Difference between revisions of "Types of renewable energy"

From ScienceForSustainability
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 140: Line 140:
  
 
: It will also contribute to Glasgow's ambition, under the Sustainable Glasgow partnership, to become one of Europe's most sustainable cities within the next ten years. BGS expertise can help you find out more about the heat energy beneath Glasgow.
 
: It will also contribute to Glasgow's ambition, under the Sustainable Glasgow partnership, to become one of Europe's most sustainable cities within the next ten years. BGS expertise can help you find out more about the heat energy beneath Glasgow.
 +
 +
=== USA ===
 +
 +
[https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/MITEI-The-Future-of-Geothermal-Energy.pdf The Future of Geothermal Energy] Idoho National Lab; Nov 2006
 +
: Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) on the United States in the 21st Century
 +
: Recent national focus on the value of increasing our supply of indigenous, renewable energy underscores the need for reevaluating all alternatives, particularly those that are large and well distributed nationally. This analysis will help determine how we can enlarge and diversify the portfolio of options we should be vigorously pursuing. One such option that is often ignored is geothermal energy, produced from both conventional hydrothermal and Enhanced (or engineered) Geothermal Systems (EGS). An 18-member assessment panel was assembled in September 2005 to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of EGS becoming a major supplier of primary energy for U.S. base-load generation capacity by 2050. This report documents the work of the panel at three separate levels of detail. The first is a Synopsis, which provides a brief overview of the scope, motivation, approach, major findings, and recommendations of the panel. At the second level, an Executive Summary reviews each component of the study, providing major results and findings. The third level provides full documentation in eight chapters, with each detailing the scope, approach, and results of the analysis and modeling conducted in each area.
 +
 +
[http://news.mit.edu/2007/mit-led-panel-backs-heat-mining-key-us-energy-source MIT-led panel backs 'heat mining' as key U.S. energy source] MIT News; 22 Jan 2007
 +
: A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact.
 +
 +
: An 18-member panel led by MIT prepared the 400-plus page study, titled "The Future of Geothermal Energy" (PDF, 14.1 MB). Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, it is the first study in some 30 years to take a new look at geothermal, an energy resource that has been largely ignored.
 +
 +
: The goal of the study was to assess the feasibility, potential environmental impacts and economic viability of using enhanced geothermal system (EGS) technology to greatly increase the fraction of the U.S. geothermal resource that could be recovered commercially.
 +
 +
: Although geothermal energy is produced commercially today and the United States is the world's biggest producer, existing U.S. plants have focused on the high-grade geothermal systems primarily located in isolated regions of the west. This new study takes a more ambitious look at this resource and evaluates its potential for much larger-scale deployment.

Revision as of 00:17, 25 July 2019


Abandoning the concept of renewable energy Atte Harjanne, Janne M.Korhonen; Energy Policy; 29 Dec 2018 (download link)

Renewable energy is a widely used term that describes certain types of energy production. In politics, business and academia, renewable energy is often framed as the key solution to the global climate challenge. We, however, argue that the concept of renewable energy is problematic and should be abandoned in favor of more unambiguous conceptualization.
Building on the theoretical literature on framing and based on document analysis, case examples and statistical data, we discuss how renewable energy is framed and has come to be a central energy policy concept and analyze how its use has affected the way energy policy is debated and conducted. We demonstrate the key problems the concept of renewable energy has in terms of sustainability, incoherence, policy impacts, bait-and-switch tactics and generally misleading nature. After analyzing these issues, we discuss alternative conceptualizations and present our model of categorizing energy production according to carbon content and combustion.
The paper does not intend to criticize or promote any specific form of energy production, but instead discusses the role of institutional conceptualization in energy policy.

Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation IPCC Working Group III; 2012

The IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) provides a comprehensive review concerning these sources and technologies, the relevant costs and benefits, and their potential role in a portfolio of mitigation options.
For the first time, an inclusive account of costs and greenhouse gas emissions across various technologies and scenarios confirms the key role of renewable sources, irrespective of any tangible climate change mitigation agreement.

GLOBAL TRENDS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT 2016 UNEP / Bloomberg

Renewable Energy BBC Radio 4 - The Bottom Line

Wind Energy *

Solar Power *

Intermittency, capacity factor, grid integration

Renewables and grid reliability Challenges integrating renewables

ANALYSING TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS ON RENEWABLE GENERATION TO 2050 A report to the Committee on Climate Change; Mar 2011

Huge Boost For Renewables' Output And Reliability Just From Location Planning Jeff McMahon; Forbes; 22 Apr 2016

California could boost its solar and wind energy output by nearly 50 percent and reduce volatility just by planning where new plants are installed, according to a Stanford economist. Solar and wind developers tend to cluster installations in locations that offer the highest revenues, said Frank Wolak, director of Stanford University’s Program on Energy and Sustainable Development. But these same locations accentuate volatility, raising the peaks when all are producing and deepening the troughs when all shut down.

