Renewable Energy Based Solutions

The sustainability, innovateability and environmental protection are among the most unprecedentedly discussable topics for human and living creatures’ maintenance in the world. The more is the anthropogenically activities the more became each one of these subjects scientifically, economically, socially, industrially and politically. The basic elements for these topics and activities are the energy in the forms of renewable sources, climate change and especially their impacts on precious fresh water resources. Each one of these subjects deserves detailed informative and knowledgeable assessments first on the scientific bases, but their interactive assessment is presented in this chapter from human, engineering and climate change as well as variability points of views.

The world’s urban population has multiplied more than ten times during the last 100 years and within the next decade, there will be more than 500 cities with population exceeding a million people, in addition to many ‘megacities’ with populations exceeding 20 million.

Collaborations and co-creations within the “Holy Triangle of Science, Technology and Industry” have been governing the unprecedented progress in each and every part of the value chain of the photovoltaic solar energy conversion sector since the first discovery of the photovoltaic effect in 1839 by French physicist Alexander Edmond Becquerel (Becquerel in C R 9:561–567, 1839). Intentionally or accidentally discovered effects leading to converting solar energy directly to electrical energy were initiated innovation cycles in the photovoltaic power industry aimed at delivering workable, economically feasible products to serve end users. Despite the growing interest in photovoltaic conversion, the level of scientific understanding of interaction between light and matter had been somewhat unclear up to the end of nineteenth centuries. The frontline of scientific and technological developments in the field of converting solar energy directly to electrical energy were pushed forward continuously in the early twentieth century, with the better understanding of light and matter interaction combined with the discovery of the electron and nucleus. Despite the low converting efficiencies, scientist, technologists and entrepreneurs kept their faith in the emergence of a commercially feasible device to convert solar energy to electricity in the first half of twentieth century. At the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, the Bell Telephone Company engaged in controlling the properties of semiconductors by introducing impurities for silicon rectifiers and they discovered that illumination of a p-n heterojunction constructed between silicon containing gallium impurities and lithium creates a current in the external circuit. Following this observation, the innovation ecosystem at Bell laboratories surrounding fundamental research and development, technological progress as well product development focused their effort to improve the properties of silicon semiconductors and fabricating a solar cell based on silicon p-n junctions. In 1954 they designed a “solar battery” by serial connection of a solar cell to power the radio transmitter (Chapin et al. in J Appl Phys 25(5):676–677, 1954). Since then the extensive basic research and technological development efforts have been offering innovative solutions for photovoltaic conversion in efficiency, stability and manufacturing cost to compete with conventional power production technologies as well as other clean energy technologies. The progress in the each corner of the holy triangle follow complex and evolutionary road maps and the parameters of solar cells, modules and systems have being improved using innovative materials, devices, technologies for solar power sector different combinations. The emerging and novel technologies have been advancing in the technology readiness level (TRL) index from the blue sky research level (TRL1) to the system demonstration over the full range of expected conditions level (TRL9). This work aims to summarize the relationships in the holy triangle of science, technology and industry in the quest to convert solar energy into electricity since the first discovery of the photovoltaic effect in 1839 (Becquerel in C R 9:561–567, 1839).

Today, the energy transition is also showing its effects on electrical energy systems. Electricity generation from renewable energy sources is increasing rapidly. Advancing technology and developments in electrical power generation have revealed the concept of smart grid. Smart grid applications will play a key role in the change of the current electricity distribution network. The intermittent nature of electrical energy generated from renewable energy sources and structural differences cause some difficulties in power network integration. In this chapter, the structure and development possibilities of smart grids are first introduced. Then, electrical problems that may be encountered after the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid are defined and potential solutions are presented. Finally, information is given regarding smart grid management solutions.

