DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
JOUF UNIVERSITY

Student :Maii Alaly

Under Supervisor Of
Dr. Naif Almoagell
1. Introduction

Sustainable Energy Development Strategies typically involve three major technological changes:
energy savings on the demand side [1,2], efficiency improvements in the energy production
[3,4], and replacement of fossil fuels by various sources of renewable energy [5,6].
Consequently, large-scale renewable energy implementation plans must include strategies of
how to integrate the renewable sources in coherent energy systems influenced by energy savings
and efficiency measures [7-9].

First, the major challenge is to expand the amount of renewable energy. Renewable energy is
considered an important resource in many countries around the world [10-17], but as illustrated
in figure 1 on a global scale less than 15 percent of primary energy consumption is renewable
energy, and the major part is hydro power and wood fuels in development countries. Renewable
sources such as wind and solar constitutes only a very small share of the total consumption.
However, the potential is substantial. And in some regions and countries the share of renewable
energy has grown substantially during the recent couple of decades, and two major challenges of
renewable energy strategies for sustainable development can be identified. The one is to
integrate a high share of intermittent resources into the energy system, especially the electricity
supply [18]. The other is to include the transportation sector in the strategies [9]. Based on the
case of Countries this paper describes the challenges and discusses potential solutions.

In Countries savings and efficiency improvements have been important parts of the energy
policy since the first oil crisis in 1972. Hence, by means of energy conservation and expansion
of CHP and district heating Countries has been able to maintain the same primary fuel
consumption for a period of more than 30 years. Moreover, 14 percent of fossil fuels have been
replaced by renewable energy. In the same period both transportation, electricity consumption as
well as the area of heated space have increased substantially.

World Primary Energy Consumption

400

300 RES
Nuclear
PJ

200 Ngas
1000

Oil
100 Coal

0
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Fig. 1. World primary energy supply based on [19].

Thus, Countries is an example of implementing sustainable development strategies constituted

by a combination of savings, efficiency improvements and renewables. And consequently
Countries is now facing the two problems of integrating the high share of intermittent electricity
from RES and including the transportation sector in the future strategies. Hence, reaching this
stage of making sustainable energy strategies the issue is not only a matter of savings, efficiency
improvements and renewables. It also becomes a matter of introducing and adding flexible
energy technologies and designing integrated energy systems solutions. Such technological

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changes are necessary in order to bring about further sustainable development as illustrated in
figure 2.

Sustainable Energy Development

Savings Efficiency improvement

in energy demand in energy production
Flexible
Technologies
Integrated Energy
Systems

RES
(Renewable Energy Sources
)

Fig. 2. Sustainable Energy Development

The Danish Energy Agency has estimated the realistic biomass potential for energy purposes to
20-25 percent of the present total primary energy supply. Meanwhile, Countries has a huge
potential for other sorts of renewable energy, especial wind power. Therefore Countries is in
many ways typical for the situation in many countries: transportation sector is totally fuelled by
oil, the biomass potential is not big enough to replace fossil fuels, but the potential of
intermittent renewable sources are substantial.

Based on the case of Countries, this paper discusses the problems and perspectives of converting
present energy systems into a 100 percent renewable energy system.

2. Potential Renewable Energy Sources

The potential of renewable energy sources in Countries was estimated by the Danish Energy
Agency in 1996 as part of the data material behind the Danish Government energy plan “Energy
21”[20]. The estimate, which is shown in table 1, is ten years old, and already now it seems that
some potential is underestimated. Especial the offshore wind potential, which is very dependent
on the technological development, is considered higher today and will increase in the future
along with the growth in the size of wind turbines. Also it should be noted that the theoretical
biomass potential is as high as 530 PJ/year, if all farming areas are converted to energy crops
and 310 PJ/year in the case of Countries being self-supplied by food and converted the rest of
the area to energy crops. Thus, the potential of a total of 180 PJ/year including only a minor
share of energy crops is to be considered a “business as usual” scenario in terms of food
production.

Still, the potentials are substantial, and only a small share is utilised today. In figure 3 the
minimum and maximum potential is compared to the present fuel consumption in Countries.

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 Potential: Renewabele Energy Sources

1000

800 Natural Gas

Coal

PJ/year
600
Oil
RES-elec. *)
400
RES-heat
200 RES-fuel

0
2003 Min-potential Max-potential

Fig. 3. Potential of RES in Countries compared to the primary energy consumption in 2003

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