IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v39y2012i1p183-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prospects of renewable energy – a feasibility study in the Australian context

Author

Listed:
  • Shafiullah, G.M.
  • Amanullah, M.T.O.
  • Shawkat Ali, A.B.M.
  • Jarvis, Dennis
  • Wolfs, Peter

Abstract

Given the recent increasing public focus on climate change issues, there is a need for robust, sustainable and climate friendly power transmission and distribution systems that are intelligent, reliable, and green. Current power systems create environmental impacts as well as contributing to global warming due to their utilization of fossil fuels, especially coal, as carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. In contrast to fossil fuels, renewable energy is starting to be used as the panacea for solving climate change or global warming problems. This paper describes a feasibility study undertaken to investigate the potentialities of renewable energy including the prospective locations in Australia for renewable energy generation, in particular solar and wind energy. Initially, a hybrid model has been developed to investigate the prospects of wind energy for typical Australian region considering production cost, cost of energy, emission production and contribution from renewable energy using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER), a computer model developed by the USA’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This model also explores suitable places around Australia for wind energy generation using statistical analysis. Subsequently, the usefulness of solar energy in the Australian context and suitable locations for solar energy generation are also investigated using a similar hybrid model. Finally, the model has been developed to investigate the prospects of renewable energy in particular wind and solar energy including specific locations in Australia that would be suitable for both wind and solar energy generation. From simulation analysis it is clearly observed that Australia has enormous potentialities for substantially increased use of renewable energy; a large penetration of renewable energy sources into the national power system would reduce CO2 emissions significantly, contributing to the reduction of global warming.

Suggested Citation

  • Shafiullah, G.M. & Amanullah, M.T.O. & Shawkat Ali, A.B.M. & Jarvis, Dennis & Wolfs, Peter, 2012. "Prospects of renewable energy – a feasibility study in the Australian context," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 183-197.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:39:y:2012:i:1:p:183-197
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.08.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148111004599
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2011.08.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Akella, A.K. & Saini, R.P. & Sharma, M.P., 2009. "Social, economical and environmental impacts of renewable energy systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 390-396.
    2. Jebaraj, S. & Iniyan, S., 2006. "A review of energy models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 281-311, August.
    3. Radu Dan Rugescu (ed.), 2010. "Solar Energy," Books, IntechOpen, number 621.
    4. Kamau, J.N. & Kinyua, R. & Gathua, J.K., 2010. "6 years of wind data for Marsabit, Kenya average over 14m/s at 100m hub height; An analysis of the wind energy potential," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1298-1302.
    5. Dalton, G.J. & Lockington, D.A. & Baldock, T.E., 2009. "Feasibility analysis of renewable energy supply options for a grid-connected large hotel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 955-964.
    6. Khan, M.J. & Iqbal, M.T., 2005. "Pre-feasibility study of stand-alone hybrid energy systems for applications in Newfoundland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 835-854.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaundinya, Deepak Paramashivan & Balachandra, P. & Ravindranath, N.H., 2009. "Grid-connected versus stand-alone energy systems for decentralized power--A review of literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2041-2050, October.
    2. Ali, Liaqat & Shahnia, Farhad, 2017. "Determination of an economically-suitable and sustainable standalone power system for an off-grid town in Western Australia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 243-254.
    3. Velo, R. & Osorio, L. & Fernández, M.D. & Rodríguez, M.R., 2014. "An economic analysis of a stand-alone and grid-connected cattle farm," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 883-890.
    4. Mudasser, Muhammad & Yiridoe, Emmanuel K. & Corscadden, Kenneth, 2015. "Cost-benefit analysis of grid-connected wind–biogas hybrid energy production, by turbine capacity and site," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 573-582.
    5. Jha, Sunil Kr. & Bilalovic, Jasmin & Jha, Anju & Patel, Nilesh & Zhang, Han, 2017. "Renewable energy: Present research and future scope of Artificial Intelligence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 297-317.
    6. Dursun, Bahtiyar, 2012. "Determination of the optimum hybrid renewable power generating systems for Kavakli campus of Kirklareli University, Turkey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 6183-6190.
    7. Tezer, Tuba & Yaman, Ramazan & Yaman, Gülşen, 2017. "Evaluation of approaches used for optimization of stand-alone hybrid renewable energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 840-853.
    8. Fazelpour, Farivar & Soltani, Nima & Rosen, Marc A., 2014. "Feasibility of satisfying electrical energy needs with hybrid systems for a medium-size hotel on Kish Island, Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 856-865.
    9. Bazmi, Aqeel Ahmed & Zahedi, Gholamreza & Hashim, Haslenda, 2011. "Progress and challenges in utilization of palm oil biomass as fuel for decentralized electricity generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 574-583, January.
    10. Erdinc, O. & Uzunoglu, M., 2012. "Optimum design of hybrid renewable energy systems: Overview of different approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 1412-1425.
    11. Bahramara, S. & Moghaddam, M. Parsa & Haghifam, M.R., 2016. "Optimal planning of hybrid renewable energy systems using HOMER: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 609-620.
    12. Sinha, Sunanda & Chandel, S.S., 2014. "Review of software tools for hybrid renewable energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 192-205.
    13. Manfren, Massimiliano & Caputo, Paola & Costa, Gaia, 2011. "Paradigm shift in urban energy systems through distributed generation: Methods and models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 1032-1048, April.
    14. William E., Lilley & Luke J., Reedman & Liam D., Wagner & Colin F., Alie & Anthony R., Szatow, 2012. "An economic evaluation of the potential for distributed energy in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 277-289.
    15. Connolly, D. & Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V. & Leahy, M., 2010. "A review of computer tools for analysing the integration of renewable energy into various energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 1059-1082, April.
    16. Asrari, Arash & Ghasemi, Abolfazl & Javidi, Mohammad Hossein, 2012. "Economic evaluation of hybrid renewable energy systems for rural electrification in Iran—A case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 3123-3130.
    17. Amutha, W. Margaret & Rajini, V., 2016. "Cost benefit and technical analysis of rural electrification alternatives in southern India using HOMER," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 236-246.
    18. Bazmi, Aqeel Ahmed & Zahedi, Gholamreza, 2011. "Sustainable energy systems: Role of optimization modeling techniques in power generation and supply—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3480-3500.
    19. Nathalie Spittler & Ganna Gladkykh & Arnaud Diemer & Brynhildur Davidsdottir, 2019. "Understanding the Current Energy Paradigm and Energy System Models for More Sustainable Energy System Development," Post-Print hal-02127724, HAL.
    20. Wekesa, David Wafula & Wang, Cong & Wei, Yingjie & Danao, Louis Angelo M., 2017. "Analytical and numerical investigation of unsteady wind for enhanced energy capture in a fluctuating free-stream," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 854-864.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:39:y:2012:i:1:p:183-197. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.