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    Renewable energy technology options for Parihaka Papakāinga : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Engineering in Renewable Energy Systems at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Curd, Joshua Richard Burley
    The Parihaka Papakāinga Trust - the administering body of communally owned Māori land at Parihaka, Aotearoa New Zealand - initiated university research into sustainable energy practices and technologies within a context of community and infrastructure development. As one part of this wider research topic, various renewable energy conversion technologies were compared in terms of cost, effect on increasing the energy independence of the papakāinga (excluding transport, covered elsewhere), and reducing papakāinga greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Consumption of electricity, LPG and firewood was assessed in 14 study buildings over 12 months. Energy demands both now and also for hypothetical scenarios 20 years in the future were proposed, taking into account energy efficiency opportunities, low energy housing design and potential electric vehicle charging loads from parallel research. The local solar, wind and hydro potentials were assessed over 12 months, and estimations of the long-term resources were made using long-term reference data from the region. An estimation was also made of land area requirements to support a short rotation coppicing (SRC) fuelwood plantation. The technical and economic performance of a range of electricity and heat generation technologies was modelled, both on an individual building basis and on a community-wide basis. The technologies with the largest expected economic benefits (after energy efficiency and building design) were a grid-connected community solar PV array with output available for consumption by as much of the papakāinga as possible, and wood-burners for space and water heating in new homes. however further study is required into the design and costs of a feasible metering and billing solution to allocate the benefits of community owned distributed electricity generation. The technologies with the largest expected effect on energy independence include combining solar water heaters with wood-burners and wetbacks for space and water heating, and producing firewood locally with an SRC plantation. Based on the household study, transport behaviours or technologies are expected to have a larger effect on GHG emissions than papakāinga infrastructure. Recommendations include a billing/metering feasibility study potentially followed by a community PV array, an SRC trial, and solar water heaters and wood-burners with water heating for new homes.
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    Developing a set of energy sustainability indicators for New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Environmental and Resource Planning at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) Wadsworth, Craig William
    Modern New Zealand society relies on the ability to use a number of different resources in order to function effectively. The continued existence of that society therefore requires a continued supply of those resources. Sustainable management, which focuses on enabling present generations to satisfy their needs and wants without adversely affecting the ability of future generations to do the same, is a key concept in ensuring the continued supply of resources. It also reinforces the fact that human society is linked with and has an impact on the functioning of numerous ecosystems. The concept of sustainable management highlights the effects of present decisions on the resource in question and on the linkages that those decisions have with other resources and other aspects of the functioning of the environment and society. One of the key resources that is affected by the concept of sustainable management is energy. New Zealand society is totally dependent on energy to enable it to continue to function as it does at present. It is therefore important to ensure that there is a sustainable supply of energy that will continue to meet the foreseeable needs of New Zealand energy consumers, without causing significant adverse effects on the other matters that comprise a sustainable society. Some form of monitoring must be undertaken to determine whether energy is being managed sustainability. This thesis seeks to establish a regime of indicators to monitor energy use in New Zealand in terms of the major tenets of sustainability and to apply those indicators to the New Zealand energy system in order to assess the current state of energy use in New Zealand. There are two stages to achieving the aims of this thesis. The first is to establish the scope of the monitoring programme. This process involved a number of steps. First was a literature review of various formulations of the criteria of effective indicator design and the establishment of a set of criteria that collated this work. A further literature review was undertaken to establish the key tenets of energy sustainability. A survey was then undertaken of the monitoring regimes that are presently in operation or are being developed in New Zealand and around the world. Given the base information that was provided by the reviews and the survey, the next step was the development of the indicators themselves. The final stage of the thesis was an application of those indicators that could be developed within the constraints of existing data collection regimes. The results of this process clearly demonstrate that New Zealand is on an unsustainable energy path. Most of the indicators demonstrate a movement to an unsustainable state. Specific indicators that show this trend are the level of carbon dioxide emissions, energy intensity, renewable energy use, reliance on imported oil products, total primary energy supply (that is, total energy use) and household expenditure on energy. Although the levels of economic rent being earned by ECNZ are high, it is difficult to form a conclusion about this indicator as it is uncertain how these profits are used once they are paid into the consolidated fund. While real energy prices are decreasing, a number of the benefits of this decrease are being lost as consumption levels increase. As well as providing an insight into the nature of energy use in New Zealand, this thesis highlights a number of issues concerning the state of information concerning indicator development, energy sustainability and the state of energy data collection in New Zealand. There is an abundance of information available concerning indicator development, so much so, that there is little to be gained from developing the issue further. By contrast, there is a paucity of detailed information concerning energy sustainability. The majority of that information either focuses on one issue in great detail or takes a very generalised global picture. What is needed is information that fits between these two levels, so that multi-objective sustainable energy management policies can be developed. The most serious concern is however directed at the state of the energy statistics that are available. There are numerous omissions from the data that is available and numerous inconsistencies. Specific matters to be addressed focus on increasing the subject coverage and the geographic coverage of the data. The time periods that data applies to and the consistency of the collection also need attention.
