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It’s electrifying! How Earth could be entirely powered by sustainable energy

Posted on June 29, 2021June 28, 2021 by dishanth

Can you imagine a world powered by 100% renewable electricity and fuels?

It may seem fantasy, but a collaborative team of scientists has just shown this dream is theoretically possible – if we can garner global buy-in.

The newly published research, led by Professor James Ward from the University of South Australia and co-authored by a team including Luca Coscieme from Trinity, explains how a renewable future is achievable.

The study, published in the international journal, Energies, explores what changes are needed in our energy mix and technologies, as well as in our consumption patterns, if we are to achieve 100% renewability in a way that supports everyone, and the myriad of life on our planet.

The fully renewable energy-powered future envisioned by the team would require a significant “electrification” of our energy mix and raises important questions about the potential conflict between land demands for renewable fuel production.

Explaining the work in some detail, Luca Coscieme, Research Fellow in Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, said:

“Firstly, the high fuel needs of today’s high-income countries would have to be reduced as it would require an unsustainably vast amount of land to be covered with biomass plantations if we were to produce enough fuel to satisfy the same levels.

“Additionally, our research shows that we would need to radically ‘electrify’ the energy supply of such countries – including Ireland – with the assumption that these changes could supply 75% of society’s final energy demands. We would also need to adopt technology in which electricity is used to convert atmospheric gases into synthetic fuels.

“We very much hope that the approach designed in this research will inform our vision of sustainable futures and also guide national planning by contextualizing energy needs within the broader consumption patterns we see in other countries with energy and forest product consumption profiles that—if adopted worldwide—could theoretically be met by high-tech renewably derived fuels. Countries such as Argentina, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, and Spain are great examples in this regard.

“Even so, the success of this green ideal will be highly dependent on major future technological developments, in the efficiency of electrification, and in producing and refining new synthetic fuels. Such a scenario is still likely to require the use of a substantial – albeit hopefully sustainable – fraction of the world’s forest areas.”

Reference: ” Renewable Energy Equivalent Footprint (REEF): A Method for Envisioning a Sustainable Energy Future” by James Ward, Steve Mohr, Robert Costanza, Paul Sutton and Luca Coscieme, 24 November 2020, Energies.
DOI: 10.3390/en13236160

Source Sci Tech Daily

Shanghai leads way in China’s carbon transition

Posted on June 28, 2021 by dishanth

Somewhere on the eastern side of Shanghai’s Chongming Island, 300,000 solar panels lie over rows and rows of aquaculture ponds. The island’s first solar–aquaculture project started providing power to the grid late last year.

Soon after, in January, Shanghai announced it would work to achieve peak carbon during the 14th Five Year Plan period (2021–25). The district of Chongming went a step further, saying it would explore the possibility of achieving carbon neutrality. Now, more and more solar power facilities are popping up here.

Chongming, a network of rice fields, wetlands and rivers, is regarded as Shanghai’s green energy powerhouse. By the end of 2020, it had 500 megawatts of renewable energy capacity installed, exporting what isn’t used locally to the rest of Shanghai or neighbouring Jiangsu province.

But Shanghai, a megacity of 24 million people, has little space left on which to develop renewable energy, hampering the prospects for more ambitious decarbonisation of its energy sources.

As one of China’s most developed cities, Shanghai faces the same challenges the rest of the country does in achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality: rejigging the energy mix and cutting industrial emissions.

But it must also tackle emissions from transportation and buildings, issues faced in the “consumer cities” of more developed nations. As such, it is leading the way for China’s future low-carbon transition.

Taking the lead on peak carbon

Last September, China committed to peak carbon by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2060. To this end, the central government is encouraging local governments to hit peak carbon early where possible, with local action plans for reaching peak carbon due at the end of the year.

According to rough figures put forward in the media based on local 14th Five Year Plan documents published early this year, almost 100 cities or regions have said they will reach peak carbon early. These include Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Suzhou.

Since 2010, China has launched 87 low-carbon city pilot projects. These have explored routes to low-carbon development by saving energy in industry and limiting emissions from buildings, transportation and agriculture.

There have been no official announcements, but research by the Energy Foundation China indicates 23 provinces (including centrally administered municipalities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin) have reached, or are close to reaching, peak carbon. They account for 80 percent of national emissions. Emissions are still growing in seven provinces, including Fujian and Jiangxi in the east, and Guizhou and Xinjiang in the west.

Zou Ji, president of Energy Foundation China, said at a recent seminar that those localities already at peak carbon could be divided into two types.

The first is experiencing a population decline and weak economic growth. More common is the second, where the economy is more developed, the industrial and energy structures are more advanced, and natural resources, such as sunshine and wind, are more favorable to low-carbon development.

Regions that are approaching peak carbon mostly rely on traditional drivers of growth or energy-hungry heavy industry, but do have the means to improve the industrial and energy mix in order to reach peak carbon.

Meanwhile, emissions are still growing in places with unfavorable natural resource endowments, such as abundant coal, and undeveloped economies.

The Energy Foundation China’s analysis found Shanghai’s emissions from energy activities have already peaked. That matches up with findings from Peking University’s Institute of Energy. But modelling by other academics has found that if Shanghai’s existing policies are enforced, the city’s carbon emissions will plateau between 2018 and 2024, and only then start to fall.

If energy structure and intensity targets are tightened up, that fall could be brought forward to 2022.

