Practical Applications of Renewable Energy Technologies

This study material from Desklib discusses the practical applications of renewable energy technologies, with a focus on energy surveys, facilities details, energy consumption, and opportunities for energy saving. The material includes a summary of construction details, main uses of energy, and types of HVAC for six libraries in South Dublin, as well as potential cost savings for energy-saving measures. The study also highlights the need for enhanced consumption of renewable energy in Ireland.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

Introduction
Renewable energy has a major and significant role to play when it comes to lowering our
dependency on the fossil fuels, minimizing the greenhouse emissions as well as enhancing the
security of supply. In as much as the renewable energy sector has experienced rapid growth over
the last few decades with regard to developments in the technology and the other aspects, Ireland
records that just 7.8% of the energy consumed in the country us derived from renewable sources
of energy (Ruparathna, Hewage & Sadiq, 2016). A greater proportion of this energy is derived
from production of electricity through wind energy which accounts for up to 47%. In a bid to
attain the target of the country in the European Renewable Energy Directive of the 16$%
proportion of renewable energy in the total final energy consumption by the year 2020, there is
need for an even further shift.
Acknowledging the need to enhance the consumption of renewable energy in Ireland, Codema
has been one of the leading initiate of Europe dubbed Academy Champions for Energy. The
project brings together the experts that are drawn from across North West of Europe to enhance
transnational cooperation as well as coordination in the field of sustainable and renewable energy
to attain a change from our dependency on the fuels (Moreira et al., 2015).
Energy Surveys
An energy audit was carried out in the following libraries that are located in South Dublin
 Library Headquarters
 Ballyroan Library
 Lucan Library
 Castletymon Library

 Whitechurch Library
 Clandalkin Library
The survey was mainly based in level 1 walk and are in line with the stipulations and methods as
detailed in the Energy Efficiency Directive, ISO50001, EN 16247-1 (Energy Audits) as well as
the relevant ASHRAE and CIBSE guides. The surveys were carried out within a period of 30
days (Schulze et al., 2016).
Facilities’ details
A summary of the construction details, the main uses of energy as well as the types of HVAC are
shown in the table below
Premises Area
(m2)
Construction Type and
Levels of Insulation
HVAC & Energy
Castletymon 460 Solid concrete with metal
roof. Insinuated
 PCs, office equipment and
kitchen
 Old oil boiler having radiators.
No controls
 Lighting of the main fluorescents
Library HQ 364 Solid brick. Insulated
steel roof
 Lighting of the main primary T8
fluorescents
 Storage heaters. Split systems in
the offices located in the upstairs
Lucan 650 Cavity wall. Insulated
roof
 Lighting of the main primary T8
fluorescents
 Gas boiler that is 15 years olds
and thermostats. Toshiba split
system in deployed in the cooling
during summer
Ballyroan 1630 Heavily insulated.
Energy efficient building
with controlled
ventilation having an A3
energy rating
 BMS control
 Geothermal heat up pump, gas
fired condensing boiler as well as
solar thermal
 Lighting of the main primary T8
fluorescents
Clandalkin 364 Uninsulated solid brick.  Lighting of the main primary T8

Single glazing. Listed
building
fluorescents
 A new energy efficient gas boiler
with time and thermostat control
Whitechurch 245 Stone walls having
Uninsulated roof and
floors
 Lighting of the main primary T8
fluorescents
 Electric heaters and storage
heaters
Energy consumption
The energy use in each of the six libraries has been summarized in table 2 below. Ballyroan
library is the only library that historically utilized gas in as much as a new gas fired boiler was
under installation in Clandalkin when the energy audit was being conducted (Galvão et al.,
2015). Two of the premises are under heating by through electrical heating; Library
Headquarters and Whitechurch while three of the libraries have oil fired heating including
Lucan, Clandalkin as well as Castletymon.
The six libraries use an amount of energy cumulative to 436100 kWh of electricity and 187431
kWh of oil and gas every year. The average energy use is 153 kWh/m2/year (Seyfang et al.,
2014). The energy use ranged between 130 kWh/m2/year Ballyroan and 261 kWh/m2/year in
Clandalkin. With regard to primary energy (in which the use of electricity is adjusted by a 2.5
factor to accommodate the losses in power during generation and transmission), it was
established that the mean use across all the six libraries was 328 kWh/m2/year. The range of use
of primary energy was from 267 kWh/m2/year in Castletymon to 524 kWh/m2/year for the case
of Whitechurch (Sooriyaarachchi et al., 2015).
Premises Area
(m2)
Electricity
(kWh/yr.)
Gas
(kWh/yr.)
Oil
(kWh/yr.)
Delivered
Energy
Delivered
Energy
Co2
(T/yr.)

