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Emergy and Sustainability Ternary Diagrams of Energy Systems: Application to Solar Updraft Tower

Author

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  • Islam Elsayed

    (Department of Systems Design for Ocean-Space, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan)

  • Yoshiki Nishi

    (Department of Systems Design for Ocean-Space, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan)

Abstract

To facilitate sustainable energy development, one has to understand the limited availability of nonrenewable energy resources, and the ability of the earth to renew or recover. Emergy is an instrument that measures environmental loading, ecological economics, and regional sustainable development. In this study, emergy indicators are calculated to investigate the sustainability of solar updraft tower (SUT). SUT produces energy from the hot air, utilizing a combination of a solar collector, central tower, and air turbines. The results demonstrate that the sustainability of SUT grew as the size of the plant increased. Further, emergetic ternary diagrams are drawn to facilitate the comparison between SUT and various technologies. The resources-use efficiency of wind energy and SUT, 200 MW is found to be the lowest among all energy technologies presented in this research. Scenario analysis is performed to explore the future optimization directions. The results demonstrate that the development direction of SUT systems should mainly focus on reducing the materials demanded by the manufacturing and construction of its solar collectors. This study aims to demonstrate the value of emergy as a powerful instrument for drawing long-term sustainable strategies in energy markets for a greener tomorrow.

Suggested Citation

  • Islam Elsayed & Yoshiki Nishi, 2020. "Emergy and Sustainability Ternary Diagrams of Energy Systems: Application to Solar Updraft Tower," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10546-:d:463330
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Islam Elsayed & Yoshiki Nishi, 2018. "A Feasibility Study on Power Generation from Solar Thermal Wind Tower: Inclusive Impact Assessment Concerning Environmental and Economic Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Yang, Jin & Chen, Bin, 2016. "Emergy-based sustainability evaluation of wind power generation systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 239-246.
    3. Zhang, Meimei & Wang, Zhifeng & Xu, Chao & Jiang, Hui, 2012. "Embodied energy and emergy analyses of a concentrating solar power (CSP) system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 232-238.
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    5. Buonocore, Elvira & Vanoli, Laura & Carotenuto, Alberto & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Integrating life cycle assessment and emergy synthesis for the evaluation of a dry steam geothermal power plant in Italy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 476-487.
    6. Christoph Weber, 2019. "Risky being green," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 906-907, November.
    7. Nian, Victor & Liu, Yang & Zhong, Sheng, 2019. "Life cycle cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind energy under the climatic conditions in Southeast Asia – Setting the bottom-line for deployment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 1003-1014.
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    Cited by:

    1. Suman Paneru & Forough Foroutan Jahromi & Mohsen Hatami & Wilfred Roudebush & Idris Jeelani, 2021. "Integration of Emergy Analysis with Building Information Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Osama A. Marzouk, 2024. "Energy Generation Intensity (EGI) of Solar Updraft Tower (SUT) Power Plants Relative to CSP Plants and PV Power Plants Using the New Energy Simulator “Aladdin”," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-26, January.

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