Adjusting the energy structure

Shanghai aims to have renewables account for 8 percent of its energy mix by 2025, compared to 1.6 percent in 2019. One expert who took part in the drafting of Shanghai’s peak carbon action plan said the city is short of land and even if all available space for solar power is used – including all rooftops – it would still be only a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Coal still accounted for 31 percent of Shanghai’s energy consumption in 2020, and the energy mix needs more work if the city is to hit peak carbon. The city has published a range of documents over the last few years indicating it will end its reliance on coal, with a cap on coal consumption. Meanwhile, the city is also working to replace local coal power generation with renewable generation located elsewhere in China, and to increase the use of natural gas.

Looking at the emissions curve, we can see that Shanghai has already started to decouple its carbon footprint from economic growth.

Zhu Dajian, director, Institute of Sustainable Development and Management Research, Tongji University

Shanghai already imports about half of its electricity, drawing on renewables in western China, such as hydropower, which help cut the city’s carbon emissions. The above-mentioned expert expects that achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality will mean Shanghai relying more heavily on green power imports.

When drafting their peak-carbon action plans, provinces are required to factor in emissions incurred during the generation of imported power. This is to encourage power-consuming provinces in the east, such as Shanghai, to consider their energy structure as a whole, rather than simply export their pollution.

Shanghai: lightening up

“Looking at the emissions curve, we can see that Shanghai has already started to decouple its carbon footprint from economic growth,” Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management Research at Tongji University, told China Dialogue. Shanghai has long been China’s top city in terms of GDP.

In 2018, its per-head GDP broke US$20,000, and service sector GDP has accounted for around 70 percent of the total for the last five years. These circumstances are similar to those seen when developed nations reach peak carbon.

Currently, Shanghai emits 200 million tonnes of carbon a year. Emissions from industry, transportation and buildings account for around 45 percent, 30 percent, and 25 percent of the total respectively, according to research by the World Resources Institute.

This, however, is not the pattern seen in major cities in developed nations. Zhu Dajian says cities overseas are mainly residential, with emissions coming from buildings and transportation – these are emissions arising from consumption. But Shanghai, like most of China’s cities, is still home to production.

Shanghai used to be a centre of heavy industry, until the 1990s when a push to shift to lighter and more modern industries started. The banks of the Huangpu River, which runs from north to south through the city, are lined with old industrial buildings, now refitted as fashionable art galleries and shops. The city’s 14th Five Year Plan says it will continue to turn its urban rust belt into an attraction.

Even so, cutting industrial emissions will be a tough nut to crack. Dai Xingyi, professor at Fudan University’s Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, said the city does not want to do away with all its industry: high-end manufacturing will be retained.

Over a decade ago, Beijing forced steelmaker Shougang to relocate. Shanghai, though, allowed Baogang, now Baowu Steel and China’s largest steel manufacturer, to keep operating in the city. Dirtier production lines were, however, shut down.

A number of academics told China Dialogue that Shanghai’s industrial emissions peaked as early as the 12th Five Year Plan period (2011-2015), and industrial carbon intensity in the city is lower than in many others. But that makes further decarbonisation more challenging. Shanghai will have to rely on further industrial changes and technological improvements.

Transportation and buildings: New challenges

Peak carbon will not be easy for the city. In developed nations, industrial emissions peaked, and then emissions from transport and buildings had to be tackled. In New York, emissions from buildings account for 70 per cent of total emissions. According to Zhu Dajian, emissions from transport and buildings can be expected to contribute a larger proportion of Shanghai’s overall emissions as incomes rise in the city.

Shanghai is building five city “sub-centres” on its outskirts. In April, the municipal government ruled that buildings in those sub-centres must use green building standards, and that ultra-low energy buildings are to be encouraged.

According to Dai Xingyi, the “greenness” of these new centres will also depend on their success in attracting people and commercial activities. Having the new buildings sit empty would be wasteful.

Research has shown that improving energy efficiency in existing buildings can bring big emissions savings. This is particularly the case for commercial buildings, where energy use is often tens of times that of government or residential buildings.

In 2009, Shanghai started monitoring energy use in some large public buildings. Today, over 2,000 buildings are covered by that monitoring scheme. On screens at monitoring centres, and online, building owners and the government can see real-time usage by key building infrastructure such as air-conditioning and lighting.

At a seminar held in April, one official involved in the city’s efforts to save energy and cut emissions said that data is “more useful than just lecturing.” The Shanghai district of Changning ranks buildings on their energy efficiency, encouraging building managers to learn from each other. Experience has shown that even without retrofitting, these methods can produce annual reductions in energy use.

Shanghai is known in China for its efficient public transport system. It has over 1,000 kilometres of subway lines either in operation or in the works, with links to the neighbouring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang planned. The city government has repeatedly said the only solution to congestion issues is to prioritise the development of public transport.

In 2016, the city put forward a “15-minute city” plan, with the aim of having 99 percent of communities able to access the bulk of their shopping, leisure and transportation transfer points within a 15-minute walk by 2035.

There should be a cap. If we can’t cap vehicle numbers, how can we talk about a peak for vehicle emissions?

Zhu Hong, deputy head, Shanghai Urban and Rural Construction and Traffic Development Academy

Urban planning decisions can result in locked-in carbon emissions. Zhu Dajian explained that Beijing once planned to centralise urban functions while keeping residential zones on the outskirts. That resulted in longer commute times and appalling congestion.

A similar approach was taken with the early stages of the Lujiazui commercial zone in Shanghai’s Pudong district. However, the city realized that low-carbon development requires a functionally mixed urban layout, which renders more carbon reductions than technological advancements.

