The future of energy on islands

Islands are places of exceptional biodiversity and economic value, not to mention their great natural beauty. However, because of their isolation from the mainland, they are also difficult to power. This fact is particularly poignant as Puerto Rico, several months after Hurricane Maria, struggles to turn the lights back on. To prepare for a world in which climate change continues to energize super-storms and sea level rise, islands, on which 10 percent of the world’s population lives, must rethink their energy systems for future success. Read on for several solutions that will allow island communities to thrive in the 21st century.
  • 

Islands currently receive most of their energy from fossil fuels, with some using imported oil, an expensive energy source, to power their electrical grid. With their costs dropping every year, solar and wind could provide cleaner, localized, cheaper energy. Since islands must contend with a limited amount of land, large-scale wind farms may be the preferred utility-scale option. However, neither option will be particularly effective without a battery storage system. To serve this need, Tesla is rolling out battery systems in Puerto Rico, Nantucket and other island communities in hopes that they may someday become ubiquitous.

Related: The sinking island nation of Tuvalu is actually growing

For islands with the appropriate natural resources, such as Iceland, geothermal power is an attractive energy option. New drilling technologies, such as those developed by GA Drilling and AltaRock Energy, could enable geothermal prospectors to dig deeper and ultimately provide greater energy output. While it has drawn criticism from some environmentalists in the past, nuclear power may also be an effective energy source for island communities. The incredible energy density of nuclear fuel translates into a much more effectively shipped power source than fossil fuels, while the newest Gen IV nuclear reactors are passively safe. Nuclear power plants could even be established on ships, similar to nuclear-powered ships and submarines in the United States Navy, allowing power generation to be moved where it is most needed.

Abandoned nuclear power plant given new life as a solar farm

Solar farms can pop up in unlikely places – like the site of an old, unfinished nuclear power plant in Tennessee. The Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant was abandoned in 1981, but today nearly 3,000 solar panels rest on the site. The new one megawatt (MW) farm provides clean energy for around 100 homes.

  • 

 
The Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant has scarred the landscape since it was abandoned in 1981. Popular concern over the Three Mile Island incident and increased costs to meet regulations prompted the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors to stop building the nuclear plant, which was once expected to re-energize the local economy. Phipps Bend was never operational, and for decades was utilized only for safety training exercises.

That was until Birdseye Renewable Energy and United Renewable Energy came along. Birdseye already boasts over 430 MW of clean energy greenfield projects. They installed solar panels on around four acres on the old nuclear plant site. The panels rotate throughout the day to maximize the energy they absorb from the sun. Holston Electric will purchase the electricity to power homes in eastern Tennessee.

Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant, Phipps Bend, Birdseye Renewable Energy, United Renewable Energy, Tennessee, nuclear, nuclear power, nuclear power plant, nuclear energy, solar, solar energy, solar power, solar panel, solar panels, solar farm, solar array, solar station, energy, alternative energy, clean energy, renewable energy

The Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant would have been large if completed, offering more than 2,400 MW and powering around 1.8 million households. The new solar farm at Phipps Bend won’t be able to meet that, but it will generate around 1,100 to 1,400 megawatt-hours per year, and it will be operational for at least 30 years.

United Renewable Energy executive vice president Keith Herbs said in a statement, “Due to its location, this project visibly demonstrates how clean, efficient solar energy matches other forms of power generation to meet our country’s growing energy needs.”

The United States has around 100 cancelled nuclear power plants – perhaps some of them could receive new life as solar farms as well.

How to obtain highly crystalline organic-inorganic perovskite films for solar cells

Members of the Laboratory of New Materials for Solar Energetics, working at the Faculty of Material Sciences, in cooperation with their colleagues from the Faculty of Chemistry of the Lomonosov Moscow State University have obtained highly crystalline organic-inorganic perovskite films for solar cells. Their results are published in the journal Materials Horizons.

