Renewable Energy Systems: Mallaigcan, London, and Energy Benefits

This report provides a comprehensive overview of renewable energy systems, focusing on solar, wind, hydro, and tidal power. It explains how these energy sources are harnessed and transformed into electricity. The report examines the rates of adoption for solar and tidal energy, providing justifications for the chosen methods. It also explores the connection of tidal and solar energy with local systems. Furthermore, the report analyzes the benefits of renewable energy sources, particularly solar and wind, in remote areas such as Mallaigcan in Britain and the efficiencies of renewable energy sources in London. The report discusses the environmental and economic advantages of renewable energy, highlighting their role in reducing carbon footprints and improving energy sustainability. It also covers the use of decentralization of heating and cooling networks in London. The document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Name of the student.
Institution:
Renewable Energy Assignment.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Task 1
Solar Energy Harnessing and Transformation into Energy.
The sun`s energy can be harnessed using various ways that include the use of photovoltaic cells
to convert the sunlight to electricity, the conversion of the sunlight to thermal energy for heating
and lastly, passive solar heating (Ashokverghese,1998 ). Photovoltaic cells take in the light
energy from the sun and convert it to electricity with the use of semi-conductors in the cells. For
solar thermal conductors, the sun`s rays are concentrated by reflectors to heat a special kind of
volatile liquid usually water to convert it into steam. The generated steam thereafter is used to
spin a turbine that is connected to a generator to create the electricity. During this process, the
steam is cooled and it condenses back to liquid water after which it is recycled back to the
thermal conductor where it undergoes the same process again.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Wind Energy Harnessing and Transformation into Energy.
According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2019, for the wind energy,
the turbines convert the kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical power which is thereafter
used to perform various tasks such as grinding grains or pumping water. A generator can be
fixed to the equipment in order for it to convert the mechanical energy to electricity. The process

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
involved in converting the wind energy to electricity is by using aerodynamic forces that are
created by the rotor blades. When the wind flows across the blade, the air pressure on one side of
the blade decreases and this difference ion air pressure across the two blades results into a lift
and drag phenomenon on the blades. The lifting forces outweigh the dragging forces and this
makes the rotor to spin. The rotor when connected to generator either directly or through a shaft
or a series of gears, speeds up the rotation of the generator that creates electricity. There are two
types of wind turbines: horizontal-axis turbines and vertical-axis turbines.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Hydro-Power Harnessing and Transformation into Energy
This is power that is generated from flowing water. Most hydro-power plants use a dam or river
to store water in a reservoir (Renewable Energy World, 2019). Once released, this water flows
through a turbine, spinning it and in turn activates a generator to produce electricity. For pumped
storage hydro-power plants, the power is sent from a power grid into electric generators that spin
the turbines in a backward direction, causing the turbines to pump water from a river or lower
reservoir to an upper reservoir where the power is stored (Renewable Energy World, 2019). In
order to use the power, the water is released from the upper reservoir back down into the river or
lower reservoir, spinning the turbines forward thus activating the generators to produce
electricity (Renewable Energy World, 2019).

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Tidal Power Harnessing and Transformation into Energy.
According to Alex Ramon, 2019, tidal energy is produced through the use of tidal energy
generators which are large underwater turbines placed in areas with high tidal movements, and
are designed to capture the kinetic motion of the ebbing and surging of the ocean tides for them
to produce electricity.
Rates of Adoption of Solar Energy and Tidal Energy with Justifications for the Adoption
Chosen.
Fossil fuels have been known to cause a negative environmental impact to the environment, most
especially being responsible for the increasing greenhouse gases emitted like carbon dioxide and
methane. With the increasing electricity demand the world is facing, these emissions are

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
projected to increase and contribute to the adverse global warming effects that will result. For
this reason, alternative energy sources are being sourced. These sources should produce
sustainable decarbonized electricity. They include solar energy and tidal energy.
a) Solar Energy.
Solar energy`s potentiality lies on the fact that standard households and businesses can
adopt it by each of the households and businesses becoming micro generators.
Residential installations are faced with a rather limited capacity and hence have a
downside to the installations of the solar energy. According to Stefano Carattini, Martin
Peclat and Andrea Baranzini, 2018, more than 1.6 million installations have been done in
Germany, around 1.2 million have been done in the USA and about 1 million installations
have been done in the United Kingdom. The reason behind these high rates of adoption of
the solar energy is attributed to the implementation of huge-sum financial schemes that
support the adoption of the solar energy.
Despite the rapid adoption of the solar energy, social spillovers have arisen countering
the use and adoption of the solar energy. These include the argument that solar energy
installation requires a non-negligible investment which has big risk tied to it and the
second argument that solar energy may be considered as a very visible form of climate
friendly behavior where people will only adopt it once they see other people adopt this
green method of energy production (Stefano Carattini, Martin Peclat and Andrea
Baranzini, 2018).
b) Tidal Energy
According to David Holzman, 2007, water has been used as a source of energy for many
years now however, tidal energy and wave energy are relatively new sources of hydro-

