate the mismatch between energy supply and demand. Solar energy is the primary source of energy among renewable energy sources which can be used for a wide variety of electrical and thermal applications. Intermittent and unpredictable nature of solar energy generally necessitates a storage medium in between that stores energy whenever is available in excess and discharges energy whenever it is inadequate. Therefore, the storage of thermal energy becomes necessary in order to meet the larger energy demand and to achieve high efficiency. Thermal energy storage using latent heat-based phase change materials (PCM) tends to be the most effective form of thermal energy storage that can be operated for wide range of low-, medium-, and high-temperature applications. This chapter explains the need, desired characteristics, principle, and classification of thermal energy storage. It also summarizes the selection criteria, potential research areas, testing procedures, possible application, and case studies of PCM-based thermal energy storage system.

In order to restrain the trend of present fossil fuel consumption, latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) using phase change material (PCM) has been received a common interest among scientists as it has high energy storage capacity. In this chapter, LHTS system and their applications for solar thermal power generation and building application have been discussed. The prospect of LHTS in reducing present fossil fuel consumption also has been demonstrated. Moreover, the recent development of PCM has been reported for practical LHTS application.

With rapidly growing energy demand and concerns over energy security and environment, researchers worldwide are exploring hard to deploy renewable energy sources. Development of economical biofuel at sufficiently large scale may provide major breakthrough in this direction, with strong impact on sustainability. More importantly, environmental benefits may also be achieved by the utilization of renewable biomass resources, which could help the biosphere in longer time. This chapter reviews the availability and bioenergy potentials of the current biomass feedstock. These include the following: (i) food crops such as sugarcane, corn and vegetable oils, classified as the first-generation feedstocks, and environmental and socio-economic barriers limiting its use; (ii) second-generation feedstocks involving lignocellulosic biomass derived from agricultural and forestry residues and municipal waste followed by constraints for their full commercial deployment. Key technical challenges and opportunities of the lignocellulosic biomass-to-bioenergy production are discussed in comparison with the first-generation technologies. (iii) The potential of the emerging third-generation biofuel from algal biomass is also reviewed.

Biofuels are produced from living organisms or from metabolic by-products (organic or food waste products). Fuel must contain over 80 % of renewable materials in order to be considered as biofuels. Biomass is carbon dioxide neutral, and its sustainable use minimizes the seasonal variation and pollutants emission into the air, rivers, and oceans. This energy plays an important role in the replacement of renewable energy resources for fossil fuels over next several decades. Enormous range of biomass is processed to produce bioenergy biologically, thermochemically, and biochemically. In developing countries such as India, biomass is the primary source of bioenergy. Global climate change policies would overcome many barriers to secure the future of biomass and indirectly biofuels. Due to social and economic benefits, biomass is considered as a deserving alternative for sustainable development.

The present communication highlights the evolution of biofuels while giving prior attention to next-generation biofuels from lignocellulosic wastes. Both biochemical (chemicals, enzymes, and fermentative microorganisms) and thermochemical (heat and chemical) processes are addressed. For biochemical processes, topics related to the pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation steps as well as process integration are also discussed. For the thermochemical processes, research topic such as process development and process analysis will be dealt with. Important R&D technical aspects, economic assessment of available technologies, limitations of certain technological approaches, etc., will also be discussed in the present communication.

Biogas is a renewable energy source with different production pathways and various excellent opportunities to use. Biogas refers to a gas produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) or fermentation of organic matter including manure, sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, biodegradable waste, energy crops, or other biodegradable feedstock. Biogas is comprised primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. In this review, we discussed the worldwide status of biogas production, history of the biogas digester, classification of biogas digester, and their advantages and disadvantages. The government policies on the use of kitchen-waste-based digesters and the social and environmental effects of the digesters are also discussed. More subsidies need to be given and more initiatives need to be taken by the government. The government has many policies for biogas digester plants; however, lack of proper awareness among people inhibits the adaptation of technology.

