The world as we know it depends highly on fossil fuels. However, these resources are finite, and evidence suggests that their combustion contributes to climate change. In addition, fresh water supplies are becoming scarcer amidst instabilities in weather patterns and unsustainable water consumption levels. As such, photovoltaic (PV) systems have emerged as a potential off-grid alternative to traditional fossil fuel energy generation. However, their widespread proliferation is, in part, inhibited by their inefficiency as less than 20% of incident solar energy is converted to electrical energy. Hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) desalination systems have emerged as one way of improving the overall efficiency of PV panels as they make use of the waste heat from panels to aid the desalination process in solar stills. Solar stills have been modelled with software for the purpose of performance optimisation, but most of them do not account for the still's view factor in the calculation of internal radiative heat transfer coefficient. The aim of this study was to construct a numerical model for a hybrid PV/T desalination system and determine its accuracy. The modelling was undertaken in Matlab and was validated against experimental data from a previous study using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and correlation values. It was observed that the model performed adequately as a water yield RMSE value of 22.0% was found. Furthermore, it was found that the view factor reduces the RMSE of hourly water yield from 28.9% to 22.0% and improves the correlation factor from 0.9890 to 0.9896. Sensitivity analyses were performed with annual data from Stellenbosch, South Africa (33.935°S 18.7817°W) and indicated an optimal water depth of 0.02m for high water yield, and 0.04m for high electrical energy yield. Also, an optimal panel tilt angle of 30° was found for both water and electrical energy yields and optimal cover tilt angles of 40° and 60° were observed for maximum water and electrical yields respectively. The conclusion of this study was that the incorporation of a view factors does indeed improve the accuracy of hybrid PV/T desalination system models. Additionally, low basin water depth is favourable for high water yields and high basin water depth, for high electrical energy yields. Furthermore, a panel tilt angle of 30° is optimum for both types of yield. Finally, the still cover tilt angle should be set to 40° for optimal water yields, but should be as steep as possible for optimal electrical energy yields.

The aim of this dissertation was to use Measurement & Verification (M&V) to determine the improvements in net heat rate at a South African coal-fired power plant (CFPP) following an extensive refurbishment programme. The CFPP consisted of multiple subcritical pulverised fuel generating units and the refurbishment programme aimed to improve the overall net heat rate by 1%. The purpose of using M&V is isolate the performance changes attributable to specific energy conservation measures from those changes brought about by other factors, or that would have occurred anyway for other reasons. An extensive literature review was undertaken, firstly into M&V and secondly into CFPP design and performance. The conventionally accepted methods for determining plant performance are the ‘direct method’ in which a measurement boundary is drawn around the entire plant, and the ‘components method’ which evaluates the boiler, the turbine-condenser cycle and the auxiliary loads separately. Caution is drawn to the fact that plant performance may be expressed in many ways depending on how HR is defined and on which coal measurement base is used. The physical factors affecting plant performance were classified as either fixed or variable. Fixed factors included vintage and design, size, condition of the major components (boiler, turbine and condenser), cooling water system type and pollutant controls. Variable factors included ambient conditions, flexibility of operations (such as running at part-load and load cycling) and the characteristics of the coal used including heating value, total moisture, hydrogen, ash, volatile matter, sulphur, hardness & abrasiveness. It is clear from the literature that the language used to describe flexible operations is inadequate and poorly defined. Other factors that may affect the calculated heat rate of a plant include coal weighing, stockpile surveys, length of assessment periods, changes to static stockpiles, measurement boundary selection and other assumptions. The literature review was used as a basis to develop an M&V methodology for the specific CFPP involved in the case study. The energy conservation measures were described in detail as well as constraints regarding availability and resolution of plant data. Although all measurement boundary options were considered, the whole facility approach was chosen (Option C). This approach was mainly motivated by the lack of data available and a high potential for interactive effects. Another reason is the fact that assessments need to capture the overall performance which could include deterioration in one part of the plant and simultaneous upgrades in other parts. The primary data required to find heat rate is the electrical energy use (exported, imported and auxiliary), the mass of coal consumed and the coal higher heating value. The M&V methodology included the development of a baseline adjustment model to adjust for changes in plant load, coal moisture and coal ash content. Ideally the model should have included changes in ambient conditions (temperature and relative humidity) but this was not possible as no ambient data was available and the assessment was done retrospectively. The absence of ambient data was mitigated by stipulating that assessment periods need to consist of a minimum of twelve consecutive months to account for changes in performance due to seasonal effects. The methodology also included a Monte Carlo analysis to quantify the combined uncertainties associated with electrical energy use, coal energy use, coal heating value and the adjustment model itself. The methodology was used to assess the change in net heat rate of the plant used in the case study for two separate twelve month reporting periods. The calculated impacts of the energy conservation measures were not as favourable as originally anticipated. A brief analysis of the results is provided with a discussion of potential reasons for the underperformance. A whole facility approach does not allow the reasons for performance changes to be pinpointed. One possibility is simply that the energy conservation measures had not been implemented as originally planned. An important finding was that the performance changes could not be solely attributed to the exclusion of any independent variables from the baseline adjustment model (e.g. ambient conditions). A more general discussion of the merits, shortcomings and limitations of the methodology is provided as well as some comments on the general interpretation of results. The baseline adjustment model is only applicable to the plant in the case study and is only valid for small changes in the independent variables. When calculating part-load operation, special attention must be given to generating units that have been derated. The application of a single part-load adjustment model to a multi-unit plant is discussed and found to result in conservative reporting. Factors which contribute to uncertainty, but which are unknown include staithe coal level changes, unknown stockpile dynamics, uncalibrated instruments, unrecorded coal movements and inaccuracy of aerial stockpile surveys. The dissertation concludes that the original hypothesis is supported: that a credible M&V methodology may be developed and applied to determine the heat rate improvements resulting from the refurbishment programme at a coal-fired power plant. Recommendations include an upfront agreement on which measurement reporting bases to use (both for heat rate and for coal), selection of a whole facility measurement boundary, a minimum assessment period of twelve months, installation of at least one accurate instrument to measure actual coal consumption (as opposed to coal delivered to the plant and then moved within the plant), sampling of coal, determination of heating value and collection of accurate ambient condition data from the start of the baseline period. Further recommendations are made to reduce uncertainty, determine static factors and to better interpret reported impacts.

