Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) provide us with a flexible tool to combat global warming through conserving energy while utilizing natural renewable energy resources. Primarily, they act as a buffer to balance fluctuations in supply and demand of low temperature thermal energy. "Underground Thermal Energy Storage "provides an comprehensive introduction to the extensively-used energy storage method.

"Underground Thermal Energy Storage" gives a general overview of UTES from basic concepts and classifications to operation regimes. As well as discussing general procedures for design and construction, thermo-hydro geological modeling of UTES systems is explained. Finally, current real life data and statistics are include to summarize major global developments in UTES over the past decades.

The concise style and thorough coverage makes "Underground Thermal Energy Storage" a solid introduction for students, engineers and geologists alike.

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This book reports on a novel approach for generating mechanical energy from different, external heat sources using the body of a typical piston engine with valves. By presenting simple yet effective numerical models, the authors show how this new approach, which combines existing internal combustion technology with a lubrication system, is able to offer an economic solution to the problem of mechanical energy generation in piston engines. Their results also show that a stable heat generation process can be guaranteed outside of the engine. The book offers a detailed report on physical and numerical models of 4-stroke and 2-stroke versions of the EHVE together with different models of heat exchange, valves and results of their simulations. It also delivers the test results of an engine prototype run in laboratory conditions. By presenting a novel theoretical framework and providing readers with extensive knowledge of both the advantages and challenges of the method, this book is expected to inspire academic researchers, advanced PhD students and professionals in their search for more effective solutions to the problem of renewable energy generation.

This book outlines issues related to massive integration of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into power grids. Electricity is becoming the preferred energy vector for the next new generation of road vehicles. It is widely acknowledged that road vehicles based on full electric or hybrid drives can mitigate problems related to fossil fuel dependence. This book explains the emerging and understanding of storage systems for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The recharging stations for these types of vehicles might represent a great advantage for the electric grid by facilitating integration of renewable and distributed energy production. This book presents a broad review from analyzing current literature to on-going research projects about the new power technologies related to the various charging architectures for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Specifically focusing on DC fast charging operations, as well as, grid-connected power converters and the full range of energy storage systems. These key components are analyzed for distributed generation and charging system integration into micro-grids. The authors demonstrate that these storage systems represent effective interfaces for the control and management of renewable and sustainable distributed energy resources. New standards and applications are emerging from micro-grid pilot projects around the world and case studies demonstrate the convenience and feasibility of distributed energy management. The material in this unique volume discusses potential avenues for further research toward achieving more reliable, more secure and cleaner energy.

"Power Conversion of Renewable Energy Systems "presents an introduction to conventional energy conversion components and systems, as well as those related to renewable energy. This volume introduces systems first, and then in subsequent chapters describes the components of energy systems in detail. Readers will find examples of renewable and conventional energy and power systems, including energy conversion, variable-speed drives and power electronics, in addition to magnetic devices such as transformers and rotating machines. Applications of PSpice, MATLAB, and Mathematica are also included, along with solutions to over 100 application examples.

"Power Conversion of Renewable Energy Systems "aims to instruct readers how to actively apply the theories discussed within. It would be an ideal volume for researchers, students and engineers working with energy systems and renewable energy.

This reference offers an overview of the field of airborne wind energy. As the first book of its kind, it provides a consistent compilation of the fundamental theories, a compendium of current research and development activities as well as economic and regulatory aspects. In five parts, the book demonstrates the relevance of Airborne Wind Energy and the role that this emerging field of technology can play for the transition towards a renewable energy economy. Part I on "Fundamentals" contains seven general chapters explaining the principles of airborne wind energy and its different variants, of meteorology, the history of kites and financing strategies. Part II on "System Modeling, Optimization and Control" contains eight contributions that develop and use detailed dynamic models for simulation, optimization, and control of airborne wind energy systems, while Part III on "Analysis of Flexible Kite Dynamics" collects four chapters that focus on the particularly challenging simulation problems related to flexible kites. Part IV "Implemented Concepts" contains eleven contributions each of which presents developed prototypes together with real-world experimental results obtained with the different concepts. Finally, in Part V on "Component Design," five papers are collected that address in detail the technical challenges for some of the components of airborne wind energy.

"Airborne Wind Energy "presents all basics in a single source to someone starting to explore wind power in the upper atmosphere and serves as a valuable reference for researchers, scientists, professionals and students active in the innovative field of Airborne Wind Energy.

This resource is the first-ever compilation of industry-authored case studies on how power companies are making strides toward achieving sustainable electricity in North America. The book features recent game changing efforts, candid insider stories about challenges and process, and forecasts for the next decade of innovation. Each chapter shares topic-focused case studies regarding the reality of implementing operational changes and strategies that will lead to sustainable electricity. Key technical staff and managers from top companies candidly report on failures, insights, trade-offs, internal process, resulting improvements to operational efficiencies, and natural resource and stakeholder benefits. Electric power company managers seeking to identify specific opportunities and understand the process for advancing sustainability in their own organizations will discover solid paths forward through potentially treacherous terrain. Educated stakeholders, agencies, and regulators will benefit from the greater understanding of the reality of realizing change in the electric power industry engendered by this unique strategic resource.

