Search results for " RENEWABLE ENERGY"
showing 10 items of 133 documents
Electrical Power from seawave energy
2010
Current energy crisis and general concerns on environmental issues have triggered an ever increasing effort on harvesting renewable energies. Amongst renewable energy sources, sea wave energy is definitely the one that has been less utilised. This is probably caused by three reasons: i) the low energy concentration in the sea waves, at least in the sites where it is technically possible to install conversion stations: ii) the strong technical novelties that are required to extract the energy that is contained in a highly and stochastically variable motion; iii) the difficulty to find a suitable electrical system able to convert the energy contained in the motion of the sea into electrical e…
Dynamic simulation of a 4th Generation District Heating network with the presence of prosumers
2022
District Heating Network is identified as a promising technology for the decarbonization of urban areas. Thanks to the surplus of heat available from distributed renewable energy plants, a typical heat consumer of the network could become an energy producer during the day (typically referred to as “prosumer”). Models for thermal grids developed during the years usually assumed a centralized heat production. The increasing presence of prosumers will require accurate dynamic modeling to monitor the changes induced in the thermohydraulic variables of the network. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper aims at developing a model of a thermal grid with prosumers in TRNSYS environment. The model …
Mini Wind Plant to Power Telecommunication Systems: a Case Study in Sicily
2013
The ever increasing problems related to air pollution and the difficulties for power lines to reach inaccessible areas are pushing to find new solutions for powering telecommunications equipments (TLC). The renewable energy systems, although relatively expensive, have the required characteristics. The purpose of this work is to find a solution based on a low power wind turbine to serve a real telecommunication site located near Palermo, the main city of Sicily (Italy).
Analysis of Load Match in Nearly Zero Energy Buildings
2018
The concept of load matching refers to the degree of agreement or disagreement of the on-site generation with the building load profiles: it can be increased and optimised with modifications on both the energy demand and generation. In this context, the paper presents the load match analysis of a case study: a modular housing construction (it has an area of 45 m 2 and S/V ratio equal to 2.75 m −1 ) built in Messina (Italy). Moreover, in order to optimize the design of the next test module to be built, a parametric analysis was performed considering different scenarios on the generation side, to explore the effectiveness of the solutions sets used in current design and plan different solutio…
THE POTENTIAL OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES IN SICILY FOR WATER DESALINATION APPLICATIONS
2007
The interaction between intermittent renewable energy and the electricity, heating and transport sectors
2012
In a global perspective, it is essential that the world transfers from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in order to minimise climate change effects. As a part of such transition energy savings are also important, as they can decrease production costs effectively. The nature of such a change is that it has to be implemented on a local level. Energy saving technologies are placed with the demand decrease and renewable energy is typically distributed where the resources are. In some parts of the world, energy savings have resulted in a stabilisation of the energy demands, however in the world as such, demands are still increasing in buildings, transport and industry. Although the deman…
Towards Positive Energy Districts: Energy Renovation of a Mediterranean District and Activation of Energy Flexibility
2023
The paper presents the analysis of energy retrofitting, integration of renewable energy and activation of energy flexibility in a cluster of buildings in the surroundings of a port on the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Italy, with the aim of checking the potential for it to achieve the status of positive energy district (PED). The objective of this study is to improve the contemporaneity between local energy generation and energy demand and reduce CO2eq emissions by considering signals that reflect the environmental variability of the electricity grid, through flexibility solutions applied to the HVAC system. The proposed scenarios are based on the dynamic simulation of the district and anal…
State of art and economic evaluation of wave energy converters. A case study
2022
The even increasing energy demand in the world is a relevant problem for the modern society. The energy supply from fossil fuels has become a critical aspect due to the progressive reduction of reserves and political instability among the Countries. For these reasons, the exploitation of renewable energy sources is looked with a great interest. In this context, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and biomass can be successfully used through commercial technologies. Other potential renewable energy sources could have potential applications in the next future. Among these, sea wave is considered a very promising energy source, especially for small islands. In this context, the paper propones…
CFD PREDICTION OF SCALAR TRANPORT IN THIN CHANNELS FOR REVERSE ELECTRODIALYSIS
2014
Reverse ElectroDialysis (RED) is a very promising technology allowing the electrochemical potential difference of a salinity gradient to be directly converted into electric energy. Fluid dynamics optimization of the thin channels to be devoted for the RED process is still an open problem. The present preliminary work focuses on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of the flow and concentration fields in these channels. In particular three different configurations were investigated: a channel unprovided with a spacer and two different spacer (made of either overlapped filaments or woven filaments) filled channels. Two passive scalars were transported along with the water in orde…
Seawater Desalination. Conventional and Renewable Energy Processes
2009
A growing proportion of the world’s population is dependent on Seawater Desalination as a source of fresh water for both potable and civil use. One of the main drawbacks of conventional desalination technologies is the substantial energy requirement, which is facing cost increases in the global energy market. “Seawater Desalination” presents an overview of conventional and non-conventional technologies, with a particular focus on the coupling of renewable energies with desalination processes. The first section of this book presents, in a technical but reader-friendly way, an overview of currently-used desalination processes, from thermal to membrane processes, highlighting the relevant tech…