This dissertation examines the role of subsidised housing in reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in South Africa. Climate change is an occurring event and is largely caused by human activities, such as the production of energy from fossil fuels (NRC, 2010). Buildings are seen as one of the highest consuming sectors of energy and therefore present many potential climate change mitigation opportunities. The South African subsidised housing sector is expanding significantly and estimations made in the current study show that 2.8 million subsidised housing units can potentially reduce up to 3% of the total current CO₂ emissions from the residential sector. This demand for subsidised housing units can also potentially reduce up to 0.06% of South Africa's total annual CO₂ emissions.

Natural gas combined cycles with oxy-fuel combustion is expected tobe an important component of the future carbon constrained energyscenario. An oxy-combustion power cycle enables the fuel to burn in anitrogen free environment and thereby helps separate the CO2 streamfor storage. Depending on the oxygen source and purity, the CO2stream may need further purification via a purification unit (CPU)before compressing it to a high pressure for storage. The major energy penalty in this type of power cycle is the production of oxygenand the downstream purification to remove volatiles. It is this energypenalty which results in the cost of avoiding the CO2 emissions to theatmosphere.Cryogenic Air Separation Units (ASU) for oxygen production con-tribute to approximately 20% of the total energy penalty of such powerplants. Oxygen Transport Membranes (OTM) for oxygen production offers a potential solution to reduce the energy penalty of oxy-combustion natural gas cycles. The energy penalties associated withOTMs are that membranes operate at high temperatures and requirea sweep gas to establish an oxygen partial pressure difference betweenthe feed and permeate streams. Further, while the Cryogenic ASUhas minimum integration with the power process, oxy-combustion cycles with OTMs are tightly integrated with the power plant. Thusthe contributions to efficiency penalty in an OTM-based cycles aredistributed and not easily identified.The objective of the thesis is to answer the question: "Where doesthe plant efficiency loss originate in oxy-combustion CO2 capture process using Oxygen Transport Membrane as compared to one withcryogenic ASU?" The contribution of the work will be to highlight thelosses at the sub-process and at the equipment level.This work studies three different cases of oxy-combustion naturalgas combined cycles (NGCC) with CO2 capture. The baseline scenario, modified/improved scenario and the advanced scenario. Thebaseline scenario is a simple oxy-combustion NGCC power plant withASU as the oxygen source. Various losses associated with this systemare studied in detail. The modified/improved scenario involves analysis of possible modifications to the baseline case and applying theresults in-order to improve the baseline case. The modified scenario isexpected to have a better overall plant performance. The advancedscenario involves usage of OTM for oxygen production.The power plants are simulated in Aspen HYSYS and plant massand heat balances are calculated. Using the stream enthalpy, entropyand composition, we can calculate the stream exergy values. Controlvolumes help us analyze the component and sub-system exergy lossesand arrive at the overall power plant exergetic efficiency. The base-line power plant scheme is found to have an exergetic efficiency of 47percentage points with a thermal efficiency of 49.6 percentage, withcapture.The modified power plant scheme is obtained by increasing the gasturbine pressure ratio and this has a significant impact on the over-all system design and hence the performance. The modified systemhas exergetic and thermal efficiency of 49 and 51 percentage pointsrespectively. The advanced power plant with OTM, also called as theAdvanced Zero Emissions Powerplant (AZEP) has an exergetic efficiency of 51 and a thermal efficiency of 53.4 percentage. In all the cases, the combustor where most of the fuel is burnt is responsible formajority of the exergy destruction.There is potential for improving the ASU and thereby achieving alesser specific oxygen production power and also due to system integration and other improvements, the overall oxy-combustion NGCCpower plant is expected to play an important role in 5 - 10 years. Alsoas the working fluid is different from that of a normal air based powerplant, significant work needs to be done in the gas turbine and compressor part. Also detailed cost estimations, reliability and flexibilitystudies, operability and safety related studies need to be carried outin-order to boost the confidence in oxy-fuel NGCC power plants andtake it to the next phase.

