ARC 6840 - Renewable Energy

RENEWABLE ENERGY 2012

ARC 6840 RENEWABLE ENERGY

May 11

2012

NAME - SUDHEER AVR , REG NO - 110118895

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 ABSTRACT The report addresses the different types of Renewable energy technologies available and the best suited for the site with its benefits and technical study. The world as we know is at a pressure from various regions of the world on the supply of power and its rising costs. Renewable energy is a natural source of energy that is continuous in the environment and inexhaustible. It is a free clean resource available in abundance where only timely maintenance is required unlike conventional sources of energy. These technologies can be used for energy production or provide hot water. The site is chosen for a Hotel project where heavy energy requirements and hot water are needed to run the building. The types of renewable energy technologies could be classifies as Biomass, Geothermal heat pumps, wind power, hydro power and solar power. The hotel project site is centrally located in the heart of the city surrounded by many buildings in Birmingham. Birmingham city council has ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions by 60% in 2026. Their moto is "To harness renewable energy, promote bio-diversity, reduce waaste and improve recycling rates to save the city money and energy". The report highlights the growth rate of renewables in UK and how these technologies could be implemented to the site and design.

INTRODUCTION Renewable energy generation in UK started to contribute from mid 1990's, provided electricity geewaration of 6.7% in 2009 and rose to 9.6% in 2011 due to higher rainfall and wind speeds. UK is well placed that has the world's largest resources of wind, wave and tidal energy. wind farms on the country side could account for 20% of UK's energy while on shore could account for nearly 50% of electricity requirements.

[Reference - https://restats.decc.gov.uk/cms/electricity-growth/] UK has a significant solar energy potential being the most cost-effective way of exploiting renewable energy. Solar energy could be converted in to electricity via the photovoltaic 'solar cell' which is the key power source for the life of plants and animals. Harvesting in energy crops provides a significant source of bio-fuels such as bio-diesel (for transport use) or solids (wood) used for heating or electricity production. The world is shifting to renewable energy sources due to the scarcity and rising prices of gas

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 and oil. The current design project which i was working on is a Eco - Hotel located in the heart of Birmingham. The project brief is to provide 150 room accomodation with many facilities. The use of Renewable energy technology has high importance in the design strategy to make it a sustainable building. Let us discuss some of the these technologies and how they could be implemented.

SOLAR ENERGY Initially people thimk solar power does not stand a chance in UK with its short summers and cloudy days, suprisingly UK receives half of its energy per square meter from sun where the heat is more useful for UK than hot coutries. Solar thermal collectors are used to collect heat by absorbing sunlight. The solar energy striking the earth's surface depends on weather conditions, its location and orientation of surface with an average yield of 1000 watts per square meter under clear skies with the surface directly perpendicular to the sun's rays. The types of collectors include, 1. FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_panels,_Santorini.jpg They consist of (1) a dark flat-plate absorber of solar energy, (2) a transparent cover that lets in solar energy to pass through (3) a fluid like water to absorb the captured heat from the tubes and (4) an insulation cover at the back. The collector consists of a thin absorber sheet typically of copper (good conductor of heat) to which a matte black or selective coating is applied and the coil of tubes are presented in a glass casing or polycarbonate cover. Sunlight passes through a transparent sheet and gets converted in to heat energy, then transferred to a liquid through the pipes attached to the absorber plate which has selective coating to absorb and retain heat in an effective way.