The per capita primary energy consumption in India has been increasing and there is a great scope for growth to reach somewhere closer to the leading economies such as the United States, Russia, and China. India’s primary energy consumption is still dominated by coal with 54.5 % followed by oil (29.5 %), natural gas (7.8 %), hydro (5 %), renewables (2 %), and nuclear (1.2 %). India being one of the leading emerging economies requires plenty of energy to keep the pace of its economic growth. India’s economic development should be driven by green energy, with desirable level of environment protection and ecological preservation. Along with the renewable sources of energy, natural gas is considered to be the fuel for green and sustainable developments in India. The outcomes of green economy are green production, green marketing, green transport, green housing, green electricity, and green consumption. Current scenario suggests that natural gas could be one of the most preferred greener fuel by 2030 in India. Some of the enabling factors likely to drive gas based sustainable economy in India are: higher domestic production, import of equity gas, import of relatively cheaper shale gas (in the form of LNG) from the USA, import of dry gas through pipeline from central Asia, development of regasification infrastructure in India, and development of fully functional national gas grid.

Energy is essential for the sustenance of life. Also energy and the economic growth of a nation are interlinked. Energy security of a country entails optimum utilization of indigenous and those sources of energy to which a nation can have access. Hydropower is an important and an economically competitive source of electricity. In India, hydro projects up to 25 MW capacities have been categorized as small hydro power projects (SHPs) and the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy (MNRE) is responsible for their construction. The technology for the SHP is fully indigenized. SHPs though economical and less environmentally degrading, suffer from cascading due to a number of plants in tandem, may result into poorer quality of water and may have hydrology impacted at the sub-basin level. India has a potential of about 20,000 MW through SHP, and as such, it has been declared as one of the thrust areas. The Ministry is encouraging the development of small hydro projects both in the public and in private sector. There are about 25 equipment manufacturers of SHP turbine in the country with estimated capacity of about 400 MW per year.

Considering social (e.g. energy security), economic, and environmental issues associated with reliance on finite fossil fuel resources for energy generation, hydrogen (based on renewable energy and energy efficiency) is seen by many scientists and economists as a sustainable solution that can help the end users of energy meet their future supply requirements as well as greenhouse gas and other emission reduction targets. While diversity of renewable energy resources is the key advantage of these alternatives, their intermittency and unpredictability have to be addressed by complementing them with proper energy storage options such that these resources can be reliably employed to power stationary and mobile applications uninterruptedly as required. Hydrogen energy systems as reviewed in this chapter can play a strong energy storage role in conjunction with renewable energy resources, particularly in applications with long-term (e.g. in stand-alone stationary applications with highly variable seasonal input of renewables, central grids, or microgrids) and/or long-range (i.e. in automotive applications) energy storage requirements. The main components of a hydrogen energy system include hydrogen generation arrangement; hydrogen storage; distribution and delivery systems (long or short distance); and the means of converting the chemical energy of hydrogen into a desirable form of energy (e.g. electricity) for end consumers. Latest research and development related to these elements are discussed in this chapter.

The energy demand in India is growing at a very fast rate, the present energy generation could not be able to keep pace with this increasing demand with energy shortage of 6.2 % and peak shortage of 2.3 %. To address the increasing gap between demand and supply, there is an urgent need to bridge the gap through energy efficiency and integration of renewable energy in the energy mix of the country. This paper presents a new concept in Indian building sector which addresses the energy efficiency through Trigeneration technology. A gas engine with natural gas is used to produce power, and the waste heat for producing cooling and heating through Vapor Absorption Machine (VAM) and hot water recovery from low temperature (LT) jacket water respectively. This increases the efficiency up to 85 % or even more as compared to the conventional methods of power production. The present paper discusses one such case study on a pilot project implemented under the Indo-German Energy Program. The pilot project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and is the first project completed successfully under International Climate Initiative (IKI) of BMUB in India. This paper presents the information on the techno-economics of the pilot project at New Delhi.

Energy sustainability is one of the most vital factors for the growth of any nation as well as global mankind. With exponentially increasing energy demand and concerns for carbon emission/climate change, it is inevitable to pave a pathway for energy production, which takes care of ever-increasing energy requirements as well as provides clean energy resources. Though there are concerns related to the safety of nuclear reactors and safe treatment of the nuclear waste, nuclear energy is still one of the most clean energy sources in terms of carbon emission with large availability of fuels to run nuclear power plants. Thus, nuclear energy has strong potential to fill the present gap between need and supply and to provide energy sustainability. This chapter explores the possibility of achieving energy sustainability through nuclear energy along with the possible challenges in this direction.