But Shanghai still has over four million cars on the road, the fifth-largest number of any Chinese city. Limitations on car purchases were introduced in 1994 but the city remains plagued by congestion and vehicle pollution. Those limits were relaxed last year, in response to the impact of the coronavirus, with an extra 40,000 purchases allowed.

The city government also spent big on subsidising consumers to upgrade their old vehicles to newer and more efficient internal combustion models.

Shanghai’s 14th Five Year Plan and a separate five-year plan for electric vehicles provide guidance for increasing electrification of private transport. However, no timetable is given for the phasing out of internal combustion vehicles. According to those plans, in five years 50 percent of all private vehicle purchases will be of all-electric vehicles, while all buses, government vehicles and city-centre goods vehicles will be electric.

Zhu Hong, deputy head of the Shanghai Urban and Rural Construction and Traffic Development Academy, said during a speech that more new electric vehicle purchases will slow emissions growth, but the speed with which the existing fleet is replaced will be key for reaching peak carbon.

His research has found that 74 percent of the city’s transportation emissions come from road vehicles, with the rest from river and rail transport, while over 60 percent of road vehicle emissions come from cars. He thinks the government needs to go further on purchase restrictions. Currently, there is a quota for annual car purchases but no cap on total car numbers. “There should be a cap. If we can’t cap vehicle numbers, how can we talk about a peak for vehicle emissions?”

Shanghai does not have much time to act. A number of experts told China Dialogue that one aspect of the “low-carbon development path with Chinese characteristics” that academics are proposing would mean more economic growth with lower emissions. Shanghai’s annual per-head carbon emissions are over ten tonnes, still higher than major cities in developed nations. Zhu Dajian said that Shanghai’s route to a low-carbon transition will show the way for the rest of China.

This article was originally published on China Dialogue under a Creative Commons licence.

Source Eco Business

Half of emissions cuts will come from future tech, says John Kerry

Posted on May 18, 2021 by dishanth

The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions.

He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions.

“You don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve. That’s the brilliance of some of the things that we know how to do,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show. “I am told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality.

“And people who are realistic about this understand that’s part of the challenge. So we have to get there sooner rather than later.”

Kerry is visiting London next week to meet government representatives before the UN climate change conference Cop26 due to be held in Glasgow in November.

On Saturday Kerry met Pope Francis in Rome, and he described him as “one of the great voices of reason and compelling moral authority on the subject of the climate crisis”.

“I think that his voice will be a very important voice leading up to and through the Glasgow conference, which I believe he intends to attend,” Kerry told Vatican News. “We need everybody in this fight. All the leaders of the world need to come together and every country needs to do its part.”

When asked by Marr if the US would support an end to all coal-fired power stations if called for by the UK at Cop26, Kerry said Joe Biden had set a goal of making the US power sector carbon-free by 2035 but he could not speak for the president on specific proposals.

“What’s the phase-out schedule? Is it reasonable? Is everybody working in the same direction? Those are questions I’m sure President Biden will want answered, but he is leading this charge to move America on to renewable, alternative energy,” Kerry said.

The US is the second largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions after China, and has one of the highest per capita CO2 emission rates.

“We’re determined to turn that around,” Kerry said. “We are going to be moving very rapidly to a new economy, building out a new grid, moving towards alternative renewable energy, and pushing the curve on the discovery of new technologies. There are a lot of possibilities out there.”

Source The Guardian

Invest in green jobs in parts of Britain worst hit by pandemic, report urges

Posted on May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 by dishanth

Green Alliance says 16,000 jobs could be created in areas facing most severe employment challenges.

Some of the areas of Britain worst hit by the jobs crisis brought on by the pandemic are also those with the highest potential for green job creation, a report says.

About 16,000 new jobs could be created in restoring nature and planting trees in areas where unemployment is set to soar when the government’s furlough schemes end, according to the report from the Green Alliance thinktank. These include urban areas where people have little access to green space, as well as coastal areas and “red wall” areas that were Labour strongholds in the north of England.

Sam Alvis, the head of green renewal at Green Alliance, said the government should invest in nature-based jobs as lockdowns are eased, using money from the £4.8bn fund earmarked for “levelling up”.

Research suggests that for every £1 invested in peatland, local areas receive about £4.60 in economic benefits, while similar investment in woodland areas and salt marshes produces returns of £2.80 and £1.30 respectively.

The future parks accelerator, a project to promote green spaces, has calculated that investing £5.5bn in greening urban areas in the UK would produce £20bn in economic benefits. However, nature restoration is almost entirely missing from the levelling-up fund.

Alvis said: “The opportunity is there for the chancellor of the exchequer to create a legacy of new, high-quality jobs across Britain. Supporting innovation in green jobs will put nature at the heart of the government’s levelling-up agenda and help local communities build back better and greener.”

The report’s authors examined the fifth of parliamentary constituencies in Britain with the most severe employment challenges. They found many in the north of England were close to peatlands that could be restored to carbon sinks, helping the UK to meet its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The authors also mapped the potential for some widely available “nature-based solutions” to the climate crisis, including tree-planting, restoration of degraded landscapes and the restoration of marine ecosystems, across Britain. Two-thirds of the land most suitable for tree-planting was found to be in constituencies with “worse than average labour market challenges”. The government is falling behind on tree-planting targets.

Darren Moorcroft, the chief executive of the Woodland Trust charity, said: “Increasing native tree cover is a key part of the levelling-up agenda, shaping places people will want to live, visit and invest in. This will help increase employment opportunities as well as leading to happier, healthier communities.”

