Aruba Promises 100% Clean Energy by 2020

Aruba Promises 100% Clean Energy by 2020

December 10th, 2016 by Carolyn Fortuna

Aruba, a 19 mile long island in the southern Caribbean Sea, is dependent on imported fossil fuels, with more than 80% of the island's electricity generated using heavy fuel oil. But over the next half dozen years, that is going to change. Aruba has pledged to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2020 with particular emphasis on variable wind and solar for renewable energy.

Aruba is making progress toward sustainability as it develops a renewable energy framework, which requires overbuilding capacity or integrating storage technologies to compensate for the variable nature of wind and solar. The Vader Piet wind farm generates part of Aruba's electricity needs, and there is a second wind farm in development. Additional planned projects include an Airport Solar Park, a waste-to-energy plant, solar panels on residential and commercial buildings. When completed, these projects will generate a substantial percentage of Aruba's power needs. Aruba is also researching ocean thermal energy conversion, geothermal power, and energy storage technologies.

Aruba will also look to new ways to convert waste to energy and increase energy efficiency. To leverage its resources, the island must address barriers, such as limited open land and steeply sloping seabed. The utility company is working to provide air conditioning using ice that is produced at night when electricity costs are lower. Advanced technology such as floating offshore wind turbines and novel applications of commercial technology may be needed to reach the ambitious 100% clean energy by 2020 goal.

Justin Locke, director of the island energy program at the Carbon War Room, an international nonprofit, says it makes sense for islands to switch to clean power. "Islands currently pay some of the highest electricity prices in the world. At the same time, they also have some of the best renewable energy resources."

To move beyond the transition to renewable energy to smart growth, Aruba's plans include:

  •  creation of world-class walkable destinations for tourists and residents;

  •  providing incentives for household retrofitting and commercial energy efficiency;

  •  implementing a sustainable approach to smart growth in the tourism
industry to create an inspirational holiday destination; and,

  •  creating an Agriculture sector in Aruba that makes the best use of water
resources.

The Green Platform has been the foundational mechanism to develop an land-use and urban planning component for Aruba that promotes the transition to renewable forms of energy.

The Government of Aruba has goals to balance quality of life and sustained economic growth through a sustainable and shared prosperity. To achieve these goals, Aruba promotes economic growth, social equity, and environmental awareness. Aruba has designed an initiative to develop the island as a gateway between Europe and the Americas in the areas of green technology, business support services, and creative industries, which is intended to bring greater economic diversification, stability, growth, and increased sustainability to Aruba.

"Islands provide an incredible blueprint, or guiding light, for what a renewable economy could look like from a technical, financial, and regulatory perspective," according to Locke, "because they are actually moving in that direction now."

Sweden Announces Plan To Subsidize Residential Storage Battery Costs

Sweden says it wants to stop burning fossil fuels to make electricity by the year 2040. Policies and goals are wonderful things, but taking action to implement those policies and goals is where the hard work comes into play. Now Sweden is putting its money where its mouth is. It has announced a government subsidy that will cover 60% of the cost of installing a residential energy storage system up to a maximum of 50,000 kroner or $5,600. The credit applies to the battery, wiring, control systems, smart energy hub, and installation work for homes with rooftop solar systems.

Andreas Gustafsson, program manager for the research and innovation department of the Swedish Energy Agency tells Renewable Energy World, "The scheme represents a complementary support system to the existing scheme supporting solar PV generation in Sweden. It's one step, but an important step towards establishing a smart, distributed grid based around clean, renewable energy."

"It's expected that in supporting the installation of batteries, we'll enable two outcomes - one to enable better use of solar PV generation systems," Gustafsson says. "The second is to help establish smarter, more flexible grids that can contribute to stabilize the grid against fluctuations in frequency and voltage. In this context, it's important to have systems for storing energy, rather than simply pumping excess electricity into the grid, only to buy it back at a later date when you have a demand."

He believes the new incentive program will be attractive to what he calls "prosumers" - private persons or companies using rooftop solar for their own energy needs. Johan Lindahl, a spokesperson for Swedish Solar Energy says, "Solar PV is a rapidly expanding market in Sweden. It's in a good position to grow from a small position currently. Last year, for instance, solar PV capacity grew by 60%. We're around 128 MW now."

