Sustainable development of renewable energy integrated power sector: Trends, environmental impacts, and recent challenges

The continuous growth in overall energy demand and the related environmental impacts play a significant role in the large sustainable and green global energy transition. Moreover, the electrical power sector is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, renewable energy (RE) integration...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2022-05, Vol.822, p.153645-153645, Article 153645
Main Author: Al-Shetwi, Ali Q.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon Dioxide - analysis
Challenges
Climate change
Economic Development
Emissions
Energy-Generating Resources
Environment
Fossil Fuels
Grid integration
Power grid
Renewable
Renewable Energy
Sustainable Development
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The continuous growth in overall energy demand and the related environmental impacts play a significant role in the large sustainable and green global energy transition. Moreover, the electrical power sector is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, renewable energy (RE) integration into the power grid has attracted significant economic, environmental, and technical attention in recent years. However, RE can also harm the environment, even though it is deemed less harmful than fossil fuel-based power. It may also cause technical, operational, and social issues. This, in return, more consideration and appropriate precautions should be taken. Given the recent sharp increase in RE utilization and its progressing impact on the world energy sector, evaluating its effect on the environment and sustainable development is limitedly explored and must be investigated. This study aims to discuss the role of RE integration in sustainable development. It provides an up-to-date review of the most recent global trend of various RE integrations into the power sector. The role and impact of this high integration level on the environment and the adverse effects of each RE source are discussed in detail. The recent challenges, including technical and operational challenges (i.e., voltage stability, frequency stability, and power quality), integration policy and standards challenges, RE environmental concerns, resource selection and location, and social challenges towards a sustainable electricity future and grid decarbonization, are comprehensively reviewed, discussed, and analyzed. A review of the literature was conducted from 2010 to 2021. Around 712 articles were classified during this process, and 177 papers were filtered for critical review. The literature analysis showed that RE integration has increased dramatically and has many benefits; however, more attention should be paid to mitigate its harmful impacts and recent challenges appeared. The new challenges resulting from the increasing generation of RE and linking it to the electric grid were listed to allow for future studies to find the appropriate solutions towards green and sustainable energy. Finally, towards a sustainable power system, the paper concludes with recommendations for future research directions. [Display omitted] •Renewable energy towards sustainable electricity future is evaluated.•Present scenario/trend of renewables in power sector at the global level is presented.•Positive and n
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153645