MODULE-2

RENEWABLE
ENERGY
RESOURCES
 Evolution of energy source
Wood fires

Coal

Petroleum

Natural gas

2
 Energy resources

Energy

Energy consumption of nation – index of development

Energy consumption on average per person in a year
U.S 60 barrels of oil
Bhutan or Ethoipia 0.5 barrel of oil!
3
 Classification of energy

Energy
generated continuously in nature Exhaustible and cannot be
and are inexhaustible replenished quickly

Renewable Non-renewable
- Solar energy - Coal
- Wind energy - Petroleum
- Hydropower - LPG
- Tidal energy - Natural gas
- Ocean thermal energy - Compressed natural gas
- Geothermal energy - Nuclear energy
- Biomass energy
- Biogas
- Biofuel
- Hydrogen as fuel 4
 Renewable Energy Resources

Just as the 19th century belonged to coal and the 20th century to oil,
the 21st century will belong to the sun, the wind, and energy from within the earth.
Lester R. Brown

5
 Classification of energy

Energy
Generated continuously in nature Exhaustible and cannot be
and are inexhaustible replenished quickly

Renewable Non-renewable
- Solar energy - Coal
- Wind energy - Petroleum
- Hydropower - LPG
- Tidal energy - Natural gas
- Ocean thermal energy - Compressed natural gas
- Geothermal energy - Nuclear energy
- Biomass energy
- Hydrogen as fuel

6
Statistics of fossil fuel consumption and production

7
 Renewable resources-alternate for fossil fuels
Biomass Solar energy Wind energy

Tidal energy Hydropower energy

8
Solar energy

Ultimate source of all form of energy

Nuclear fusion reaction in sun releases

enormous energy (~1.4 kJ/s/m2) in form of
heat and light.

On global scale amount of solar energy

received in 2 weeks is equivalent all known
reserves of coal, oil and natural gas on the
earth!

9
 Problem associated with harnessing solar energy

India has 250-300 sunny days it can be potentially tapped for various
purposes.

Designing a system that can efficiently harness the diffused sunlight.

Converting solar energy to other form that be efficiently transported,

stored and used.
10
 Solar energy
Solar cooker – cooking

Solar furnace – power generation

Solar cells – production of electricity

Solar cooker
Prepared food is more nutritious due to slow heating.

Limitation
Not useful when there is little or no sunlight
direction of cooker has to adjusted to direction of
sun rays 11
Solar power plant

Used to generate electricity.

Sun rays are focused using a parabolic mirror on the

focal line of the mirror and water is circulated through it.
Cause boiling of water and produce steam. The steam
turbine runs the generator.

A temperature of 200-300 °C is attainable

Used for industrial purpose and power generation.

12
 Solar furnace

Several small mirrors arranged in parabolic fashion to

concentrate on a tower.

A temperature of about 500 °C is achievable. A 50 ha

mirror array shall produce 100 MW power.

Edison Solar plant in Mojave Desert, U.S generates

100 MW power using mirrors (2000) focused on a 100
m tall tower.

Sometimes even temperature of about 3000 °C is

attainable.

13
Solar cells
Solar cells – convert solar
energy to electricity.

Solar cells made of

semiconductor materials like
Si, Ga or doped
semiconductors like Ga-As,
CdS etc.

Upon shining light e- jumps

from valence to conduction
band and results in
production of electricity.

14
Solar cells-applications

Solar cells cluster to harness large amount of solar

energy to produce enough electricity to run street light,
irrigation pump, calculators, electronic watches,
television, cars etc.

Has no movable parts, negligible maintenance cost,

produce no pollution. But, prohibitively high initial cost.

15
 ER
VIJAYAWADA, April 9, 2016

N
R
C
O Solar boat makes its debut in State
S
EW
N

An eco-friendly solar-powered boat was launched on the

pristine waters of River Krishna
Only a handful of such boats operating on solar power in
the country. The 12-seater pontoon-shaped boat can
cruise at a speed of 7 knots for an estimated range of over
35 miles.
Solar-powered boats get their energy from the sun. Using
electric motors and storage batteries charged by solar
panels fitted to the roof, these boats can significantly
reduce or eliminate use of fossil fuels.
16
Solar Impulse 2 – A solar power aircraft
• Solar Impulse 2 without fuel.
Instead, its wings were equipped
with 17,000 solar cells that
powered propellers and charged
batteries. The plane ran on
stored energy at night.
• A plane powered by the sun's
rays landed in Hawaii after a
record-breaking five-day (118 h)
journey across the Pacific Ocean
from Japan.

17
 Advantages of solar cells
Solar energy is abundant and free

It is inexhaustible and clean

Now the cost of electricity generation by
solar cell is of the order of Rs. 300/W.
It can be used for large scale
generation of electricity in desert areas But in 2020 it is estimated to be Rs. 55/W.

Does not need any machinery and With 15% efficiency and a 30 year life, solar
moving parts cell should be able to produce electricity for
around Rs. 3/kW. At that time electricity
produced by thermal power plant and
Photo voltaic system is very durable nuclear power plant would be much higher!