Europe has adopted clean energy with so much gusto they've created a strange new problem Rebecca Harrington; Business Insider; 30 Mar 2016

Europe gets so much of its energy from renewables that many leading countries are now facing a new problem: updating their energy grids to handle it all.

Managing Flexibility Whilst Decarbonising the GB Electricity System - Executive Summary and Recommendations Energy Research Partnership; Aug 2015

The Energy Research Partnership has undertaken some modelling and analysis of the GB electricity system in the light of the carbon targets set by the Committee on Climate Change. Firstly a brief examination was made of the German and Irish markets with the hope of learning from their advanced penetration of variable renewables. Secondly a new model, BERIC, was written to simultaneously balance the need for energy, reserve, inertia and firm capacity on the system and its findings compared with simpler stacking against the load duration curve. The intention was to assess the need for flexibility on the system but some broader conclusions also emerged: A zero- or very low- carbon system with weather dependent renewables needs companion low carbon technologies to provide firm capacity
The modelling indicates that the 2030 decarbonisation targets of 50 or even 100 g/kWh cannot be hit by relying solely on weather dependent technologies like wind and PV alone. Simple merit order calculations have backed this up and demonstrated why this is the case, even with very significant storage, demand side measures or interconnection in support. There is a need to have a significant amount of zero carbon firm capacity on the system too - to supply dark, windless periods without too much reliance on unabated fossil. This firm capacity could be supplied by a number of technologies such as nuclear, biomass or fossil CCS

The Duck Pond Bonnie Marini; Power Engineering; 22 Mar 2016

The use of renewable power generation continues to grow around the globe. The challenge introduced with renewable generation is that it can be interrupted by timing and weather, and this variance affects the stability of the power produced. The sum of all generation must meet the demand at the very instant the demand is manifested-simply put, most of the electricity around the globe is produced and used in the very same moment. Without a solution for large-scale, cost-effective energy storage, the only way to fill the gaps in fluctuating generation from renewable resources is by partnering dispatchable power generation.
The California duck curve has become synonymous in the industry with the shape of renewable generation. The renewable duck generation rides on top of the rest of the generation portfolio, which is referred to as the duck pond. This paper discusses the changes in demand for this pond of dispatchable generating resources as they react to the presence and growth of the duck.

The Biggest Solar Breakthrough You've Never Heard Of William Pentland; Forbes; 12 Nov 2015

The breakthrough is a business model used to integrate distributed energy technologies into the mainstream electric grid.
For the first time in the history of the modern power grid, a non-utility, non-RTO entity called GridSolar is managing a part of the electric power grid. This would be illegal in any state other than Maine. GridSolar is demonstrating the value distributed generation, demand response and energy efficiency can provide to the power grid and ratepayers. In the process, it is turning the central argument made by utility trade groups against distributed energy on its head. Rather than imposing additional costs on ratepayers, distributed energy can significantly reduce the economic burden borne by ratepayers.

Balancing Europe’s wind-power output through spatial deployment informed by weather regimes Christian M. Grams, Remo Beerli, Stefan Pfenninger, Iain Staffell, Heini Wernli; Nature Climate Change letters; 17 July 2017

As wind and solar power provide a growing share of Europe’s electricity1, understanding and accommodating their variability on multiple timescales remains a critical problem. On weekly timescales, variability is related to long-lasting weather conditions, called weather regimes2, 3, 4, 5, which can cause lulls with a loss of wind power across neighbouring countries6. Here we show that weather regimes provide a meteorological explanation for multi-day fluctuations in Europe’s wind power and can help guide new deployment pathways that minimize this variability. Mean generation during different regimes currently ranges from 22 GW to 44 GW and is expected to triple by 2030 with current planning strategies. However, balancing future wind capacity across regions with contrasting inter-regime behaviour—specifically deploying in the Balkans instead of the North Sea—would almost eliminate these output variations, maintain mean generation, and increase fleet-wide minimum output. Solar photovoltaics could balance low-wind regimes locally, but only by expanding current capacity tenfold. New deployment strategies based on an understanding of continent-scale wind patterns and pan-European collaboration could enable a high share of wind energy whilst minimizing the negative impacts of output variability.