Wind energy is identified a promising energy resource in Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is important to use proper technologies for efficient energy capturing in order to minimize cost of energy. Small scale wind turbines are usually installed in constricted places (particularly in urban areas) where wind flow is turbulent and difficult to predict. Savonious type vertical axis wind turbines are important due to several reasons such as good response to turbulent winds, high initial torque, low cost, low noise, less maintenance.In this study, a modified flat plate type Savonius wind rotor was proposed to cost effectively harness wind energy in constricted places. Generally, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) are less efficient than horizontal axis wind turbines, one reason behind this issue is wind force difference between the 2 sides of the axis is small and due to this reason torque is small and power generation capacity is less.A prototype of the proposed VAWT was fabricated and the performance was determined by acquiring experimental data. Artificial wind blow which was generated by a huge fan was used to measure rotational speed and torque characteristics at varying wind speeds. Data were collected with 1-second sampling time and a data acquisition system was developed under this study. In the proposed design one side of the turbine blades are facing the wind direction in order to capture maximum force while other side is edging the blades to have minimum opposite torque. With this concept it is expected to maximize the torque of the axis and generate more power. A sort of a passive pitch mechanism is therefore utilized in order to save energy and simplify the system. Turbine blades are simple flat plates and it eliminates usage of complex aero foils. Due to the simplicity of this design it would be possible to use this turbine for domestic electricity generation at affordable costs.Nowadays, net metering systems are being promoted in Sri Lanka and it would be beneficial to introduce low cost VAWT which operates at low winds as well as turbulent wind conditions. Based on typical household hourly load profile, viability of proposed vertical axis wind turbine was evaluated by considering rural and urban wind regimes in Sri Lanka. The costs of wind energy at two selected locations were determined in the context of net metering.

This Master Thesis is the research done in the country of Rwanda. The project leads to study the climate of this country in order to establish whether this climate could be used to produce energy from air and to implement the first wind turbine for serving the nation.   After an introduction about the historical background of wind power, the thesis work deals with assessment of wind energy potential of Rwanda in focusing of the most suitable place for wind power plants. The best location with annual mean wind speed, the rate of use of turbine with hub height for an annual production per year, the mean wind speeds for 6 sites of Rwanda based on ECMWF for climatic data for one year at relief of altitude of 100m and coordinates are reported too.   The result of energy produced and calculations were done based on power hitting wind turbine generator in order to calculate Kinetic energy and power available at the best location to the measurement over the period of 12 months, that could be hoped for long term.   With help of logarithmic law, where wind speed usually increases with increasing in elevation and the desired wind speeds at all 6 sites were used. The annual energy production was taken into account at the best site with desired wind speed at the initial cost of turbine as well as the cost of energy (COE).However, with comparison of the tariff of EWSA, the price of Wind designed in this Research per kWh is cheaper and suitable for people of Rwanda. / <p><em>Rwanda has considerable opportunities development energy from hydro sources, methane gas, solar and peat deposits. Most of these energy sources have not been fully exploited, such as solar, wind and geothermal. As such wood is still being the major source of energy for 94 per cent of the population and imported petroleum products consume more than 40 per cent of foreign exchange. Energy is a key component of the Rwandan economy. It is thus recognized that the current inadequate and expensive energy supply constitutes a limiting factor to sustainable development. Rwanda’s Vision 2020 emphasizes the need for economic growth, private investment and economic transformation supported by a reliable and affordable energy supply as a key factor for the development process. To achieve this transformation, the country will need to increase energy production and diversify into alternative energy sources. Rwandan nations don’t have small-scale solar, wind, and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural areas. These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants. The application of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face the people of Rwanda every day, especially if done so in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights.</em></p>