This book provides an up-to-date, rigorous analysis of the state of the art of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation. It focuses on the economic analysis of solar PV generation technologies as well as the policies that have been devised and implemented around the globe to support it. It provides the main theoretical tools for understanding the cost of these technologies, and discusses them from both a historical and comparative perspective with respect to other competing technologies (both conventional and renewable). In addition, it presents the conceptual rationale to maximize reader insights into whether and how public support for these technologies is justified as well as the consequences for the economy of different promotion measures. Integrating concepts from different economics disciplines (environmental economics, innovation economics, industrial economics and public economics) into a coherent basis for the analysis of the costs and policies for solar PV electricity, it provides an update to the literature to reflect recent advances in and deployments of solar electricity and the drastic reduction in associated costs.

This book addresses the problem of building an optimal community energy network in a decentralized distributed energy context. The book introduces a few novel modeling frameworks to assist a single customer or a community of multiple end-user customers in building their optimal electricity system/network and operating their own local energy system. The content of the book is suitable for students, academics and industrial practitioners studying or working in the area of energy management and smart grid energy networks.

Bioenergy Engineering: Fundamentals, Methods, Modelling, and Applications presents the fundamental principles, recent developments, innovative state-of the-art technologies, challenges, solutions and future perspectives on the production of biofuels and bioenergy. Balancing the scientific and engineering aspects of biofuels production, the book guides readers through the chemical kinetics, modeling, thermodynamics, unit operations and technological advancements in fuel processing from conventional and alternative resources. Each chapter of the book starts with the fundamentals and goes on to assess the latest technologies for the production of renewable fuels on topics. Sections cover biomass utilization, biomass-to-liquid conversion technologies (pyrolysis, liquefaction, solid-state fermentation and submerged fermentation), biomass-to-gas conversion technologies (thermochemical gasification, subcritical and supercritical water gasification, and methanation), gas-to-liquid conversion technologies (Fischer-Tropsch synthesis), carbonization, transesterification, organic transformation, carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom coupling reactions, oxidation, reforming, hydrotreating technologies (hydrogenation, hydrodesulfurization, hydrodenitrogenation, hydro dearomatization and hydro demetalization), nanocatalysis and biocatalysis (enzymatic hydrolysis), and much more.

Energy has moved to the forefront in terms of societal and economic development. Modern Energy Markets is a comprehensive, economically oriented, exploration of modern electricity networks from production and distribution to deregulation and liberalization processes. Updating previous work by the authors, different aspects are considered resulting in a complete and detailed picture of the systems and characteristics of modern electricity markets. Modern Energy Markets provides clear detail whilst encompassing a broad scope of topics and includes: *A method to model energy production systems including the main characteristics of future demand side management, *Different applications of this model in nuclear and renewable energy scenarios, *An analysis of Real-Time Pricing of electricity and its potential effects across the market, and, *A discussion of the need for regulation in an easily monopolized industry. Engineering and Economics students alike will find that Modern Energy Markets is a succinct and informative resource, as will researchers interested in environmental and energy issues. The inclusion of timely and relevant issues related to economic decision will also be of value to industry and civil officials.

After an introduction to renewable energy technologies, the authors present computational intelligence techniques for optimizing the manufacture of related technologies, including solar concentrators. In particular the authors present new applications for their neural classifiers for image and pattern recognition. The book will be of interest to researchers in computational intelligence, in particular in the domain of neural networks, and engineers engaged with renewable energy technologies.

This book gathers an in-depth collection of 45 selected papers presented at the Global Conference on Global Warming 2014 in Beijing, China, covering a broad variety of topics from the main principles of thermodynamics and their role in design, analysis, and the improvements in performance of energy systems to the potential impact of global warming on human health and wellbeing. Given energy production's role in contributing to global warming and climate change, this work provides solutions to global warming from the point of view of energy. Incorporating multi-disciplinary expertise and approaches, it provides a platform for the analysis of new developments in the area of global warming and climate change, as well as potential energy solutions including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, hydrogen production, CO2 capture and environmental impact assessment. The research and analysis presented herein will benefit international scientists, researchers, engineers, policymakers and all others with an interest in global warming and its potential solutions.