Weatherwatch: can we keep the lights on when the wind fails to blow? Kate Ravilious The Guardian; 9 Jan 2018

Rapid growth in both solar and wind (the UK now has more offshore wind power capacity than any other country in the world) has enabled the UK to achieve these impressive statistics, but will the rise in renewables also make UK power more vulnerable to the whims of British weather?
Researchers working on the European Climatic Energy Mixes project have been investigating future risk by assessing how the UK would fare with a repeat of the unusually cold winter of 2009-10. From mid-December 2009 a southward-displaced jet stream allowed cold air to pour in from eastern Europe, bringing widespread snow and plunging temperatures. The mean UK temperature for the entire winter was just 1.5C, the lowest since 1978-79 when it was 1.2C . As a result power demand surged, with electricity consumption between 10 and 20% above average on a number of occasions.
Back in 2010 renewables provided less than 10% of UK electricity. But similar weather now might create a strain. “The low wind conditions in a repeat of winter 2009-10 would lead to a substantial reduction in wind power production over the season, which could lead to increased risks to electricity supply availability when combined with an increased demand due to low temperatures,” writes meteorologist Emma Suckling from the University of Reading. Winters like this might be getting rarer, but we still need a contingency plan when the wind fails to blow.
China

China proposes $50+ trillion Global UHV grid connecting all power generation including massive wind farm at the North Pole by 2050 Next Big Future; 31 Mar 2016

China is proposing a $50+ trillion global energy grid. Global Energy Interconnection (GEI), a vision of a world power grid, was outlined by the State Grid Corporation of China ("State Grid"). It would be based upon a global network of Ultra High Voltage power lines connecting global power generation including massive wind farm at the North Pole and solar power from equatorial areas to energy users around the world.

China’s Vision of a Global Grid Zhenya Liu; The Energy Times; 22 Mar 2016

This is the first of a two-part series, excerpted and edited, from a speech by Zhenya Liu, chairman of the State Grid Corp. of China, delivered recently at IHS CERAWeek in Houston.

Storage

Hydropower*

Marine - Tide and Wave

Will Tidal and Wave Energy Ever Live Up to Their Potential? SOPHIA SCHWEITZER; Yale Environment 360; 15 Oct 2015

As solar and wind power grow, another renewable energy source with vast potential — the power of tides and waves — continues to lag far behind. But progress is now being made as governments and the private sector step up efforts to bring marine energy into the mainstream.

Tidal Energy / Tide Power *

Wave

Wave David MacKay; SEWTHA

Carnegie wave energy

CETO wave energy technology that converts ocean swell into zero-emission renewable power and desalinated freshwater.
Uses seafloor-tethered buoys. CETO 6 ~1MW will contain hydraulic - electrical generators, earlier ones seem to have had hydraulic to shore, electrical conversion onshore(?)

CETO commercial scale unit

The CETO 6 design builds on the experience gained in all previous CETO generations and incorporates some important improvements.
The diameter of the buoyant actuator has the most significant influence on power output and has been increased to approximately 20m from the 7m diameter 80kW unit successfully tested at the Garden Island site in 2011 (pictured below) and the most recent 11m diameter, 240kW units tested in 2015 at the same site (pictured below).
Apart from being larger, CETO 6 will also incorporate the power generation offshore, inside the buoy rather than onshore as with the current CETO 5 generation being deployed for the Perth Wave Energy Project. Locating the power generation within the buoy removes the need to attach pumps, accumulators and other hydraulic components to the seabed, avoiding the requirement for offshore heavy lift vessel capacity and reducing the offshore installation and maintenance time and cost.The demonstration of CETO incorporating subsea generation and transmission of electrical power will allow Carnegie to take advantage of deeper, more distant to shore wave resources and significantly increases the size of the commercial market for CETO and allow greater responsiveness in the CETO control system.
The Perth Wave Energy Project involved the design, construction and operation of three 240kW CETO 5 units which produced and sold both power and water to the Australian Department of Defence who operate Australia’s largest naval base, HMAS Stirling, on Garden Island and operated for over 14,000 cumulative hours across four seasons.
Work began in 2013 on the next generation CETO 6 design which has a targeted capacity of 1MW. The CETO 6 generation will again be demonstrated first at Carnegie’s Garden Island site in Western Australia ahead of international installations.

