RENEWABLE ENERGIES: CURRENT STATUS, FUTURE PROSPECTIVES, AND ENABLING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract-Electric energy security is one of the most essential and important needs for humanity. The fluctuating cost and limited sources of fossil fuels, in addition to the need to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions, have made renewable resources very attractive in today's world economy and energy mix. The potential for renewable energy resources is enormous as they can, in principle, continually meet many times the world's energy demand; therefore, they will have a significant share in the future world's energy portfolio, and much of the world is now concentrating on advancing their pool of renewable energy resources. Accordingly, during the seminar it will be presented how renewable energy resources are currently being deployed and their future prospective. Additionally, the challenges of their integration with the electric grid will be highlighted. Finally, the seminar will represent the impact of smart grid paradigm to enable the domination of renewable energy share.
Haitham Abu-Rub is a professor at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) and holds two PhDs. Abu-Rub has research and teaching experiences at many universities in many countries including Qatar, Poland, Palestine, USA, and Germany. Abu-Rub has served for five years as the chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at TAMUQ and is serving as the managing director of the Smart Grid Center at the same university. His main research interests include power electronic converters, renewable energy systems, electric drives, and smart grid. Abu-Rub is the recipient of many national and international awards and recognitions. He has published more than 500 journal and conference papers, six books, and six book chapters. Dr. Abu-Rub is a Fellow of the IEEE and Co-Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.