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Environments
Special Issues
Renewable Energy Systems and Sources
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Renewable Energy Systems and Sources

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 22918

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. David Borge-Diez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical, Systems and Automation Engineering, University of León, 24071 Leon, Spain
Interests: energy efficiency; energy economics; renewable energy; energy simulation; energy optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jorge Juan Blanes-Peiró

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electric, System and Automatic Engineering, Universidad de Leon, Leon, Spain
Interests: energy systems; electrical systems; grid protection; optimization and renewable energy integration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Renewable Energy Systems (RES) are one of the most important solutions to improve global environmental behavior, reduce global change impact and provide global access energy. The different technologies have strongly improved during last few years and, in most cases, are a reliably solution for both thermal and electrical generation, providing a good solution to reduce the usage of fossil fuels, that have many impacts both in the environment and in the humans. Despite this, strong research and development efforts must be performed to improve RES performance and reduce environmental impact due to required raw materials or used components (i.e., lithium and other metals mining impact, recycling technologies for obsolete systems or energy storage systems improvement).

The Special Issue aims the potential authors to present research papers about the specific environmental aspects involving RES usage, especially in the next fields: (1) analysis and impact of global life cycle for RES; (2) innovative solutions for environmental protection based on RES; (3) environmental impact reduction in REs, including Life Cycle Analysis (LCA); and (4) economic, social and environmental aspects of RES.

Dr. David Borge Diez
Dr. Jorge Juan Blanes-Peiró
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • renewable energy
  • environment protection
  • Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
  • solar energy
  • wind energy
  • smart grid
  • combined heat and power
  • renewable energy sources

