ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING PROJECT CC-101

By AKHIL GOVIND (108113010) Aravind J Nair (108113014) B. Akhil (108113017) C. Vignesh (10811024)

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AIM
To design a suitable power generation system for the Palm Jumeirah Island, United Arab Emirates so as to reduce the current over-dependence on diesel and thermal sources. This will reduce the carbon footprint at least by a small extent and could serve as a model for the future.

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WHAT IS THE PALM JUMEIRAH ISLAND?

It is an artificial manmade island built off the coast of Dubai to house real estate, apartments, hotels, malls, beaches and other tourist attractions. Architecturally the island is built in the shape of a date palm connected to the main land by a bridge. The island measures 5 by 5 kilometers and is larger than almost 800 football fields put together. The current power demand is met by an ABB switching station in Jebel Ali which supplies the power to four smaller switching islands on the island. The Palm Islands consume a lot of energy and its supply requires complex system of power generation and transmission to the consumers.

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DETAILS OF THE POWER DEMAND

On an average, the people of the UAE consume 20MWh of energy per person per year. The Palm Jumeirah thus will have a consumption of ~ 480 GWh per year. Dubai already has a Solar Plant capable of generating 24 GWh per year.

WHAT DO WE PROPOSE?
There is a popular saying that Take care of the small parts, the larger ones will fall into place. No hybrid system proposed by our current level of knowledge or technical skills can generate enough power to meet the demand of the island. But small steps taken can reduce the load on coal and diesel power plant generated power. The most amazing aspect of the island is its artificial greens and the marina. Can we not make these greens greener in the energy sense? There is a lot of solar energy incident over this part of the world in general. Can a bit of this solar energy not be harvested so as to make this island more efficient? The marina is located within the island. High speed boating causes harm to the aquatic population within the waters. Can a novel system
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not be made over a part of the marina so as to generate power to a significant part of the consumers?

MEET OUR ALLIES:

1. SUN:
Solar energy is the energy harnessed from the sun, in very simple terms. The working of this conversion of radiant solar energy into electrical energy is complex. The earth receives almost 200 PetaWatts of Solar radiation in the upper atmosphere. Only 70% of this is absorbed by oceans, land and cloud.

Solar energy can be captured and used in different methods like photovoltaic cells, solar thermal energy conversion, solar cookers, solar collectors, etc. Solar cells convert the light energy to electrical energy making use of the photoelectric effect. The early solar cells made in 1880s and early 1900s had efficiencies of 4.5 6.0 %. In 2012, solar cells with efficiencies of the order of 20 30 % have come
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on the market. Research on solar cells and solar energy is still ongoing and within 10 15 years scientists forecast creation of solar cells with efficiency as high at 50%. The biggest shortcoming of usage of solar energy is that it can only be harnessed effectively within a limited time interval. Storage of solar energy is another upcoming research field. The Andosol Solar station in Spain uses molten salt to store the solar energy and thus can generate electricity when the sun isnt shining. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2060, solar energy can provide one third of the earths total energy demand.

2. wind:
Wind power is another widely used source to generate electricity. Since olden times humans have used Wind energy to perform mechanical work and grind flour. The first wind turbine to generate electricity was made in 1887 by James Blyth. Since then and especially during the 1950s, there has been tremendous research on wind
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turbines. Today these are classified as Horizontal Axis turbines and Vertical Axis turbines. Wind farms are constructed over large area of land and contain many wind turbines to generate electricity. Since land is not a readily available asset, there have been offshore wind farms as well in favorable areas. The Lillgrund Offshore Wind farm is located 10km off the coast of Southern Sweden where wind speeds are almost 10kts and the maximum capacity of the farm is 110 MW ~ 330 GWh per year. In case of offshore wind farms, technology has to be improved on how to bring this power to the main grid.

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INSPIRATIONAL WIND/SOLAR ENERGY PROJECTS FROM OVER THE WORLD:

1) LILLgrund wind farm, Sweden:
The Lillgrund Wind farm is located off the coast of Oresund in Sweden. It is an offshore wind farm consisting of 48 turbines each rated at 2.3 MW, in an area where wind speeds are of the order of 10 kts (almost the same as of Dubai and Palm Jumeirah). The wind farm produces 330 GWh per year. The turbines rotors have a radius of 42 m and a total height of 115 meters from sea level.

2) LONDON ARRAY:
The London Array is the worlds largest Offshore Wind Farm with maximum capacity of 1000 MW. The Wind farm is located 20 Km from the Kent Coast and consists of 341 3.6 MW turbines.
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3) Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park:

It is a 13 MW Solar park located in the Desert of Dubai and capable of producing 24 GWh of electricity per year.

4) KYOCERA SOLAR PARK:

It is a 70 MW power project located in Southern Japan. The park is made on reclaimed land attached to the mainland and occupies only 1.27 sq. km of area.

5) Solar ark:
The solar ark is an ark shaped solar photovoltaic power generation
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facility in the geographical centre of Japan capable of producing 530 MWh of electricity per year.

6) ANDASOL SOLAR PLANT:

Andasol solar plant is the first Parabolic trough power plant in Europe. It uses molten salt mixture of 60% Sodium Nitrate and 40% Potassium Nitrate to store part of the heat and when it cannot harness solar energy like in the evening, this heat is used to run a turbine. Thus the number of operational hours almost doubles.