Many of the coastal constituencies where seagrass could be grown are areas of high job need, with a higher proportion of people on furlough and a lower-than-average increase in employment expected when the pandemic eases. Seagrass is an underwater flowering plant that can act as a carbon sink and nurtures young fish and other vital parts of the marine ecosystem, but which is under threat around the UK coast as 90% of seagrass meadows have been destroyed by overfishing and neglect.

In urban areas, thousands of jobs could be generated by investing in parks and green spaces for health and leisure. A growing body of research suggests that access to green areas has multiple benefits for people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. Improving such areas in neighbourhoods currently without green space could create 10,800 jobs in areas with the worst post-pandemic jobs prospects, the report says.

Patrick Begg, the director of natural resources at the National Trust, said the pandemic and lockdowns had revealed the benefits of access to green space. “A greener recovery which increases access to nature is within our reach, [offering] massive social and environmental benefits as well as economic growth,” he said. “By investing in projects that make a greener recovery a priority, the government could generate green jobs for the communities that need them most.”

The potential jobs identified in the report range from entry-level roles in “shovel-ready” projects to graduate positions, for instance in research and development into nature restoration projects. Entry-level jobs can also help in the development of highly transferable skills such as machine operation, the report says.

Source The Guardian

Australia’s miners urge Europe to define nuclear power and fossil fuels with carbon capture as ‘sustainable’

Posted on March 24, 2021 by dishanth

The Minerals Council of Australia has weighed into a European Commission climate policy debate, urging it to back fossil fuels with carbon capture use and storage (CCS) and nuclear power on a list of environmentally friendly developments.

In a written submission to the commission, the minerals council (MCA) said a proposed EU taxonomy for sustainable activities intended to shape investment under a European green deal was inconsistent in how it dealt with clean technologies because it favoured solar, wind and biofuels over nuclear and CCS.

The mining lobby group said it was concerned this approach would have a flow-on effect on the types of energy investments backed by EU-based companies across the globe and “increase the cost of reducing CO2 emissions”. It called for an overhaul.

InfluenceMap, a London-based thinktank that tracks corporate climate lobbying, said the MCA’s submission suggested it wanted to export its “negative approach to climate policy” by pushing for changes in other parts of the world that would allow continued use of coal and gas.

The MCA submission argued there was “no valid basis” for treating CCS and nuclear differently given EU countries currently used coal, gas and nuclear.

It quoted the International Energy Agency in saying emissions from existing energy fleets needed to be significantly reduced by 2030 if countries were to achieve the widely held goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. The minerals council said this would require technologies such as CCS.

“Underpinning the MCA’s concern is the broad-ranging investment impacts the taxonomy will have, not just within the European Union but anywhere European Union-based firms invest,” the submission said.

But InfluenceMap’s program manager, Rebecca Vaughan, said the MCA appeared concerned a science-led approach to dealing with the climate crisis would hurt the industries it represented.

“While the MCA says it wants the EU to take a technology neutral position, its submission appears to advocate for the continued use of coal and gas with carbon capture utilisation and storage, which is clearly at odds with the commission’s science-based policy,” Vaughan said.

The MCA has long been accused of hindering action to tackle the climate crisis in Australia, and campaigned aggressively against Labor’s two attempts to introduce a carbon pricing scheme.

In recent years it has come under pressure to change its anti-climate stance from its biggest members, BHP and Rio Tinto. It followed the big mining companies facing repeated calls from their investors to abandon the MCA over its commitment to coal.

It resulted in the MCA releasing a climate plan that said it was committed to the Paris agreement and reaching net zero emissions, but did not include a timeframe in which that target should be reached.

The EU taxonomy is intended to help it meet a target of at least a 55% cut in its emissions below 1990 levels by 2030 on the way to net zero by 2050.

It considers a development sustainable if it makes a substantial contribution to one of six environmental objectives, does no significant harm to any of the other five and complies with minimum business safeguards. The environmental objectives are: climate change mitigation, climate adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.

The commission said it expected the taxonomy would “create security for investors, protect private investors from greenwashing, help companies to plan the transition, mitigate market fragmentation and eventually help shift investments where they are most needed”.

Tania Constable, the MCA’s chief executive, said “the technology-led transformation required” could not happen without Australia’s minerals and raw materials.

She said InfluenceMap had got it wrong. “[It] clearly opposes a lowest-cost, faster-paced approach to global decarbonisation,” she said.

“The MCA and all of its members are taking serious action on climate change and are committed to the Paris agreement and its goal of net zero emissions. The MCA advocates the inclusion of all low and zero emissions energy sources in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy because unequal treatment of nuclear and CCUS in particular undermines the EU’s own objectives.”

The final version of the EU’s sustainable finance rules was due in January but a decision was delayed until April after 10 countries objected to the initial proposal because they wanted gas to be deemed a sustainable energy source.

Nuclear energy plays a significant role in some EU countries, but the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported its future was uncertain in wealthy nations as ageing plants were expected to close due to cost and regulatory decisions. It said this trend could affect climate goals.

The forecast decline of nuclear has coincided with generation from cheaper renewable energy growing significantly from a low base.

CCS, which most commonly involves capturing emissions and pumping them underground, remains at a relatively early stage of development despite pledges of billions of dollars in funding. It is used in some industrial processes, but has sometimes been financially viable only when employed to increase oil extraction from an underground reservoir.

It is yet to be proved viable as a means of reducing emissions from fossil fuel power generation. One of the world’s most prominent CCS projects, the Petra Nova power generation facility in Texas, was mothballed last year because of its poor financial performance.

