Elshurafa, Amro

23 January 2025

Waste-to-hydrogen (WTH) presents an enormous untapped potential to achieve climate change objectives for many countries by transitioning from high CO2 emission waste disposal techniques to producing clean fuel such as green hydrogen. Additionally, WTH can be incorporated with carbon ...

12 January 2025

The pulp and paper industry is the fourth largest industrial energy user globally and presents significant carbon removal potential as a large portion of emissions from this industry are biogenic. The decarbonization potential of this industry has been discussed in literature at coun...

18 December 2024

Offshore hydrogen production from offshore wind energy is gaining global attention as an appealing solution for scaling up green hydrogen production. The technoeconomic feasibility of integrating offshore wind into hydrogen production has been explored in various regions, but no comp...

25 August 2024

This paper investigates the economics of deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS) on gas-fired power plants while covering its entire value chain, i.e., carbon capture, transport, and storage, and conducting a thorough sensitivity scenario analysis. Our analysis shows that adopting...

07 July 2024

The digitalization of power systems can contribute to a smoother energy transition by, for example, maximizing the use of renewable energy (RE; i.e., minimizing curtailment), peak shaving, and relaxing grid congestion. Collectively, these and other benefits play an important role in ...

11 June 2024

Cross-border electricity trading in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) can provide cost and environmental benefits. However, for historical reasons, electricity trading has not reached a mature stage in this region. Based on a bespoke economic dispatch model for the 2030 horizon...

05 May 2024

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have recently gained traction and are being installed in several regions of Europe and Asia. These turbines use the same technology as typical offshore wind turbines but are not directly anchored to the seabed. Instead, they are tethered with m...

28 March 2024

The objective of this study is to map the innovation network in the electricity sector and to identify its pivotal actors to inform policymaking, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This study, which is part of a larger series, aims to identify emerging technologies, antic...
into innovation.

25 March 2024

With over seventy countries setting net-zero commitments by or around mid-century, low-carbon hydro...₂) is expected to play a pivotal role in the decarbonization of the global economy, especially sectors less dependent on electricity, which are often termed as hard-to-abate industries.

17 March 2024

For important domestic public policy reasons, many oil- and natural-gas-producing countries allocate fuels to their electricity sector at administratively set prices that are below fuel opportunity costs. This article shows that dispatching power units based on fuel opportunity costs...

20 November 2023

) from processes that utilize bioenergy to produce heat, electricity or biofuels. However, thi...₂ ($/tCO₂), respectively. Other technologies, such as poplar pellets, forest residue and agricultural residue with trans-Atlantic shipments, are not able to achieve negative emissions. 

24 October 2023

nergy prices in Europe have been soaring, and policymakers are trying to find solutions to immediately contain the energy prices for end-consumers and to enhance the market design in the longer term. This paper discusses some of the current events that are facing the power sector in ...

14 September 2023

This study assesses the macroeconomic, energy and emissions impacts of solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the period 2021–2030. This is accomplished by linking an energy and environmental sector augmented macroeconometric model with a power model a...

09 March 2023

The undergoing energy transition relies heavily on the deployment of renewables such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power for the generation of electricity. These variable and intermittent resources would modify power systems’ reliability compared to the situation where electric...

29 January 2023

We quantify the cost, footprint and reliability implications of using hydrogen in off-grid electric vehicle charging stations (CS) using an optimization model coupled with a geographical information system (GIS) analysis for the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We also account for the c...

24 August 2022

The Saudi agricultural sector relies on diesel for irrigation, which is provided to farmers at a much lower price than the average global price, implying significant opportunity costs. With the aid of soft-coupled power and macro-econometric models, we assess the cost and macroeconom...

11 April 2022

Load shifting, that is, moving demand from peak to off-peak hours, is an important type of demand response. It can reduce the overall operating costs of a power system and improve the reliability of the power grid. This study estimates the financial implications of load...    

22 March 2022

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy has set ambitious renewable energy goals. Although the Kingdom’s current energy mix is dominated by conventional energy (>95%), it aims to draw 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Currently, the Kingdom enjoys very high solar photovo...

02 June 2021

Renewable energy (RE) technologies are viewed as a critical means of reducing power sector-related emissions. Using mixed-integer optimization, we evaluate the extent to which renewable energy reduces carbon emissions in the Saudi power sector.

26 November 2020

Electricity storage technology has many useful applications in the energy sector and can complement variable renewable power generation to achieve a low-carbon future. For policymakers, utilities, and investors, effective decisions in this context requir...

09 October 2019

A power system model for Saudi Arabia was built to quantify the carbon emission implications of deploying electric vehicles (EVs) within the Kingdom. The model represented the four operating regions in the Kingdom as segmented by the electricity regulator.

01 October 2019

Rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, commonly referred to as distributed generation (DG) solar systems, can play a central role in the energy mix for sustainable cities. As with all forms of power generation, DG carries technical, financial, policy, and market implications that i...

28 August 2019

There are an estimated 3.5 million mosques worldwide. The relatively large surface area of most mosque rooftops and their ubiquity in the Muslim world make them excellent candidates for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Muslims congregate for prayers at mosques five times ... 

15 June 2017

The capital cost of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system comprises the module and balance-of-systems (BOS). The latter refers to everything else that is needed to make the solar system functional including cables, mounts, labor, etc. While modules are priced internationally, the BOS is c...

08 March 2017

Solar energy is expected to be an integral technology in the creation of a low-carbon future. Hence, as photovoltaics (PV) installations continue to grow at an exponential rate, a better understanding of the generation costs of this relatively young industry is necessary in order to ...

28 November 2016

Intermittent generation from wind or photovoltaics (PV) imposes a cost on the power systems in which they are deployed. These costs vary regionally due to different fuel costs and ramping flexibility of existing grid capacities. With 2015 as a reference year, we examine the costs of ...

06 October 2014

For the past two to three decades, and particularly in the wake of the Great Recession, clean energy transitions have been sold as a three-for-the-price-ofone policy: creating “green collar” jobs to get the unemployed back to work, using domestic resources to reduce dependence on imp...

25 June 2025

Saudi Arabia is advancing a comprehensive framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a range of strategies, including the displacement of liquid fuels, the implementation of energy efficiency measures, and the deployment of renewable energy technologies. To complement these...

17 June 2025

The increasing integration of variable renewable energy sources introduces new complexities into electricity markets. This paper investigates their effects on price dynamics by utilizing unplanned wind power plant outages as exogenous shocks. Using data from the Turkish electricity m...

18 May 2025

This paper examines the impacts of integrating a high share of variable renewable energy (VRE) on power systems and markets, proposing a multi-dimensional framework to analyze its technical, economic, and regulatory challenges. A structured literature review and topic modeling are em...

27 April 2025

Saudi Arabia has committed to net-zero (NZ) greenhouse gas emissions by 2060. This requires substantial emission reductions across key sectors, including the power generation sector. We assess the technological options, critical mineral requirements, renewable energy resource require...

13 July 2025

This paper compares renewable energy share in generation and carbon emission intensity of the Single-Buyer Model (SBM) and the Competitive Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) in 63 emerging and developing countries. Using propensity score matching and panel data analysis, we analyze ho...

28 August 2025

As renewable energy (RE) grows, efficient grid integration is vital to reduce curtailment and defer costly infrastructure upgrades. Among available options, dynamic line rating (DLR) offers a low-cost, data-driven solution that enhances transmission line capacity based on real-time we...