This book reveals key challenges to ensuring the secure and sustainable production and use of energy resources, and provides corresponding solutions. It discusses the latest advances in renewable energy generation, and includes studies on climate change and social sustainability. In turn, the book goes beyond theory and describes practical challenges and solutions associated with energy and sustainability. In particular, it addresses: * renewable energy conversion technologies; * transmission, storage and consumption; * green buildings and the green economy; and * waste and recycling. The book presents the current state of knowledge on renewable energy and sustainability, supported by detailed examples and case studies, making it not only a cutting-edge source of information for experts and researchers in the field, but also an educational tool for related undergraduate and graduate courses.

Nowadays, Smart Grid has become an established synonym for modern electric power systems. Electric networks are fed less and less by large, centrally planned fossil and nuclear power plants but more and more by millions of smaller, renewable and mostly weather-dependent generation units. A secure energy supply in such a sustainable and ecological system requires a completely different approach for planning, equipping and operating the electric power systems of the future, especially by using flexibility provisions of the network users according to the Smart Grid concept. The book brings together common themes beginning with Smart Grids and the characteristics of power plants based on renewable energy with highly efficient generation principles and storage capabilities. It covers the advanced technologies applied today in the transmission and distribution networks and innovative solutions for maintaining today's high power quality under the challenging conditions of large-scale shares of volatile renewable energy sources in the annual energy balance. Besides considering the new primary and secondary technology solutions and control facilities for the transmission and distribution networks, prospective market conditions allowing network operators and the network users to gain benefits are also discussed. The growing role of information and communication technologies is investigated. The importance of new standards is underlined and the current international efforts in developing a consistent set of standards are updated in the second edition and described in detail. The updated presentation of international experiences to apply novel Smart Grid solutions to the practice of network operation concludes this book.

Climate change, environmental impact and declining natural resources are driving scientific research and novel technical solutions. Green Energy and Technology serves as a publishing platform for scientific and technological approaches to "green" - i.e., environmentally friendly and sustainable - technologies. While the main focus lies on energy and power supply, the series also covers green solutions in industrial engineering and engineering design. Green Energy and Technology is a monograph series addressing researchers, advanced students and technical consultants, as well as decision makers in industry and politics. The level presentation ranges from instructional to highly technical.

Small Wind Turbines and its associated software provide a thorough grounding in analysing, designing, building and installing a small wind turbine.

Small turbines are introduced by emphasising their differences from large ones and nearly all the analysis and design examples refer to small turbines. The software provided with the book includes MATLAB programs for power production and starting performance, as well as programs for detailed multi-objective optimisation of blade design. An Excel spreadsheet is provided for applying the simple load model of the IEC standard for small wind turbine safety. Small Wind Turbines and its accompanying software represent the distilled outcome of over twenty years experience in fundamental research, design, installation and field testing of small wind turbines.

Besides being a suitable reference for student projects and detailed design studies, it also provides important background material for engineers and others using small wind turbines for remote power and distributed generation applications.

This book provides technical data and information on unconventional- and inactive energy sources. After reviewing the current global energy situation, individual chapters discuss fossil fuel sources and renewable energy sources. It focuses on future energy systems and explores renewable energy scenarios including water energy and power, biofuels and algae energy. It also provides essential information on energy from inactive sources, energy from waste materials and the optimization of energy systems.

This book charts the path toward high performance sustainable buildings and the smart dwellings of the future. The volume clearly explains the principles and practices of high performance design, the uses of building information modelling (BIM), and the materials and methods of smart construction. Power Systems, Architecture, Material Science, Civil Engineering and Information Systems are all given consideration, as interdisciplinary endeavours are at the heart of this green building revolution.

This book investigates how a North African solar thermal power plant can be set up under the guidance of European investors (e.g. the Desertec Concept) as a Public Private Partnership (PPP). It outlines the importance of early awareness of contract-related risks, investment risks and dispute settlement, arguing that commercial and investment arbitration are the best tools for settling disputes regarding a large-scale solar thermal project. Furthermore, by comparing institutional and ad hoc arbitration, it shows that the former offers highly suitable support. The latest developments in the area of investment arbitration under EU law and the general acceptance of arbitration in Islamic countries are examined in particular. This book also demonstrates that a solar thermal power plant must meet certain requirements to be considered an investment. These requirements are examined in relation to Art. 25 of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention (ICSID Convention) and respective case law. Overall, the book offers valuable guidelines for investors and host states on how to successfully implement large-scale solar thermal projects.

Governments are setting challenging targets to increase the production of energy and transport fuel from sustainable sources. The emphasis is increasingly on renewable sources including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass based biofuel, photovoltaics or energy recovery from waste. What are the environmental consequences of adopting these other sources? How do these various sources compare to each other? Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources tries to answer these questions based on the universally adopted method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This book introduces the concept and importance of LCA in the framework of renewable energy sources and discusses the key issues in conducting their LCA. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of LCA for some of the most common bioenergy sources such as agricultural production systems for biogas and bioethanol, biogas from grass, biodiesel from palm oil, biodiesel from used cooking oil and animal fat, Jatropha biodiesel, lignocellulosic bioethanol, ethanol from cassava and sugarcane molasses, residential photovoltaic systems, wind energy, microalgal biodiesel, biohydrogen and biomethane. Through real examples, the versatility of LCA is well emphasized. Written by experts all over the globe, the book is a cornucopia of information on LCA of bioenergy systems and provides a platform for stimulation of new ideas and thoughts. The book is targeted at practitioners of LCA and will become a useful tool for researchers working on different aspects of bioenergy.