The Morrison government has backed CCS as one of five priorities to receive support under its low-emissions technology roadmap, and opened a $50m fund for applications earlier this month.

Several observers noted it was a relatively little funding if the government was serious about developing the long-stalled technology. Some of is expected to be will be dedicated to exploring the “use” of captured CO2 to turn it into products such as building materials.

Nuclear energy remains banned in Australia. Some Coalition MPs and industry leaders want the prohibition lifted.

Source The Guardian

Financing Sri Lanka’s Renewable Energy Drive – From Energy Storage to Diversification of Energy Generation

Posted on January 21, 2021 by dishanth

I have been following World Bank Group’s Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Unlocking Investment and Finance in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs)” and have been challenged to draw up a finance and investment strategy for a developing economy of my choosing. With the election season (presidential election in 2019 and parliamentary elections in 2020) drawing closer, I felt that I could focus on Sri Lanka and particularly on its development challenge in meeting its intended Nationally Determined Contribution of reducing GHG emissions in the energy sector by 20% against the Business As Usual scenario and recommend an investment strategy from the point of view of a Government Official. I hope this article will spur further discussion on the options and avenues available for the country in financing the desired transition on the energy profile and serve to inform decision makers on the best course of action.

Sri Lanka has made major strides in its development journey with 100% of the population having access to electricity by the end of 2016 and approximately 83% of all adults having a bank account, with 18.6 bank branches for each 100,000 people in the population as at March 2018. These growth statistics could be taken to mean that the country is managing its energy and financial sectors well, however, a closer look will reveal that behind these respectable numbers are structural weaknesses in domestic resource mobilization and national financing strategy, which impede private sector investment in energy infrastructure and cause inefficiency in the system leading to higher costs for tax payers and higher energy cost for industry (posing a challenge to national competitiveness).

Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), a state-owned enterprise, controls all major functions of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retailing in Sri Lanka. In attempting to make energy affordable for low-income households, a differentiated tariff regime is in place where the rates for low-energy consuming households are subsidized and some of this subsidy is recovered though higher rates to high-energy consuming households. Whilst subsidized electricity has helped to provide a better quality of life and led to positive externalities, the losses to the Government from this subsidization and reliance on expensive power generation has had to be met through increased taxation (with proportion of indirect taxes being approximately 80%). Therefore, even though low-income households spend less, directly for electricity, as a result of high proportion of indirect taxes, they are footing the heavy losses of the State Owned Utilities (eg: CEB reporting a LKR 23bn loss in Q1 2019).

This distortion in pricing of electricity and the extent of national grid coverage is also limiting renewable energy uptake and possibility of community-based micro-grid systems. In Kenya, with the coverage of the national grid being limited and with mobile money having a rapid uptake, off-grid solutions such as M-Kopa that employs “pay-as-you-go” solar model has seen great success. Similar off-grid solutions are also gathering great momentum in India, with the cost of renewable energy generation becoming cheaper than traditional fossil fuel sources. In Sri Lanka, with over 70% of the population having a mobile connection as at 2017 and with mobile money services such as Frimi and Genie available, “pay-as-you-go” rooftop solar investments are not attractive to many in the bottom of the pyramid because electricity is subsidized.

For high-energy consuming households in Sri Lanka, however, rooftop solar is attractive proposition with payback being between 5 to 8 years. As a result, there is high conversion to solar in this segment (177 MegaWatts (MW) of rooftop solar installed as at April 2019) . This would be a positive development in the country’s ambition on climate action, however, it does not bode well for the CEB, the utility provider, for whom this would mean a loss of revenue, because it is losing the client segment that is paying high tariffs. This would exacerbate the losses further and affect Government’s debt sustainability.

If renewables could provide consistent power, this solar rooftop adoption would not have been an issue. However, with the renewable energy generated being intermittent and with peak demand occurring at night time, CEB, the utility provider, has had to rely on large hydro and thermal power plants to provide the base-load. It also has to pay for peaker plants operated by Independent Power Producers and even buy expensive emergency power, when installed capacity falls short to provide the peak energy demand. The high energy consumers who have taken up rooftop solar systems park the excess power they generate during day to the grid and draw power from grid at night. Therefore, Government has to still incur the costs of maintaining the base-load and buy peak hour supply for night time energy demand.

Therefore, the need of the hour in scaling up renewable energy uptake is to invest in energy storage systems, where the excess energy generated during day can be made use of at night and in bad weather conditions. The Government has identified pumped storage hydropower plant (3 x 200MW in Maha Oya) to come online by 2028 and 125Mw of Battery Capacity Facilities to be set up where timelines have not yet been declared to address this issue. It has also planned for new investments in 1800Mw of solar , 850Mw of wind, 200Mw of Biomass, and 100Mw of Waste to Energy (6 plants).

The investment size for the pumped storage hydropower project is expected to be USD 621mn (USD 1,063/Kw). Delaying the set-up of pumped storage to 2028 will significantly affect amount of renewable energy that could be grid connected and renewable investments that could be scaled up. Government currently plans to invest in 4 new coal power plants due to issues in debt sustainability and grid reliability (noting that coal power is cheaper option and stabilizes the grid), however, if energy storage solutions are integrated to the grid making renewable energy investments feasible and if the inefficient subsidies are gradually replaced by alternate incentives facilitating self sustaining community micro-grids (loan schemes, roof rental for solar companies in working with low-income households, and making P2P energy trading possible through electricity auctions on micro-grids), Government will be able to ensure clean energy supply without having to spend public money on coal power plants, by crowding in private investment. This author came across a proof of concept developed by a group of students from University of Jaffna in having a mobile app for P2P energy trading in Sri Lanka during Sri Lanka’s first fintech hackathon. However, current regulatory set-up does not allow for such electricity trading within community micro-grids as sale of electricity is controlled. Therefore, a serious review on incentives for public engagement in support of the renewable energy drive needs to be undertaken and the enabling environment created.

