Potential of Renewable Energy Resources with an Emphasis on Solar Power in Iraq: An Outlook

Abstract

This study presents an outlook on the renewable energies in Iraq, and the potential for deploying concentrated solar power technologies to support power generation in Iraq. Solar energy has not been sufficiently utilized at present in Iraq. However, this energy source can play an important role in energy production in Iraq, as the global solar radiation ranging from 2000 kWh/m2 to a 2500 kWh/m2 annual daily average. In addition, the study presents the limited current solar energy activities in Iraq. The attempts of the Iraqi government to utilize solar energy are also presented. Two approaches for utilizing concentrated solar power have been proposed, to support existing thermal power generation, with the possibility of being implemented as standalone plants or being integrated with thermal power plants. However, the cost analysis has shown that for 50 kW concentrated solar power in Iraq, the cost is around 0.23 US cent/kWh without integration with energy storage. Additionally, notable obstacles and barriers bounding the utilization of solar energy are also discussed. Finally, this study proposes initiatives that can be adopted by the Iraqi government to support the use of renewable energy resources in general, and solar energy in particular.

Electro-Hydrodynamic Design of an Intelligent Balloon Water Gate Controlled by an Efficient Maximum-Power-Seeking Controller for a Solar Generation System

“…Let us consider the system model described by the set of system differential equations given in (22) and (23). This consideration leads us to choose an optimal duty cycle of the boost converter switch, D opt , to extract the maximum solar power from the PV solar generator system and maintain a constant value that ensures a minimum steady-state oscillation using the grey wolf optimization technique:…”

“…Cloudy weather is rarely encountered in winter and is non-existent in summer. However, solar energy and wind energy may also be used since Iraq has high eastern-western and medium northern-southern winds, as outlined by [22]. The author briefly indicated that solar and wind sources are renewable energy sources that can adequately supply electrical power to villages in deserts and rural areas.…”

Electrical power generation through concentrated solar technology for the southern cities of Iraq

“…All other cities considered in this study exhibits similar behavior, which implies that the southern Iraq area has significant potentials for a successful plant operation. At present, a number of thermal power plants are in service, if these plants can be complemented by a solar field as suggested in [12] the LCOE may go down considerably since the cost of the power block is eliminated. The annual water usage is also shown in Table 4, those quantities shouldn't be a major hurdle considering Iraq's two rivers are within the vicinity of the cities considered in this study.…”

“…Research, however,to the best of our knowledge, has been limited as far as a full extent study of thermal power plant is concerned. A more recent work in [12] explored the potentials of renewable energy in Iraq with a particular emphasis on solar based generation. Authors report that the country can benefit from a CSP in a stand-alone fashion or the plant can be used as a steam source to current thermal power stations.…”

Performance and Economic Analysis of Concentrated Solar Power Generation for Pakistan

“…Parabolic trough (PT) systems are the most mature technologies used for CSP generation [15,17,20,21]. This is the reason that the PT plants are widely commercialized compared to other configurations of CSP [15].…”