Empirical Evaluation of Renewable Energy Projects for Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a term that can be applied to a range of organisations. To develop sustainably, organisations must consider certain criteria in the decisions they make. Examples of organisations that can consider such criteria include business organisations (private and public), not-for-profit and charity organisations, and sporting organisations and can even include whole countries. This book focuses specifically on business organisations as they seek to incorporate sustainable development practices into their overall business philosophy. The three main resources that need to be managed to reach organisational sustainable development goals are environmental, economic, and human resources. Sustainable development can be defined as a management philosophy that embraces and respects these three elements in the decision-making process. It is a wide-ranging, sometimes abstract, philosophy that needs to be grounded in real-life outcomes, outcomes that can be measured in concrete terms. The sustainable development term, in a business context, is closely aligned with the term corporate social responsibility.
This book aims to assess the sustainable business development philosophy and discuss the interconnectedness of its three constituent parts, namely environmental, economic and social/human realms. Chapter 1 discusses the literature published in the area of sustainability development, both from an overall view and from an individual view. Subsequently, empirical findings from operational renewable energy electrical generators are presented to assess if the sustainability criteria are being met by the installations. Chapters 2 through Chapter 10 focus on specific renewable energy generators, namely onshore wind turbine generators (WTG), hydroelectric plant, and solar PV systems. The environmental realm is assessed by measuring the displacement in green-house-gas emissions as a result of employing carbon-neutral electrical generators in place of traditional (polluting) fossil-fuel generators. The gCO2/kWh carbon intensity energy benchmark is utilised in these discussions. Green-house-gases are deemed to be significant contributors to the global warming/climate change phenomenon. It is usual for renewable energy electrical generators to be deemed a major player in the ‘greening’ of national electrical grids, thereby expecting to contribute to the sustainable development philosophy. The economic realm (of the sustainable development philosophy) is assessed in this book by utilising historical energy utility bills and measured energy output data to calculate well-established financial metrics, e.g. payback period, net present value, and internal rate of return metrics. The social/human realm discusses the issues involved in ensuring that all humans have opportunities to fulfil their needs. Businesses are in a position to provide meaningful work which contributes to the well-being of the human person. Peace and social justice are fruits of a sustainable economy that leaves no one behind.
A framework is discussed in chapter 2 by which renewable energy generators can be robustly assessed to establish if environmental and economic expectations are realised. A multiple case study methodology is used to obtain real-time, empirical data from the connected plant on a wind turbine, hydro-electric, and solar PV installations. Energy, and the security and quality of the energy supply, are considered to be a critical component of the economic activity of countries. With the onset of global interconnectivity of energy supplies, this important issue has the possibility that it could be used politically to further selfish goals.
One of the problems associated with organisations employing sustainable development initiatives is the perception that the motives behind the initiatives are questionable; this can lead to claims of greenwashing. A robust analysis of such initiatives would counteract any false or questionable claims and engender confidence in the sustainability agenda. The findings in this book are based on (i) peer-reviewed published literature, and (ii) objective, empirical, real-life data downloaded from operational onshore renewable energy generators.