With regards to funding the energy storage solutions and renewable energy investments (over USD 56 billion is needed between 2017 – 2050 to meet 100% renewable energy generation by Sri Lanka power sector), Government need not be restricted to public finance in financing these large investments. It could and it should crowd in private investment for these sustainable energy infrastructure, rather than place extra burden on the tax payer. It could resort to financing internationally, as the Cost of Funds in Sri Lanka is high. Sri Lanka is yet to issue a Green or Sustainable Bond. As in Fiji, the Government can raise a sovereign green bond or work with Sri Lanka Banks’ Association’s Sustainable Banking Initiative to get local banks to lead on issuing Green Bonds and working with MDBs such as IFC, FMO, etc to support this process. Additionally, Government could tap directly and through partnerships vertical funds such as Global Environmental Facility and Green Climate Fund, where there is additionality and market is not ready to accept the risk return profile of the investments. Recently launched Central Bank of Sri Lanka led Roadmap for Sustainable Finance in Sri Lanka identifies the need to build capacity and integrate financial sector to support the real economy through new solutions such as Green Bonds and there is interest by banks to engage in blended financing. Government should fast track the implementation of this roadmap on sustainable finance and I recommend that the Government work with IFC and Sri Lanka Banks’ Association’s Sustainable Banking Initiative to launch Sri Lanka’s first Green Bond to immediately fund the Pumped Storage (also referred to as Pumped Hydro Energy Storage [PHES] or Pump Water Storage Power Plants [PWSPP]) and Battery Solutions and relevant upgrades to the national grid to transition to a smart grid. London Stock Exchange Group has also expressed support to Sri Lanka and Colombo Stock Exchange. Therefore, these support networks must be leveraged.

Government has been successful in soliciting concessional finance from China, Japan and India for energy infrastructure (government to government loans and grants). Beyond this, the Government could also encourage FDI and public-private partnership for investments. Support from MIGA could be elicited to give international investors the confidence to infuse capital to the country.

In conclusion, Government would need to implement concerted effort to on the one side improve domestic resource mobilization and on the other hand, expand its sources of sustainable finance in the energy sector. Like the energy profile, the country also needs to diversify its investment streams and not excessively rely on Government funding for green energy infrastructure. An investment opportunity of over USD 56 billion exists and a healthy mix of international, domestic, public and private and debt and equity investment streams need to be explored. A first step in this journey could be a 10 year US$800mn syndicated green bond using SLBA Sustainable Banking Initiative platform, where use of proceeds will be for renewable energy storage solutions.

This article first appeared on Green Building Council of Sri Lanka’s newsletter “Green Guardian” in December 2020.

Published by Adheesha Perera

Ford’s Silverton Factory In South Africa Is Getting A Massive 13.5 MW Of Solar PV

Posted on November 17, 2020 by dishanth

The Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa’s factory in Silverton, Pretoria, South Africa is getting a massive 13. 5 megawatt (MW) solar system. This will make it one of the largest solar PV systems installed at a factory worldwide. The system will have solar carports enough to cover 4,200 parking bays. The PV plant will cost R135 million (US$8.7 million). This means the grid-tied project will come in at about $0.64/W, which is pretty impressive for a carport system.

The Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa wants to have the factory fully self-sufficient and powered by 100% green energy by 2024 by adding biomass, biogas, and bio syngas to the generation mix. South Africa has been experiencing periodic blackouts as the utility company struggles to meet demand, and has been forced to implement a power rationing program known as load shedding. This power rationing has resulted an in increase in the number of firms adopting solar plus storage systems, especially in the commercial and industrial (C&I) space as large corporations look for cheaper electricity as well as power security through long-term corporate PPAs with independent power providers.

The Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa has been a key player in the South African motor industry since 1923, when it kicked off its operations by assembling the Model T cars in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth. The Silverton factory produces the Ford Ranger pickup truck and it also produces the Ford Everest SUV for the southern African and international market. The Ford Ranger is one of the top selling vehicles in South Africa, just behind the Toyota Hilux and the Volkswagen Polo Vivo. The motor vehicle manufacturing industry contributes 13.9% of South Africa’s export earnings. South Africa earns around R164.9 billion ($11.15 billion) from vehicle exports. The vehicle manufacturing industry also contributes 7% to South Africa’s GDP and employs over 112,000 people.

It’s really good to see large factories in this space adopting solar in a big way to cut costs and also reduce carbon emissions. South Africa’s grid is predominantly powered by coal, so any additional solar in the commercial & industrial segment will help displace some of the electricity generated by coal during the daytime. We really hope the next step for these large factories is to shift to producing electric vehicles with all that clean solar! The Silverton plant currently produces ICE vehicles. Ford’s Struandale engine plant in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, produces the engines used in the Silverton-assembled Ford Ranger pickup trucks. Ford SA also exports fully assembled engines to Ford plants in Russia, Turkey, and Italy for use in the Transit van. Ford SA also exports the Ford Ranger pickup to over 100 countries across the globe. Several countries across the globe have declared caps on new internal combustion vehicle sales from as early as 2025. It would be good for South African-based motor vehicle manufacturing factories to start planning to add electric vehicles to their assembly lines to grow or at least maintain their market share in these export markets.