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
power. This kind of energy generation is being supported by the fact that there is
increasing demand in energy as the world industrializes and becomes tech-oriented. Also,
the traditional fossil fuels have detrimental effects to the environment as they are a source
of greenhouse gases once burnt and hence contribute to global warming. Furthermore,
these fossil fuels are non-renewable sources of energy and face the problem of being
depleted.
Marine energy is capable of providing the world about 10 to 25% of the energy (David
Holzman, 2007). The United States alone can produce 6.5% of this electricity for
consumption. For the United Kingdom, tidal energy is possible of catering for about 15 to
20% of their electrical needs.
The ready predictability of tidal energy makes the coordination of the grid electricity
flow very manageable (David Holzman, 2007). This also promotes its adoption by many
countries. Moreover, tidal energy is suitable for supply in many homes, industries and
business and hence much preferred.
Connection of Tidal Energy and Solar Energy with Local Systems
a) Tidal Systems
Many new approaches are being used by engineers to explore the marine energy but
most of these approaches are in their pilot and feasibility stages and require a lot of
research before they are fully adopted for marine energy generation. The main factors
leading to this underdevelopment on this sector include: little to no government
support, prohibitive costs and high regulatory hurdles. Tidal power systems are
conversant with the generic modelling system. This is mainly because the structures

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of the models are readily available and hence, they can be implemented and checked
prior to modelling of the ocean devices.
With these modelling systems in place, tidal energy is estimated to supply about 10
percent of the total US power. Adopting policies and financial incentives can
stimulate the growth of the tidal energy to 120MW. Tidal power is limited to
locations between 40 and 60 degrees latitude because these are the areas that
experience strong winds that are able to generate large and strong tides. According to
Roger, 2007, California and Hawaii have the greatest potential for tidal energy. Some
areas like Washington have strong tides however it has sparse capability of
transmitting the electricity from the coast to the inland areas. Alaska on the other
hand has high wave strides however the population of the area is small and hence the
tidal energy is not maximized.
b) Solar Energy
Local solar energy connections involve grid connection and stand-alone solar power
systems. According to Malkivia & Pyh, (2002), the grid connect system is integrated
with the local utility grid in order to store the excessively produced solar electricity in
the grid. The stand-alone system on the other hand is not connected to a grid system
but is instead connected to a bank of batteries that are charged with the excess
electricity produced. Grid systems are very common in solar system connectivity
because most people reside in areas with already established public grid systems that
make connection easy and cheap as compared to installation of stand-alone systems
(Malkivia & Pyh, 2002).

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Task 2
The Remote Area of Mallaigcan in Britain and the Benefits of Renewable Energy
Sources especially Solar Energy and Wind Energy.
Most remote areas have little to no constant supply of energy and this hinders
industrialization and development of such areas. This is mainly because most
industries require constant energy supply for their activities and developing an
industry in an area with no energy supply would be costly. For this reason most of
these areas are underdeveloped. Introduction of renewable energy sources in these
areas would therefore create economic development that would lead to creation of
jobs and better quality of life among these people.
The dependency of fossil fuel for energy in this areas that results in the power
rationing would be reduced after the diversification of the energy supply in the
remote areas through the introduction of renewable sources of energy.
The carbon footprint of the countries would be reduced, thus reducing the greenhouse
gases emissions that would ultimately lead to global warming, which has detrimental
impact on the climate (Booth, 1998).
Renewable energy sources are linked with improved health especially for
communities that previously used coal and natural gas plants for generation of
electricity. The latter energy systems are known to cause breathing problems,
neurological damage, heart attacks, cancer or premature death for infants through the
air pollutants they produce.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Renewable energy would be great for the remote areas as it is an inexhaustible source
of energy as they are constantly replenished in nature and hence, the problem faced
by fossil fuels of being exhaustible is curbed by these energy sources.
Furthermore, renewable source provide affordable electricity to the locals thus
creating a stable energy price. The installation costs for the renewable sources are the
only barrier to renewable energy, despite this, the long term costs of the energy is
affordable. For fossil fuels, the prices are unstable and vary depending on the
availability of the fossil fuels.
Lastly, renewable sources, wind and solar energy are distributed and modular systems
and hence they are less subjected to detrimental failure. The distributed systems are
widely spread out in large areas and hence severe weather conditions of one area will
not influence the power in other regions and will therefore not be cut off. Modular
systems are individual turbines which is advantageous especially when the equipment
is damaged, the rest can continue to operate.
Efficiencies of Renewable energy sources in London.
The use of sustainable energy allows for the use of less energy that is also clean to the
environment. For the city of London, the most effective way of energy provision is
through decentralization of the heating and cooling networks. This is because
decentralization makes them lose less electricity through transmission as compared to
centralization through power grids. Moreover, this system allows for the balanced use
of commercial and domestic uses of electricity. Also, it has low carbon levels, and
utilizes less plant spaces for construction and lastly, the heat energy generated from

