Solar Energy and Sustainable Development Journal

Techno-Economic Analysis of Solar Energy Developing Technologies in Libyan Residential Communities

2025-02-03T13:24:44+00:00

These days, renewable energy is becoming increasingly vital. Renewable energy sources that are widely used include biomass, geothermal, wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. Because solar energy is sustainable, inexpensive to operate, and emits fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, it has displaced them. The peak demand of Libya's inadequate public electrical network, which typically happens at midday, is one of the biggest issues. This problem is more prevalent in the summer, when heat waves, higher electrical loads (overload), and decreased energy plant efficiency cause voltage decreases. It is essential to address Libya's high radiation levels around midday in order to solve this issue. It can also be helpful to research and suggest ways to integrate solar energy systems in Libyan residential communities while designing and evaluating the techno-economic implications of doing so. This study assesses the techno-economic viability of the suggested solar system, design a plan for integrating solar energy into Libyan residential areas to support the electrical grid network, and maximize the installation of supported solar systems in residential communities. Both MATLAB/Simulink and HOMER were used in the simulation process. The obtained results demonstrated Libya's residential communities' successful incorporation of solar energy systems. Three electrical loads display net present value, and the work is important for analyzing the discount payback of the three loads. In contrast to low and medium load, big system high load completion is more practical in terms of a fast payback period and will result in a financial cost return in 6.2 years. Therefore, solar energy particularly photovoltaic energy has the potential to be a very practical solution for Libya's power interruptions and oscillations.

Towards Efficient Electricity Management in Benghazi

2025-01-29T13:09:36+00:00

In Libya, the general electricity company is tasked with managing peak electricity demand, often resorting to load shedding. This practice, while necessary, results in power outages, particularly impacting areas like the Benghazi Electrical Grid. This study aims to bring predictability to these events by exploring time series forecasting models namely: Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA), and Dynamic Regression ARIMA (DRARIMA). The models were trained using data from May 2020 and 2021, and subsequently tested on May 2022. Performance was evaluated using metrics such as mean squared error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and mean absolute percentage accuracy. The ARIMA model achieved the highest accuracy at 78.88% mean absolute percentage accuracy with a mean absolute error of 0.9. The SARIMA model, which considers seasonal patterns, achieved an accuracy of 73.86% and mean absolute error of 0.11, but its complexity may lead to overfitting. The DRARIMA, which incorporates exogenous variables, demonstrated an accuracy of 65.36% and mean absolute error of 0.15. Future projections for May 2024 and 2025 using ARIMA models indicate potential improvements in load shedding management and highlight the importance of model selection for accurate forecasting. By improving load forecasting accuracy, this research aims to enhance the effectiveness of load shedding management, thereby reducing power outages and their socio-economic impacts in regions like Benghazi. These findings are particularly valuable for energy planners and managers in similar contexts, providing practical insights and data-driven strategies.

Geothermal Energy Utilization of Co-Production Water from Oilfields for Electric Power Generation

2025-01-29T13:09:40+00:00

One significant source of geothermal energy is the co-produced hot water from oil/gas field production. There is potential to utilize oilfield infrastructure to produce geothermal electricity profitably, in a process called co-production. Due to the increasing demands of energy now days, this paper presents an investigation of geothermal energy production and utilization for electricity generation on the petroleum fields via organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology, which is a reliable way to convert heat into electricity. The current research focuses on the use of an ORC unit to generate electricity from co-produced water from ten oil wells in two oilfields, Jalo and Sarir. These wells refer to GX1, GX2, Gx3, GX4, GX5, SX1, SX2, SX3, SX4, and SX5, and they are combined in gathering centers (GC1) and (SC2) to utilize an existing medium-temperature geothermal source. The estimated total flow rates of co-produced water from the two gathering centers after separation are 5,728.34 BWPD and 14,618.65 BWPD respectively. Whereas, the geofluid mass flow rates from both oilfields are 12.25 kg/s and 34.05 kg/s, respectively, with an inlet geofluid (brine) temperature (T1) of 60°C and an outlet geofluid temperature (T2) of 35°C. The thermal efficiency (η_th) values for the Jalo and Sarir oilfields are 3.28% and 4.22%, respectively. According to the power output analysis, which indicates that the specific power outputs are 5.17 kW/kg/s and 9.85 kW/kg/s, and the gross power outputs are 63.33 kW and 338.80 kW, respectively, with a required hot water flow rate of 12.25 kg/s and 34.05 kg/s. This study revealed that the temperature and water flow rate are crucial factors affecting power output. By using an ORC plant, the generated electric power can be used in the field, supplied to the local grid, or utilized to offset on-field electricity consumption. Also, this study recommended by focusing efforts to extract the energy through electric power generation via production oil wells in oilfields.

Study the Influences of Both (NaOH and KOH) at Different Electrolyte Concentrations and Times on Hydrogen Production via Electrolysis Process

2025-01-29T13:09:43+00:00

There are various ways to reduce emissions harmful to the environment, including carbon dioxide gas produced from different industries that depend on fossil fuels, which is considered a non-renewable energy sources that will end one day. Recently, there has been a strong focus on finding alternative and renewable ways to produce energy. One of these ways is to use hydrogen as a resource for many applications, including the most important electricity generation. This study deals with the mechanism of hydrogen production through the electrolysis of water, which was represented by the use of a model of the electrolysis cell, through which factors affecting the amount of hydrogen produced such as time, concentration, and electrolyte type. Two different catalysts (electrolyte type) were employed in this study, namely sodium hydroxide NaOH and potassium hydroxide KOH, they were used as electrolysis in order to evaluate the levels of hydrogen production. Experimental results showed that the potassium hydroxide catalyst was better than the sodium hydroxide, due to the activity of potassium ion in the electrolyte medium, which plays an important role in the dissolution process and hydrogen production. The best amount of hydrogen gas production was (140 ml) at 3 minutes, 4 amperes, 10 volts, and a concentration of 5 g/L of KOH. Faradaic efficiency was used to evaluate hydrogen production in both electrolysis mediums. The experimental results showed that the highest Faraday efficiency was 0.179% at a concentration of 5 g/L.