The burning of biomass accounts for 10% of primary energy used worldwide: wood, peat, animal dung, corn stalks, rice husks, hay, straw, and other agricultural waste. Billions of people, mainly in remote and poorer regions, rely on such fuels for cooking, heating, and other household needs. But it’s a major source of emissions as well as pollution. And, annually, an estimated $120bn worth of crop and forest residues are burned out in the open … [Read more...]
A role for Coal? Low-cost, negative emissions Blue Hydrogen from “MAWGS” Coal/Biomass co-gasification
Schalk Cloete summarises his co-authored study that explains how to make hydrogen at unbeatably low prices from coal/biomass co-gasification. Though the “blue” hydrogen process creates CO2, the self-contained plant using a membrane-assisted water-gas shift (MAWGS) reactor means 100% is captured easily. Better still, the use of biomass means the plant achieves negative emissions. The overall efficiency of the process is a very impressive 69%. The … [Read more...]
SAFFiRE: cheap, Sustainable Aviation Fuel from agricultural waste
SAFFiRE (Sustainable Aviation Fuel From [i] Renewable Ethanol) is a 10-ton-per-day pilot plant project. The goal is 7bn gallons of sustainable, low-carbon aviation fuel by 2040. Ryan Horns at NREL explains that the sustainable fuel is made from corn stover, an agricultural waste product, chemically broken down into sugars that can then be converted to fuels. The SAFFiRE process can take advantage of the existing infrastructure of over 200 ethanol … [Read more...]
Event summary: “Unlocking the potential of Bioenergy”
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on Thursday March 17th 2022. It’s a full summary of the 90 minute discussion (including audience questions), but it begins conveniently with a summary of the highlights (potential for bioenergy, hard-to-abate sectors, sustainability, policy needs). Those highlights include the need to scale bioenergy up from around 50 EJ today to 150 EJ by 2050; the importance of carbon … [Read more...]
Community Biomass: for energy independence, stable prices and local control
Energy independence is now at the top of the EU’s agenda. Almost all Europe’s biomass is already locally produced, contributing around 60% of the EU’s renewable energy. Marine Perrio at IEECP makes the case for promoting biomass prosumer projects. She points at regions dependent on biomass that have reported stable energy prices in the midst of the drastic increases in gas, oil and coal prices. Biomass uses organic feedstock from agriculture, … [Read more...]
District Heating Roundtable: Policy across RED, EED and EPBD “must take account of conditions in all Member States”
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on 10th February: District Heating under the "Fit for 55" package: challenges and opportunities. Under the “Fit for 55” package, the EC proposed several regulatory changes that, combined, are meant to decarbonise district heating in Europe. But are these options workable for all? The participants raise questions over the support for district heating, whether the multiple … [Read more...]
Will Wind & Solar confront its 10 challenges? If not, we need Nuclear, CCS, and more
Wind and solar’s impressive cost declines have seen its welcome and rapid emergence. But currently they account for a mere 2–4% of global energy. So these variable renewable energy sources (VREs) must now address 10 big challenges if they are to dominate the energy sector, explains Schalk Cloete in this data-led review. Their cost declines will be confronted and even cancelled by new costs they’ve not yet faced during their low-hanging-fruit … [Read more...]
Coal phase-out by 21 nations only accounts for 3.2% of global power. What about the others?
The 21 nations committed to coal phase-out only account for 3.2% of global electricity generation. Three - Belgium, Austria and Sweden – have already done so. The rest hope to by different dates, ranging to 2040. Asia is where the main problem is, and their transition challenges are well known: growing economies, and energy security. Carlos Fernández Alvarez at the IEA spells out their recommendations, and references case studies in Canada, the … [Read more...]
Compact voltage converters for integrating new DERs into the grid
The switches and converters needed to plug new clean energy technologies into the grid are going to be needed soon. The cheaper and smaller they are, the easier it will be to cope with the wide range of solutions coming down the pipe. NREL and its partners are building a megawatt-scale prototype converter that could fit the bill. They will be 1/5th the size and 1/10th the weight of existing alternatives: small enough to place almost anywhere. … [Read more...]
Engineering yeast to create Biofuels from non-food crops (straw, grass, cellulosic waste)
Using ethanol can reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels. But, commercially, ethanol in the U.S. is produced from corn and not enough is grown to make a significant impact on U.S. fuel needs. Anne Trafton at MIT describes research that has engineered yeast to break down straw and woody plant material to create ethanol as efficiently as it’s done from corn. High yields of ethanol were extracted from five different types of cellulosic … [Read more...]
Germany: will the end of feed-in tariffs mean the end of citizens-as-energy-producers
Germany’s feed-in tariffs ran for 20 years. The guaranteed electricity price and connection to the grid incentivised ordinary citizens and communities to invest in smaller scale solar, biomass and wind generation for their homes and local areas. But that guaranteed price is now too expensive, and so the tariffs are ending and lowest-bid auctions are taking over. It’s the bigger players who are winning those auctions, and some of the existing … [Read more...]
Fit for 55: Does squeeze on gas make coal exit harder? Event summary + video
On May 18, 2021, Energy Post hosted an expert panel with the European Commission, E3G, CERRE and PKEE (the Polish Electricity Association, who also sponsored the discussion). It looked at some of the key EU support mechanisms offered to countries/companies transitioning away from coal, including the EU ETS' Modernisation Fund, the Just Transition Fund  and also how State Aid Guidelines (EEAG) contribute. We asked Stefaan Vergote (Senior Advisor … [Read more...]
18 energy transition scenarios to watch: where they agree and disagree
A wide range of regions, nations and respected organisations have created net-zero strategies and pathways, but on what do they agree and disagree? Dolf Gielen, Asami Miketa, Ricardo Gorini and Pablo Carvajal at IRENA have done a meta-analysis of 18 recent energy transition scenarios to find out. There is consensus over the main strategies: renewable power generation, and the direct and indirect electrification of end-use sectors – these account … [Read more...]
Sustainably harvested Forest Biomass can help replace coal and gas
Burning sustainably harvested wood pellets emits far less carbon than burning coal or gas. That’s the main reason why it should be used in the global energy transition, argues Jennifer Jenkins at Enviva. Coal is declining, but not fast enough. Gas consumption is rising. Forest biomass can more easily be swapped in than wind and solar to provide dispatchable power. But it must be done sustainably. Referencing her white paper, Jenkins sets out the … [Read more...]
What is making Denmark a decarbonisation success? Policy, society, geography
Denmark is proving itself to be a decarbonisation leader, happy to turn its back on its history of oil and gas production and heavy reliance on coal. Its ambitious goal of cutting GHG emissions by 70% by 2030 makes it a global policy frontrunner, second only to Finland which aims to be climate neutral by 2035. Thibault Menu references his report for IFRI that asks what makes Denmark special. It has a long tradition of  providing stability and … [Read more...]
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