Presenting a comprehensive analysis of the use of alternative sources of energy and technologies to produce fuels and power, this book describes the energy value chain from harvesting the raw material, (i.e solar, wind, biomass or shale gas) followed by analysis of the processing steps into power, fuels and/or chemicals and finally the distribution of the products. Featuring an examination of the techno-economic processes and integration opportunities which can add value to by-products or promote the use of different sources of energy within the same facility, this book looks at the tools that can make this integration possible as well as utilising a real world case study. The case study of the operation of "El hierro" island is used as an example of the current effort towards more efficient use of the resources available. Tackling head on the open challenges of the supply, the variability of the source and its prediction, the description of novel processes that are being developed and evaluated for their transformation as well as how we can distribute them to the consumer and how we can integrate the new chemicals, fuels and power within the current system and infrastructure, the book takes a process based perspective with such an approach able to help us in the use and integration of these sources of energy and novel technologies.

This edited volume gives an insight into climate and energy protection in China and the European Union (EU). By taking a closer look at the EU and China seperately, the book presents the current situation in terms of environmental policy and energy use/ consumption in EU as well as in China. The book broaches the collaboration of the EU and China regarding climate and energy protection. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of climate research as well as public decision makers.

Emissions of CO2 have come to be regarded as the main factor in climate change in recent years, and how to control them has become a pressing issue. The problem cannot simply be labeled a technological one, however, because it is deeply involved with social and economic issues. Since 2008, the Global Center of Excellence (COE) program titled Energy Science in the Age of Global Warming Toward a CO2 Zero-Emission Energy System has been held at Kyoto University, Japan. The program aims to establish an international education and research platform to foster educators, researchers, and policy makers who can develop technologies and propose policies toward a zero-emission society by the year 2100. Setting out a zero-emission technology roadmap, Global COE promotes socioeconomic studies of energy, the study of new technologies for renewable energies, and research in advanced nuclear energy. A compilation of the lectures and presentations from the first symposium of Global COE held at Kyoto University, this book is intended to provide the impetus for the establishment of low carbon energy science to bring about harmony between mankind and the environment."

As the climate and environment continue to fluctuate, researchers are urgently looking for new ways to preserve our limited resources and prevent further environmental degradation. The answer can be found through computer science, a field that is evolving at precisely the time it is needed most. Soft Computing Applications for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency brings together the latest technological research in computational intelligence and fuzzy logic as a way to care for our environment. This reference work highlights current advances and future trends in environmental sustainability using the principles of soft computing, making it an essential resource for students, researchers, engineers, and practitioners in the fields of project engineering and energy science.

As the energy sector shifts and changes to focus on renewable technologies, the optimization of wind power becomes a key practical issue. Reactive Power Management of Power Networks with Wind Generation brings into focus the development and application of advanced optimization techniques to the study, characterization, and assessment of voltage stability in power systems. Recent advances on reactive power management are reviewed with particular emphasis on the analysis and control of wind energy conversion systems and FACTS devices. Following an introduction, distinct chapters cover the 5 key areas of FACTS devices, voltage stability, wind generators, reactive power optimization and management. These are supported with applications and example including real-life data from the Spanish Power system. Together with power system engineers, operators and planners will also benefit from this insightful resource. Reactive Power Management of Power Networks with Wind Generation provides a key reference to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in electrical and power engineering.

This book concerns the development of novel finite elements for the structural analysis of composite beams and blades. The introduction of material damping is also an important aspect of composite structures and it is presented here in terms of their static and dynamic behavior. The book thoroughly presents a new shear beam finite element, which entails new blade section mechanics, capable of predicting structural blade coupling due to composite coupling and/or internal section geometry. Theoretical background is further expanded towards the inclusion of nonlinear structural blade models and damping mechanics for composite structures. The models effectively include geometrically nonlinear terms due to large displacements and rotations, improve the modeling accuracy of very large flexible blades, and enable the modeling of rotational stiffening and buckling, as well as, nonlinear structural coupling. Validation simulations on specimen level study the geometric nonlinearities effect on the modal frequencies and damping values of composite strips of various angle-ply laminations under either tensile or buckling loading. A series of correlation cases between numerical predictions and experimental measurements give credence to the developed nonlinear beam finite element models and underline the essential role of new nonlinear damping and stiffness terms.