• Energy Research
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Machine learning's application in solar-thermal desalination is limited by data shortage and inconsistent analysis. This study develops an optimized dataset collection and analysis process for the representative solar still. By ultra-hydrophilic treatment on the condensation cover, the dataset collection process reduces the collection time by 83.3%. Over 1,000 datasets are collected, which is nearly one order of magnitude larger than up-to-date works. Then, a new interdisciplinary process flow is proposed. Some meaningful results are obtained that were not addressed by previous studies. It is found that Radom Forest might be a better choice for datasets larger than 1,000 due to both high accuracy and fast speed. Besides, the dataset range affects the quantified importance (weighted value) of factors significantly, with up to a 115% increment. Moreover, the results show that machine learning has a high accuracy on the extrapolation prediction of productivity, where the minimum mean relative prediction error is just around 4%. The results of this work not only show the necessity of the dataset characteristics' effect but also provide a standard process for studying solar-thermal desalination by machine learning, which would pave the way for interdisciplinary study.

Optimally scheduling multi-energy flow is an effective method to utilize renewable energy sources (RES) and improve the stability and economy of integrated energy systems (IES). However, the stable demand-supply of IES faces challenges from uncertainties that arise from RES and loads, as well as the increasing impact of cyber-attacks with advanced information and communication technologies adoption. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an innovative model-free resilience scheduling method based on state-adversarial deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for integrated demand response (IDR)-enabled IES. The proposed method designs an IDR program to explore the interaction ability of electricity-gas-heat flexible loads. Additionally, the state-adversarial Markov decision process (SA-MDP) model characterizes the energy scheduling problem of IES under cyber-attack, incorporating cyber-attacks as adversaries directly into the scheduling process. The state-adversarial soft actor-critic (SA-SAC) algorithm is proposed to mitigate the impact of cyber-attacks on the scheduling strategy, integrating adversarial training into the learning process to against cyber-attacks. Simulation results demonstrate that our method is capable of adequately addressing the uncertainties resulting from RES and loads, mitigating the impact of cyber-attacks on the scheduling strategy, and ensuring a stable demand supply for various energy sources. Moreover, the proposed method demonstrates resilience against cyber-attacks. Compared to the original soft actor-critic (SAC) algorithm, it achieves a 10% improvement in economic performance under cyber-attack scenarios. Accepted by Applied Energy, Manuscript ID: APEN-D-24-03080

In the last decade, the manufacturing capacity of silicon, the dominant PV technology, has increasingly been concentrated in China. This has led to PV cost reduction of approximately 80%, while, at the same time, posing risks to PV supply chain security. Recent advancements of novel perovskite tandem PV technologies as an alternative to traditional silicon-based PV provide opportunities for diversification of the PV manufacturing capacity and for increasing the GHG emission benefit of solar PV. Against this background, we estimate the current and future cost-competitiveness and GHG emissions of a set of already commercialized as well as emerging PV technologies for different production locations (China, USA, EU), both at residential and utility-scale. We find EU and USA-manufactured thin-film tandems to have 2 to 4% and 0.5 to 2% higher costs per kWh and 37 to 40%and 32 to 35% less GHG emissions per kWh at residential and utility-scale, respectively. Our projections indicate that they will also retain competitive costs (up to 2% higher)and a 20% GHG emissions advantage per kWh in 2050.

: Power generation in today’s world is of utmost importance, due to which blockchain is used for the categorization and formation of decentralized structures. This paper has proposed decentralized energy generation using a nester, i.e., energy sharing without third-party intervention. Decentralized blockchain technology is applied to ensure power sharing between buyer and seller, and also to achieve efficient power transmission between prosumer and consumer. Energy management is associated with controlling and reducing energy consumption. Blockchain technology plays a major role in distributed power generation, for example, power-sharing (solar and wind energy), price fixation, energy transaction monitoring, and peer-to-peer power-sharing. These are operations performed by blockchain in renewable power generation. Solar power generation using blockchain technology can obtain an impact resting upon the power generation system. Distributed ledger is the key area of blockchain technology for recording and tracking each transaction in the distribution system to improve the efficiency of the overall transmission system. A smart contract is another important tool in the blockchain technology, which is issued to confirm an assent between buyer and seller before starting any energy transaction without external intervention and also to avoid time delay. Maximum power point tracking is conducted in PV cells using blockchain technology. Blockchain influences energy management systems to improve the utilization of energy, optimize energy usage, and also to reduce the cost.