A new report by RMI says batteries are on the path to replace 175 EJ of fossil fuel demand in the power sector, 86 EJ of fossil fuels from road transport and can put at risk another 23 EJ from shipping and aviation. That equates to a phaseout of half of global fossil fuel demand in the next two decades. Daan Walter, Sam Butler-Sloss and Kingsmill Bond at RMI summarise the findings in six graphs with explanations. Battery sales are growing … [Read more...]
Clean energy forecast map tells firms where to build their facilities to minimise emissions
For companies that are serious about their net-zero targets, where you run a facility affects your results. Building a new facility in a region where renewables are ramping up will keep your emissions low. Connor O'Neil at NREL explains how analysts there, in partnership with Amazon, are building out datasets that take a forward look at where clean energy is growing. The “Cambium” data sets contain modelled hourly emission, cost, and operational … [Read more...]
Another good year for Renewables. But can we triple Wind and Solar by 2030?
COP28 saw a calling for a tripling of renewable capacities by 2030, off the back of positive signs. In 2022, 80% of incremental power demand and 12% of electricity generated worldwide came from solar and wind. And the IEA believes solar generation can grow at 25% to 2030. But, as Ramnath Iyer at IEEFA explains, specific challenges must be met to ramp up successfully. The non-financial barriers include a lack of policy clarity, permitting, and … [Read more...]
Modelling revenue potential for Germany’s Battery Storage future
In the last ten years Germany has installed battery storage systems totalling 6.5 GW of power and 10.1 GWh of energy. Storage is an essential part of every nation’s electrification plans: for peak shaving, uninterruptible power for industrial customers, use as a buffer, and self-supply in households. Elena Dahlem and Alex Schmitt at Energy Brainpool start with a summary of storage’s use in the household, industrial and large-scale sectors. They … [Read more...]
Making solid fuel from captured CO2 (with a 96% conversion rate)
What if CO2 could be captured and, rather than locked away underground for eternity, turned into a stable powder that can be used in fuel cells to produce electricity? David Chandler at MIT describes research there and at Harvard that has demonstrated a new process that has a 96% conversion rate. It’s been tried before, but the conversion rates were an unusable 20%. The CO2 is converted into formate and used like hydrogen or methanol (both strong … [Read more...]
What does cutting-edge Smart Metering look like as Grids become increasingly complex?
The global growth in electrification means grids everywhere are facing new opportunities as well as big challenges. Intermittent renewables, distributed energy generation, and the need to use every kWh as efficiently as possible means Distribution System Operators (DSO), in particular, must deploy optimisation solutions, and fast. Gridspertise provides state-of-the-art solutions for the digital transformation of electricity distribution networks. … [Read more...]
Thermal Energy Storage for heating and cooling Buildings: finding materials that melt at room temperature
Thermal Energy Storage (TES) in individual buildings can cut heating and cooling costs while delivering grid stability, explains Ryan Horns writing for NREL. Back in the 1800s blocks of ice were shipped to cities to cool buildings down. Today, research is underway to identify materials that can be heated or cooled by excess grid power and release or absorb heat when needed. Similarly, materials are being researched and developed that “phase … [Read more...]
1,500GW of Renewables deployment delayed globally because Grids aren’t modernising fast enough
A first-of-its-kind global country-by-country study, “Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions” by the IEA finds that electricity grids are not keeping pace with the rapid growth of clean energy technologies. Without greater policy attention and investment, shortfalls in the reach and quality of grid infrastructure puts at risk our climate goals. Worldwide, we need to add or replace 80m kms of power lines by 2040 – an amount equal to the … [Read more...]
Make EV batteries bidirectional, get GWs of storage for the Grid
How to cope with the hourly, daily and seasonal variation in demand as regions electrify more, depend more on variable renewables like wind and solar, and cut baseload fossil generation? Storage shifts load nicely. But why build grid-scale batteries when millions of little batteries in our EVs are sitting idle in our driveways for most of the time? As Mark Specht at the Union of Concerned Scientists explains, it’s why in California a bill is … [Read more...]
Scaling up global grid-scale Storage to 80GW/year (it was 16GW in 2022)
Globally, annual additions of grid-scale battery storage must rise to 80GW between now and 2030, explain Amit Jain, Gabriela Elizondo Azuela and Aakarshan Vaid at the World Bank, writing for WEF. In 2022 it was only 16GW. The biggest gap, perhaps understandably, is in developing countries. It’s in these regions where renewables auctions for deployment – primarily solar and wind – need to start including hybrid storage as part of the package. The … [Read more...]
Rooftop Solar: will subsidies benefit wealthy early adopters, while grid limits lock out the latecomers?
Subsidies encouraging homeowners to install rooftop solar are being won by the affluent who can afford to be first movers. And when the technology has come down in price, the remaining majority of households will be shut out of the benefits of own-generation because the grid won’t have the capacity to integrate everyone. That’s the argument made by Juan Jose Cuenca Silva, Barry Hayes and Hannah Daly at the University College Cork who summarise … [Read more...]
Spain: as Renewables rise, managing supply and demand is the next challenge
In May this year Spain reached a landmark day when it was powered 100% by renewables - solar, wind and hydroelectric power - from ten o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock in the evening. In four years the share of renewable energy generation rose from 37% to 50%, while non-renewables dropped from 62% to 49%. Its draft Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition targets 35% of renewable energy in final consumption by 2030 and 100% in the … [Read more...]
Sodium-ion batteries ready for commercialisation: for grids, homes, even compact EVs
Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries, a much more abundant and cheaper alternative to the standard Lithium-ion, are on the verge of commercialisation, explain Carlos Ruiz, Martina Lyons, Isaac Elizondo Garcia and Zhaoyu Wu at IRENA. Though there’s enough Lithium in the world to support global electrification targets, tightening demand and supply chain constraints point at the urgent need for an alternative. The cost of a Na-ion battery cell is expected … [Read more...]
Rooftop Solar for industry: up to 35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors could supply all their own power
Rooftop solar could supply the complete electricity needs of 5-35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors, explains Matthew Eckelman at Northeastern University who summarises his co-authored paper “Technical feasibility of powering U.S. manufacturing with rooftop solar PV”. At present, only 0.1% of industrial electricity demand in the U.S. is supplied by on-site sources of renewable energy. But large, unobstructed industrial rooftops and the declining … [Read more...]
Europe’s grid bottlenecks are delaying its energy transition
***While you're here... REGISTER NOW for "REPowering the grid for Solar PV" with the Vice-President of Tauron, DG ENER C, Eurelectric and SolarPowerEurope - Online Wednesday September 20 from 11:00 to 12:15 CEST*** No amount of record sales and deployment in Europe of heat pumps, EVs, solar farms, wind turbines and all the rest will guarantee the region meeting its electrification targets if the grids aren’t ready to integrate them. As … [Read more...]
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