The technology of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has seen remarkable boom the past decade and remains central in the decarbonization and post-COVID19 recovery plan of many countries worldwide. However, global experience shows that PV installations start to level off in networks with certain solar integration levels. Among the various reasons, such as financing, regulations, markets etc., this report focuses and takes a deep look on technical challenges that act as barriers against further solar integration and develops a roadmap with technology innovations and transformations that will allow a high-solar future. The UK and India are the focal points of this investigation, examining closely how the challenges and future directions relate or differ between the two countries. This report arises out of the UK-India Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre (JVCEC), which is a research consortium that involves ten UK universities and thirteen Indian institutes within three virtual centres namely, the Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE), the India-UK Centre for Education and Research in Clean Energy (IUCERCE) and the UK India Clean Energy Research Institute (UKICERI).

Energy Management Systems involve monitoring of loads, control, and providing recommendations to reduce demand or energy costs. Energy Disaggregation works on monitoring loads nonintrusively, by having a single-smart meter at the entry point to perform the task with machine learning techniques. Training of the machine learning model is an important step and may require historical submetered data of the appliances. In this article, an energy demand model is used to generate the training data and alleviate the need for historical data of the appliance. The model is optimized for the Indian scenario based on the representation of appliances and active occupancy. The other important contribution of this work is the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to feed observable states to the disaggregation model to improve efficiency. A selectively enabled factorial hidden Markov model is utilized in which states of IoT control relays are presented to the model. The platform developed, enables both monitoring and control of appliances and provides insight into the overall user energy consumption and its breakdown at the appliance level.

By considering the weight penalty of batteries on payload and total vehicle weight, this paper shows that almost all forms of land-based transport may be served by battery electric vehicles (BEV) with acceptable cost and driving range. Only long-distance road freight is unsuitable for battery electrification. The paper models the future Indian electricity grid supplied entirely by low-carbon forms of generation to quantify the additional solar PV power required to supply energy for transport. Hydrogen produced by water electrolysis for use as a fuel for road freight provides an inter-seasonal energy store that accommodates variations in renewable energy supply. The advantages and disadvantages are considered of midday electric vehicle charging vs. overnight charging considering the temporal variations in supply of renewable energy and demand for transport services. There appears to be little to choose between these two options in terms of total system costs. The result is an energy scenario for decarbonized surface transport in India, based on renewable energy, that is possible, realistically achievable, and affordable in a time frame of year 2050.

Demand Side Energy Management Programs have mainly focused upon Demand Response Methods in which consumer is given incentive to reduce their consumption based on Dynamic Pricing Signals. In such a scenario the user is subjected to high pricing at certain times of Peak Load conditions. Prepaid Meters are being implemented to reduce distribution losses and energy theft. To complement such techniques the user must be given enough feedback of how he/she is consuming power by appliance level breakdown of energy usage. This research paper introduces such a system in which the user can both monitor and control his loads through a single platform. The system uses concepts of Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Database to make the Demand Side Energy Management platform intuitive and user friendly. Non Intrusive Load Management (NILM) is used for Load Dis-aggregation rather than employing sensors on each Power Socket Outlet. The Data of the Disaggregated Loads is stored on the Google Firebase Realtime Database to allow for ease of access from a Smart Phone or the Web. Also the users have the feature of Load Control from the same platform, completing the loop for enabling of Load Energy Management.

Generation-integrated energy storage (GIES) systems store energy at some point along the transformation between the primary energy form and electricity. Instances exist already in natural hydro power, biomass generation, wave power, and concentrated solar power. GIES systems have been proposed for wind, nuclear power and they arise naturally in photocatalysis systems that are in development. GIES systems can compare very favourably in both performance and total cost against equivalent non-integrated systems comprising both generation and storage. Despite this, they have not hitherto been recognised as a discrete class of systems. Consequently policy decisions affecting development or demonstration projects and policy approaches concerning low-carbon generation are not fully informed. This paper highlights that policy structures exist militating against the development and introduction of GIES systems-probably to the detriment of overall system good.