In general, there is a growing interest for PV in Sweden and the general public is very positive towards the technology," he says. A recent survey found that about 20% Swedish homeowners were considering investing in rooftop solar or a small wind turbine.

Sweden's new incentive program is similar to one in place in Germany that saw 19,000 home solar and battery storage systems installed since it began. That program has recently been extended through 2108. Whether Sweden can duplicate that success remains to be seen.

"Energy storage on this scale is new for Sweden." says Andreas Gustafson. "There's very little to no home energy storage at the moment. Hopefully though, we can look forward to success here, and new companies and jobs to come along with introduction of these storage solutions." The incentive progam will be in effect until December 31, 2019.

Solar And Wind Versus Nuclear: Is Baseload Power Obsolete?

Solar And Wind Versus Nuclear: Is Baseload Power Obsolete?

November 20th, 2016 by Stephen Hanley

The future of electrical energy is playing out in South Africa, where 80% of all electricity is generated by burning coal. The government is anxious to shutter all those coal fired plants but is caught in a crossfire between advocates for nuclear power and those who favor renewable solutions like solar and wind energy.

South Africa is the most advanced economy in sub-Saharan Africa. Until 2008, its electrical power came from coal fired generating stations and one nuclear power plant. Starting in 2008, the country ran short of electricity due to poor infrastructure planning, That's when crippling rolling blackouts began. Desperate for more electrical capacity, the government started a campaign to lure investment in wind and solar power. By June of this year, 102 renewable energy projects worth $14.4 billion had been completed.

Renewable Strategy Successful

"The program has been very successful, clear of any corruption and very well run," said Wikus van Niekerk, the director of the Center for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at Stellenbosch University. "It's been seen by many people in the rest of the world as one of the most successful procurement programs for renewable energy. It's something that the South African government and public should be proud about."

Several of those projects are concentrated solar facilities located near Upington in the central part of the country. That area has some of the most abundant daily sunshine of any place on earth. But those facilities use technology that is now almost obsolete. They use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to boil water to make steam.

After the sun goes down, they can continue to make electricity from the steam on hand for a few hours. After that, they have to wait for the sun to reappear the next day. Newer concentrated solar plants use the sun's rays to heat molten salt, which can be kept in storage for up to 10 hours after the sun sets and used to keep the steam turbines spinning. Researchers in Spain say using molten silicon can store up to ten times as much energy as molten salt.

What About Nuclear?

That intermittent nature of renewable energy has left the door open for another option - nuclear power. The country's primary utility company, Eksom, strongly favors building massive new nuclear facilities. At 7 p.m., when demand peaks, "the wind may not be moving, and the sun has set," said Brian Molefe, Eskom's chief executive. He added that further expansion of renewable energy should "go slow" until cheap and efficient storage technology for renewables is developed.

In fact, the technology for storing electricity is improving at a furious pace right now. In the past few weeks, Tesla has announced that it has doubled the energy storage capacity of its grid scale storage batteries in just one year since they were first introduced. That prompts critics of nuclear power to ask, why invest billions in nuclear facilities now? Nukes have a useful life of 60 years or more. Going the nuclear route would delay the advent of zero emissions power by decades.

Is Baseload Power An Outmoded Concept?

"The concept of baseload is actually an outdated concept," said Harald Winkler, the director of the Energy Research Center at the University of Cape Town. "Eskom was built around big coal and to a lesser extent big nuclear - big chunks of base load power. It's really myopic in terms of where the future of the grid is going to go. We're going to see in South Africa and the rest of the world much more decentralized grids."

Distributed Vs. Centralized Power

Ahhh, there is in a nutshell. The same fears that drive established utility companies in the United States. Europe, and Australia apply in South Africa. Utility companies think in terms of centralized grids. Renewables coupled with efficient, cost effective energy storage make grids virtually obsolete. Utility companies are petrified they may become irrelevant and the trillions of dollars invested in building grids throughout the world will stop producing income.

Businesses in South African cities are increasingly installing solar panels and going off the grid. Elsewhere in Africa, it is now common to see villagers connecting cellphones to single solar panels outside mud brick homes.

Opposition to South Africa's nuclear plans is also coming from the government's main research agency, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. It says an expansion of solar and wind energy, in addition to natural gas, could meet South Africa's future energy needs for less money. "No new coal, no new nuclear," said Tobias BischofNiemz, who leads the
council's research on energy. "South Africa is in a very fortunate situation where we can decarbonize our energy system at negative cost."