Renewable energy is the energy that makes use of the continuous natural processes for its production and renews itself in a shorter time than the depletion rate of the resources it uses for production. The types of renewable energies include geothermal energy, wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric, hydrogen, wave and biomass energy. Zero energy buildings (ZEB or nZEB) are highly energy efficient buildings with zero net energy consumption, meaning that the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site or by renewable energy sources offsite, using technologies such as heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels. This definition is also used by the European Parliament Building Energy Performance Directive (EPBD) [Directive (EU) 2010/31/EU]. The directive enforces the buildings built after December 31, 2020 to be zero-energy buildings (ZEB) or nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB). They should be cooled or heated according to their purpose by renewable sources. The purpose of calculating energy performance in buildings is to determine the annual total energy demand given in net primary energy corresponding to energy for heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and lighting. Therefore, high-energy consuming buildings should be supported with renewable energy. For residential buildings, most Member States aim to have a primary energy use of no higher than 50 kWh/(m2 y). In our country, the energy performance of buildings is determined using the calculation method within the scope of the National Energy Performance of Buildings Method and using BEP-TR software. The method followed in this study is based on BEP-TR software and calculations. The Turkish Standards Institute study method (TSE/TSI) begins with the determination of the reference specifications for each building type, using the data. The share of renewable energies in the total energy supply is required for the net zero energy building concept, taking into account active systems such as photovoltaic panels, hot water collectors and heat pumps. As a result, net zero energy buildings, supported by renewable energy, have begun to be implemented in Turkey. The location of the buildings, the number and density of the building occupants provide a useful flexibility to reduce the performance deficiencies that may be experienced due to the design features and to achieve the nZEB targets. The European Union took the first step with the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (2002/91/EC), EPBD. The directive, which was revised in 2010 (2010/31/EU), introduced concepts such as “reference building”, “optimum cost” and “nearly zero energy buildings”. The last revision of EPBD was approved in 2018. The new revision includes the strengthening of indoor environment quality, proper maintenance and effective inspection and setting more ambitious energy efficiency targets in line with the opinions of the stakeholders and REHVA. Encouraging the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and smart technologies (smart meters, building automation and control systems) to ensure efficient operation of buildings, energy storage and the definition of “smart readiness indicator” that shows how ready the buildings are for compliance with the distribution network, requests the renovation of existing and old buildings. The European Commission proposed a revision of the directive (COM (2021) 802 final) in 2021. It upgrades the existing regulatory framework to reflect higher ambitions and more pressure on climate and social action, while providing EU countries with the flexibility needed to take into account the differences in the building stock across Europe. Digitalization is a good opportunity to increase the share of various renewable energy sources to meet the demand for heating and cooling. Approximately 19% of Europe's heating and cooling consumption is met by renewable energy (mostly solid biomass) (EEA 2018). Renewable energy technologies used to heat and cool buildings can be placed in individual units of small capacity or in DHC, district heating and cooling systems with larger capacities. Digitization, by optimizing implementation, planning and business models, reduces the total cost of decarbonization by connecting heat and cooling device manufacturers, users, local stakeholders and energy markets. It is a driving force for smart buildings, smart communities, smart cities, local energy and district heating and cooling (DHC). In many buildings today, control is limited to at most one room thermostat. Even though thermostats are programmable, many building occupants do not know their existence or do not know how to do it. The benefits of digitization for heating and cooling, even the existence of technologies, are little known. However, heating and cooling are vital for comfort at home and at work. Using devices that analyze and process large amounts of data, digital technologies provide a new data layer that can be energetically and socially utilized, helping to better manage the building energy system and increase energy efficiency. For example, when digitization and electrification are used together, direct communication between the building and the main grid can be achieved, and both generation and demand sides can be optimized through some innovative approaches. “Internet of Things” solutions create greater interaction between HVAC systems and building occupants; consumers can become more aware of energy waste and make their own energy choices more consciously. Advanced HVAC technologies are actually ready for this environment; the main challenge is to show that they are economically and financially sustainable through cost–benefit analysis.

A distributed power generation with renewable energies benefits from a distributed control of the power distribution. Here, a proposal for the control of such a cellular power grid structure is made, which is named “Swarm Grid” by the author. The name refers to the swarm-like control structure, which implies no master control for the coordination of the grid components. The presentation shows details of the Swarm Grid concept. As exemplary grid components, charging stations of electric vehicles and the background of this use case are presented. First results from a related research project are also be presented, which include methods to estimate the grid’s topology from the measurements and then the calculation of voltage and current states in the determined power grid.