(kWh/yr.) (kWh/yr.)
Castletymon 460 31200 45000 76200 166 26
Library HQ 548 73100 73100 133 34
Lucan 650 77900 10500 88400 136 39
Ballyroan 1630 167500 26930 212501 130 96
Clandalkin 364 35000 60000 95000 261 32
Whitechurch 245 51400 51400 210 24
TOTAL 3897 436100 26930 160501 596601 153 252
Opportunities for Energy Saving
Numerous common opportunities for saving energy were noticed across all the libraries that
were studied including:
 Upgrades if lighting
 Replacement of the boilers
 Insulation of the roofs (Moya, Torres & Stegen, 2016)
 Enhanced management of energy and creation of awareness among the occupants and
staff
 The use of solar PV as an appropriate renewable energy technology
Before large renewable systems are installed, it is recommended that the most likely issues that
could be affecting the facility are identified with regard to its usage of energy as well as the
opportunities that would enhance saving of energy (Irsyad, & Nepal 2016). Such should first be
completed to ensure that any major issues are outlined and effectively solved prior to the
installation of a renewable energy system and to ascertain that such a system is not oversize or
inefficient for the facility.
The potential costs savings for each of the measures of energy saving across each of the six
libraries are as summarized in the table below

Renewable
& Solar PV
Energy
Management
Lighting
Retrofit
Boiler
Replacement
Insulate
Roof
Other Total
Castletymon £ 1046 £ 500 £ 3000 £ 1300 £ 560 £ 180 £ 6586
Library HQ £ 1000 £ 1100 £ 3800 £ 1200 £ 400 £ 600 £ 8100
Lucan £ 1046 £ 1301 £ 3800 £ 160 £ 460 £ 880 £ 7647
Ballyroan £ 1400 £ 2100 £ 200 - - £ 4400 £ 8100
Clandalkin £ 1040 £ 560 £ 2550 £ 1320 - £ 0 £ 5470
Whitechurc
h
£ 1040 £ 950 £ 100 £ 1140 - £ 280 £ 3510
TOTAL £ 6572 £ 6511 £ 13450 £ 5120 £ 1420 £ 6340 £ 39413
Insulation
Insulation of the roof would enhance the energy efficiency in the libraries especially for those
that have uninsulated roof. This strategy is cost effective and is accompanied by low cost of
investment and short term payback periods. The installation of the insulation will as well
enhance the levels of comfort in the libraries (Chandel et al., 2016).
Lighting retrofit
T8 fluorescents with magnetic ballasts tend to be the predominant lighting in most of the
premises of the library. Energy saving can be attained with the use of T5 fluorescent fittings that
have ballasts or even LED fittings in the area of 50% in comparison to these fittings. Since the
use of electricity is often at a high proportion as the total use, this would act as a very large
opportunity for saving energy (Bakar et al., 2016).
Besides, most of the lights were controlled through manual switches and during the survey it was
observed that there were lights in some of the unoccupied areas and offices. Further savings may
be attained through the installation of occupancy sensors.
Installation or Replacement of Boilers
Replacement of the oil boilers using gas boilers will to a great extent lower the costs and enhance
the efficiency. This strategy has a typical payback of the order 7-10 years. Replacement of the

electrical heating systems using a gas boiler and radiators would also serve to lower the costs of
energy used at Whitechurch and the Library HQ. This can serve as a larger and longer term
investment which can generate significant savings in the long run (Bakar et al., 2016).
References

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