Here is a video of Ockert Berry, VP Operations at the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa on the launch of the renewable energy project:

by Remeredzai Joseph Kuhudzai

Source CleanTechnica

UK prepares to make ‘big bet’ on hydrogen power

Posted on November 17, 2020 by dishanth

On a secluded RAF base five kilometers North of Hadrian’s wall in Cumbria, three ordinary searching brick terrace homes are at the center of an experiment that may drastically slash emissions from one of the dirtiest elements of the United Kingdom’s economic climate.

The three particularly built uninhabited properties have already been fitted with boilers operating entirely on hydrogen, as opposed to the propane that heats most British domiciles that are accountable for almost a 5th associated with the country’s carbon emissions.

Uk prime minister Boris Johnson this week will lay-out his programs for a green commercial revolution, and has now pledged to help make a huge wager on technologies such as hydrogen, which can be appearing as an area of worldwide interest as nations follow targets to halt carbon emissions.

The Cumbrian trial, led by power consultancy DNV GLS, is one of the numerous hydrogen projects under development in Britain because it joins other nations, including Japan and Germany, in exploring if the fuel could eliminate emissions from several of the most polluting sectors for the economic climate including home heating, heavy industry, and long-distance transportation.

Hydrogen happens to be around as industrial gasoline that’s popular for a century or higher. just what changed…is an ever-growing realisation that it could play a really crucial part in decarbonisation, said Jon Maddy, manager of this hydrogen center within the University of South Wales and a member of the UK government’s Hydrogen Advisory Council.

It’s maybe not gone undetected by researchers in Cumbria. quickly we discovered a great degree of interest [in the trial], said Hari Vamadevan, head of DNV GLS coal and oil businesses in the UK.

Although hydrogen is definitely utilized in industrial procedures, including the manufacture of petroleum items, at this time its mainly derived from fossil fuels and is accountable for 830m tonnes of carbon emissions annually globally equal to emissions for the UK and Indonesia combined, in line with the international energy department.

Governing bodies and businesses today want to produce the gasoline without releasing co2 to the environment either through electrolysis of water (generally green hydrogen) or by recording and properly securing carbon emissions if it is created from gas (blue hydrogen).

Supporters for this so-called clean hydrogen argue it may supply a nice reply to slashing emissions from areas such as for instance heating and long-distance transportation as it might not need behavioral change.

We’ve done a lot of research…that says one of the primary things consumers do not desire is an interruption, stated Tim Harwood, who is in control of hydrogen tasks at northern gas networks, which is the owner of local fuel grids in north-east the United Kingdom.

In the event that government would mandate hydrogen-ready boilers as an example…they are often convertible to hydrogen once the time comes by simply changing various small parts and most likely around 30 minutes disturbance.

Industries particularly chemical compounds and steel that want high heat now have a couple of options apart from hydrogen to replace fossil fuels say, experts.

“For the chemical industry, it will replace natural gas in making ethanol and ammonia”, said Grete Tveit who leads reduced carbon solutions at Equinor, the Norwegian power team, which intends to supply blue hydrogen to a sizable chemical substances playground in hull included in a broader project to decarbonise industry within the Humber part of North-East the United Kingdom.

Supporters associated with gasoline including organizations such as for instance Anglo-American, Equinor, Orsted, and Siemens wish the government to produce a hydrogen strategy setting out specially how big jobs could be funded and companies incentivised to modify from fossil fuels.

“We need to see some sign of a company design before we begin spending the big money”, said Grete Tveit.

Other nations and regions have previously set goals which are offering business the confidence to get, for example, the EU in July said it wished to install at the very least 40gw of green hydrogen capability by 2030.

UK ministers have actually promised to react early the following year, while a long-awaited power white paper, expected before Christmas, may also add plans for hydrogen. hydrogen has the possibility is an important part of the UK’s future web zero energy mix, stated the division for the company, energy, and industrial strategy.

But skeptics argue the properties of hydrogen carry dangers. by way of example, it holds a portion of the calorific worth of propane and has now an inferior molecule, so there is a higher danger of leakages.

Richard Lowes of Exeter Institution contends that fossil fuel companies are overselling hydrogen, especially for heating because it allows them to continue utilizing their natural gas infrastructure.

He thinks hydrogen is likely to have niche uses and would potentially be best for decarbonising hefty business or even for saving renewable-produced electricity for longer durations than batteries.

“I believe we have been totally overly enthusiastic”, stated Mr Lowes. the trouble is we just don’t know right now because it’s never ever already been done and the truth of these uncertainties.

Without relying on hydrogen for home heating, businesses like British gasoline have supported the rollout of electric heat pumps in homes, saying it’s not clear whenever hydrogen will be ready for domestic use.

Back in Cumbria, those active in the hydrogen examination project state problems, such as those of Mr. Lowe and others will only be answered through tests.

“There is no way anybody into the fuel industry would move ahead if it [hydrogen] would definitely become more high-risk”, stated Antony Green, Hydrogen Task Manager at National Grid.

I believe it’s about understanding the distinctions [with propane] and deploying suitable mitigations.

Source: INTERCONN NEWS OUTLET

Black & Veatch: No More Coal Construction

Posted on November 5, 2020 by dishanth

Black & Veatch is ending the company’s participation in coal-based power market design and construction, saying it will allow the company to focus on clean energy technologies. The engineering and construction giant’s announcement Oct. 29 comes just more than a month after another major energy company, General Electric, said it would exit the new-build coal power market.