Other Countries Are Watching

How South Africa decides to move forward could impact other African countries that are trying to provide electrical power to their citizens and lower their carbon footprint in accordance with pledges made at the COP21 global conference on climate change in Paris last December.

Many of them want to leapfrog over older and dirtier sources of energy like coal and oil. Renewable energy could also bring diversification to nations that are dangerously dependent on a single source of electricity. Both Malawi and Zambia have experienced crippling blackouts because severe droughts related to climate change have lowered water levels. That in turn has led to less availability of hydroelectric power.

Nuclear power relies completely on a centralized grid. Building grid infrastructure - transmission lines and substations - costs as much or more as a building generating facilities themselves. That's why localized renewable power provides the most amount of electricity per dollar invested.

Source: New York Times Photo Credit: Quora

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100 Gigafactories Needed For Transition To Renewable Energy - Musk

100 Gigafactories Needed For Transition To Renewable Energy - Musk

Elon Musk is not your typical human being. The mad genius of Silicon Valley has a towering intellect that shoots sparks off in all directions. He is building the world's most desirable electric cars, is deeply involved in making batteries to store electricity, is running a space exploration company, lingers at the periphery of the Hyperloop - a far out idea that is sort of like a thousand mile long horizontal elevator, and is a dedicated proponent of research into artificial intelligence. Any one of those pursuits \would keep most people busy for a lifetime. Musk seems to be able to handle more challenges than most mortals.

Many people misunderstand the mission of Tesla Motors, which is named for Nikola Tesla, a Serbian immigrant who came to work for Thomas Edison in 1884. Edison was a proponent of direct current. Telsa advocated for the benefits of alternating current. Tesla invented the first AC electric motor, which is the motor used by Tesla Motors for its automobiles today. People mistakenly believe that Tesla Motors is a car company that also makes batteries. They have it backwards. Tesla is a battery company that also makes cars.

(Note to Donald Trump. Both Tesla and Musk are immigrants who came to America because they believed it was the best place in the world for their unconventional ideas to flourish. If you had been president when they arrived on these shores. they most likely would have been turned away.)

Everything Elon Musk does is intimately connected with his desire to show the world how to stop using fossil fuels, leave what's left of them in the ground, and transition to a world powered by clean, renewable energy - especially solar. "There's a giant fusion reactor in the sky," he says. It's called the sun and it can satisfy all the needs for electrical power of all the people on earth for tens of thousands of years.

Because solar power doesn't add carbon dioxide to the environment, it is the only way mankind can stop filling the skies with pollution and give the environment a chance to shed some of the CO2 already in the atmosphere. Climate scientists like James Hansen say we will need a period of 30 to 50 years with no new carbon emissions at all to get the earth's environment back to its pre-Industrial Revolution normalcy.

Right now, Tesla is building one of the largest factories on earth outside of Reno, Nevada. Called the Gigafactory, it will have 15,000,000 square feet of manufacturing space when finished. It is there that Tesla will manufacture the batteries for its upcoming Model 3 midsize electric car and for both residential and commercial energy storage customers. In Leonardo DiCaprio's latest movie entitled Before The Flood, Musk tells the actor that it will take 100 Gigafactories to build all the batteries needed to complete the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

" The fossil fuel industry is the biggest industry in the world," Musk tells DiCaprio on the factory floor. "They have more money and more influence than any other sector. The more that there can be a sort of popular uprising against that, the better, but I think the scientific fact of the matter is we are unavoidably headed towards some level of harm."

Musk foresees entire communities in the developing world that are not yet connected to the electrical grid being able to skip the grid entirely and jump straight to a solar and battery system. Electrical grids cost huge amounts of money to construct and maintain. Avoiding those costs entirely would dramatically increase the amount of money available to invest in renewable resources like solar and wind power.

Musk was in Paris at this time last year to attend the COP21 climate change summit. While there, he gave a talk at the Sorbonne on the dangers of climate change. In twelve minutes, he lays out clearly and concisely why too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is hazardous to life on earth and what we can do about it.

If you can make time in your busy life to watch it, please do so. It gives viewers the understanding they need to be able to talk to others intelligently about the problem. The more people understand the danger we are in, the closer we will be to finding a solution to it.