The researchers previously worked on nanowires of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites, which are promising for the creation of light emitting diodes, lasers and photodetectors. However, the most promising application for these substances is the elaboration of perovskitesolar cells - namely, next-generation photovoltaic devices. Efficiency of these devices has risen by several times over the last five years, and now comprises even more than 22 percent. This is significantly higher than the maximum efficiency of polycrystalline silicon solar cells. Efficiency of the most popular industrially produced solar cells is 12 to 15 percent.

There are two main approaches for obtaining this material. The first involves a coating of vaporous chemical agents, and the second is solution crystallization. Projects aimed at improving these methods have been intensively developed in recent years. However, further perspectives of these approaches are almost exhausted.

Alexey Tarasov, Doctor of Chemistry, the Head of the Laboratory and the Study Lead says, "As part of the study, we've found several new compounds - polyiodides, which are liquid at room temperature, and have unique properties. They look like viscous liquids of dark brown color with a metal gleam, obtained from two solid powders, which simply melt while blending. Their liquid state makes them a good substitute for hazardous solvents and, their chemical composition contributes to the formation of a necessary perovskite upon contact with a metallic lead film or other lead compounds. As a result of the chemical interaction between lead film and polyiodide melts, a perovskite film composed of large interpenetrating crystals is formed."

Polyiodide melts are deposited on lead using a so-called spin coating technique. For this purpose, a glass substrate with lead layer is fixed on a whirling rod and rotates. Polyiodide is poured on the whirling glass substrate and the residue is flushed using isopropanol. This produces stable perovskite films from 200 to 700 nm in thickness.

The lab currently continues studying properties of discovered polyiodides and elaborating technologies to obtain solar cells with high efficiency.

Argentina Plans Energy Auctions to Drive $7 Billion Investment

Argentina is planning at least four energy auctions this year that are expected to attract as much as $7 billion in investments as president Mauricio Macri seeks to boost generating capacity for both conventional and renewable power plants.

The country will hold two auctions for new thermal capacity, one for renewable energy and one for new transmission lines, according to Energy Minister Juan Jose Aranguren. The government is considering another one for thermal projects.

The auctions are part of Argentina’s efforts to revive its economy and make its power grid more reliable. They follow similar events last year that are expected to result in $6.5 billion in investment in the country’s power industry.

“We want to maintain the virtuous cycle of public, open auctions, then national and international capital can collaborate to improve Argentina’s electric system reliability and to reduce costs of generation,” Aranguren said in an interview in Buenos Aires on Thursday. “We have also to ensure the expansion of the transmission system in parallel to the new generation capacity.”

Argentina announced in January plans to increase electricity rates for domestic consumers by as much as 149 percent in two stages, in a bid to reduce subsidies and cut the primary fiscal deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product this year. The first took effect in February and the next is set for November, to help utilities invest in the grid and prevent blackouts in Buenos Aires, Aranguren said.

As much as 6.5 gigawatts of new capacity will be added to the grid over the next three years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That includes 3.6 gigawatts powered by fossil fuels and 2.8 gigawatts from renewable sources other than large hydropower.

Renewable Auction

The renewable-energy auction will be in July or August, Aranguren said. Companies that won contracts to deliver electricity in earlier auctions are still seeking financing to build projects. About 3 gigawatts of renewable power projects were auctioned in 2016.

“There are a lot of people looking for financing now,” he said. “If we do the next one too soon, before new projects already auctioned are structured, we might generate a bottleneck on the financing side.”

Argentina has set an ambitious goal of boosting its clean energy consumption to 8 percent by the end of this year, from about 1 percent now, and 20 percent by 2025. The main mechanism to achieve these goals is its RenovAr renewable energy auction program. More than 60 percent of Argentina’s energy comes from fossil fuels, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

A lack of transmission lines in Argentina may hamper the outcome of the next clean-energy auction, as most of the country’s transmission capacity was filled by projects from the first two events last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Limited transmission nodes in areas with good wind and solar sources may drive up prices in the next auctions.

There’s enough transmission capacity for projects already awarded, and Argentina will need to add 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) of transmission lines in the next three years, Aranguren said.

“New power transmission lines are necessary to follow the expansion of generation capacity,” he said.

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

Keep up to date with all the most interesting green news on the planet by subscribing to our (free) Planetsave newsletter.