Renewable Energy Technologies: Opportunities and Challenges

This report analyzes about renewable energy technologies, the factors that influence sustainability, the renewable energy sources and opportunities in the field of renewable energy and challenges in the renewable energy sector.

1
STUDENT’S NAME
COURSE
INSTITUTION
DATE

2
Executive Summary.
The purpose of this report is to analyze about renewable energy technologies, the factors that
influence sustainability, the renewable energy sources and opportunities in the field of renewable
energy and challenges in the renewable energy sector.

3
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
2.0 Objective...................................................................................................................................4
3.0 Sustainability Factors..............................................................................................................6
4.0 Summary..................................................................................................................................7
5.0 References.................................................................................................................................9

4
1.0 Introduction.
According to Gagnon, Leduc & Savard (2012) sustainable Engineering is the process in which
systems use energy and resources in a rate that does not hurt the environment, or the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. Under this, I’m going to focus on renewable energy
technologies which brings about the sustainable use of renewable sources such as wind, sunshine
for commercial use or home use.
Renewable energy provides energy in areas such as: electricity generation, transportation, off
grid services and air and water heating/cooling. (Elbatran, Yaakob, Ahmed & Shabara, 2015).
Due to an increase in population, alongside the global growing energy needs leads to the nonstop
routine of petroleum energy which leads to problems such as increase in greenhouse gas
emissions, depletion of fossil fuel reserves and military and geopolitical conflict and other
environmental concerns. This brings about the outstanding alternative in renewable energy
sources which is the only solution to the growing challenges such as climate change and is the
future to a sustainable and a green environment (Oyedepo, 2012, p.15).
The UN General Assembly planned a set of worldwide maintainable progress areas that includes
169 targets and 17 goals by the Open Working Group at the UN with the intention of tackling
climate change through renewable energy. The report seeks to cover the factors affecting
sustainability, the opportunities and challenges facing the renewable energy sector (Gupta,
Gautam, Dhar,& Pandey., 2018, p.3-7)

5
2.0 Objective.
The purpose of this report is to look at the opportunities and the challenges facing renewable
energy and to get recommendations on how renewable energy can be improved to enhance
sustainability.
Factors influencing sustainability.
1. Environmental stability – this means that natural are not destroyed nor depleted for the
benefit of short-term gain.
2. Social-cultural respect – this is an accepted project based on the understanding of the
local traditions and core values.
3. Community participation – this is the participation of the local community in decision
making regarding a project that will affect the local community.
4. Economic Sustainability – this is whereby there is sufficient local capacity and resources
to complete the object in the absence of foreign resources.
Renewable energy sources is the way to go before the world runs out of oil, coal or gas. This will
lead to decentralization of energy through the development of geothermal, wind, solar and
biofuels which could mean that future society will no longer be centralized. This means future
society will see no need to move to the city in order to be on the grid when off grid power is
working just as fine as on grid (Broman & Robert 2017, p.17-31).

6
3.0 Sustainability Factors.
Renewable energy sources are natural and cannot be depleted from the earth. Renewable energy
is sustainable, environmental friendly and limitless. Although it has many advantages but it also
has its shortcomings such as incoherence of power generation due to cyclical disparities.
.Fortunately, advancement in technology especially computer software and hardware has been
able to handle these problems using resources appropriate to the renewable energy. The optimal
use of renewable energy technology yields minimal waste, decrease environmental impacts
centered on the modern and future desires of the society (Mwasilu, Justo, Kim & Jung, 2014, p.501-
516).
Renewable Energy Sources.
1. Hydropower – This is energy sourced from water and it primarily turns turbines and
generates electricity. They include dam in-stream projects, run-of-river and dam project
with reservoirs. Hydropower improves socio-economic growth of a country nevertheless
it displaces a lot of people from their home and the compensation is not enough.
2. Solar energy – This technology draws on the sun’s energy directly. The technology is
obtained from solar irradiance to generate electricity using photovoltaic (PV) and
concentrating the solar power to meet direct lighting needs (Lewis, 2016).
3. Geothermal energy – This is energy acquired naturally from the ground of the earth as an
energy source. The heat’s source is linked with physical processes occurring there and the
internal structure of the planet.
4. Wind energy – It is derived from harnessing kinetic energy from moving air. Wind
energy produces electricity from large turbines located either offshore or onshore.

7
Opportunities of renewable energy sources.
1. Energy security – Renewable sources are less traded on the market and evenly distributed
around the world. Renewable sources contribute to the diversification of the portfolio a
country’s energy possibilities and cut an economy’s weakness to the bill unpredictability
(Epstein 2018).
2. Social and Economic development – There is a strong connection between broadening of
energy intake and economic growth. This in turn creates employment when the economy
grows and also improves environmental safety, education and health.
3. Energy access - With renewable energy which is spread around the world equally, access
to energy is equal for people living in urban and rural areas.
4. Reduction of worldwide heat – Human activities is overburdening our air with carbon
dioxide besides additional harmful discharges. These atmosphere does like a blanket
concealment, ensnaring the heat. This results in harmful impacts such as rise in sea level,
more frequent storms and drought. Renewable energy base in contrast, produce slight to
zero global discharge. Increasing usage of renewable power sources would permit
countries to substitute fossil fuel based energy sources (Dincer & Acer 2018,p.40-50)
5. Improvement of Public health – Fossil fuel plants emit air and water pollution which
causes cancer, heart attacks, breathing problems, premature death and other problems.
This pollution affects everyone and most of these pollution can be eradicated if countries
embraced clean energy technologies such as wind which generates electricity without any
pollution (Sen & Bhattacharyya, 2014,p.388-398).
6. Creation of employment opportunities – Renewable energy is more labour intensive
compared with fossil fuel based sources. Wind farms need technicians for maintenance