[ REFERENCE - http://www.cibsejournal.com/cpd/2012-05/ ]

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 The components used in the solar thermal systems have life expectancy of over 20 years. A number of studies show that carbon payback with these systems is well within their lifetimes. Hence this product is widely used for domestic and commercial projects. Solar thermal is relatively cheaper than Solar PV. In the case of my design, a Hotel building requires a lot of energy for its heating, hot water and maintaiing crucial Services that need large amounts of electricity. There are several types of renewable energies and all of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is in the best interest of the design project, several technologies are studied, analysed critically and decisions taken for implementation depends on its costs, effectiveness, lifetime, and how it is solving the needs of the building. Each technology would have specific advantages that are considered for a specific need. One single technology cannot run and solve all the needs of a building. hence multiple choices of these needs to be collaborated in to the building to acheive sustainaibility. I had allocated space on each floor which has terrace space of 14m X 14m grid to install solar thermal systems with tanks to satisfy the hot water needs of the Hotel. This is an effective and low cost option to produce hot water for such a building that needs maximum use of it. They are placed to receive the maximum radiation from the sun at various angles to cover the morning and evening sunlight. Some of the companies such as 'LAMMART LTD' are situated at just 3 mile radius from the Site, reducing the transportation costs and installation time.

www.earthtrendsdelivered.org 2. BIO MASS AND BIO FUEL

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wims.unice.fr

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 Biomass is an important tool in tackling climate change that offers good commercial opportunities. Any Biological material derived from plant or animal matter, can be converted to produce heat, fuels for transport (Bio-Diesel) and substitute for fossil fuel materials and products. Biomass technology is renewable with low carbon characteristics as the carbon dioxide released from burning the fuel was originally captured from the atmosphere during the plants and animal growth. It is an untapped resource with high scope of sustainable production in the UK. Bio,ass can be recovered from the waste such as food and wood. There is a high potential for development of other non-food uses of Biomass. The material sectors such as, (1) plant based pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals and bio-actives (2) Renewable construction materials (3) Renewable chemicals (including polymers and monomers). The Biomass taskforce identified there were approximately 5.6-6.7 Mtoe with the imports of biomass, biofuels and feedstocks have an important role to meet the uk demand currently and in future. At present UK generates nearly 4.6 to 7.5 million tonnes of recycled wood per year.

[REFERENCE - UK BIOMASS STRATEGY REPORT, 2007.]

Wood - Fuelled Heating / Boilers: These are also Biomass systems, they burn wood pellets, chips or logs to provide warmth in a single room or provides power to the central heating. A wood fuelled boiler could save nearly 600 pounds a year compared to the electric heating ans 100 pounds for gas heating. The CO2 emitted by the burning of wood is same as it acquired during its growth over the years and up to 7.2 tonnes of CO 2 are saved per year when a wood boiler replaces an oil fired system.

.defra.gov.uk 5 MSC SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE STUDIES

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 In my design project, the heating and fuel requirements are abundant due to the project type itself. The project consists of a 150 room building. Each room is specifically designed to have a private balcony and two adjacent rooms have an air and light gap between the outer facades allowing an inlet for the light and air to pass through these rooms. This is designed to naturally ventilate these rooms and reduce on the energy costs required for Lighting purposes. Due to this, more walls around the room are exposed leaving the structure imbalanced to extreme temperatures. To overcome this issue, i shall use the wood fuelled boilers that could provide central heating to all the rooms at an economic cost. Biomass is renewable source of energy and it is growing at a rate of 10% of overall renewable energy in the UK. The storage space for the wood s provided at the Basement level. The wood is sourced locally at 'Wood waste Recycling Ltd' that is at a 3 mile radius from the site, making the transportation costs less and hence this option of heating may be viable for the project.

[REFERENCE - http://www.scienceonline.co.uk/energy/renewable-energy.html] Bio - Fuel or Bio- diesel generated out of Bio-Mass could be used for the hotel vehicles which are used to transport people to various locations as a clean source of fuel and for several trucks that drop in / drop off food stock, recycle waste food within the site and re-use for appropriate uses. Hence these options would help the project to develop in a sustainable way.