World electrical energy production is on a radical change for the last ten years on the supply side. Conventional fuel resources are rapidly disappearing from being primary resources for electricity production process and they are being replaced by renewable resources. In 2017, the total global electricity production was about 22,500 TWh. In the same year, total electricity produced from the renewable technologies accounted for 6270 TWh representing 27% of the total global electricity production. Presently, global use of solar energy is approximately 760 GW, wind energy 700 GW and hydroelectric power 1324 GW. During the same time span installed capacity of hydroelectric power was 31,336 MW, wind energy was 9294 MW and solar energy exceeded 7065 MW in Turkey. Turkey is strategically located at the southeastern corner of Europe, and it is experiencing the global warming and climate change effects at high levels including decreasing effects on the potentials of her renewable resources including solar radiation, hydropower, wind energy and geothermal energy. A perfect proof of the global warming is the increase in the number meteorological events. The minimum number of extreme meteorological events witnessed in Turkey was 23 in 1950, 500 extreme events were recorded in 2010 and the highest extreme meteorological number of events to this date have occurred in 2020 with almost 984. It is expected that if no steps are taken to mitigate global warming, all renewable potentials will drop considerably in the near future. Table 11 summarizes the results. The drop in hydropower is expected to be highest at about 30%, followed by solar energy with 25% and finally the wind energy at 20%. The potential drop figures given for the renewable resources are calculated from the available works in the literature and through estimates made by analyzing the statistics of the last twenty years. There needs to be experimental and theoretical studies made to find more reliable figures.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) offers flexible and decarbonised power generation and is one of the few switchable renewable technologies that can generate renewable power on demand. Today (2018), CSP only contributes 5 TWh to European electricity generation but has the potential to become an important generation asset for decarbonising the electricity sector within Europe as well as globally. This chapter examines how factors and key political decisions lead to different futures and the associated CSP use in Europe in the years up to 2050. In a second step, we characterise the scenarios with the associated system costs and the costs of the support policy. We show that the role of CSP in Europe depends crucially on political decisions and the success or failure of policies outside of renewable energies. In particular, the introduction of CSP depends on the general ambitions for decarbonisation, the level of cross-border trade in electricity from renewable sources and is made possible by the existence of a strong grid connection between the southern and northern European Member States and by future growth in electricity demand. The presence of other baseload technologies, particularly nuclear energy in France, diminishes the role and need for CSP. Assuming a favourable technological development, we find a strong role for CSP in Europe in all modelled scenarios: Contribution of 100 TWh to 300 TWh of electricity to a future European electricity system. The current European CSP fleet would have to be increased by a factor of 20 to 60 over the next 30 years. To achieve this, stable financial support for CSP would be required. Depending on framework conditions and assumptions, the amount of support ranges at the EU level from € 0.4 to 2 billion per year, which represents only a small proportion of the total support requirement for the energy system transformation. Cooperation between the Member States could further help reduce these costs.

Current energy crisis that the world is witnessing with a persistent increase in energy prices all over the globe is impacting many countries including Turkey, with energy industries inability to compete with the current demands because of the carbon sanctions a solution must be created to get rid of carbon sanctions.

Increasing recognition that environmental and social risks have economic consequences (and indeed causes) is encouraging but it is not sufficient. The action to address such risks is lagging behind. We believe economic analysis can be a powerful tool in supporting such action if it is put to good use. By good use, we mean an economic analysis that includes all factors that affect human wellbeing recognising that these are not limited to the market economy and financial returns. The risks we are now facing, like climate change, are too big for a single discipline or policy to deal with. We need to work across disciplines, ministries and businesses. We believe using a broader economic framing can help by pooling different types of data to understand most appropriate actions. As well as conceptual discussions about economic analysis, we share examples of renewable energy policy from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Turkey.

The southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries are facing rapid demographic growth, swift urbanization and significant socioeconomic development which requires new and growing needs for energy. At the same time, these countries have a high potential for utilizing renewable energy resources, especially wind and solar, as well as improving their energy use and efficiency. The Southern Mediterranean countries (limited to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt in our study) have implemented policies, programs, regulations, infrastructures and dedicated important funding to the renewable energy application. However, the region still needs to go beyond several limits that require in-depth scientific studies to come up with technical, political or managerial solutions. This chapter provides an examination of the cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation between the European Union and the Southern Mediterranean Countries in the domain of renewable energy. A review of the participation of these countries in programs such ERANETMED, H2020, and PRIMA highlighted the existence of research centers of excellence, individual expertise and large networks of collaboration. Our results draw attention to the need for implementation of more transnational collaborative research and innovation programs in the field renewable energy as a driver to the southern Mediterranean countries energy transition.

In this chapter, hybrid energy systems (HES) configuration consisting of photovoltaic (PV) and biogas generator supported by natural gas (NG) is proposed for a hazelnut processing plant (HPP) in Ordu province of Turkey. Four different scenarios namely Scenario A, B, C and D are selected in order to conduct technical and economic analysis considering change in government incentives before and after 2021. Net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) is selected as main economic metrics to estimate optimum HES design. Scenario D has the lowest NPC and COE values, which is $1.46 million (M) and $0.017/kWh, respectively. Scenario D has also the lowest carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, which is estimated, as 384,000 kg/year. Renewable fraction (RF) in Scenario B is 81.6% because electricity generation is only supplied from PV panel. The second highest RF, which is 72.1%, is found in Scenario D. In Scenario A, the price of lignite coal (LC) leads to the highest NPC and COE, and CO2 and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions in this scenario is higher than that of scenarios B and C.

In most rural areas of developing countries, people do not have direct access to basic needs such as electricity, freshwater, or air conditioning (heating or cooling), etc. Trigeneration systems offer great potential in terms of ability to deliver these essential communal needs at once since a variety of different systems are available to address the specific needs of the people. However, electricity production from conventional fossil fuels is becoming more expensive every day due to limited resources as well as causing undesirable environmental and health issues. Integrating renewable energy sources into trigeneration systems will help to tackle these problems and support sustainable development. In this regard, this chapter will review trigeneration systems and their application to different communal needs, with an emphasis on examples of renewable integrated trigeneration systems for electricity, freshwater, and air-conditioning requirements.

The energy crisis experienced in the 1970s showed that meeting the energy requirements mostly from fossil fuels could adversely affect our lives. While the energy requirements are mostly met from fossil fuels, their harmful effects on the environment are also becoming more evident by each day. As a result, different energy sources were started to be researched to diversify the supply of energy and to prevent the pollution of the environment. Waves are a promising and abundant source of renewable energy that was started to be studied during the days of the energy crisis. Many different types of wave energy converters have been designed so far, which are at different levels of development. Designing a wave energy converter that will satisfy many requirements in a very harsh environment is a complex process. Many factors should be analyzed, such as the geometry and the size of the float, the type of the power take-off system and its dynamics, the mooring system, and the environmental conditions. Thus, the wave energy converters are briefly introduced and the analyses that are carried out during the design process are explained.

Driven by global warming, transition to zero carbon economy has become of utmost importance. This transition needs to focus on all renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wind, biomass, hydro, geothermal, etc., and energy efficiency measures will also play a key role in this transition. Among the renewable energy resources, geothermal is probably the least developed, but can provide a good source of meeting baseload energy needs both for electricity generation and heat supply. The energy policy of the Turkish government has two main priorities, namely (a) maximizing exploitation of domestic primary energy resources and (b) securing sufficient, reliable, and affordable energy to a growing economy in an environmentally sustainable manner. There is a supportive legal framework to facilitate geothermal development. Geothermal resources in Turkey are used for power production, as well as for space heating and tourism related applications. The installed capacity of geothermal power plants in Turkey has grown from 15 MWe in 2006 to 1613 MWe by end of 2020. However, capacity development has mainly taken place in the Aegean region, namely the Menderes and Gediz Grabens. The target is to reach 2000 MWe geothermal power capacity by 2023 and even up to 4000 MWe by 2030. The key research question of this chapter is: how can Turkey attract new investments and further increase the installed capacity in geothermal for power generation and direct use? Thereupon, this chapter will assess the current situation of geothermal in Turkey and point out the potential and the geographical hotspots, which should be focused on to further develop geothermal use. The literature on investments in geothermal power will also be assessed, leading to an estimate of the reasonable installed capacity per drilled production well. A simple business model needed for profitable investments will be discussed. Financial support in the form of a risk-sharing mechanism (RSM), which has recently been launched in Turkey will be crucially important.

