EEE-488

Renewable and Alternate

Energy Systems
Dr. Rabiah Badar
Assistant Professor, Office no. 323,
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department,
COMSATS University Islamabad.
rabiah.badar@comsats.edu.pk
Renewable Sources
 Hydropower
 Biomass
 Biofuel – ethanol and Biodiesel
 Wind
 Geothermal
 Solar

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Hydropower
 Energy in moving water
 Amount of precipitation draining into rivers and
streams in a geographic area determines the
amount available hydropower
 Seasonal variations in precipitation and long-term
changes in precipitation patterns (droughts) have
big impact on hydropower
 Hydroelectric power plants located near water
resource
 Run-off river plants utilize force of stream on
turbine blades to produce electricity
 Storage plants store water in dams and
release as needed to generate electricity

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Water Cycle
Water cycle has three main steps:

• Solar energy heats water on the surface of rivers,

lakes, and oceans, which causes the water to
evaporate.

• Water vapor condenses into clouds and falls as

precipitation—rain and snow.

• Precipitation collects in streams and rivers, which

empty into oceans and lakes, where it evaporates
and begins the cycle again.

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Fall in hydroelectric
power share is due to
rise in use of other
renewable power
sources

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Tidal Power
 Gravitational pull of moon and sun along with the rotation of earth causes tides
 Up to 40 feet increase in level at some places
 Economical production of tidal energy requires at least 10 feet tidal range
 Tidal barrage installed along inlet of ocean bay or lagoon forms tidal basin
 Sluice gates on barrage control water levels and flow rates
 Allow tidal basin to fill on incoming high tides and to empty through an
electricity turbine system on outgoing ebb tide
 Two-way tidal power system generates electricity from both incoming and
outgoing tides
 254 MW Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea
 240 MW Oldest and second-largest tidal power plant in La Rance, France

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Turbines for Tidal Power Generation
 Look similar to wind turbines
 Placed on sea floor in path of strong tidal flow
 Have to be much sturdier and heavier than wind
turbines because water is 800 times denser than air
 More expensive but capture more energy with same
size blades
 Tidal turbine projects in Scotland and South Korea
have 1.5 MW tidal turbines
 Project in Scotland planning to have up to 400 MW
generation capacity

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Wave Power
 Waves form as wind blows over surface of open water in oceans and lakes
 Ocean waves contain tremendous energy
 West coasts of US, Europe, coasts of Japan and New Zealand have potential
sites for harnessing wave energy
1. Bend or focus waves into a narrow channel to increase their size and power
and to spin turbines that generate electricity
2. Channel into catch basin or reservoir where water flows to turbine at lower
elevation similar to how hydroelectric dam operates
3. Place devices on or just below water surface and anchor them to ocean floor

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Biomass
 Organic material that comes from plants and animals
 Chemical energy in biomass released as heat on burning
 Can be burned directly or converted to liquid biofuels or
biogas to be burned as fuels
 Wood and wood processing wastes burned to heat buildings, to
produce process heat in industry and to generate electricity
 Agricultural crops and waste materials burned as fuel or
converted to liquid biofuels
 Food, yard and wood waste in garbage burned to generate
electricity or converted to biogas in landfills
 Animal manure and human sewage converted to biogas and
burned as fuel

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Biofuels
 Transportation fuels such as ethanol & biodiesel made from biomass
 Usually blended with petroleum fuels (gasoline and diesel fuel)
 Can also be used on their own
 Cleaner-burning fuels than pure gasoline and diesel fuel
 Ethanol → Alcohol fuel made from sugars found in grains such as corn,
sorghum, and barley
 Biodiesel → Fuel made from vegetable oils, fats, or greases
 Can be used in diesel engines without modifications
 Non-toxic, biodegradable and produces lower levels of air pollutants than
petroleum-based diesel fuel
 Common blend of diesel fuel is B20 which is 20% biodiesel

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Geothermal Energy
 Heat within the earth
 Renewable energy source because heat continuously produced from
slow decay of radioactive particles in earth's core
 Four major parts of earth
 Inner core – solid iron
 Outer core – molten rock or magma
 Mantle – mixture of magma and solid rocks
 Crust – rocks
 Earth's crust broken into pieces called tectonic plates
 Magma comes close to earth's surface near edges of these plates (where
many volcanoes occur)
 Lava erupting is partly magma
 Rocks and water absorb heat from magma deep underground 37
Location of Geothermal Energy

 Found deep underground and largely undetectable above ground

 Found on surface as volcanoes and fumaroles [1], hot springs, geysers
 Most active geothermal resources usually found along major tectonic plate
boundaries where most volcanoes are located
 Drilling a well and testing temperature deep underground the most reliable
method for locating geothermal reservoir

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Applications of Geothermal Energy
1. Direct use and district heating systems
 Use hot water from springs or reservoirs located near earth’s surface
 Hot water near earth's surface piped directly into buildings for heat
2. Industrial applications of geothermal energy include food dehydration,
gold mining and milk pasteurizing
3. Geothermal electricity generation requires water or steam at high
temperatures (300° to 700°F)
 Generally built where geothermal reservoirs located within a mile or two of earth's
surface
4. Geothermal heat pumps use constant temperatures near earth’s surface to
heat and cool buildings
 Transfer heat from ground (or water) into buildings during winter and reverse the process
in summer.
5. In the U.S. alone, 15.47 TWh of electricity have been produced from
geothermal energy, accounting for 0.4% of the national energy
requirement.

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 Use pumps to transfer
heat from underground
into buildings in winters
and from buildings to
underground in summers

Temperatures 10 feet below

ground are warmer in winters and 40

cooler in summers
 A geothermal power plant emitting steam

Types of geothermal power plants

There are three basic types of geothermal power plants:
•Dry steam plants use steam directly from a geothermal
reservoir to turn generator turbines. The first geothermal
power plant was built in 1904 in Tuscany, Italy, where
natural steam erupted from the earth.
•Flash steam plants take high-pressure hot water from
deep inside the earth and convert it to steam to drive
generator turbines. When the steam cools, it condenses
to water and is injected back into the ground to be used
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again. Most geothermal power plants are flash steam
plants.
•Binary cycle power plants transfer
the heat from geothermal hot water
to another liquid. The heat causes
the second liquid to turn to steam,
which is used to drive a generator
turbine.

No harm to turbine
components

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Wind Energy
 Wind → air flow caused by differential heating of earth's surface by sun
 Daily wind cycle over coastal areas
 During the day air above land heats up faster than air over water
 Warm air over land expands and rises and heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its
place creating wind
 At night, wind direction reversed because air cools more rapidly over land than
water
 Atmospheric winds circling the earth created because land near the equator
hotter than land in/near polar regions
 Visit the link below to see how wind turbines work
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/animation-how-wind-turbine-works

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 Top five countries in wind electricity
generation and their shares of world
total wind electricity generation in 2015

United States – 23%

China – 22%
Germany – 9%
Spain – 6%
India – 5%

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