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
this system can be stored. In London, this technique is suitable in Westminster as a
result of its dense population and mixed uses of energy.
The ground source heating technology obtains its heat from the earth, however, it
requires electricity to power the pumps and this reduces its carbon efficiency, making
it appropriate only for larger developments. Wind energy in this city is less utilized
because of less wind strength build up due to presence of buildings that block the
wind. Solar energy are a better option however they have potential implications to the
townscape and this may direct its use to only concealed locations. Biomass is not
considered as a renewable source of energy appropriate in London because of
degrading the air quality of the city whereas biogas is less used because it may
require space and fuel delivery which may increase its costs.
Task 3
Schematic Design for a Solar Panel for a Three Bedroom House.
The average solar energy system size is approximately 5 kilowatts (kW) and based
on the average price of $3.57/watt, a 5kW system would cost $12,500 after tax
credits. Some of the average quotes for other differently-sized solar energy systems
by size are shown below. The three-bedroom house is likely to use the standard 5kW
panel.
a) 6kW solar energy system cost: $15,000
b) 8kW solar energy system cost: $20,000

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
c) 10kW solar energy system cost: $25000
Cost Comparison of the Renewable Sources of Energy.
Renewable sources of energy are important as previously seen. However, each of
them differ with the cost of installation and construction as they use different
technologies and this difference makes some forms of renewable energy more
favored as compared to others.
The primary composition of the production cost of electricity is based on the
operational and investment costs mainly composed of the fuel costs and to a smaller
portion, maintenance and repairs. Since the renewable sources of energy have low

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
fuel costs, they differ with the investment costs used to implement the energy
systems. Variations in the size of installation influence the cost whereby the larger the
installation, the lower the generation cost of the electricity. Also, the availability of
the resources required to generate the electricity influence the cost of the renewable
energy source.
Looking at wind energy and solar energy, wind energy has the lowest levelized cost
in Lazard`s analysis at $59 per megawatt-hour, and utility scale photovoltaic solar
cells at $79 (Khaleefah, & Jabir, 2012). These renewable source technologies are not
cheap to build but they have no fuel costs once they are running when the costs given
are divided among capital fuel and operations and maintenance. The costs of these
two renewable energy sources have however been observed to fall over the years and
this could be attributed to material declines in the pricing of the components of the
system such as the turbines and panels, and also attributed by increased efficiency of
the equipment.
Most of the renewable sources of energy are not comparable because the energy
sources vary all year round hence, operations are not run throughout the year.
Cost Analysis of a Beneficial Renewable Energy to Use.
The installation cost and the economic profit or loss of the renewable energy with
fossil fuels like coal are the factors that are considered while determining the
beneficial renewable energy source. According to Smith, (2018), using this analysis,
solar energy emerges as the cost efficient method of energy supply. The two main
methods of harnessing solar energy create an enormous total amount of solar energy
available. Moreover, the solar energy is clean, safe and easy to install at the homes