Turkey is a country with all kinds of renewable resources due to its geography and the adventure of generating electricity from these resources has the potential to be a case study. The first period of power generation applications, which started with the coal-fired “Silahtarağa Thermal Power Plant” that was opened in 1914 to meet Istanbul’s electricity needs, continued with small sized water and coal fired power plants.

The reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) and Carbon foot prints are the main objectives decided by the organizations worldwide working for the clean and pollution free environment and sustainability for the future generations. This can only be achieved if the dependency on fossil fuels is reduced and the clean energy is used instead. The usage of renewable energy resources is the need of the time. In this chapter we discuss the bioenergy technologies and how the biowaste produced in the universities can be successfully utilized to produce clean energy. The educational institutes such as colleges and universities can not only be used to educate the future generations regarding the sustainability but in fact can put their contribution in clean and renewable energies by research and development. The concept of Green Campuses can be used as a practical implementation of new clean technologies besides research and development of the new renewable energy resources. The current engineering technologies that can be used to convert campus food waste into bio energy are provided for the production of bio energy that can help the university campus reduce the dependency on the fossil fuels by using the produced energy not only for making food for students but as a source of fuel for on campus transportation, electric and heating requirements. Also, different case studies have been presented from the campuses around the world regarding production of bio energy and conversion of this energy into electricity and gas using Anaerobic Digesters and combined heat and power plants. These case studies show the effectiveness of the bioenergy production concept implementations.

Renewable energy sources are sources that have unsteady, fluctuating and intermittent availability due to their nature. Those are the main challenge in the effective use of renewables. Energy storage (ES) techniques have a tremendous potential to solve challenges in the use of renewables. The scope of this chapter is to introduce the ES methods in renewable energy applications to readers with practical examples. This chapter, first, briefly answers the questions: what energy storage is, why we need ES, and what the ES methods are. This is followed by introducing the ES methods used in renewable energy applications. Recent developments in the area of ES and their practical applications are discussed.

In this Chapter, a low temperature geothermal resource with the assist of a solar pond for in industrial processes is examined. The main aim behind this study is to produce cheap and abundant thermal energy with clean, renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal energiesies. The considered system comprises three separate geothermal sources, each with a mass flow rate of 0.75 kg/s and outlet temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 ℃ and a solar pond with dimensions of 20 m × 20 m × 2.4 m. The temperature of the heat storage zone (HSZ) of the solar pond is assumed to be 80 ℃. The thermal water, whose temperature is raised while passing through the heat exchanger placed in the HSZ, is stored in a tank as the process water. Thus, fast and abundant process water could be obtained. Performance evaluation of the system is made with Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. As a result, it is seen that the low temperature geothermal water temperature can be easily increased with the thermal energy stored in the solar pond.

In this chapter, thermal energy storage performances of different models of insulated solar pond are analyzed. Solar ponds were built on the ground in cylindrical and rectangular types. The cylindrical solar pond has a surface area of 2.0096 m2 and a depth of 1.90 m. The rectangular shaped solar pond has a surface area of 4 m2 and a depth of 1.5 m. The thicknesses of the heat storage zones (HSZ) of the cylindrical and rectangular model solar ponds are determined as 80 and 90 cm, respectively. Similarly, the thicknesses of the non-convection zones (NCZ) called the thermal insulation one are 60 and 80 cm, and the thicknesses of the upper convective zone (UCZ) were 10 and 20 cm. Thus, thanks to three different regions of the solar pond (HSZ, NCZ and UCZ), the sun rays pass through UCZ and NCZ and are absorbed in the storage area and stored in the form of heat. Thus, heat loss of the thermal energy stored in the HSZ is significantly reduced thanks to the non-convection zone (NCZ) and sidewall insulations. Thus, the storage performance of the solar pond has been improved. Temperature distributions throughout the layers of the ponds are measured experimentally. Thus, energy storage performances of solar ponds have been calculated. As a result, it is seen that much more thermal energy can be stored with the increase in the surface area rather than the shape of the pond. Moreover, industrial process water can be produced and stored at low temperatures from solar energy. Consequently, it has been observed that solar ponds are one of the important renewable energy systems for thermal energy storage.