It does not require any maintenance

18
Advantages of solar cells

19
WIND ENERGY

20
 Wind energy
Wind mill-wind farm
Wind’s kinetic energy converted into electricity.

Wind has energy due to its motion – kinetic

energy.

Sun is the driving force for the wind.

Kinetic energy of wind rotates the wind mill blade

which in turn rotates the generator to produce
electricity. It also drives number of machines like
water pump, flour mill etc.

A cluster of wind mills forms wind farm. It

generates large amount of electricity. 21
 Statistics of wind power
World Meteorological Organization has estimated that about 20 million
MW of wind power could be tapped worldwide.

5 countries mainly driven the wind power market: Germany (20,236 MW),
Spain (11,791), U.S (9,149), India (5860 MW) and Denmark (3,122 MW).

Ideal locations for wind farms – coastal region, open grasslands or hilly
regions etc.

Minimum wind speed required for generation of electricity is 15 km/h.

Wind potential of our country is estimated to be 46,092 MW. But, installed

capacity is around 5,860 MW. 22
 Renewable energy resources
Denmark is striving to become the world's first carbon-neutral nation

Science 27 Nov 2015: Vol. 350, Issue

6264, pp. 1020-1023.
DOI: 10.1126/science.350.6264.1020

23
Advantages and disadvantages of wind energy
Initial cost is very high, but operating cost is
negligible - cost effective.
It is cheap, clean and renewable.
It cannot be adopted in all locations.

24
HYDROPOWER ENERGY

25
Hydropower energy

Hydropower - potential energy of water converted to electrical

energy.

Turbine fixed at the bottom of the dam move with the fast
moving water which in turn rotate the generator and produce
electricity.

A minimum of 10 m height waterfall is necessary to generate

electricity.

Hydropower potential of India is estimated to be about 150,000

MW. Only 21.5% of it was utilized!

It is clean and renewable energy.

26
 Hydropower energy

Norway generates 99% of its electricity through hydropower!

Brazil, New Zealand and Switzerland produce 75% of their electricity by hydropower.

Canada is the World’s leading producer of hydroelectricity. Which operates 400

power stations with installed capacity exceeding 60,000 MW.

The World potential for hydropower is 3 million MW. We are using only 25% of
potential of hydropower.

‘Three Gorges Dam’ on Yangtze river China is the largest hydroelectric dam in the
World. It generates about 22500 MW.
27
 Advantages of hydropower energy
It is renewable and clean

About 80-90% of mechanical

energy of water is converted into
electrical energy.

Generation of electricity can be

controlled by opening or shutting
the shutter.

28
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
Huge amount of
the sun’s energy is
stored as heat in
the world’s oceans.
But temperature of
this widely
dispersed energy is
so low that we
cannot use it to
heat matter to a
high temperature.
Thus ocean’s
stored heat is low-
quality energy.

29
 Water resources

Ocean is World’s largest solar heat collector and energy storage system.

On an average day 60 million km2 of tropical seas absorbs heat equivalent to

250 billions barrels of oil.

If 1/10 of 1% of this stored solar energy is converted to electric energy, it is

equivalent to 20 times of total amount of electricity consumed in U.S. per day
30
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)

OTEC – technology which exploits natural thermal gradient

of adjoining seas for power generation.

Tropical seas are ideal for OTEC.

OTEC utilizes temperature difference between the surface

of sea and deep water (1km).

A temperature difference of 20 °C or more is required for

OTEC

31
 Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)

OTEC

Closed cycle OTEC Open cycle OTEC

32
Closed cycle OTEC

Warm sea water at surface is used to evaporate the

working fluid, NH3. The high pressure vapor runs the
turbine coupled to a generator that produce electricity.

Cold deep water is used to condense the NH 3 vapor and

cycle continues.

Closed OTEC was first developed by French physicist

J.D.Arsonval in 1881.

33
Open cycle OTEC

In open system warm sea water is working fluid.

Warm sea water is flash-evaporated in a vacuum

to produce steam which runs the turbine coupled
to a generator to produce electricity.

The steam exiting the turbine is condensed with

cold sea water pumped from ocean’s depth.

The condensed sea water provides supply of

desalinated water

34
 Drawbacks of OTEC

Due to low pressure, large size steam turbine is used.

Very large vacuum pump is needed to maintain the vacuum.

In closed system working fluid(NH3) is expensive.

Cost of the plant is high.

Severe ocean storm have to be withstood.

Corrosion of plants due to salt water.

Construction of plant is very difficult.

35
Geothermal power plant in Iceland produces electricity and heats a nearby spa called the Blue Lagoon

Geothermal Energy

36
 Geothermal energy
Harnessing the energy of the hot rocks lie beneath the
earth is called geothermal energy.

Energy of hot rocks under the earth is exploited for

generation of electricity.

There is 1°C rise in temperature for every 30-40m depth

within the earth. At a depth 3-4 km water bubbles up and at
10-15 km depth temperature is around 1000 °C.

Geothermal energy is probably generated from decaying

radioactive thorium, uranium, and potassium dispersed
throughout the Earth's interior.

Place where dry, hot rocks lie beneath the earth is termed as hot spot.

