A hydrogen ramp-up is going to be expensive and asset-heavy. So, a whole-system analysis is needed to ensure its deployment is done cost-effectively today and meets long term goals. This is what all nations committing to hydrogen are struggling with. Kelley Travers at MIT describes their modelling, in collaboration with Shell, that looks at the optimisation of hydrogen deployment in grids where variable renewables (VREs) like wind and solar are … [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...]
DoE study: 45% of U.S. power from Solar by 2050. How?
This month, the White House released a U.S. Department of Energy report, the Solar Futures Study, on how solar power could generate up to 45% of the U.S. electricity supply by 2050. It’s less than 4% today. Joshua Rhodes at the University of Texas at Austin looks at what obstacles must be overcome. The good news is that the technology and engineering is already available. And solar’s advantage is that the sun shines nationwide. Other region and … [Read more...]
Ice for storage for intermittent renewables, then for cooling
Cooling accounts for around a fifth of total energy consumption in buildings. All those air conditioners and electric fans make up a tenth of all global electricity consumption. Demand will keep rising as developing nations get wealthier. Andrea Willige, writing for the World Economic Forum, looks at ice as a seemingly simple solution. Ice can be used as an energy store like a battery, to balance the grid. Create it when energy is cheap (at … [Read more...]
Nanochemistry breakthrough could lift energy density of batteries by factor six
Finding new ways for batteries to increase the charge they can store will lift their energy density. Researchers at Stanford University have developed an alkali metal-chlorine battery that stores six times the charge of today’s commercially available lithium-ion batteries. Until this breakthrough, a high-performance rechargeable sodium-chlorine or lithium-chlorine battery has been impractical because chlorine is too reactive to convert back to an … [Read more...]
Can full-scale Distributed Solar really save $473bn in grid investments?
A giant model of the entire US electricity sector which captures distributed energy resource (DER) potential has been getting a lot of attention. It estimates that distributed solar and storage can save $473bn in system-wide costs when deployed at scale (enough to power more than 25% of US homes). Rooftop solar is definitely much more expensive than grid generation, but its location (on your own roof) avoids a range of costly transmission and … [Read more...]
Biden’s major report on critical minerals supply: domestic mining + processing, innovation, EVs, global allies + more
In June, The White House issued its 250-page report on the global critical minerals supply chain, and how the U.S. can ensure continued supply as well as build up its own mining and manufacturing base. It is the fullest picture so far of how the U.S. is evaluating mineral access and supply chain resilience, says Reed Blakemore at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. Here he reviews the report, in particular the section on energy which … [Read more...]
U.S. can’t hit net-zero power target by 2035 without Advanced Nuclear
President Biden’s target of net-zero power generation by 2035 will be extremely challenging, if not impossible, argues Charles Merlin writing for IFRI. He says the best chance of achieving it is through advanced nuclear reactors, though the 2030+ switch-on dates of the new technology still won’t guarantee meeting Biden’s timescales. Why should the U.S. drive for advanced nuclear? Because of the known limitations of the other technologies. Wind … [Read more...]
How to keep Wind and Solar profitable as its electricity gets cheaper
Success can cause problems. As wind and solar penetration increases the electricity it generates gets cheaper. If it stops being profitable we’ll stop building it, thus endangering our emissions-free goals. Dev Millstein at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory summarises their research paper that looks at how market value changed over time at 2,100 utility-scale power plants across major power markets in the U.S., using 2019 data. It’s clear … [Read more...]
How to grow grid-scale U.S. Battery capacity to 125GW (or even 680GW) by 2050
Grid-Scale U.S. storage capacity could reach 125GW by 2050, or even as much as 680GW, according to research from NREL. Almost all today, under 25GW, comes from pumped hydro which has probably reached its limit so the future is batteries. Growth depends on commercial viability, so the research led by NREL has modelled what services storage can supply, the main three being firm capacity, energy time-shifting and operating reserves. The sets of … [Read more...]
ELCC: for predicting how much storage a grid really needs
How much storage does a grid need? Too little leads to blackouts. Too much means money wasted. Getting the predictions wrong will skew policy priorities and investments, and slow the transition to a clean electric grid. Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC) measures a resource’s ability to produce energy when the grid is most likely to experience electricity shortfalls. Mark Specht at the Union of Concerned Scientists explains how it works. … [Read more...]
Don’t commit to Hydrogen pipelines yet? Trucks can do the same job more flexibly
Could trucks be a better way to transport (and even store) hydrogen than pipelines? Yes, says a research team led by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), mainly because of the flexibility they offer particularly in the early stages of the hydrogen roll-out. Kathryn O'Neill at MIT explains the findings. A pipeline can take 10 years to build, during which time the locations where the supply and demand must be met are likely to have moved, given the … [Read more...]
Does new German target mean Coal gone by 2029, Renewables 65% by 2030?
The stiffer emissions targets introduced this month to Germany’s Climate Protection Law - CO2 emissions from the energy industry must fall to 108 Mt by 2030 instead of 175 – point to an even earlier coal phase-out date of 2029, with renewables generating 65% of electricity by 2030. The existing plan had meant coal must be gone by 2038. Michael ClauĂźner, Carlos Perez-Linkenheil and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool explain why, using their modelling … [Read more...]
German Hydrogen scenarios: 271 TWh of Green Hydrogen by 2040?
Germany is putting in place plans and legislation to launch its green hydrogen economy. Sila Akat and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool look at the laws and regulations, existing and expected soon, that are driving this game-changing ambition. They have also created five scenarios (two are explained in detail here) for production, based on those plans. The reference “Stated Policies” scenario predicts an increase of electrolyser capacity to 5 GW by … [Read more...]
Outlook USA: even with battery costs, Wind and Solar can undercut Coal and Gas by 2023-24
IEEFA has published its U.S. Power Sector Outlook 2021. Its authors, Dennis Wamsted, Seth Feaster and David Schlissel summarise and explain the projections. They say that coal and gas are set to become the biggest losers as renewable generation climbs quickly. The future for wind and solar – coupled with storage to address intermittency - is looking very good. They present estimates from NextEra (the largest renewable energy developer in the … [Read more...]
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