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    Renewable energy system design : a guide to the application of photovoltaic, wind, and micro-hydro power : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Horticultural Science in Agricultural Engineering at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 1992) Weiss, Samuel David
    The primary objective of this study was to produce a guide for the application of photovoltaic, wind, and micro-hydro power to remote areas. The applications considered are those of generating electricity, and pumping water. An extensive literature review introduces and covers the main design considerations for each energy form. The primary decision-making areas are then examined, beginning with a look at the theory of electricity, and going on to discuss generators, inverters, energy storage, and mechanical transmission. Next, the assessment of the demand over a given time interval is considered. The key questions of, "How big a system is required?", and, "How much energy will be produced?", are addressed for each energy form, along with various design considerations. For each of the energy forms the issue of quantifying the resource is examined in detail. The factors influencing the amount of power available are presented for each. This process of quantifying the power available is essential in order to be able to choose the optimum type of renewable energy to use for a given application in a specified location. Dealing with them together in one document allows the different energy forms to be assessed side.by side, and a preliminary decision on the most promising type made. For both wind and photovoltaic energy a computer model was created. drawing on available theory, in order to generate charts to assist in the design process. The photovoltaic design charts enable sunshine hour data to be converted to radiation in Kwh/m2, and radiation on a horizontal plane to be converted to that received on a plane inclined at a specified angle. Other charts were produced which enable the most cost effective combination of array and battery to be selected for a given situation. The wind charts specify the amount of power which can be produced from a wind turbine with given characteristics operating in a specified wind regime. The photovoltaic and wind design charts produced by the models enable the size of the relevant system required to be determined for a given situation. This information then allows a costing to be done to determine the cost of generating energy with a particular method. The procedure for evaluating and determining the true cost of the energy produced. based on life cycle costing, is then examined. This can then be used to assess the most economical means of meeting any particular demand.
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    Renewable energy potential in New Zealand -- by the numbers : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Mathematics at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Eltayeb, Shaza
    Renewable energy plays a very important role in New Zealand's energy supply system, with approximately 39% of energy supply from renewable sources.The idea of the thesis was inspired by the book Sustainable Energy|Without The Hot Air by David MacKay. The book uses ba- sic physics and mathematics to estimate the amount of sustainable sources that are physically available before considering their economic feasibility. The goal of the thesis is to transfer some of MacKay's ideas to New Zealand, and estimate an upper limit to the energy we can get from the following renewable resources: hydro, geothermal, wind, solar and waves, then compare this to New Zealand's energy use, and hence answer the question Can New Zealand live on Renewables? In this thesis, hydroelectricity potential was estimated using Hydroelectricity Image Processing Approach. This method is original to this thesis, and involved using some image processing to estimate an upper limit of the total hydro available using the Rainfall Map and New Zealand 100 m Digital Elevation Model. Also, some image processing has been done to estimate solar thermal and solar photovoltaic potential for every region in New Zealand using the Solar Radi- ation Map. Furthermore, Wind Resource Map and Rayleigh distribution were used to estimate the wind power density which is an important measure in wind industry for every region in New Zealand. The results from this research show that it is possible for New Zealand to supply all of its energy requirements from renewable sources alone. In fact, the renewable resource available is around 9 times our current energy use. However, in reality there are many environmental, economic and social limitations that would need to be considered.
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    Transfer of sustainable energy technology to developing countries as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emission : the case of Bangladesh : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied and International Economics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2001) Ali, Mohammad
    Over the last two decades the world has been becoming increasingly concerned about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, global warming, unsustainable development, and poverty in the developing countries. The most acceptable way of mitigating GHG emission is the use of sustainable energy technology (SET) instead of fossil fuel. SET is available in the global market, but is outside the scope of availability for many developing countries. Due to the lack of economic and technical capabilities and wide-spread poverty, developing countries are unable to introduce SET independently, hence a need for appropriate assistance from developed countries. The case study was conducted in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, with acute shortages of energy and largely disadvantaged rural population. The study assessed three energy technologies-biomass, solar, and wind-to identify the most viable options of SET for the rural Bangladesh. The appropriateness of the proposed SETs is assessed on the basis of certain criteria: availability of resources, cost-effectiveness, degree of technological complexity, matching demand and supply, and contribution to reducing GHG emission. It has been found that each SET taken separately, has its limitations. The main barrier for biomass energy technology is the availability of biomass due to scarcity of land, and hence, producing food is preferable to growing trees for fuel. The major limitations for solar and wind energy technologies are high levels of capital investment and technological complexity. The study proposes a combination of biomass, solar, and wind SETs as a long-term solution of energy crisis in the rural Bangladesh. It suggests relevant policy and types of assistance in the form of investment in education and training, machinery, spare parts, know-how etc. A brief proposal for capacity building has been prepared. It is expected that the proposed SETs will benefit sustainable development, poverty alleviation of rural Bangladesh, and the national socio-economic conditions. The study findings contribute to general knowledge, and are especially useful for developing countries.