Towards a Common Methodology and Modelling Tool for 100% Renewable Energy Analysis: A Review

Abstract

Some advanced countries’ rapid population, economic growth, and energy consumption expansion contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions. And while developed countries have achieved 100% universal access to electricity, mainly from non-renewable sources, many developing countries still lack it. This presents challenges and opportunities for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 and 13 of generating all energy from cleaner or low-carbon sources to reduce CO2 emissions in all countries and combating climate change consequences. Renewable energies have been widely acknowledged to greatly advance this endeavour, resulting in many studies and about 30 countries already with over 70% of their national electricity mix from RE. It has birthed a new paradigm and an emerging field of 100% RE for all purposes, recently receiving much attention from academia and in public discourse. The major challenge with this idea is that achieving such a feat requires a more diverse approach. This study emphasises the need to meet technical and non-technical requirements for working towards a 100% RE for all purposes. Therefore, our work introduces six methodological or evaluation mechanisms (herein, identified as 100% RE evaluation metrics) suitable for existing and future 100% renewable energy analysis. It then reviews energy modelling tools to identify their applicability to 100% RE analysis. The review and perspectives presented in this study will be valuable in developing a common integrated methodology and modelling tool for analysing full renewable energy adoption in countries or regions with best trade-offs, using performance indices that have not been previously used. It will also help with proper national and regional energy resources and system planning for new energy projects and installations, contributing to sustainable development.

Sustainable Energy Development: History and Recent Advances

“…Notably, over the years, there has been a growing interest in and increasing strategies aimed at achieving sustainable development from the energy sector. The historical development of energy and sustainable development was first highlighted by I. Gunnarsdottir et al in [8]; hence, an updated and more detailed history is presented in Table 1, extracted from an original supplementary part of the work by J. Akpan and O. Oludolapo in [9].…”

Towards the 1.5°C Climate Scenario: Global Emissions Reduction Commitment Simulation and the Way Forward

“…Factors, such as geographical location, resource availability, technological capacity, governmental aims, policy frameworks, infrastructure development and economic situations, influence the variability of renewable energy sources. About 30 countries that have achieved nearly 100% renewable energy (RE) utilisation exhibit a predominant reliance on a specific RE source such as wind, solar or geothermal [26]. Notably, the most prevalent RE source among these countries is hydropower, accounting for a minimum of 70% of its RE generation.…”

“…Mitra S. et al [51] emphasised the importance of such energies to be affordable towards increasing universal accessibility. The issues and challenges to achieving these are numerous and diverse, with the key ones being discussed by Akpan J. et al in [26] and Batinge B. et al in [52] providing a roadmap for reducing energy poverty in African electricity markets.…”

Site selection optimization for 100% renewable energy sources

“…Østergaard et al ( 2022 ) synthesize the EnergyPLAN applications used for 100% RES by analyzing its use in both bibliometric and case-geographical terms and reviewing the developments in the topics discussed and the results obtained using EnergyPLAN. In their study, Akpan and Olanrewaju ( 2023 ) introduce the methodological or evaluation mechanism suitable for current and future 100% renewable energy analysis. It then examines energy modeling tools to determine their applicability to 100% renewable energy analysis.…”