Applications of smart grid technology in Nepal: status, challenges, and opportunities.

Energy transformation and sustainability have become a challenge, especially for developing countries, which face broad energy-related issues such as a wide demand-supply gap, extensive fossil fuel dependency, and low accessibility to clean energy. Globally, smart grid technology has been identified to address these affairs and enable a smooth transition from traditional to smart energy systems, ensuring energy security. This paper studies the critical role in strengthening the power system, integrating renewable sources, electrifying the transport sector, and harnessing bioenergy. Evaluating the current energy scenario in Nepal, this article presents the smart grid as a solution to existing and future energy issues and the associated challenges during its implementation, urging concerned authorities to launch initiatives to promote it. Moreover, this study also lays the foundation for future research into the smart grid's potential to reform the power sector in other developing nations with abundant renewable energy sources and similar energy-related barriers.

The performance enhancement of solar cooker integrated with photovoltaic module and evacuated tubes using ZnO/Acalypha Indica leaf extract: response surface study analysis.

In this study, the effect of employing ZnO/Acalypha Indica leaf extract (ZAE) on the energy absorption of a coated portable solar cooker has been examined using an experimental setup. A prototypical model has been developed to corroborate in associating an investigative outcome per constituents of the experiments. The studied heat transfer process in ZAE is stable for harsh conditions. The design analysis and an estimation of the system performance were done given various parameters including the pressure of the vacuum envelope, bar plate coating digestion, emissivity, and solar rays. The fabricated solar was tested with and without ZAE to investigate the impact of this coating material on the solar cooker's thermal performance. To observe the performance of the new design, two figures of merit (F1 and F2) have been introduced. The factual food cooking assessments were for a family of four people, which operated in ZAE coating (0.8, 1.0, 1.2 µm) of the solar cooker. The values of F1 and F2 for the proposed cooker were obtained as 0.1520 and 0.4235, respectively, which is intact with the BIS values. The results revealed that employing ZAE instead of a thermal NHC-PV solar cooker reduced the time required to boil 2 L of water for about 47 min. The overall thermal energy productivity of the solar cooker with electrical backup was obtained as 42.65%, indicating that the ZAE coating can improve the thermal efficiency by 10.35%.

Sustainable Food and Agriculture: Employment of Renewable Energy Technologies.

Purposeof Review: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a large portion of the various activities in the agriculture and food supply chain (AFSC) are extremely dependent on fossil fuels and contribute to 24% of the total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recent Findings: There are several strategies to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate the associated destructive impacts. Among them, substituting fossil fuels with alternative low-carbon energy sources has received remarkable attention. Summary: The core concept of this study is to explore the relationship between food security, sustainable development, and renewable energy. Renewable energy has shown promising potential for integration into a wide range of agricultural activities and offers an alternative sustainable solution to current practices. In modern agriculture, the need for electrification has increased, with electric tractors and agricultural robots accounting for a large share, which represents a great opportunity for the use of renewable technologies in this sector. As new technologies emerge, investors need to familiarize themselves with them. Further technical improvements, cost reductions, and government incentives can facilitate the real-world deployment of sustainable renewable technologies in agriculture and food production.

Assessing suitability of commercial fibre reinforced plastic solar still for sustainable potable water production in rural India through detailed energy-exergy-economic analyses and environmental impacts.

Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) basin solar still is manufactured and marketed commercially in developing/underdeveloped nations. Unfortunately, these commercial units have not been widely adopted by the public due to its low water productivity. In the present investigation, an effort has been made to assess the performance and enviro-economic aspects of the commercial unit and its low-cost improved versions under Coimbatore climatic conditions through real-time experiments and mathematical models, respectively. The commercial unit has distillate productivity of about 2.76 L/d under cumulative solar radiation intensity of 24.37 MJ/m2d and it increased up to 6.03 L/d with the addition of black dye and thermocol insulation. Yearly average distillate production rate, thermal efficiency, and exergy efficiency of the improved version is about 4.36 L/d, 53.62%, and 6.89%, respectively. The greenhouse payback time of the commercial unit and insulated commercial unit with black dye is about 2.39 and 1.81 Years, respectively. Global warming potential, acidification potential and photochemical oxidant formation potential of the commercial unit decreased from 0.27 to 0.12 kg of carbon di-oxide eq/L of distillate, 2.40 to 1.05 g of sulphur di-oxide eq/L of distillate and 0.73 to 0.32 g of ethylene eq/L of distillate, respectively with the incorporation of low-cost improvement techniques. The sustainability index of the improved version is around 5.94% higher than the sustainability index of the commercial unit. The distillate production cost of improved version (1.32 INR/L) is closer to reverse osmosis (RO) water supplied to Indian houses (1.00 INR/L). The incorporation of low-cost improved techniques to the commercial unit makes it an attractive option for sustainable potable water production. However, proper marketing and awareness strategies must be adopted by stakeholders to make this improved version acceptable among the public.