Emergy and Sustainability Ternary Diagrams of Energy Systems: Application to Solar Updraft Tower

Islam Elsayed and Yoshiki Nishi
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Islam Elsayed: Department of Systems Design for Ocean-Space, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan
Yoshiki Nishi: Department of Systems Design for Ocean-Space, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: To facilitate sustainable energy development, one has to understand the limited availability of nonrenewable energy resources, and the ability of the earth to renew or recover. Emergy is an instrument that measures environmental loading, ecological economics, and regional sustainable development. In this study, emergy indicators are calculated to investigate the sustainability of solar updraft tower (SUT). SUT produces energy from the hot air, utilizing a combination of a solar collector, central tower, and air turbines. The results demonstrate that the sustainability of SUT grew as the size of the plant increased. Further, emergetic ternary diagrams are drawn to facilitate the comparison between SUT and various technologies. The resources-use efficiency of wind energy and SUT, 200 MW is found to be the lowest among all energy technologies presented in this research. Scenario analysis is performed to explore the future optimization directions. The results demonstrate that the development direction of SUT systems should mainly focus on reducing the materials demanded by the manufacturing and construction of its solar collectors. This study aims to demonstrate the value of emergy as a powerful instrument for drawing long-term sustainable strategies in energy markets for a greener tomorrow.

Keywords: emergy; emergetic ternary diagrams; sustainability; environmental loading; energy systems assessment; solar updraft tower (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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