8
and solar farms need humans to install them. This translates to more jobs being created
for each element of electricity produced from renewable base. This will have a positive
economic ripple effect in that businesses in renewable supply chain will have an
advantage and other local industries will profit from increased domestic incomes
(Eleftheriadis, Mumovic & Greening 2017, p.811-825).
Challenges affecting Renewable energy sources.
1. Capital costs – This is the cost of building and installing say solar and wind farms.
Renewable sources are cheap to maintain but the bulk of the expenses comes from
building the technology (Grey & Tarascon, 2017, p.45).
2. A country’s policy and policy instrument – This affects the cost and technological
innovations. This tips to market letdowns and low patronization of the renewable energy
technology (Franca et al. 2017, p 155-166).
3. Market entry – Renewable energy sources have to compete with wealthier industries that
benefit from existing expertise and infrastructure which make it difficult for a new player
to enter.
4. Transmission – Renewable energy offer a decentralized model which has its challenges
such as sitting and transmission. Sitting is whereby one needs to locate things like a solar
farm or wind turbines on a piece of land which requires contracts, permits, and
negotiations. Most of these renewable energy sources are new comers and they are
located in areas where there is no transmission lines which requires a lot of money to set
up which discourages investors and customers (Hallstedt 2017,p 251-266).

9
5. Unequal playing field – Renewable energy are competing against fossil fuel energy
sources which are subsidized directly through government subsidies and indirectly by not
punishing polluters which is unfair.
6. Reliability misconceptions – There is an argument to undermine large scale renewable
energy projects that they cannot operate easily on-demand which brings about a barrier to
adoption of renewable energy. Energy planners consider the narrow cost parameters
instead of looking at the long-term opportunities that renewable sources offer.
4.0 Summary.
Energy is a requirement for our daily life for promoting economic growth and productivity.
The study brought to light about the opportunities associated with renewable energy. There
are also trials that deter the growth of renewable energy. From the findings the following
suggestions must be made to ensure renewable energy is sustainable:
1. Creation of guidelines and negotiations with all segments towards improving
technologies in the renewable sector.
2. Increase the level of research so that the fear about renewables posing risks in the future
is limited.
If these recommendations are applied, the sustainability of renewable energy sources will be
taken care of (Charter & Tischner 2017, p118-138).

10
5.0 References.
Broman, G.I. and Robèrt, K.H., 2017. A framework for strategic sustainable
development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.17-31.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652615015930
Charter, M. and Tischner, U., 2017. Sustainable product design. In Sustainable Solutions (pp.
118-138). Routledge.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351282475/chapters/10.4324%2F9781351282482-
15
Dincer, I. and Acar, C., 2018. Potential energy solutions for better sustainability. In Exergetic,
Energetic and Environmental Dimensions (pp. 3-37). https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat4834
Elbatran, A.H., Yaakob, O.B., Ahmed, Y.M. and Shabara, H.M., 2015. Operation, performance
and economic analysis of low head micro-hydropower turbines for rural and remote areas: a
review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 43, pp.40-50.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114009769
Eleftheriadis, S., Mumovic, D. and Greening, P., 2017. Life cycle energy efficiency in building
structures: A review of current developments and future outlooks based on BIM
capabilities. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 67, pp.811-825.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116305226.
Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351280112

11
França, C.L., Broman, G., Robèrt, K.H., Basile, G. and Trygg, L., 2017. An approach to business
model innovation and design for strategic sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 140, pp.155-166.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652616308010
Gagnon, B., Leduc, R. and Savard, L., 2012. From a conventional to a sustainable engineering
design process: different shades of sustainability. Journal of Engineering Design, 23(1), pp.49-
74. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09544828.2010.516246
Grey, C.P. and Tarascon, J.M., 2017. Sustainability and in situ monitoring in battery
development. Nature materials, 16(1), p.45. https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat4777
Gupta, J.G., De, S., Gautam, A., Dhar, A. and Pandey, A., 2018. Introduction to Sustainable
Energy, Transportation Technologies, and Policy. In Sustainable Energy and Transportation (pp.
3-7). Springer, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-7509-4_1
Hallstedt, S.I., 2017. Sustainability criteria and sustainability compliance index for decision
support in product development. Journal of Cleaner production, 140, pp.251-266.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652615007982
Lewis, N.S., 2016. Research opportunities to advance solar energy
utilization. Science, 351(6271), p.aad1920.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6271/aad1920.short
Mwasilu, F., Justo, J.J., Kim, E.K., Do, T.D. and Jung, J.W., 2014. Electric vehicles and smart
grid interaction: A review on vehicle to grid and renewable energy sources
integration. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 34, pp.501-516.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114001920

12
Oyedepo, S.O., 2012. Energy and sustainable development in Nigeria: the way forward. Energy,
Sustainability and Society, 2(1), p.15. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2192-0567-2-15
Sen, R. and Bhattacharyya, S.C., 2014. Off-grid electricity generation with renewable energy
technologies in India: An application of HOMER. Renewable Energy, 62, pp.388-398.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811400593X