Thermal Energy storage systems (TES) are beneficial in controlling the “time” of energy consumption. This characteristic provides the capability of shaving peak loads in energy plants and district energy systems. Cold TES can offset peak demand from chillers in cooling plants. The cold TES in the district cooling system of the University of Idaho (UI) discharges cooling during the heat pick of summer days to assist chillers in satisfying the cooling load. Then, the cold TES gets charged after business hours to be prepared for the next day. The energy and exergy analysis of the single-phase, water-based, cold TES at the UI are calculated when it is operating with the full capacity and internal temperatures within 7–15.5 °C throughout the summer months. The TES is modeled and simulated by TRNSYS in parallel with the analytical study. The overall energy efficiency is calculated for 75% and the exergy efficiency for 20%. The stratification of the TES is studied to conclude that the upper half of the TES has the highest exergy efficiency in the TES and steps to maximize their usage should be taken without reducing the overall capacity. The outcomes are leads for finding the most effective operation hours including charging and discharging of the cold TES.

In this Chapter, a wind-based multigeneration system is designed, developed and analyzed. The proposed system is evaluated through energy and exergy approaches. For the potential implementation of the system, a case study is conducted by considering the needs and wind data of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. The excess power occurring during the energy off-peak time of the region is utilized to compress and store air into underwater balloons. If the wind speed is not sufficient enough to provide enough energy, the energy stored in compressed air is extracted via gas turbines. Thermal waste energy occurring during the air compression process is stored and introduced to compressed air before the expansion process to increase the carried energy further while decreasing the losses throughout the integrated system. The thermal energy is also partially utilized in a thermal water desalination unit to produce fresh water from seawater for the region. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated through various parametric studies. The study results show that the proposed system is capable of providing 51.36 MW of net electric power while operating with overall energy and exergy efficiencies of 39.49% and 37.62%, respectively. Furthermore, the system offers 9818 tons of fresh water for the region on a monthly basis.

In this chapter, a solar-based multigeneration system is examined in terms of heating, cooling and electricity generation capacity, as well as energy and exergy efficiencies. Through this sun-powered system, multiple useful outputs are obtained and utilized for a sustainable community. Moreover, two molten storage tanks with higher and lower temperatures are used to minimize energy imbalances in the system. While the energy required for the system is supplied from the solar tower, electricity and heat are produced to the community with the Brayton-Rankine combine cycle. Furthermore, the desired cooling is obtained with the absorption refrigeration system powered by the rejected heat from the Brayton cycle. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are found to be 69.33% and 41.81%, respectively.