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
and businesses. Also, the cost of maintenance of the equipment is quite low and hence
making it an affordable means of obtaining energy. The equipment is also known to
have a long life span which according to Smith (2018), is measured in decades and
not in years. Lastly, the equipment can be easily repaired and replaced once it gets
damaged and hence, this is quite advantageous to the users.
According to Smith (2018), the cost benefit figures of the solar energy are projected
to do much greater than they are today. The net cost of the solar energy today is
valued at $80.6 billion whereas the net gain in energy cost savings is valued at $5.02
trillion by 2050 and the reduction in carbon dioxide levels is estimated to be 36.9
Gigatons by 2050. These values therefore project solar energy as the leading
renewable energy source that is most likely to be adopted by the world.
Task 4
The Socio-Economic, Legislative and Environmental Factors Influencing the
Selection of Other Approaches to Renewable Energy Resources and Technologies.
According to Carlos (2010), there are various factors that hinder the development of
the renewable energy and these factors include political, socio-economic and
environmental factors. The first barrier to the development of this energy source is
lack of political support from most governments. This hinders the development of
strategies which can develop the renewable energy sources. Moreover, when there is
no political support to the development of the renewable energy sources, the funding
towards this is minimal and hence, the lack of the finances required to establish
renewable energy plants hinders the development of this form of energy.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS.
The public is also not well informed and educated on the current environmental status
of the earth e4specioally the increasing global warming rates and hence, they do not
know the urgency required to establish renewable energy to decrease the carbon
footprint. For this reason most people are not advocating for the use of renewable
energy sources from their governments and this slows down the development of the
renewable energy. Educating the public on this issue will increase the number of
people advocating for the use of renewable energy sources.
The socio-environmental factor that most people are against when it comes to the use
of renewable sources of energy is the simple fact that they do not want the turbines
for the energy generation in their backyards. This is mostly because the turbines
create a noisy environment which is a nuisance to the peace and quiet they may need.
Development of low-noise turbines may be an effective way to curb this factor and
promote the development of renewable energy use.
Possible Conflicts of Interest from PESTLE Analysis.
According to the European Union, the societal analysis indicates that there is lack of
historical experience with cooperatives and civic activism for renewable energy.
Also, there is low trust in the cooperative model which leads to lack of political
support from the representatives of the locals. Furthermore, organizational challenges
are expected to sprout up as a result of lack of experience while setting up the
cooperatives.
Legally, the establishment of the renewable forms of energy requires a legal
framework that is complicated since the local authorities do not support the adoption
of the renewable energy sources. In addition, there are barriers to grid connections for

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instance that of micro grids are not allowed to operate. All these legal barriers hinder
the development of renewable energy.
Technically, large-size projects for renewable energy are proposed without having the
adequate number of skilled personnel required for the operation of such project plans
(Tieten & Lewise, 2000). For this reason, the projects are turned down since there is
insufficient skilled labor.
Economically and financially, the projects require a high capital input especially at
the initiation of the projects. In addition the projects have no guarantee to tax
incentives and therefore for investors, this is a tough business to venture into as it
would translate to losses. For these reasons, the renewable energy projects are still not
supported in very many parts of the world despite the benefits they have to offer.
Effective Approach to the Selection of Renewable Sources of Energy.
Based on the PESTLE analysis, most people want an affordable means of energy
provision and the form of renewable energy that is least affected by the problems
associated with renewable forms of energy. Solar energy utilizes solar panels which
convert the sun energy to electricity without use of turbines and hence would provide
a peaceful environment for the people. Moreover, the solar panel equipment are
readily available and affordable to most people and there are well established laws
regarding the use of solar energy. Lastly, the political support on the use of the solar
energy is on the rise and this would mean that the governments are in support of this
energy source and have allocated strategies of ensuring that it is adopted in some
regions. These factors favor the use of the solar energy as compared to the other

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forms of the renewable energy, making it to be the most preferred source of
renewable energy.
References.
Malkivia, G & Pyh, A. (2002). Sustainable energy Resources, Technology and
Planning. WIT Press. pp. 24-29, Boston.
Tieten, T. & Lewise, L. (2000). Environmental and Natural Resources
Economics. 8th edition, pp. 59-62.
Booth, E. (1998). The Environmental Consequences of Growth. London and New
York, pp. 88-90.
Ashokverghese, L. (1998). “New and Renewable Energy Resources,” Proceedings
of International conference on Alternate Energy resources. Asian Institute of
Technology. pp. 403 – 410.
Renewable Energy World. (2019). [Online]. Available from:
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/geothermal-energy
Khaleefah, N. & Jabir, S. (2012). The use of solid waste to produce energy. Proc.3ed
Conference of Planning, Dohok & Dortmund University. pp. 12-15.
Smith, D. (2018). Transitioning to Renewables: A Cost Benefit Analysis of Solar
Energy. Planet Experts. Available from, http://www.planetexperts.com/cost-benefit-
analysis-of-solar-energy/

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