3. WIND ENERGY When the Earth is irradiated by the sun, the ground absorbs radiation due to which hot air rises causing convection currents. These uneven heating of the surface of earth cause winds. The Renewable energy from the wind has been used for centuries to power windmills, nowadays large wind turbines are used to generate electricity. These winturbines are collected together at wind farms. These farms could be installed at selective locations where this is heavy wind speed constantly over a period of time. Far country side would be suited for such installations. Uk is on the edge of Atlantic ocean, having one of the best sources of wind in the world. Offshore winds are seeing a rise in the Uk as compared to the Onshore windfarms which depend on heavy winds all the time that may not be possible due to rapid

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 development in construction of the surroundings. The advantages of windfarms, are it is a clean free energy available in many areas, they are more efficient and second best source after the solar power. The cost of the installations are decreasing as the technology improves. It has got economic, environmental and social benefits. Experts suggest wind power can supply up to 20% of UK's energy by 2020.

However, this energy typology may not be suitable for the design and my site. The site is located in an urban environment with many surrounding buildings. Wind turbines require lot of free space them. They would not fit in to an urban perspective. Wind blockages from the neighouring tall buildings make it difficult to consider wind energy for the site.

4. HYDRO ELECTRIC ENERGY The flow of the rivers produce kinetic energy which can be collected and used. The gravitationl force of falling water on a turbine generates Hydroelectric power. It is a widely used mediu to generate electricity and accounts for 16% of world's electricity. The cost of Hydroelectricity is low which makes it competitive in the renewable energy market. The different types of generation methods are (1) Conventional dams (2) Pumped storage (3) Run of the River (4) Tide and (5) Underground. The advantages of such methods is the river flows continually that produces constant source of energy which is relatively cheap. The

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 disadvantage of such methods is, a good site for such a project is situated far away from towns, large dams constructed may lead to floods during heavy rainfall.

In my project, which is in an urban location, there are no water streams or rivers near by to the site making it a non feasible ooption to consider to generate renewable energy for the project.

5. GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMPS Ground source heat pumps are installed under the ground to extract the heat from the ground. A series of tubes are installed to collect the heat from the ground, where the pipes have mixture of water and antifreeze called a ground loop. The heat generated under the ground is constant throughout the year, hence it can be used during winters also. This heat can then be used to heat the radiators, underfloor or warming heating systems for home or commercial buildings. The benefits of these pumps are, (1) - Could lower the electrictiy bills if the user was using conventional energy (2) - Could provide an income through the government scheme of Renewable Heat incentivE (RHI) (3) - Could heat a home and provide hot water (4) - Very little maintenance required as they are called 'fit and forget' technology.

[www.mapawatt.com]

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[ www. thefraserdomain.typepad.com] REPORT

FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 In my project, due its scale and different types of spaces available to provide heating varies from floor to floor. Typically the site is located on a slope where the lowest floor in the basement is 5m below the existing road level. Many service areas are proposed on the basement floor that require heating. As i said, many types of renewable technologies need to contribute in a small way at different levels pertaining to their advantages to acheive maximum sustainability to the project. I would propose to use Ground source heat pumps as a heat generating medium for all the spaces on the basement floor. This is because, it is easy to install these systems as it is underground level and not much of piping is required to heat up one floor of the building. The effectiveness of the Heating stays constant throughout. Many parts of the basement floor are open to sky, hence it would be easy to dig and layout the pipes for the same.

Hence the covered spaces on the basement floor would tend to use Ground source heat pumps as a source of renewable energy.

As we see the cost charts of the installaaation of a Geo thermal technology, it is one of the cheapest way to heat space and would be suited to both small scale domestic and urban level commercial projects. The strongest advantages of each technology need to be used for a holistic sustainable building.

http://geothermal-heating.waterheatingsystem.co.uk

[www.aboutrenewableenergy.org]

6. SOLAR PHOTO VOLTAIC PANELS The term solar photo voltaic refers to an array of cells containing photovoltaic material that converts the solar radiation in to direct current electricity. It is considered as the world's fastest growing market in terms of solar products. Solar Pv converts light in to electrical power which is derived using a semi conducting material called silicon that is enclosed in a glass casing. When the sunlight strikes this material, it causes electrons in the material which are knocked to be loose. These electrons flow through the material causing electric current called as (DC) or direct current. The DC is carried along a wiring to an inverter that converts DC in to (AC) Alternating current which then could be connected to the main electricity distribution board or either fed back to the national grid.