This chapter responds to the EU goals of decarbonization with heat pumps powered by renewable energy sources leading to fifth-generation district energy systems (5DE). The dilemma of low-exergy (low-temperature) district heating systems with renewable and waste thermal sources and the temperature-incompatibility of the current comfort heating equipment demanding higher supply temperatures is addressed. Until innovative, low-exergy equipment are developed, various methods of optimum temperature peaking and existing equipment oversizing are presented. Central temperature peaking at the plant site and the individual prosumer buildings are compared. Four different temperature peaking methods are discussed concerning their total CO2 emissions responsibility, including embodied emissions. These are; 1-temperature peaking with heat pumps with or without cascading (tandem heat pumps) powered with renewable energy and backed up with grid power, 2-photo-voltaic-thermal solar panels (PVT) in tandem, 3-deep geothermal wells, wherever available, and 4-on-site wind turbines coupled to heat pumps. Four main CO2 emission components are recognized. The first one is the direct CO2 emissions due to backup power demand from the grid by the heat pumps and their ancillaries. The second component is the emissions responsibility due to exergy destructions from exergy mismatches. The remaining two components are embodied emissions of the peaking equipment and the greenhouse emissions equivalence of refrigerant leakages from heat pumps, respectively. A case study is presented, which involves an individually optimized solar prosumer building with an optimum mix of heat pump oversizing and commercial radiator oversizing. Results show that CO2 emissions responsibility-based optimum mix compared to economy-based optimum mix reduces the responsibility by 30%. This analysis was repeated by cascading two smaller heat pumps instead of a single larger one for increasing the overall COP. This change further improved the solution by 4% points. Results have also been compared to a modified case where cascaded heat pumps are coupled with low-exergy heat pipe type of radiators. This coupling resulted in much more improvement by an additional 52% points. The paper concludes that the key is low-exergy heating and cooling equipment. Then the fifth-generation district energy systems with supply temperatures as low as 320 K (47 °C) and return temperatures as low as 300 K (27 °C) will be possible with renewable and waste energy sources if the one-way distance between the plant and the district is not more than 1.6 × 10–5 km/kW times the thermal capacity of the district raised to a power of 1.5.

Geothermal power is one of the most significant green energy resources as it generates beneficial productivities such as power, heating, and cooling due to its clean and reliable nature. The main aim of this chapter is to design and study the geothermal power-based integrated plant for the aim of produces power, hydrogen, ammonia, and heating. In this regard, a comprehensive effectiveness evaluation is performed with the energetic and exergetic performances viewpoints. Furthermore, to determine the irreversibility, the exergy destruction rate of the system components is also explored. On the other hand, the system in this proposed chapter consists of two flash and two separators, high- and low-pressure steam turbines, organic Rankine cycle, PEM electrolyzer, and ammonia reactor. In addition, the energetic and exergetic performances of the single generation, cogeneration, trigeneration, and multigeneration options are compared. Finally, the proposed integrated geothermal power plant produces 0.0245 and 0.2119 kgs−1 of hydrogen and ammonia. Also, the total power generation capacity is computed as about 22 MW. Furthermore, the energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the whole combined model are 0.4213 and 0.3706, respectively.

CO2 capture and utilization are effective techniques to use CO2 for different purposes to reduce the impact of CO2 emission on the environment. Two main sectors that dominate the CO2 emission are electricity and heat production and transport. The concept of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) for renewable fuel synthesis contributes to decreasing CO2 emission; besides, the CCUS provides to produce renewable fuel to be used in the sectors. There have been many recent academic and industrial research efforts to implement CCUS into heat, power, and transport systems. Although this concept shows very good performance in terms of environment, there is still very low knowledge about the thermodynamic performance of the process employed in this concept. The mathematical modeling approaches are an effective tool to understand the performance under variable working conditions. In this chapter, a brief introduction to the concepts of CO2 capture, separation, and utilization is presented. The basic mathematical modeling approaches to be applied for CO2 capture and separation techniques are discussed systematically. Moreover, two main components, which are membrane reactor and CO2 electrolyzer, are considered in this chapter for fuel synthesis through CO2 utilization.

The capabilities of hydrogen as a key role in the upcoming transition to a more sustainable green energy future have increased rapidly in recent years and gained interest globally. COVID-19 Outbreak drew attention to how important it is for us as societies to have Clean Air, Water, Food And re-established consumers behavior regarding the consumption of energy which pointed the attention at hydrogen Starting from the first meeting to fight climate change until today, the biggest steps and strategies taken against global warming focusing on hydrogen cost-reduction technologies and Carbon-based industries where hydrogen is a promising solution to transform them into Emission-free industries. This chapter reviews the most recent publications and papers on green hydrogen, its applications, and the challenges that faces us as societies to empower green hydrogen utilization in a transition to a carbon-free future, and how it can play a vital role in the energy transition with Europe latest hydrogen-based strategies to become a climate-neutral continent. And how hydrogen and its application will lead the energy transition to renewables in Turkey.