EcoWavePower

Eco Wave Power

talks about 1MW

Gibraltar

Gibraltar wave power project surfs up possibilities across Europe Nnamdi Anyadike; Power Technology; 4 Oct 2016

Eco Wave Power’s (EWP) energy project in Gibraltar - the first such grid-connected plant and the only wave energy plant in Europe operating multiple units under commercial power purchase agreement (PPA) terms
in 2014, EWP signed a PPA with Gibraltar for delivery of a 5MW ocean power plant. Phased construction of the Gibraltar plant, located at the Ammunition Jetty, began last year and it is already exporting electricity into the power grid. The system is currently composed of eight ocean energy converter units that supply 100kW, but when completed, with the help of an EU grant, the array will produce 5MW. It is then expected to meet 15% of Gibraltar’s electricity demand. Although currently still in the design phase, the additional units will be much larger than the existing ones.

biological

Biomass / Biofuels *

compost

7 Steps to Build a Compost Water Heater For Hot Water Abundance KATRINA SPADE; Walden Labs; 5 AUG 2015

algae

Urban algae farm eats highway pollution and turns it into organic fuel

Geothermal

New Zealand

Te Ahi O Maui geothermal ready to drill Gisborne Herald NZ; 28 Apr 2016

GISBORNE-based Eastland Group expects to encounter temperatures three times higher than the hottest surface temperature ever recorded on Earth when it drills into the Kawerau geothermal reservoir next month. Following years of planning, the $100m Te Ahi O Maui geothermal project to build a 20mW geothermal power plant 2.3km east of Kawerau is now ready to enter its first production well-drilling phase on land owned by the A8D Ahu Whenua Maori Trust. Te Ahi O Maui project panager Ben Gibson said site works were under way to prepare the well pads and a well-drilling rig would be transported on site later this month. A production well will start on May 10. The first stage of drilling, known as ‘‘spudding’’, will culminate in a 12cm-wide hole into the Kawerau geothermal reservoir. “Extensive field monitoring and computer-based modelling has shown we can expect the drilling equipment to pass through layers of varying substrates and pockets of incredibly hot geothermal steam and fluid, which could be between 200-350 degrees Celsius. “It’s this high-temperature fluid and steam that will ultimately fuel the geothermal power plant.

East Africa

How Kenya is harnessing geothermal energy to power its growing economy Amy Yee; Independent; 4 Mar 2018

Tapping into heat energy from the East African Rift has helped increase electrical access in Kenya. But making this widely available can be a struggle, and developers face environmental challenges with this seemingly green source of power

Scotland

Heat energy beneath Glasgow British Geological Survey (BGS)

The BGS is working with Glasgow City Council to look into the use of heat energy from the ground to help to warm Glasgow's homes and communities.
Our studies are helping to identify which parts of the city would offer the best prospects of supplying this kind of energy; looking at the potential heat within minewaters, superficial deposits and bedrock aquifers beneath Glasgow.
This new source of energy could help Glasgow to meet government targets to ensure 11 per cent of heat demand comes from renewable sources by 2020.
It will also contribute to Glasgow's ambition, under the Sustainable Glasgow partnership, to become one of Europe's most sustainable cities within the next ten years. BGS expertise can help you find out more about the heat energy beneath Glasgow.

USA

The Future of Geothermal Energy Idoho National Lab; Nov 2006

Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) on the United States in the 21st Century
Recent national focus on the value of increasing our supply of indigenous, renewable energy underscores the need for reevaluating all alternatives, particularly those that are large and well distributed nationally. This analysis will help determine how we can enlarge and diversify the portfolio of options we should be vigorously pursuing. One such option that is often ignored is geothermal energy, produced from both conventional hydrothermal and Enhanced (or engineered) Geothermal Systems (EGS). An 18-member assessment panel was assembled in September 2005 to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of EGS becoming a major supplier of primary energy for U.S. base-load generation capacity by 2050. This report documents the work of the panel at three separate levels of detail. The first is a Synopsis, which provides a brief overview of the scope, motivation, approach, major findings, and recommendations of the panel. At the second level, an Executive Summary reviews each component of the study, providing major results and findings. The third level provides full documentation in eight chapters, with each detailing the scope, approach, and results of the analysis and modeling conducted in each area.

MIT-led panel backs 'heat mining' as key U.S. energy source MIT News; 22 Jan 2007

A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact.
An 18-member panel led by MIT prepared the 400-plus page study, titled "The Future of Geothermal Energy" (PDF, 14.1 MB). Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, it is the first study in some 30 years to take a new look at geothermal, an energy resource that has been largely ignored.
The goal of the study was to assess the feasibility, potential environmental impacts and economic viability of using enhanced geothermal system (EGS) technology to greatly increase the fraction of the U.S. geothermal resource that could be recovered commercially.
Although geothermal energy is produced commercially today and the United States is the world's biggest producer, existing U.S. plants have focused on the high-grade geothermal systems primarily located in isolated regions of the west. This new study takes a more ambitious look at this resource and evaluates its potential for much larger-scale deployment.