Recent Advances in Green and Low-Carbon Energy Resources: Navigating the Climate-Friendly Microgrids for Decarbonized Power Generation

The role of green and low-carbon energy (gLE) resources in realizing the envisaged future decarbonized energy generation and supply cannot be overemphasized. The world has witnessed growing attention to the application of green energy (gE) sources such as solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass (energy crops, biogas, biodiesel, etc.). There is also the existence of low-carbon energy (LE) resources such as power-to-X, power-to-fuel, power-to-gas, e-fuel, waste-to-energy, etc., which possess huge potential for delivering sustainable energy, thus facilitating a pathway for achieving the desired environmental sustainability. In addition, the evolution of the cyber-physical power systems and the need for strengthening capacity in advanced energy materials are among the key factors that drive the deployment of gLE technologies around the world. This paper, therefore, presents the recent global developments in gLE resources, including the trends in their deployments for different applications in commercial premises. The study introduces different conceptual technical models and configurations of energy systems; the potential of multi-energy generation in a microgrid (m-grd) based on the gLE resources is also explored using the System Advisor Model (SAM) software. The m-grd is being fueled by solar, wind, and fuel cell resources for supplying a commercial load. The quantity of carbon emissions avoided by the m-grd is evaluated compared to a purely conventional m-grd system. The paper presents the cost of energy and the net present cost of the proposed m-grid; it also discusses the relevance of carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration technologies. The paper provides deeper insights into the understanding of clean and unconventional energy resources.