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3280 KiB  
Article
Optimal Sizing and Location of Co-Digestion Power Plants in Spain through a GIS-Based Approach
by Laura Álvarez-de Prado, Miguel De Simón-Martín, Ana-María Diez-Suárez, Jorge Juan Blanes-Peiró and Alberto González-Martínez
Environments 2018, 5(12), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments5120137 - 13 Dec 2018
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4978
Abstract
The promotion of the development of co-digestion power plants will be intensified in many European Union member states as the main target of the Union concerning energy generation is complete decarbonisation by 2050. This potential expansion prompts the need for optimal resources allocation [...] Read more.
The promotion of the development of co-digestion power plants will be intensified in many European Union member states as the main target of the Union concerning energy generation is complete decarbonisation by 2050. This potential expansion prompts the need for optimal resources allocation according to several techno-economical parameters, highlighting energy costs, power infrastructures access, and social and environmental aspects and restrictions. In Spain, agricultural and livestock biogas production trough co-digestion power plants is still poorly deployed, although the EU Directive 2009/28/EU stipulates that energy from bio-fuels and bio-liquids should contribute to a reduction of at least 35% of greenhouse gas emissions in order to be taken into account, and many authors agree that biogas produced from energy crops and livestock waste fulfils this criterion. Moreover, biogas can be used to upgrade gas pipelines and may have other efficient thermal uses. In this paper, through a Geographical Information System approach, eight different co-digestion mixtures have been evaluated and the most profitable ones have been optimized for the Spanish Iberian Peninsula according to the geographical distribution of the resources. Furthermore, the best locations for co-digestion power plants siting have been calculated, minimizing transport costs and considering technical, environmental and social restrictions. In contrast with other studies, this proposed approach is focused on a holistic optimization. Results show that in Spain the most feasible co-digestion mixtures are based on slurry, glycerine and animal meals, and four areas arise with an outstanding energetic potential up to 208 MW exploitable in large electrical power plants, while 347 MW can be reserved for distributed generation based on this technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Systems and Sources)
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19 pages, 3194 KiB  
Article
Electrical Consumption Profile Clusterization: Spanish Castilla y León Regional Health Services Building Stock as a Case Study
by Álvaro De la Puente-Gil, Alberto González-Martínez, David Borge-Diez, Jorge Juan Blanes-Peiró and Miguel De Simón-Martín
Environments 2018, 5(12), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments5120133 - 06 Dec 2018
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5782
Abstract
Health Services building stock is usually the top energy consumer in the Administrative sector, by a considerable margin. Therefore, energy consumption supervision, prediction, and improvement should be carried out for this group in a preferential manner. Most prior studies in this field have [...] Read more.
Health Services building stock is usually the top energy consumer in the Administrative sector, by a considerable margin. Therefore, energy consumption supervision, prediction, and improvement should be carried out for this group in a preferential manner. Most prior studies in this field have characterized the energy consumption of buildings based on complex simulations, which tend to be limited by modelisation restrictions and assumptions. In this paper, an improved method for the clusterization of buildings based on their electrical energy consumption is proposed and, then, reference profiles are determined by examining the variation of energy consumption over the typical yearly consumption period. The temporary variation has been analyzed by evaluating the temporary evolution of the area consumption index through data mining and statistical clusterization techniques. The proposed methodology has been applied to building stock of the Health Services in the Castilla y León region in Spain, based on three years of historical monthly electrical energy consumption data for over 250 buildings. This building stock consists of hospitals, health centers (with and without emergency services) and a miscellaneous set of administrative and residential buildings. Results reveal five distinct electrical consumption profiles that have been associated with five reference buildings, permitting significant improvement in the demand estimation as compared to merely using the classical energy consumption indicators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Systems and Sources)
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19 pages, 1483 KiB  
Article
Energy and Population in Sub-Saharan Africa: Energy for Four Billion?
by Kevin J. Warner and Glenn A. Jones
Environments 2018, 5(10), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments5100107 - 25 Sep 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6370
Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to several of the world’s least developed economies. Additionally, forty percent of the nearly one billion people in this region lack access to basic electricity. There are several initiatives and programs aimed at increasing electricity access, clean cooking fuel, [...] Read more.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to several of the world’s least developed economies. Additionally, forty percent of the nearly one billion people in this region lack access to basic electricity. There are several initiatives and programs aimed at increasing electricity access, clean cooking fuel, and renewable energy around the world. Economic development efforts have traditionally relied on increasing an economy’s use of fossil fuels. However, global climate change agreements and mitigation efforts are in direct contrast with this approach. As such, future development efforts must fit into the larger energy–population–climate nexus of global sustainability. Here we utilise a quantitative approach to examine three scenarios for development in sub-Saharan Africa and compare the results to nine historical examples of economic development. While no perfect development analogue was found, there are several lessons that can be learned from the last half century of efforts. We find that UN projected population growth in the region is expected to outpace non-renewable energy availability. The population of sub-Saharan Africa, and subsequent projected growth (4 billion by 2100), will represent a significant energy and climate strain on the 21st century world. In a larger sense, the social and economic development of sub-Saharan Africa is likely to be tied to an increase in per capita energy consumption. This increase is not going to come from traditional fossil fuels and will therefore require significant investment in a renewable energy infrastructure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Systems and Sources)
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12 pages, 2406 KiB  
Article
Renewable Energy, Ecology and Environment to Arabic Pupils Using a Creative, “Hands On” Approach
by Hen Friman, Yafa Sitbon, Ifaa Banner, Tal Shauli and Yulia Einav
Environments 2018, 5(6), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments5060066 - 04 Jun 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5203
Abstract
An action learning course is an academic course which involves academic learning and social activities, and has an impact on the community. In the last year, students from the HIT, Holon Institute of Technology, participated in the action learning course “Green Ambassador”, which [...] Read more.
An action learning course is an academic course which involves academic learning and social activities, and has an impact on the community. In the last year, students from the HIT, Holon Institute of Technology, participated in the action learning course “Green Ambassador”, which aimed to teach pupils about renewable energy and preserving an environment. As part of the course requirements, students were asked to conduct enjoyable lessons for fifth and sixth grade pupils in the Arabic elementary school “Alomaria” situated in the city of Ramle. During lessons held within the school, the students taught the pupils via games and activities what is soil contamination, how to turn waste into a resource, what is an air pollution, energy conversion and etc. In order to illustrate the topics studied by the pupils, the students used a moveable laboratory containing demonstrations, experiments and creative activities. Thus, active participation of the pupils in the lessons was achieved. The results show higher rates of success in the final questionnaires on the lessons’ topics and involvement, due to an enriching and a challenging experience of learning. Thanks to the action learning course, the pupils became more aware and learned an important lesson about the ways to preserve the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Systems and Sources)
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