INTRODUCTION
1.1
Energy Infrastructure Capacity Expansion: The Global Scale
Expansion of energy emission capability can be required at any point of time for an infrastructure and therefore it is important to ensure that with rising demand, there is a smooth and accurate transition to expand the delivery of energy with minimum changes in current processes. Now-a-days due to various reasons like demand rise or productivity development various technological option are being tested to expand the infrastructural capacity of energy delivered. Due to the various efforts at a global level there have been several new techniques that have come into play in the last few years and include deployment of refueling systems that use biofuels and low-carbon transportation options, Application of smart grid technologies for electrical energy expansion, electrical transmission capacity expansion and use of high-end technology manufacturing systems to save on time of production and energy consumption.
The above are few of the techniques that are being globally implemented to ensure an increase in energy infrastructure capacity.
1.2 Evolution and growth of Energy Supply Infrastructures
From an energy point of view, there are various considerations done at the infrastructural level and with a change in requirement, there are many further upgrades to manage the new capacity delivery. The delivery of energy and its valuation is done on the basis of the infrastructural capacity determination which is done through the evaluation of net energy. Net energy is the total remainder, after the calculation of the total energy investment to the total energy produced in a given end-to-end process. Hence, before implementing any kind of a change in order to obtain an enhanced energy output, it is important to consider the energy cycle of an energy system and define the productive resources that can be helpful in delivering a particular amount of energy which would result in an enhancement of the capability of a particular infrastructure to deliver a wide energy on the basis of the rising demand.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
Demand for energy supply in the present global environment is continuously increasing with the growth of population and industry. In many situations, the existing energy supply system has physical limitations to meet this growing demand, and thus it is necessary to expand capacity, which may involve the construction of new facilities and/or the expansion of the existing infrastructure. These energy infrastructures will involve infrastructure meant for all energy supply systems. Hence it is important to identify new infrastructural capacity expansion systems, in order to meet the rising demand.
1.2 Research Questions
• What may lead to the requirement of infrastructural energy capacity expansion?
• What are the ways through which a systematic capacity expansion can be planned?
1.2 Research Objectives
The research would be based on the objective of finding and analyzing various techniques that can be used in order to expand infrastructural energy capacity in the long run.
1.3 Justification for the Research
Considering the fact that there is a consistent growth in the population and demand of almost all commodities ending up with the need to create more energy, therefore this research would be very helpful for the infrastructures that are currently in need of energy expansion.
1.4 Significance of the Research
Although, there are various techniques which are currently applicable in order to initiate the infrastructural energy capacity expansion however providing various techniques and their applications on a single platform would prove highly beneficial.
1.6 Limitation of the Research
This research would only be based on the analysis of literature and considerations of case studies related to the subject however no practical new concepts would be introduced or tested as a part of the study.
CHAPTER 2
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Although there are various concepts, which are related to the investment and return of energy, one of the most important factors which are considered is the kind of fuel which is used. It is important to assess the energy density of a particular fuel type in order to understand utility and the amount of energy which is emitted, and therefore one of the very important methods to improve the capacity is to change the fuel type, and use a particular use it provides higher energy density. The above-mentioned table provides a clear example of the energy densities of few most common fuel types that are available. The primary factors related to energy expansion include scalability of the infrastructure, longevity related to the new processors that are introduced and the capacity which can be expanded while maintaining environmental friendliness.
2.2
Energy Return on (Energy) Investment (EROI)
EROI is an extremely important concept which is used for the capacity expansion of energy supplies infrastructures. This concept clearly states that as per the energy blowback constraint and Hans energy output can be achieved by enlarging an energy supply infrastructure with the help of an increase in EROI. The EROI provides the benefit to ensure adequate calculation and investment into the energy production so that the required demand can be fulfilled.
EROI = Pnp T / E + Pnp hT
_ Pnp represents the nameplate power capacity of the infrastructural facility;
_ h is the facility’s average load or capacity factor;
_ T is the effective lifetime of the facility.
The denominator in this formula represents the summation of energy expanded to initially meet the requirement of the infrastructural facility and the expansion which is already consumed by the operations and maintenance. Once, EROI for the facility is calculated, it becomes easy to find out the overall payback period which is required in order to generate the energy which would help to fulfill the demand after catering to the requirement of the expanded facility. Hence, EROI is one of the latest concepts which needs a further study in order to find out in detail, about the technical expansion of infrastructural energy capacity and maintaining the same on a broad scale.
CHAPTER 3
Study Area
The research will be conducted for various types of facilities and a particular area is not applicable for this research, however the commercial environment will be considered.
3.2 Research Design
The research shall collect data from available literature on the topic, case studies, and online databases. Literature shall be collected from journals and academic online sources. Case studies from firms in the business to business level will be used in the collection of data on the research topic. Online databases will provide the research with figures of customer satisfaction surveys.
The research will use a qualitative approach as it is has a humanistic and technological aspect. This approach will be used to make relations between different sets of data obtained. The approach will also be used to make general statements and inferences on the research topic.
3.3 Data Analysis
Data collected will then be analyzed by first organizing it followed by categorization of the data based on noticeable patterns and themes. The data will then be coded to ease its retrieval after collection. Finally the data will then be interpreted and analyzed before the final report is written
3.4 Concept Form
This research is based on the concept that Large-scale Socio-technical Transitions for Energy Infrastructure Capacity Expansion can only be achieved by a firm first understanding the rising demands due to an increase in the population and the reason, the energy resources.
April to May: Researching and Reading stage
•The researcher will read previous researches and books.
•Books and journals will be collected from the library while online sources will be collected after internet queries on the research’s key words.
•After the sources are collected the researcher will pick the ones that are relevant to the research.
June: Research sorting and marking stage
This period will involve reading the sources to get the information they contain. A second reading will be done where the researcher will skim through the print sources putting marks on pages that contain useful information.
July, August and September: Research writing and Formatting
This stage will involve first writing a draft which will be rewritten several times. The thesis statement will also be rewritten several times as the thesis shapes up.
The researcher will also consult the supervisors on what needs to be changed in the drafts before the final thesis is written.
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