There is growing interest, from a range of stakeholders, in the potential of distributed low-carbon electricity generation in delivering a low-carbon energy system. Yet there are still significant gaps in understanding, particularly regarding the feasibility of scaling up distributed generation from technological, governance, regulation, policy, and financial perspectives. The aim of this report is to address these gaps within the context of the Thousand Flowers pathway.

The overarching challenge for UK energy policy is to ensure the delivery of secure, affordable energy in a way that meets the emission reductions targets laid out in the Climate Change Act (2008). The EPSRCfunded Transition Pathways (TP) and, more recently, Realising Transition Pathways (RTP) projects have both argued that multiple logics of governance, ownership, and control of the electricity system can be followed to address the energy trilemma. This work has developed three transition pathways for the UK energy system, each driven by different governance patterns. Each pathway has a specific technological mix, institutional architecture, and societal drivers. These pathways are: Central Co-ordination: Central to this pathway is the role of the nation state in actively delivering the transition. Market Rules: After the creation of a broad policy framework, the state allows competition and private companies to deliver sustainable, affordable energy. Thousand Flowers: This pathway is characterised by a greatly expanded role for civil society in delivering distributed low-carbon generation. The following report focuses on the Thousand Flowers pathway. There is growing interest, from a range of stakeholders, in the potential of distributed low-carbon electricity generation in delivering a low-carbon energy system. Yet there are still significant gaps in understanding, particularly regarding the feasibility of scaling up distributed generation from technological, governance, regulation, policy, and financial perspectives. The aim of this report is to address these gaps within the context of the Thousand Flowers pathway. This research was carried out by the ‘Engine Room’ of the EPSRC-funded Realising Transition Pathways (RTP) consortium. The ‘Engine Room’ was established to facilitate interdisciplinary work across the consortium and consists of research fellows and doctoral researchers from different fields in the nine partner institutions. Engine Room workshops and meetings give researchers the space to present their work and develop and exchange ideas with their peers. This report is an output of a series of interdisciplinary Engine Room workshops held throughout 2013/14 which also drew on contributions from energy industry stakeholders. These workshops brought together the current research and cumulative findings of the Realising Transition Pathways consortium, to examine the consequences of a transition from a centralised energy system to one where distributed generation plays a much greater role (50% of final electricity demand), and is delivered by a civic energy sector. In this report we do not present any panaceas, attempt to preference a civil response to energy transition, or claim technological infallibility. We do, however, explore the potential of a distributed energy future and investigate the technological trajectory it could follow, along with an institutional architecture compatible with its development. We acknowledge throughout that this is a challenging but realistic system transition.

Certain parts of a wind turbine, for example, the gearbox require significant time and heavy lifting equipment in the event of catastrophic failure necessitating replacement. Continuous condition monitoring has the potential to catch problems early, enable scheduled preventative maintenance and thereby reduce turbine downtime, reduce the number of site visits and prevent secondary damage. Accelerometers applied to mechanical components of the drive train are traditionally used for condition monitoring, but require their own data acquisition system and analysis software. In contrast, the electrical current and voltage are continuously measured and could also be used for condition monitoring more cheaply. An experimental data acquisition system has been installed on a small (25 kW) onshore turbine in Leicestershire, UK to compare three-phase currents and voltages on the stator windings with six accelerometer signals. Data have been recorded before and after a gearbox failure and replacement. Data were analysed using both Fourier transform and Morlet continuous wavelet transform methods. Results show that the stator voltages show the same radial and axial mode vibration frequencies as the accelerometers, and could therefore be used for condition monitoring. Furthermore, the stator currents show torsional modes of vibration not picked up by the accelerometers.

