Masters Degrees (Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies)

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This collection contains dissertations sponsored by the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies.

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies) by browse.metadata.advisor "Brent, Alan C."

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    Rooftop solar PV potential assessment in the City of Johannesburg
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Ntsoane, Moroasereme; Brent, Alan C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Cities are the modern era’s undisputed drivers for economic growth and development. But cities are also highly energy and resource intensive. Therefore, it is predictable that cities would be active participants in the global effort to creatively strike a balance between resources consumption and economic growth for a sustainable future. Part of this is exploiting the often neglected, but vital, solar photovoltaic (PV) resource and rooftop real estate within cities. At face value, a city with the real estate infrastructural sophistication of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), presents an attractive opportunity for generating renewable energy from its building rooftops. However, the magnitude of this potential is yet to be fully characterised. Assessments of the rooftop solar PV potential of buildings in inner city locale are made complex by the variety of building typologies and rooftop accessibility. The main objective of this research was to assess the technical potential of rooftop PV generation in the inner city core of the CoJ, using a rapid, simple, accessible, effective, and computationally light methodology. The sample for the study was the entire population of buildings located in the central business district (CBD) of the CoJ, made up of 202 buildings across a 1.64 km2 area. Digital images of the individual building rooftops were used. The inner city core of the CoJ was found to have a rooftop availability factor of 46% (375 985 m2), 17% (140 995 m2) of which was considered to be available and suitable for system installations. The area could accommodate a system with a technical capacity of 22.6 MW and an average annual production of 38 399 915 kWh, which constitutes a mere 0.23% of the CoJ’s current annual electricity consumption. The full installation of such a system would reduce the CoJ’s electricity services revenue by 0.31%, whilst positively impacting its carbon emissions inventory through the offsetting of 36 096 tCO2e. The outcome of the research shows that the technical potential for rooftop PV installation in the central business district of CoJ, whilst seemingly attractive at face value, was, in reality, insignificant. The immateriality of the determined technical potential – as is reasonable to expect – would be aggravated further by the incorporation of economic and financial constraints, as well as real-time building-to-building shadow analysis. Whilst the research has demonstrated that rooftop PV in the inner city core of the CoJ, and possibly in CBD areas of other cities displaying similar building typology, is limited in scope and impact, the same argument cannot be made about the entirety of the building rooftops in the CoJ. After all, building typology beyond the inner city core boundaries is dominated by less dense, low-rising, residential, industrial and commercial roof space, which possibly holds immense potentials for rooftop PV. This means that the CoJ, in seeking to transform its energy supply options through exploitation of its real estate, should focus attention away from the inner city core for optimised impact.
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    Solar roof tiles : towards a macro-economic model
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-03) Mokheseng, Motale Ben; Swilling, Mark; Brent, Alan C.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Management and Planning.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The thesis examines whether a residential solar power system (comprising a solar photovoltaic [PV] system and a solar water heater [SWH]), a demand-side option, has a lower life-cycle cost than a coal-fired power plant, a supply-side option, or vice versa. It also investigates whether a million residential solar power systems could potentially replace a 4 800 MW coal-fired power plant in South Africa. The study also explores, should a million solar power systems be installed on residential units, what the total energy output, the equivalent in coal-fired generation capacity, and the comparative costs of the two power systems would be. The common belief is that solar PV technology is unviable for electricity production because it is too expensive compared to coal-based electricity. Statements such as these are made because the initial capital costs (procurement costs) are often used as the primary (and sometimes only) criterion for project, equipment or system selection based on a simple payback period. Due to life-cycle stages, often the real costs of the project or equipment are not reflected by the upfront capital costs. In this thesis, a methodology is developed to investigate the life-cycle cost effectiveness of a residential solar power system (comprising a 5 kW PV roof tile system and a 300 litre SWH) and a 4 800 MW coal-fired plant in order to choose the most cost effective alternative in terms of the project‟s functional unit (kWh). A 5 kW solar PV roof tile system and a 300 litre SWH system have been installed at Lynedoch Eco-village. The operational results from this experiment was used as a basis for developing a model for a million residential rooftops that will have a 5 kW PV roof tile system plus a 300 litre SWH system. The focus of the million rooftops model is operating costs over the lifetime of the solar power system, on the assumption that the capital costs will be financed from coal-fired generation capacity that will no longer be needed. The results of the study indicate that a residential solar power system is most cost effective over a 40-year life-cycle period in terms of the project‟s functional unit (kWh). The thesis also finds that a million residential solar power systems (comprising a 5 kW PV system and a 300 litre SWH) could potentially replace 40% of a 4 800 MW coal-fired generation capacity. In total, 2.3 million residential solar power systems are needed to replace a 4 800 MW coal-fired generation capacity. Emissions of 37 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year could be avoided if 2.3 million residential solar power systems were to be installed. However, the investment needed to install Lynedoch solar power systems (comprising a 5 kW PV roof tile system and a 300 litre SWH) on 2.3 million residential rooftops is fifteen times more than the investment needed to build a 4 800 MW coal-fired power plant. The investment needed to install 2.3 million Lomold residential solar power systems (comprising a 5 kW Lomold PV roof tile system and a 300 litre SWH) is six and half times more than the investment needed for a 4 800 MW coal-fired power plant. It was established during the study that if Lynedoch residential solar power systems were to be installed on the roofs of a million South African households, 152 308 jobs would be created in the manufacturing and installation supply chain. For the 2.3 million Lynedoch residential solar power systems needed to replace an entire 4 800 MW of coal-fired generation capacity, 340 690 jobs would be created in the manufacturing and installation supply chain. Installation of a million Lomold residential solar power systems would create 63 929 jobs in the supply chain. Installation of 2.3 million Lomold residential solar power systems would essentially create 147 298 jobs.