When ground water comes in contact with hot spot, high temperature and high pressure steam exists.
37
 Geothermal energy

In some places steam or hot water comes out through cracks in the form of natural
geysers. Eg. Manikaran and Kullu (in Himachal pradesh) and Sohana (in Haryana).

In absence of natural geysers geothermal energy can be exploited artificially. Through

drilled holes, cold water can be circulated via hot rocks to obtain steam or hot water
for power generation.

Geothermal energy accounts for power generation of

180 MW in U.S
370 MW in Italy
40% total energy of New Zealand

In India geothermal energy utilized in J&K and H.P

38
 Advantages of geothermal energy
Very high efficiency and low initial cost but
it is highly local resource.

It can used for heating and cooling all the

year round.

Reduce emission of greenhouse gases by

70%

Geothermal energy is odor free and clean.

It requires less complicated mechanical

devices and machinery. 39
Biomass Energy

40
Biomass and biomass energy
Solid biomass fuels
Wood logs, charcoal,
Agricultural waste
(stalks, other plant debris)
Timbering wastes
(branches, treetops & wood chips),
Animal wastes (Dung),
Aquatic plants (Kelp & water hyacinths)
Urban wastes
(paper, cardboard and other combustible materials)

anaerobic digestion or
fermentation
Conversion to gaseous
Direct burning biofuels

Biogas Liquid Biofuels

mainly CH4 Ethanol, methanol
41
 Biomass energy

Biomass – organic matter

Biomass energy or bioenergy – energy from organic

matter.

Wood is still our largest biomass energy resource

Solar energy is stored as biomass energy via

photosynthesis.

Biomass is directly burnt for cooking, warming, lighting,

heat buildings etc.
42
 Agriculture waste biomass
Agriculture waste – were burnt to meet the energy demands.
Agriculture and animal wastes
agri waste bagasse coconut shell peanut hulls

cotton stalks animal dung poultry waste fishery waste

43
 Biomass energy
Solar energy trapped by plants via
photosynthesis & converted to biomass energy.

Energy plantation (fast growing tress) –

cottonwood, poplar, non-woody herbaceous
grassed, sugarcane, sweet sorghum and sugar
beet, hyacinth, potato, cereals etc. produce
energy by burning or converted into burnable
gas or into liquid fuels.

Petro crop – rich in hydrocarbons and yield oil

like substance which can be burnt in diesel
engine eg. Europhobias, oil palms, vegetable
oil extracted from soybeans, rapeseed,
sunflowers seeds, jatropha shrubs, etc.
44
 Draw backs of biomass energy

Produce lots of smoke

Cause air pollution

Energy efficiency is less (<8%)

Burning destroy nutrients like N and P

Above draw backs - overcome by converting biomass to biogas or biofuels.

45
 Biofuels
-formed as major product when biomass is grain-based
or sugar-containing plants.
-burns clean and non-polluting
-less calorific value than petrol
-can be blended with petrol (gasohol) and used as fuel
-Gasohol - Petrol + Ethanol
-gasohol reduce CO emission in automobile exhausts

Ethanol
(CH3CH2-OH)

fermentation
Biomass
grain-based or sugar-containing
plants (sugarcane, corn and
sorghum), woody plants
Methanol (CH3-OH)
-formed as major product when biomass is woody plants
-burns clean and non-polluting
-less calorific value than petrol
-burns at low temperature than petrol which is very useful
46
 Biogas

gasification or
Biomass Biogas (mainly CH4)
anaerobic digestion

47
 Biogas
Gasification – use high temperature and an oxygen-
starved environment to convert biomass (especially Biomass
woody mass) into gas (CH4, H2 and CO).

Anaerobic (in absence of oxygen) digestion – gasification Anaerobic digestion

involves bacteria to decompose organic matter
(especially animal dung) into gas – biogas
(CH4(major), CO2, H2 and H2S)
Biogas
Anaerobic digestion depends on:
Temperature
pH
retention period
solid concentration

The most common method of energy generation from biomass is through anaerobic digestion.
48
 Biogas
Biogas – CH4 = 65%, CO2 = 32%, H2 = 1.5, N2 =1.1%, H2S = 0.3%, CO = 0.1% produced by anaerobic
degradation of animal wastes.

It is mainly useful in rural areas. And India has the

largest cattle population.

From cattle dung alone 22500 Mm3 of biogas can be

produced annually.

Advantages of biogas – non-polluting, clean & cheap, high energy efficiency, directly shifted from
plant to usage area so no storage problem, sludge left may be used as manure as nutrients are
preserved, air tight digestion/degradation avoids health hazards.

Biogas can be used for power generation (run turbine coupled generator, fuel cells etc.) and cooking.
49
 Types of biogas plants
Biogas plant types

Floating gas-holder type Fixed dome type

 it has well shaped digester tank  working principle is same as floating gas-holder
 placed under the ground  steel gas holder is replace by dome shaped roof
 digester tank is covered by steel gas holder  made of bricks and cement.
 drum floats to hold the bio-gas produced  single unit main digester
 sometime corrosion of steel gas holder
lead to leakage of biogas. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy sources promoting biogas program
50
51