With national targets to reduce carbon emissions enforced by international accords, the UK's energy sector will move towards its low carbon future through political, societal and technological drivers. Three Transition Pathway narratives have been developed to describe three different evolutions of the UK energy sector out to 2050. This paper details two tools that have been combined to assess the robustness and rationale of these three energy futures. The future energy scenario assessment (FESA) tool is used to develop pathway specific large-scale generation mixes that meet expected demands on both a yearly and hourly time step basis. The multi-objective transmission reinforcement planning (MOTRiP) tool is used to generate a set of electrical network plans for the assessment of expected electrical infrastructure requirements, following the application of the future generation mixes to the current GB electrical transmission network. The results, detailed throughout this paper, demonstrate that the combination of FESA's detailed temporal analysis and MOTRiP's comprehensive geographical analysis provides a high-quality holistic examination of the Transition Pathways scenarios, assessing the need for national infrastructure reinforcements with the changing demand and generation patterns.

This paper reviews the current status of microgeneration technologies at the domestic scale. Overviews are given for nine such technologies, grouped into three sections: (a) low carbon heating: condensing boilers, biomass boilers and room heaters, air source and ground source heat pumps; (b) renewables: solar photovoltaic panels, flat plate and evacuated tube solar thermal panels and micro-wind; and (c) combined heat and power: Stirling engines, internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Reviews of the construction, operation and performance are given for the leading commercial products of each technology. Wherever possible, data are presented from the field, giving the actual prices paid by customers, efficiencies and energy yields experienced in real-world use, reliability and durability, and the problems faced by users. This information has a UK focus but is generally relevant in the international context. Two issues are found to be prevalent throughout the microgeneration industry. Total installed costs are a premium and vary substantially between technologies, between specific products (e.g. different models of solar panel), and between individual installations. Performance in the field is found in many cases to differ widely from manufacturers’ quotes and laboratory studies, often owing to installation and operational problems. Despite this, microgeneration has demonstrated substantial improvements over conventional generation in terms of fossil fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and energy cost, provided that the appropriate technologies are employed, being installed and operated correctly according to the load requirements of the house and their physical location.

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

A critical review of the literature relating to government policy and behavioural aspects relevant to the uptake and application of microgeneration in the UK is presented. Given the current policy context aspiring to zero-carbon new homes by 2016 and a variety of minimum standards and financial policy instruments supporting microgeneration in existing dwellings, it appears that this class of technologies could make a significant contribution to UK energy supply and low-carbon buildings in the future. Indeed, achievement of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 80% (the UK government’s 2050 target) for the residential sector may entail substantial deployment of microgeneration. Realisation of the large potential market for microgeneration relies on a variety of interrelated factors such as microeconomics, behavioural aspects, the structure of supporting policy instruments and well-informed technology development. This paper explores these issues in terms of current and proposed policy instruments in the UK. Behavioural aspects associated with both initial uptake of the technology and after purchase are also considered.

The use of reactive power control as a means of controlling voltages in low-voltage (230 V / 400 V) distribution networks is considered. The proposal is to use spare capacity in power electronic interfaces such as inverters in domestic photovoltaic (PV) and micro combined heat and power (CHP) units to generate or consume reactive power according to locally measured voltage. This Distributed Automatic Voltage Control (DAVC) is proposed as a means of allowing greater penetration of low-carbon technologies into existing distribution systems. A detailed model of a real distribution system in the UK has been used to determine that DAVC can be effective in controlling voltages despite the low X-upon-R ratio typical of low-voltage distribution networks. A slight increase in network losses is predicted but this could be justified by the allowance of a greater penetration of PV and a reduced need to curtail its generation due to network voltage rise. A significant reduction in source power factor is also noted.

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of the performance of a building-mounted ducted wind turbine. A resistive volume within the duct is used to represent a cross-flow turbine and different diffuser geometries have been investigated. A comparison is made between the power performance ratio of such a building-mounted ducted wind turbine rotor predicted by CFD calculations and those predicted on the basis of one-dimensional (1D) theory. Good agreement is seen between the two approaches for a freestanding duct but deviations are seen for the building-mounted case for the calculated power performance ratio apparently due to asymmetry in the flow profile entering the duct and the flow geometry around the combination of building and duct.