This study investigated the crisis of energy from which Gaza has been suffering over the past years. It ventured to highlight the growing needs for energy and the urging need to use renewable and sustainable sources of energy such as solar thermal energy. Much specifically, it gave much importance to the solar water heater (SWH) as well as the solar air heater (SAH). These two important tools rely on clean and renewable source of energy, and their use in the Gaza Strip would greatly help in bringing about an environmental conservation and sustainable economy. The result obviously shows that both SWH and SAH systems are very suitable for space heating for buildings. The maximum annual heating energy gained is 20360.7 kWh at an inclination angle of the solar collector of 30° for SWH. While for SAH the best value of heating delivered was 19268.9 kWh at a tilt angle of 45°. Besides, the result exposes that the use of SWH and SAH systems can potentially save up to $3461.3 and $3275.7 respectively of energy cost annually. The payback achieved on the investment in SWH and SAH is 4.4 and 4 years respectively. Additionally, the utilization of SWH and SAH systems can ultimately save energy as well as potentially reduce emission of air pollution. For instance, using SWH and SAH can reduce 17306.6 and 16378.57 kg/year of CO2 emissions respectively.
The growing demand for energy in developing societies, coupled with dwindling conventional resources, necessitates the adoption of renewable energy (RE) sources. A comprehensive understanding of these sources and their optimal utilization is crucial. The awareness of the users plays a very important role in the effective utilization of different energy sources. Hence, this study examines the level of RE awareness in Palestine, identifying factors influencing public perception and exploring potential strategies for promoting RE adoption. This awareness depends on different factors related to the users' education level, community type, and type of building. Different factors that affect the willingness and attitude to gain knowledge about RE are presented. In addition, various practices highlighting the increasing level of awareness regarding the adoption of RE sources are investigated. In addition, the status of RE education and its potential impact on engineers have also been discussed. Various individual and institutional efforts are highlighted in the study as strategies to bridge the gap and overcome obstacles to adopting RE sources. Suggestions for better use of these resources have been highlighted. Thereafter, recommendations for effective RE implementation in Palestine are analyzed and conclusions are drawn. The main challenges in integrating RE into Palestine's existing energy grid and system include infrastructure limitations, resources and financial constraints, and political issues. Still, there are possibilities in the form of international collaboration and investment. A flexible and modular RE grid could also address some of these challenges by integrating small‐scale systems that can be scaled up as needed.
In this paper, we conduct a feasibility study of the wind energy potential in Gaza, which suffers from a severe shortage of energy supplies. Our calculated energy harvested from the wind is based on data for a typical meteorological year, which are fed into a small wind turbine of 5 kW power rating installable on the roof of residential buildings. The expected annual energy output at a height of 10 m amounts to 2695 kWh, but it can be increased by 35–125% at higher altitudes between 20 m and 70 m. The results also depict the great potential of wind energy to complement other renewable resources such as solar energy: the harvested energy of a wind system constitutes to up to 84% of the annual output of an equivalent power rating photovoltaic system and even outperforms the solar energy in the winter months. We also show that one wind turbine and one comparable photovoltaic system together could provide enough energy for 3.7 households. Hence, a combination of wind and solar energy could stabilize the decentralized energy production in Gaza. This is very important in a region where people seek to reach energy self-sufficient buildings due to the severe electricity shortage in the local grid.