Course Title

Renewable Energy Sources

Course Code

EAS 515

Course Type

Elective

Level

PhD

Instructor’s Name

Prof. Manuel Blanco (Lead Instructor), Asst. Prof. Victor Grigoriev

ECTS

5

Lectures / week

1 (3 hour)

Laboratories / week

 -

Course Purpose and Objectives

Purpose: Energy systems play a critical role in the economy, but also leading role in the anthropogenic influence on the environment, climate and Earth ecosystems. The current world energy system based on the intensive use of non-renewable energy sources (coal, oil and gas) is unsustainable. An energy transition to an environmentally friendly energy system is urgently needed. Renewable energy sources are expected to play a fundamental role in the new emerging world energy system. This course provides an overview of the science and engineering of renewable energy systems. The topics addressed cover the technical and technoeconomic aspects related to the development of these sources, with emphasis on wind and solar energy in the regional context of Cyprus. The objective of the course is to train the students to use the state of the art bibliography, techniques and tools in renewable energy power generation and to create a common understanding of the technologies involved.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students should possess a good understanding of:
- The current state of affair in relation to the current world energy system.
- The need for an energy transition to much more environmentally friendly world energy system than the current one.
- The role that renewable energy sources should play in the energy transition and in the future world energy system.
- The potential of each renewable energy source in Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the World.
- The technical and techno-economic considerations involved in the design, optimization, and implementation of commercial renewable energy systems.
- The state-of-the-art tools that are publically available to facilitate the preliminary screening and sizing of renewable energy system for a specific application, location and set of boundary conditions, both technical and economic.

The students should also:
- Have acquired range of methods to identify and select sustainable solutions to design problems, and to improve existing solution.
- Successfully undertake the task of sizing, modelling and simulating renewable energy systems using key publically available tools, such as the System Advisory Model (SAM), or RETScreen Expert.

Prerequisites

EAS 500

Background Requirements

None

Course Content

1. Key concepts regarding Energy
1.1. The different dimensions / aspects of energy.
1.2. The Laws of Thermodynamics and their implications.
1.3. Energy transformations.
1.4. Heat Transfer mechanisms.
1.5. The Earth as a thermodynamic system. Sources of information.

3. Overview of Renewable Energy Sources
3.1. Renewable sources of energy: Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geothermal, Bioenergy, and others.
3.2. The role of RES in the energy transition.
3.3. How a 100% RES-based world energy system could look like.
3.4. Paths towards a 100% RES-based world energy system.

5. Solar Energy II
5.1. Scientific principles of non-concentrating solar thermal technology.
5.2. Status and perspectives of non-concentrating solar thermal technologies.
5.3. Scientific principles of concentrating solar thermal (CST) technology
5.4. Status and perspectives of CST technologies.

6. Wind Energy
6.1. The wind as an energy source
6.2. Scientific principles of wind technology.
6.3. Status and perspectives of wind technology

7. Hydro, Geothermal, Bioenergy, and other RES
7.1. Scientific principles of hydropower technology.
7.2. Status and perspectives of hydropower technology.
7.3. Scientific principles of geothermal technology.
7.4. Status and perspectives of geothermal technology.
7.5. Scientific principles of bioenergy technology.
7.6. Status and perspectives of bioenergy technology.
7.7. Other renewable energy sources, scientific principles, status and perspectives.

8. Design, Modelling and Optimization of Renewable Energy Systems.
8.1. Basic techno-economic concepts.
8.2. The design, modelling and optimization process in general.
8.3. Overview of available tools.

9. Design, Modelling and Optimization of PV systems
9.1. Modelling approaches
9.2. Modelling tools and scientific workflow.
9.3. Modelling Example
9.4. PV Modelling Assignment

11. Presentation and Discussion of the PV Modelling Assignment
11.1. Presentations of the different assignments with Q&A.
11.2. Feedback from the instructor.

Teaching Methodology

Lectures, seminars, tutorials

Bibliography

-  Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics 4th Edition. Adrian Bejan. Wiley 2016. ISBN: 1119052092.
-  Advances in Renewable Energies and Power Technologies. Volume 1: Solar and Wind Energies. Editor: Imene Yahyaoui. Elsevier, 2018. ISBN 9780128129593.
-  Advances in Renewable Energies and Power Technologies. Volume 2: Biomass, Fuel Cells, Geothermal Energies, and Smart Grids. Elsevier, 2018, ISBN 9780128131855.
-  Advances in Concentrating Solar Thermal Research and Technology (Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy) 1st Edition. Manuel Blanco (Editor), Lourdes Ramirez Santigosa (Editor). Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0081005163.
- Thermal Design and Optimization 1st Edition. Adrian Bejan, George Tsatsaronis, Michael J. Moran. Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (November 28, 1995). ISBN-13: 978-0471584674

Assessment

Coursework, essays, presentations

Language

English