King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

About: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is a education organization based out in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Adsorption. The organization has 7603 authors who have published 24030 publications receiving 443803 citations. The organization is also known as: College of Petroleum and Minerals.

A worldwide perspective on energy, environment and sustainable development

Abstract: Problems with energy supply and use are related not only to global warming, but also to such environmental concerns as air pollution, ozone depletion forest destruction and emission of radioactive substances. These issues must be taken into consideration simultaneously if humanity is to achieve a bright energy future with minimal environmental impacts. Much evidence exists which suggests that the future will be negatively impacted if humans keep degrading the environment. There is an intimate connection between energy, the environment and sustainable development. A society seeking sustainable development ideally must utilize only energy resources which cause no environmental impact (e.g. which release no emissions to the environment). However, since all energy resources lead to some environmental impact, it is reasonable to suggest that some (not all) of the concerns regarding the limitations imposed on sustainable development by environmental emissions and their negative impacts can be in part overcome through increased energy efficiency. A strong relation clearly exists between energy efficiency and environmental impact since, for the same services or products, less resource utilization and pollution is normally associated with higher efficiency processes. Anticipated patterns of future energy use and consequent environmental impact (focusing on acid precipitation, stratospheric ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect) are comprehensively discussed in this paper. Also, some solutions to current environmental issues in terms of energy conservation and renewable energy technologies are identified and some theoretical and practical limitations on increased energy efficiency are explained. The relations between energy and sustainable development, and between the environment and sustainable development, are described, and an illustrative example is presented. Throughout the paper several issues relating to energy, environment and sustainable development are examined from both current and future perspectives. Finally, several conclusions and recommendations are drawn which may be useful to energy scientists and engineers and policy makers. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cost of solar energy generated using PV panels

Abstract: This paper utilizes monthly average daily global solar radiation and sunshine duration data to study the distribution of radiation and sunshine duration over Saudi Arabia. The analysis also includes the renewable energy production and economical evaluation of a 5 MW installed capacity photovoltaic based grid connected power plant for electricity generation. The study utilizes RetScreen software for energy production and economical assessment. It is found that the global solar radiation varies between a minimum of 1.63 MWh/m2 yr–1 at Tabuk and a maximum of 2.56 MWh/m2 yr–1 at Bisha while the mean remained as 2.06 MWh/m2 yr–1. The duration of sunshine varied between 7.4 and 9.4 h with an overall mean of 8.89 h. The specific yield was found to vary from 211.5 to 319.0 kWh/m2 with a mean of 260.83 kWh/m2. The renewable energy produced each year from 5 MWp installed capacity plant was varied between 8196 and 12,360 MWh while the mean remained as 10,077 MWh/yr–1. The economical indicators like internal rate of return, the simple payback period, the years to positive cash flows, the net present value, the annual life cycle savings, the profitability index and the cost of renewable energy production showed that Bishah was the best site for PV based power plant development and Tabuk the worst. From environmental point of view, it was found that on an average an approximate quantity of 8182 ton of green house gases can be avoided entering into the local atmosphere each year.