Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.3 3. Resilience of Photo-Voltaic Power Plant
3.3.3.1. Resilience Definition
The resilience of a system relates to the magnitude of disturbance required
to fundamentally disrupt the system causing a dramatic shift to another state of
the system, controlled by a different set of processes [8]. When resilience is
lost or significantly decreased, a system is at high risk of shifting into a
qualitatively different state. The new state of the system may be undesirable.
Restoring a system to it's previous state can be complex, expensive, and
sometimes even impossible. Research suggests that to restore some systems to
their previous state requires a return to conditions well before the point of
collapse.
The energy system resilience refers to the capacity of an energy system to
withstand perturbations from e.g. climatic, economic, technological and social
causes and to rebuild and renew itself afterwards [9]. Loss of resilience can
cause loss of valuable energy system services, and may even lead to rapid
transitions or shifts into qualitatively different situations and configurations,
described for e.g. people, ecosystems, knowledge systems, or whole cultures.
In general terms, the vulnerability of a system is assessed according to the
concept of resilience, developed in the mathematics of non-linear differential
equations. According to this frame, the opposite to the vulnerability of a
system is its stability, its resilience, defined specifically as an attribute of a
system. The system is like a net; it consists of a great number of nots, which
are interlinked.
Resilience provides a new framework for analyzing economic, ecological,
technological and social systems in a changing world facing many
uncertainties and challenges. It represents an area of explorative research
under rapid development with major policy implications for sustainable
development.
3.3.3.2. Resilience Metric for Photo-Voltaic Power plant
Quality of the photo-voltaic plant can be defined by the sustainability
index, including economic, environment and social indicators. Economic
indicator will include energy cost and energy production sub-indicators.
Energy production indicator will reflect total energy production by the photo-
voltaic plant. Environment indicator will comprise CO
2
emission and particle
emission. CO
2
emission measurement will reflect potential gain in the decease
of CO
2
emission with subsidizing coal fired power plant with the photo-voltaic
