Climate change has been the catalyst for governments to create policies that are steering the global transition to renewable energy. International climate agreements and legislation like America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have created tax incentives and subsidies to promote the adoption of green energy technologies and are stimulating research and development in solar, wind, battery and other storage solutions as well as in modular, thorium and fusion reactor technologies. These government initiatives have come about in realization that the dependence on fossil fuel energy sources has produced the existential threat of climate change.
Collaboration among academic, public and private enterprise is driving technological innovation with significant research and investment being made in seeking new ways to light, heat and cool our homes and businesses around the world.
Climate change has shifted the focus of energy producers from fossil fuels to sustainable alternatives that include hydro, wind, solar and geothermal sources. The ultimate goal is a lower collective carbon footprint.
Solar panels are becoming more efficient and cheaper to make. Perovskite is replacing silicon as the material being used for next-generation solar. Innovative designs are increasing the energy conversion efficiency of panels beyond the former upper limit of 30%. New photovoltaics can now produce electricity even in less sunny environments.
With innovations in wind turbine designs, the amount of energy harvested per tower and from both onshore and offshore wind farms is increasing while the cost per kilowatt/hour (kwh) produced continues to fall.
Intermittency has always been the bugbear for renewable energy production. The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Innovative battery and other storage technologies are answering the challenge. New battery and storage technologies are balancing grids where renewable energy sources play an increasing role.
Modern battery systems using lithium-ion and flow batteries are proving their worth for both residential and industrial energy use. Pumped-storage solutions are enhancing the role of hydroelectricity in the renewable energy mix. This technology moves water between reservoirs at different elevations. When energy demand is low, water stored at a lower elevation is pumped uphill to a higher reservoir. During peak demand, that water gets released to power turbines and generators.
Geothermal energy is a largely untapped renewable power source around the world today. Countries like Costa Rica and New Zealand are exploiting their hydrothermal energy harvested from underlying volcanic formations. These facilities produce nearly zero-emissions and use much less land per Megawatt/hour (Mwh) (around 0.4 to 3 hectares (1 to 8 acres)) compared to 4 hectares (10 acres) for solar, 7.7 hectares (19 acres) for coal-fired powerplants, and 8 to 16 hectares (20 to 40 acres) for wind.
Beyond exploiting volcanoes, geothermal energy can be harvested several ways including using natural heat from depths of between 30 and 600 metres (approximately 100 to 2,000 feet) to power heat pumps or passively heat structures like greenhouses. At depths of 600 to 2,500 metres (2,000 to 8,200 feet) the harvested heat can be used to produce energy for larger structures, and at depths beyond 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) can power steam turbines.
From the accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power became a pariah. Not so anymore. Growing data centre demand has Google investing in a mothballed nuclear powerplant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Bill Gates has put together an investment group to build a thorium-fuelled reactor in Wyoming.
Small modular reactor (SMR) designs are being built in Ontario and new SMRs are being deployed on ships where they can provide power to coastal areas recovering from hurricanes and other climate disasters. SMRs are being seen as alternative power sources for remote locations such as the Arctic or islands where they can provide electricity, heating, industrial steam, and seawater desalination.
Advances in academic and business circles, developing fusion reactors, are closer to the deployment of several commercial designs that hold promise to provide zero-emission power with no radioactive waste, the latter being the current challenge of fission reactor technologies.
Integrating renewable energy into existing power grids requires the robust transformation of power distribution systems. Real-time data monitoring and automated controls are smart grid features that facilitate efficient energy distribution, reduce outages, and optimize energy consumption patterns.
Microgrids are seen as an effective way to manage local power requirements for areas operating in isolation. These smaller grid networks can effectively integrate solar, wind, water-based turbines (wave and current), biogas and passive and active geothermal and can be combined with power storage backup to meet local demands, feed large-scale manufacturing plants, operate all the machinery and equipment in a factory farm, or provide power for desalination. There is even a play for SMRs in microgrid designs.
Microgrids are more effective cogenerators of power than large power plants in serving remote locales. An interesting example of local energy generation can be found in the City of London where waste heat from the Tube, the London subway, is being used to heat nearby homes.
While all of the above plays a part in addressing the pursuit of a zero-emissions energy future, individuals can significantly impact the current energy transition. Smart meters can help homeowners manage energy demand more effectively. Energy-efficient appliances, rooftop solar, and utilizing public transportation are effective ways individuals can contribute to the overall goal. Community-driven initiatives such as local solar panel cooperatives can empower neighborhoods to embrace renewable energy solutions collectively and make the 21st century goal of zero emissions possible by mid-century.
]]>Storing energy is nothing new. From the Neolithic Revolution to the present, humans have attempted to harness the latent power of nature whether it be falling water or fire. In building dams, we created an early form of storage technology. The end goal wasn’t to produce electricity but to use the force generated by water falling from a height to power machinery. In this case, the water wheel which became a common way to power mills for grinding cereal crops. Water wheels were used to power sawmills before we learned to harness electricity. The water wheel’s descendant today is the turbine which in hydroelectric facilities is used to power generators turning the energy of falling water into kilowatt-hours of electricity.
The grids that crisscross continents today are extremely complex. They have been designed for power-sharing and distribution that follows daily patterns. Energy storage currently plays a small part in ensuring power is available where needed at all times. One of the reasons it plays only a small part is because existing power generation and distribution capacity have been built to exceed peak demand.
