Renewable Energy Course ACE 416

Renewable Energy Course

• Course: Elective 5 (ACE 416)
• Topic: Renewable Energy
• Year: Fourth year
• Semester: 1st Semester 2024-2025
• Coordinator: Dr. Omar Shaheen

Introduction to Energy

• Energy is the ability to do work or produce change.
• Measured in joules or kilowatt-hours (kWh).
• The total amount of energy in the universe remains constant; it cannot be created or destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another.
• No activity is possible without energy.

Types of Energy

• Potential Energy: Associated with position, state (e.g., chemical, electrical, nuclear energy).
• Kinetic Energy: Associated with motion (e.g., a moving car, a spinning wheel).
• Power: The ability to do work.
• Forms of Energy: thermal, electrical, nuclear, electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical, sound, motion, gravitational energy .

Sources for Electricity Generation

• Conventional Sources: fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas), hydraulic energy, nuclear energy.
• Non-Conventional Sources: solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, wave energy, geothermal energy, biomass energy.

Factors in Selecting a Generation Method

• Initial Cost: Investment required for a given unit rating. Lower cost is preferable.
• Running Cost: Cost of converting resources to electrical energy; includes maintenance and repairs.
• Limitations: Availability of resources, unit size, and techno-economic viability and time-provenness of the method.

Key Desirable Features of Energy Sources

• Perpetuity: Endless duration.
• Efficiency: High conversion efficiency.
• Reliability: Consistent availability in the appropriate quantity.
• Cleanliness: Cleaner energy conversion process minimizing toxicity, pollution or hazardous side effects.
• Simplicity: Simpler overall system for easier maintenance/repair.

Fossil Fuels

• Formed by natural processes (decomposition of buried organisms) over millions of years.
• High carbon content.
• Examples: coal, oil (petroleum), natural gas, diesel.
• Disadvantages: environmental pollution (e.g. global warming, acid rain); possible depletion; fluctuating prices due to political issues and scarcity.

Energy Sources Categorization

• Fossil fuels, nuclear, renewables, and others.
• A categorization of various energy sources like coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear fission, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, hydrogen , biomass and their associated energy types.