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OUR IDEA:
There is an artificial marine located within the island covering a major part. If an Offshore Wind farm with Horizontal Axis Turbines can be erected in that area, each with a rating of say 2 MW (and numbering to 20 40 turbines) and assuming total operational time of 5-10 hours per day (taking into account the wind patterns as shown by statistics) we can generate an average of 210 GWh for the Island by the Wind Energy System Solar energy can only be harnessed between 8.30 a.m to 4.30 p.m (almost 8 hours) a day during summertime (~ 200 days an year). A Solar Park in the desert of Dubai along the lines of the Rashid Al Makthoum Solar Park can be used to bring in some more electricity required by the island. If this solar park were to use the principle of storage of solar energy by molten salt, then we would get a solar thermal conversion system in the time of an overcast sky. Furthermore, construction of a solar park using high efficiency panels on the lines of the Kyocera Solar Park mentioned above or a structures like the Solar Ark (can be called Solar dhow(boat) keeping in mind the regional names) can be constructed at multiple locations. Thus we could get another 100 - 150 GWh of electricity through the solar systems. Thus we may be able to generate at the maximum 360 GWh out of the required 480 GWh of energy every year through these systems resulting in 120 GWh of electricity every year through conventional sources.
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MODEL OF HOW THE IDEA COULD CHANGE THE FACE OF THE PALM ISLANDS (HYPOTHETICAL):

Where The Black Dots represent the locations in the water where a turbine could be constructed; The red dots represent location where a Solar Dhows could be made; and the brown patches represent location of smaller solar plants on the island The Solar Power Plant should be located in the desert and electricity brought by high voltage switching methods already existent. The Arrow at the centre represents a possible location for the Palm Jumeirah Central station which will distribute the load to smaller stations

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HOW TO connect to the grid:

There are 4 switching stations on the Palm Jumeirah which receive power from the main Jebel Ali Station. The Electricity from the Wind Farm and Solar Dhows should be transmitted to a central switching station on the trunk. The Electricity from the Solar Park in the Desert will come along with other electricity.

COST:
This project is highly ambitious and hypothetical based on already existing methods. However the cost of such a project should also be taken into consideration which is where the location of this project triumphs.

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Dubai spends millions of AED per year on real estate and energy projects. The Sheikh has pledged to increase spending on renewable sources so as to make Dubai an energy efficient Emirate by 2020. Thus such an ambitious project will be accepted with both hands.

WHY SOLAR-WIND HYBRID:

Dubai (Lat 25.25oN, Long 55oE) is situated within the Solar Belt of the Earth. The Arabian Peninsula lies in virtually a rainless sunny belt with the typical solar radiation exceeding 6KWh/m2 and 80-90% clear skies throughout the year. Thus solar energy is a preferred choice for renewable energy here also owing to the well developed technology and ability to spend on costly technology. Thus Solar energy, which is currently under-utilized, can help power a significant demand of this location.

Average wind speeds in the Palm Jumeirah are between 8-10 kts. Cutoff velocity for turbines to work is 7kts. Therefore we can expect working of turbines for almost 80% of the time. This will not only help power the energy demand but also add aesthetic beauty to the Palm
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Jumeirah marina. Furthermore only a small area will be required for the wind turbines.

(Wind data for the Palm Jumeirah)

ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR
Abundant Energy and almost free of cost. Low pollution.

DISADVANTAGES OF SOLAR
Expensive to make solar panels Harnessed only in daytime when it is sunny (but this can be overcome by using molten salt to store the energy)

High availability in the region

ADVANTAGES OF WIND
Fuel cost is zero Each wind turbine takes up only a small area of land. Wind turbines do not release green house gases or pollutants.

DISADVANTAGES OF WIND
Requires certain cutoff velocity for generation of electricity Noisy(producing almost same amount of noise as a car at 100kmph) If not erected with strong foundation, can collapse.
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POLLUTANT EMISSIONS:
Wind turbines do not produce CO2 emissions as such. However construction of Wind Turbines does produce some CO2. Studies have found that due to usage of wind power, there have been reductions of emission by .3 to .5 tonnes of CO2 per MWh produced. Moreover there is a very high net energy gain for a wind turbine measured by an index called Energy Return based On Investment (EROI). EROI = Cumulative electricity produced by turbine divided by cumulative primary energy required to build and maintain turbine EROI of Wind ranges from 5 to 35 with an average of 33. Manufacturing of solar cells and panels may cause some emissions. However this is still lower than that of conventional sources. On an average, the cadmium telluride emissions caused during manufacturing of solar panels is 300 times lower than that of coal powered plants. A standard solar PV system installed on a rooftop will reduce CO2 emissions by .9 tonnes per year. Thus a diversified solar panel system as we plan will help reduce many tones of CO2 emissions per year.

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CONCLUSION:
The location of Palm Jumeirah is its biggest factor. There are abundant winds throughout the year, especially along the coast. Solar energy is abundant over the area, especially in the desert. The right mix of these two sources in conjunction will reduce the strain on conventional sources of energy and help reduce CO2 emissions of the UAE. Such a system can also be implemented in many of the countries in the Middle East, thereby reducing by a huge factor the strain on fossil fuels in these areas. Cost of such projects is no factor here due to the high purchasing power of the respective Governments. Moreover these projects would also generate jobs for many people, be it in the maintenance of the systems, or electrical engineers, or mechanical engineers, technicians etc.

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