The pattern of power requirements is a predictable cycle of daily, weekly, and seasonal demand. Matching supply to the need is one of the raison d’etres for continental power grids. The current grid has been built to ensure demand will always be met at the highest peaks unless something not predictable happens. When the unpredictable does occur in one or more utilities that feed the grid, power generation capacity from other sources can meet the emergency. This isn’t always the case leading to brownouts and occasional blackouts.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration describes how power demands change daily and throughout the year. The patterns are consistent:
A pool of water’s latent energy is a form of storage. Today, dams that provide hydroelectric power stations with energy from falling water to continuously produce electricity can take advantage of lower than peak periods to reverse the water flow. By pumping water uphill into reservoirs, they can use the increased water volume during peak demand periods to deliver added kilowatts of power to the grid.
In the United States, the first pumped storage facility opened in 1929 in Connecticut. Since then the growth of energy storage has surpassed 31.2 Gigawatts as of early 2019, a fraction of the more than one thousand Gigawatts of the country’s installed generation capacity. That amounts to 0.3% which sounds absurd considering the balancing act previously described for dealing with peak, shoulder, and low demand electricity requirements.
Globally, elsewhere energy storage for power generation plays a greater role in the mix. In 2018 total energy storage capacity exceeded 175 Gigawatts. In Europe, 10% of the continent’s power came from stored energy, while Japan’s stored energy amounted to 15% of capacity.
California has been the big player in energy storage in the United States. As of 2018, of the 300 energy storage projects there, 220 were grid-connected. The remainder were associated with distributed local energy delivery and off-grid.
The future of energy storage on the planet is likely less and less tied to traditional utilities and the grid as new energy storage materials and technologies emerge. The illustration below shows the range of energy storage technologies present and future.
Beyond pumped hydro, compressed air, different types of batteries using familiar chemistry such as lead-acid, and ones more exotic based on aluminum, sulfur, potassium, that breathe air and don’t require oxidizers, flow batteries, cryogenic storage, flywheels, magnetic energy storage, supercapacitors, and advanced fuel cell technologies, these existing and nascent technologies are ready to play a role in supporting the existing power grid. But more importantly, they are the bridge to solving the intermittency issues associated with the current forms of renewable energy on the planet today: wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, wave, and tidal power.
Their application will alter both grid and off-grid power delivery. Storage technologies give utilities greater flexibility in distribution and capacity. Storage technologies can save money and prolong the life of the power grid which has some old-age problems. If you don’t believe me, read the article I posted previously on this website about the long-term survival of the electrical grid.
Just how innovative can we get with energy storage. Carbonate fuel cells are a technology that does not just supplement the energy requirements of a powerplant burning fossil fuels, but also captures and uses the carbon emissions as the material in its fuel cell stacks. In 2016, Exxon installed a pilot project of experimental carbonate fuel cells at an existing coal and gas-fired power plant near Mobile, Alabama. So far so good. If widely adopted, this type of innovation could be a significant gamechanger for both grid and distributed power.
Recently, Tesla built a 100 Megawatt lithium-ion battery for an Australian utility. It is the world’s largest lithium-ion storage system, and one of a number of Australian-based projects slated for completion next year.
And speaking of distributed energy storage, in a recent Navigant Research study entitled “Country Forecasts for Distributed Energy Storage,” it cites the increase in solar and wind power as key to a projected 20 times increase in distributed storage systems by 2028. Research analyst for Navigant, Ricardo F. Rodriguez, sees the growth of distributed energy storage as a panacea for dealing with peak capacity requirements with or off-grid. And unlike reserve gas-fired powerplants that need to be brought online in periods of peak demand, storage systems can release electricity instantaneously with no downtime or ramping up, a distinct advantage over older paradigms.
]]>So when asked at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY Conference held this week, comes the following. Google’s next “moonshot” projects may focus on energy and agriculture.
Google is already involved in the energy file, particularly renewables like solar. But the skunk works looks like it may focus on improving batteries. Making batteries more efficient is top of mind for lots of reasons. Lighter batteries that store more energy could make electric vehicles ubiquitous with distance range equal to if not better than fossil fuel-driven transport. Batteries that improve storage by a factor of ten could make solar and wind renewables work 24 x 7, making them as reliable as coal and natural gas energy sources. With Google X putting its mind, money and muscle to the task the hope would be to see these improvements become realities within a decade.
Even more interestingly, Teller at the conference talked about focusing on agriculture technology He made the following statement:
“It is the largest industry in the world. It is also the most inefficient industry in the world. It’s the cause of a lot of our solid waste and carbon emission problems….there’s so much opportunity there.”
For Teller, seen at the conference in the picture below, it is all about humanity doing better by designing technology that “vanishes into our lives.”
So what are the kinds of technologies that could revolutionize agriculture?
Teller’s suggestion of focus on agriculture reflects a similar sentiment by Bill Gates whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also looking at applying new technology to improve agriculture. Gates notes that 15% of the world’s population lives in on subsistence farms not knowing whether what is being grown will provide sufficient food for individual families let alone surpluses.
Gates talks about the $3 billion spent on agricultural research today largely focused on seven staple crops. Half of the money is coming from governments while the rest comes from the agrochemical industry, companies like Monsanto, Dupont and BASF.
In 2013 Google earned $60 billion in revenue with a profit of $13 billion. That’s a lot of cash and if a portion were applied to the issue Gates raises, for the the 15% it could prove revolutionary.