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 The development in the technology makes solar pv work even on cloudy days under drastic weather conditions especially in the UK. The orientation of these PV panels is considered important as most of them are installed on the south facing, south-west directions for maximum yield of enegy. The advantages of Solar PV are, (1) The user is benefitted from the Government's feed in tariffs which pay in kwh generated and exported back to the national grid.

(2) It is a guarenteed scheme for 25 years.

(3) It is a clean energy where the carbon emissions are reduced by up to 1 tonne per year.

The cons of Solar PV are, (1) It requires large space on the south facades, smaller systems that are installed will yield in longer timeframe of payback (2) The initial costs of such installation are amongst the highest when compared to many renewable technologies.

(3) The panels tend to degrade themselves over a period of 25 years by 20%.

In my design project, considering it a hotel project and the requirement for energy is abundant, The space that is required to install solar pv to connect 150 rooms of the hotel may be very large. Since the site is in an urban area with limited availability of space, it is not feasible to install pv for the project due to space and cost constraints. As an alternate, Biomass and geothermal heat pumps would work out more cheaper and efficient for this particular project. Solar pv may be well suited for small housing projects or large commercial projects with open space in the site or at the roof of the building. The technology has improved drastically over the years to suit the needs of the Uk climate. Hence the use of solar pv in the design is not considered for the above factors.

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FUTURE CLIMATES 2012 CONCLUSION The report highlighted the various renewable energy technologies available in the market and its advantages over each other in terms of costs, installations, benefits, lifetime and effectiveness. The hotel building located in Birmingham is in an urban location. All the types of renewable technologies are not feasible to the site due to the mentioned constraints. Some of the technologies deployed for its use and to run the building are described above and in the best interest of the project, Ive considered several technologies based on their advantages and co-related them with my design to make the best use of them. Hence, by using these technologies, the building project may be called as a sustainable project.

BIBLIOGRAPHY CIBSE Journal CPD Programme. (2012, 05). Retrieved may 06, 2012, from CIBSE Journal website: http://www.cibsejournal.com/cpd/2012-05/ council, B. c. (n.d.). Sustainability. Retrieved MAY 9, 2012, from Birmingham city council website: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/sustainability Council, S. B. (2011). RENEWABLE ENERGY. Retrieved MAY 4, 2012, from SPELTHORNE WEBSITE: http://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/env_cc_renewable.htm Ground source heat pumps. (n.d.). Retrieved may 9, 2012, from Energy saving trust website: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Ground-source-heat-pumps Hydroelectricity. (n.d.). Retrieved may 9, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity Jonathan Gates. (2000). SOLAR THERMAL STORAGE USING PCM. Retrieved May 8, 2012, from www.freespace.vrgin.net: http://freespace.virgin.net/m.eckert/new_page_6.htm NAATA c/o EERU, O. U. (n.d.). RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE UK. Retrieved MAY 2012, from NAATA GUIDE WEBSITE: http://eeru.open.ac.uk/natta/natta-guide.html ONLINE, S. (n.d.). RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES. Retrieved MAY 9, 2012, from THE SCIENCEONLINE WEBSITE: http://www.scienceonline.co.uk/energy/renewable-energy.html Solar PV. (n.d.). Retrieved may 9, 2012, from Solarguide website: http://www.solarguide.co.uk/solar-pv wood fuelled heating. (2012). Retrieved may 9, 2012, from energysavingtrust website: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Wood-fuelled-heating www.defra.gov.uk. (2007). UK Biomass Strategy. London: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

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