How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the Renewable Energy Sources Sector?

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How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the
Renewable Energy Sources Sector?
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How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the
Renewable Energy Sources Sector?
The rapid advancements in the tech world are
raising the need for highly-efficient,
continuous, and reliable energy sources. Meeting
these demands and powering an organizations
energy requirements with natural resources may
have seemed too far-fetched in the past, but not
anymore. Industry 4.0 has also affected the
Global Energy market, giving rise to the concept
of Energy 4.0, which is making the employment of
renewable energy as the primary power source an
attainable goal. The increasingly degrading
climate is driving organizations to take more
green initiatives and adopt an environmentally-fri
endly approach in their processes. Organizations
are aware, now, more than ever, that it is
imperative to cut down on the greenhouse
emissions for a sustainable future. The likes of
Amazon, Apple, Microsoft are contributing in
reducing the carbon emissions by investing in
Clean Energy Projects and pledging to run their
entire operations on 100 renewable energy.
Google has already achieved its target of going
100 renewable a few months ago. To build a
post-fossil future, altering the existing
business models to incorporate sustainable
strategies is becoming indispensable. The digital
evolution of the energy sector has resulted in a
significant growth of the Internet of Things with
an expected Compound Annual Growth Rate of 17.3.
Leveraging on data and automation, Energy 4.0 can
drive a more widespread adoption of renewable
sources as a viable alternate for their energy
requirements. Challenges with the Renewable
Energy Sector The potential of renewable sources
was never in question. The apprehension to adopt
them predominantly stemmed from their
unreliability. Moreover, the incapability to
store the generated energy made the renewable
sources impractical to implement
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How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the
Renewable Energy Sources Sector?
and difficult to harness. Energy 4.0 has resolved
these issues with introduction of modern grid
technologies and smart metering systems. But the
challenge does not end here. There are still
several roadblocks that need to be addressed and
obliterated to take the leap from carbon-based to
carbon-free fuel. Apart from scalability, one of
the major and most critical factors affecting the
widespread acceptance of renewable energy is the
high capital cost. Although, the fuel is free,
the construction cost of the buildings and
infrastructure becomes a pain. A recent BBC
Future report showed that over a million
Terajoules of energy is consumed in a day. This
demand is expected to double in the next forty
years. Since, investors are still not convinced
about the ROIs on renewable energy, there is a
lack of enthusiasm, innovation, and investment
needed to meet the rising energy demands. Today,
one-fifth of the population is dependent on
renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro,
wind, and geothermal. Due to the rapid depletion
of fossil fuels, this dependency is expected to
grow at the rate of 2.6 every year till 2040.
Going by this data, demand management may emerge
as a prominent hurdle in the coming years. The
high capital requirement also makes it difficult
for new players to gain entry in the renewable
energy market. For ensuring open acceptance of
the renewable energy sources, the behavioral
change must be managed on individual as well as
organizational level. On the technical front,
absence of remote control and control
standardization render the implementation process
impractical. Combining distributed systems for
optimal transmission of the generated energy is
also a huge hassle with the current
infrastructure.
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How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the
Renewable Energy Sources Sector?
How can IT enable the change to renewable
sources? To gain traction and widespread
acceptance of renewable energy sources, IT will
play a crucial role. Continuous energy generation
combined with optimal storage options and smart
grid development will enable a stable, clean
energy supply. The smart grid installations with
intelligent metering systems and modern switch
gear facilitate automation of the entire process,
allowing the provision of remote supervision. By
deploying information security at various
substations, it will be possible to fight with
security threats and vulnerabilities, even at
unmanned locations. Network optimization with
proper grid management will ultimately yield
maximum technical as well as economic benefits,
while maintaining a reliable, energy-efficient
power supply. Technologies driving the adoption
of alternate energy sources The future of energy
landscape will be predominantly determined by the
changing consumer behavior as well technological
innovation in AI, Analytics, and robotics. The
limitation of fossil fuels has driven the birth
to some unconventional innovations such as
Digital transformers, LED lighting, Solar
photovoltaics, electric vehicles, fracking,
biofuels, Clean Coal Technologies,
electrochemical windows, etc. Implementing and
adopting these will help reduce the carbon
emissions and build a more sustainable tomorrow.
As automation will take the center stage in the
success of renewable energy sector, Big Data,
IoT, and cybersecurity will lead the process by
aiding control standardization and ensuring
compliance with the clean energy goals.

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How Can Quality Engineering Power Up the
Renewable Energy Sources Sector?

Role of Quality Engineering in facilitating the
change With a smart grid development, Russia has
developed its first smart city. Sustainable
Development Goals have allowed a deeper
penetration of the renewable sources in the
Energy and Utilities Sector. The digitalization
of the EU sector has enabled better management
and flexibility between supply and demand. The
involvement of multiple touch-points in the
generation and transmission of energy calls upon
the use of Blockchain technology. The Smart
Contracts will ensure compliance with the clean
energy goals through a decentralized framework.
By employing Digital Twin Technology, it will be
possible to continuously monitor multiple
touch-points of the grid and mitigate any risks
through real-time feedback. By allowing testing
in different case scenario, the twins will be
better equipped at analyzing demand,
understanding risks, and providing the required
supply. Here, Quality Engineering becomes
inevitable in delivering the ideal end user
experience by assuring quality, static and
synthetic monitoring, and predicting possible
future trends. Read Full Blog at
https//www.cigniti.com/blog/quality-engineering-
power-up-renewable-energy-sources/
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