Transitioning to 100% renewable energy systems is an ambitious yet critical necessity to dramatically reduce emissions and slow down the planet’s persistent warming. However, renewable energy sources are not constant, and their nature can be sporadic. Therefore, it is essential to find adequate storage strategies for renewable energy sources. With renewable power-to-hydrogen, excess renewable energy can be stored in hydrogen form for use when the sources are not available. In hydrogen form, energy can be kept for longer durations and distributed to longer distances than in electricity. The use of hydrogen could be for power generation in the industry, transportation, heating or cooling buildings, and many other sectors. Furthermore, renewable power-to-hydrogen can accelerate the transition to 100% renewable-based, decarbonized energy systems, and economies and increase the grid reliability and flexibility. This study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the current status and future prospects of renewable power-to-hydrogen towards a 100% renewable energy-based future with this motivation. Global warming potential, acidification potential, the social cost of carbon, price, and thermodynamic efficiencies of the three most common renewable power-to-hydrogen methods are comparatively assessed. The strengths and weaknesses of each technique are discussed, and future research directions are provided. Besides, the future prospects of renewable power-to-hydrogen are provided in terms of its use in buildings, industry, and transportation.

The European Union (EU) started in 1975 a new R&D programme on Non-Nuclear Energy. One of its components was Hydrogen. The programme was decided by the Council of Ministers of the EU and the European Parliament. The first 4-year programme was associated with a budget of some 100 million €, or ECU as the € was called in those days. It was followed by several others, each of a duration of 4 years.

Energy is one of the most significant factors that has shaped history from the past to the present. Given the struggle against global warming and climate change, two of the world’s most pressing issues, it is predicted that energy will remain one of the most significant elements shaping the future. Global warming and climate change become a concern for all nations, regions, continents, areas, and industries near the end of the twentieth century. Many nations, fields, and industries have signed protocols, norms, and agreements to prevent global warming and climate change. Although the marine sector is likewise interested in this topic, significant progress has only lately been made. With the EU Green Deal, the EU established a zero-emission objective for all sectors by 2050, drawing all attention to Europe in the marine sector. In order to meet the zero-carbon emissions objective, all industries have agreed on two major options. These are renewable energy and carbon-free fuels named clean energy. The use of carbon-free fuels stands out, because of the significant energy consumption in the aviation and maritime industries.

Energy demand is increasing as a result of population expansion and the growing need for higher energy consumption in developing countries to improve living standards. Currently, the world is heavily dependent on fossil fuels to fulfill its energy needs however, these resources are finite, cause significant air pollution, and poses a threat to the environment. Hydrogen as an energy carrier might be an alternative that has the potential to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. Biomass is an abundant, renewable, and sustainable energy source that can produce affordable clean energy that offers a significant pollution reduction. Hydrogen can be produced from different types of biomass using thermochemical and biochemical processes. This chapter extensively investigates the techniques used to produce hydrogen from biomass and highlights the current approaches, related methods, technologies, and resources adopted for hydrogen production. Biochemical and thermochemical methods have been extensively discussed in light of the current research trend, and the latest emerging technologies. Furthermore, factors and parameters that have a significant effect on hydrogen yield have also been researched and it has been determined that hydrogen can be a sustainable strategic alternative to fossil fuels.

Hydrogen developed on a large scale may be a critical component of the clean energy transition. Methanol, ammonia, and formic acid are among the chemical hydrides proposed for hydrogen storage. The main benefit of formic acid over ammonia and methanol as a hydrogen storage material is that it can be used at room temperature. Hydrogen can offer a clean alternative to fossil fuels. While hydrogen produces no harmful emissions during operation, developing infrastructure for storing and transporting hydrogen is challenging and costly, which requires either very high pressures or very low temperatures. The main goal of this chapter is to compare the hazards and environmental effects of hydrogen and formic acid energy carriers. In addition, two different methods of producing formic acid using carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide as raw materials are compared. More specifically, the factors that should be considered in hazard/risk assessment affecting the environment are determined. This study summarizes and compares different hazard statements and mitigation measures for hydrogen and formic acid fuels that can be used for renewable energy storage.