Q1. What is involved in commissioning of a renewable energy project?
Commissioning of a renewable energy project involves the process of ensuring that the project is constructed, tested, and operated in accordance with design specifications, industry standards, and safety regulations. The following are the typical steps involved in commissioning a renewable energy project:
- Pre-commissioning activities: This includes reviewing project plans and specifications, conducting safety and environmental assessments, and ensuring that all necessary permits and licenses are in place.
- Construction and installation: Once the necessary permits and approvals are in place, construction can begin. This involves building and installing the various components of the renewable energy system, such as solar panels, wind turbines, or hydroelectric generators.
- Testing: Once construction is complete, the system is tested to ensure that it is functioning properly. This includes testing individual components as well as the system as a whole.
- Acceptance testing: This involves testing the system to ensure that it meets the design specifications and industry standards. This may involve testing the system under various operating conditions to ensure that it is reliable and efficient.
- Ongoing maintenance: Once the system is operational, ongoing maintenance is required to ensure that it continues to operate safely and efficiently. This includes regular inspections, maintenance, and repairs as needed.
Commissioning a renewable energy project is a complex process that requires expertise in engineering, construction, and project management. It is important to work with experienced professionals who can ensure that the project is completed on time, on budget, and to the required standards.
Q2. What is solar energy?
Answer: Solar energy uses the sun’s light and heat to generate renewable or ‘green’ power. The most common form of solar energy is harnessed by solar panels.
Q3. What is wind power?
Answer: Wind turbines use blades to collect the wind’s kinetic energy. Wind flows over the blades creating lift (similar to the effect on airplane wings), which causes the blades to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator, which produces (generates) electricity.
Q4. What is battery energy storage (BESS)?
Answer: A device that reserves energy for later consumption that is charged by a connected solar system. The stored electricity is consumed after sundown, during energy demand peaks, or during a power outage.
Q5. What exactly is Distributed Generation (DG) Power?
Answer: Distributed Generation is an approach to provide energy resources by deploying tools and technologies in proximity to the end users of the power. The system for power generation can be installed on rooftops of houses and commercial buildings that will use the energy where it will be consumed, often described as ‘behind the meter’.
By generating electricity in smaller amounts closer to end-users and storing power near the point-of-use, we can dramatically increase energy efficiency, and reduce carbon pollution.
From a financial perspective, distributed generation systems for commercial facilities can produce major savings on utility costs. Commercial and industrial buildings use more energy than residential buildings and also suffer from a fee structure that penalizes them for high-use periods often referred to as ‘demand charges’.
For commercial facilities that use a lot of power, the demand charge can become an enormous monthly expense.
When commercial or industrial buildings invest in distributed generation systems they can eliminate the demand charge entirely, creating savings that, over time, greatly offset the initial cost of their investment. Instead of closely monitoring energy usage and storing power to “trim the peak” at times of increased demand, these facilities can depend on their own localized power generation and storage to provide for their energy needs with no additional fees or charges.
Q6. How many megawatts (MW) are there is a gigawatt (GW)?
Answer: 1000MW = I GW
Q7. Can you put into context how much energy is produced by one megawatt of power?
Answer: One megawatt of power can provide electricity to 1200 North American homes and one gigawatt of power can provide electricity to 1.2 million homes.
Q8. What is Run-of-River electricity?
Answer:
Run-of-river electricity refers to a type of hydropower generation where the energy of flowing water in a river is used to generate electricity without the need for a large dam or reservoir. Unlike traditional hydroelectric power plants that rely on the construction of large dams to create reservoirs, run-of-river systems allow water to flow naturally through the river channel.
In a run-of-river power plant, a portion of the river’s flow is diverted through a canal or pipeline and directed to a turbine. The flowing water turns the turbine, which then drives a generator to produce electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water is returned to the river downstream without the need for a significant change in elevation. Since there is no large reservoir involved, the environmental impact and displacement of ecosystems associated with dam construction are minimized.
