Carbon Footprint Study on Renewable Power Plants: Case Study on Egypt's Benban Solar Park

Abstract

Some recent human activities have negatively affected the environment through the production of toxic substances. Carbon footprint (CFP) refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases generated, i.e., disaggregated by categories of equivalent carbon dioxide compounds. It plays a major role in global environmental degradation, causing global warming. The direct emission of the CFP is determined by the fossil fuels used to generate electricity traditionally and the use of different means of transportation. The use of renewable energy sources (RESs) is a long-term investment aimed at obtaining clean energy, reducing CFP, and replacing fossil fuels for electricity production, thus contributing to the conservation of energy resources for future generations. This paper discusses the most important ways to reduce the CFP by treating toxic gases in the atmosphere and switching to the use of RESs. The results obtained show that the more use of RESs, the less carbon it is because it is clean energy. Furthermore, this paper has studied the case of the Benban solar power plant, Aswan, Egypt which is considered one of the world's biggest solar photovoltaic stations. It was found that this plant reduces carbon emissions by 2 million tons of heat emissions, the equivalent of 400,000 cars.