Challenges and Opportunities of Distributed Renewable Power

Due to limited non-renewable resources and climate change problems, the global energy sector must be transformed from fossil fuel dominated to renewable energy based. However, due to constraints of resources, technology, locked capital in existing energy systems, limited financial support, and associated risks in investment, etc., this transformation is not expected to occur rapidly. Rather there should be an energy transition path with planned replacement of fossil fuel-based systems to renewable-based ones. Large-scale renewable power is yet to be dominant globally. Distributed renewable power is appearing to be more common as its implementation requires smaller investments with lesser financial risks. There are several options of such distributed renewable power with great prospects at different locations. Simultaneously, there are many challenges to overcome for successful implementation of such projects. These challenges are also multi-dimensional. In this book, several chapters address bright prospects of several options of distributed renewable power. Simultaneously, other chapters address challenges of implementation of such technologies. The chapters together cover a wide perspective of both prospects and associated challenges to be addressed for it. Chapters include technological issues, optimization of energy systems, logistics and policies, case studies etc. Researchers, industry professionals, and students can benefit from this book.

Dr. Sudipta De is currently Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, India. His area of interest is sustainable energy. He received his research funding from UGC, DST (India); EU; Swedish Research Council; DFG-Germany; SIU and DIKU-Norway etc. He is an editorial board member of the Springer Nature journal 'Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy'. He received the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Teacher Award, a lifetime award for distinguished contribution. He was the leader of the Indian Delegation in the 13th Plenary Meeting of ISO/TC 238: Solid Biofuels. He is elected Fellows of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology and International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability.Prof. Avinash Kumar Agarwal joined IIT Kanpur in 2001. He worked as Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Engine Research Center, UW@Madison, USA (1999-2001). His interests are IC engines, combustion, alternate and conventional fuels, lubricating oil tribology, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, HCCI, emissions and particulate control, 1D and 3D simulations of engine processes, and large-bore engines. He has published 525+ peer-reviewed international journal and conference papers, 63 edited books, 129 chapters, 16200+ Scopus, and 24300+ Google Scholar citations. He is Editor of FUEL, Associated Editor of the SAE Journal of Engines, and the ASME Open Journal of Engineering. He is India's number one Energy researcher in the recently declared Stanford University listing of the top 2% of researchers globally. Dr. Pankaj Kalita received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Jorhat Engineering College, (Under Dibrugarh University, Assam) and subsequently M.Tech. in Fluids and Thermal Engineering and Ph.D. degrees in clean coal technologies from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the School of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of Energy at Tezpur University, Assam, before joining at IIT Guwahati in 2015. He has more than 10 years of teaching experience and 16 years of research experience in the field of clean energy technologies. He has published more than 100 research articles in various reputed journals and conferences. So far, he has published 3 edited books and contributed 16 book chapters. He has completed several research and consultancy projects in the areas of clean energy technologies.