“We are an employee-owned company, and we do not make decisions based on what the market wants to hear, or how the market will react,” said Mario Azar, president of Black & Veatch’s power business, in an interview Thursday with POWER. “We make decisions based on the values of our company. We’ve been around for more than 100 years, and we want to be around for another 100 years or more.

“That’s how we make decisions as the executive committee of Black & Veatch,” he said. “It’s really centered around our values and our future. It was us, telling ourselves, did we really want to be part of that [coal] legacy anymore?”

Overland Park, Kansas-based Black & Veatch in a news release said it recognizes “the global power industry is in a state of transformation and needs to accelerate the path to net zero as many companies, communities and stakeholders forge ahead with commitments to lower carbon emissions.” The company said it “will fulfill current project commitments to completion,” but going forward its efforts “will focus on supporting clients through their transition to a balanced energy portfolio with cleaner energy sources and towards achieving their decarbonization and sustainability goals.”

Black & Veatch, founded in 1915, is a global leader in the engineering and construction industry, and had revenues of $3.7 billion in 2019. The company over the past several years has increased its participation in renewable energy and energy storage technologies, and in Thursday’s announcement said it has supported “deployment of hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel and advanced technologies for carbon capture.” The company also has invested in modernizing a power grid that increasingly must accommodate intermittent renewable energy and different baseload sources of generation.

Decarbonization Targets

The company in its announcement said the move away from coal is a recognition that “clients need to reliably achieve varying decarbonization targets,” and said the shift allows the company’s workforce “to further accelerate the creation of solutions that help transform the industry, including helping clients reduce dependence on coal power assets and minimize the impact of those assets to the environment.”

“The transition away from any coal-related activity is about our commitment as a company to sustainability and accelerating our efforts to lead the emerging carbon-free energy future,” said Steve Edwards, the company’s CEO.

“There’s going to be a point when you have to make some of these difficult decisions,” Azar said. “We have been involved in building power plants in Asia, some of which we’re in the process of finishing, and as we near completion—particularly in Asia—there’s been a new wave of projects we’ve been invited to participate in. Looking at the future, looking at our sustainable commitment as a company, looking at the economics today that make renewable energy affordable, and certainly energy that is far, far lower in emissions than coal … we asked ourselves, ‘Do we really want to build another coal plant that is going to pollute the air for a very long time to come?’ We decided we don’t. It’s time to recognize that this is just the right thing to do.”

He continued: “There is a financial implication to this decision. We are leaving projects that we can participate in behind, and there is a [financial risk] to it, but we believe it is a very short-term implication compared to a longer-term vision. It’s really about the future, a cleaner and very robust energy alternative to coal.”

New Technology Needed

Azar, who came to Black & Veatch in 2018 after stints with Siemens and Westinghouse, said the changing power landscape calls for more engineering prowess and technical innovation. “At the same time the industry wrestles with its transformation, global communities continue to have demand for safe, reliable and cost-effective power,” he said. “These forces create a delicate balance that requires deep engineering and technology expertise to help guide the complex transition of power generation and delivery infrastructure.”

Black & Veatch in its news release noted that earlier this year the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) selected the company as Owner’s Engineer on IPA’s Intermountain Power Project Renewal Project, “one of the earliest installations of combustion turbine technology designed to use a high percentage of green hydrogen,” it said.

The company’s new 2020 Strategic Directions: Electric Reports details how the power generation industry is pursuing lower-carbon solutions, including integration of renewable resources to the power grid to increase resilience and reliability.

Black & Veatch already is working on emerging technologies for carbon capture and utilization. It also is looking at advanced nuclear power technologies, such as small modular reactors, which were part of the focus of POWER’s virtual Distributed Energy Experience event Oct. 19-22.

Black & Veatch on Thursday said it recently surveyed more than 600 power industry executives, and more than 75% indicated their companies are investing more money in clean energy, with 8 in 10 saying spending on new generation capacity will be directed toward solar power, microgrids, and other distributed energy resources (DERs). Black & Veatch said its commitment to help clients achieve clean energy goals mirrors its own; by 2023, the company plans to have reduced its overall emissions by 20%, and its fleet and building emissions by 40% compared to 2019 levels.

By Darrell Proctor

Source: Power Mag

What Will It Take to Make Offshore Wind Viable in the U.S.?

Posted on November 5, 2020 by dishanth

The benefits of offshore wind power have become indisputable. While it takes significant investment to bring these sources of power about, we can see that where offshore wind is being introduced, jobs are being created and clean, sustainable energy is being generated.

Despite these clear and appealing benefits, however, only a handful of countries have made significant progress toward embracing offshore wind in a meaningful manner. Of the countries leading in offshore wind power, just three—China, Germany, and the UK—account for more than 80% of worldwide installations. The UK leads (at 34%), and is expected to obtain one-third of all its energy from wind power by 2030 (with tens of thousands of new jobs created along the way).

So, what would it take for the U.S. to inch toward that group of leaders? With many Americans increasingly focused on clean power and broader sustainability efforts, it’s a fair question to ask. And there are a few developments and steps that would seem to make for the clearest path forward for offshore wind viability in the U.S.

The Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island began operating in 2016. It is still the only commercial offshore wind farm operating in the U.S. Courtesy: Deepwater Wind

Ongoing Struggles for Oil & Gas

There hasn’t been much good news in 2020, but some with interest in the clean energy movement have seen silver linings in the oil and gas industry’s struggles. As a result of decimated demand due to the coronavirus, this industry experienced a catastrophic crash in March and April. And while the movement in oil’s trading price since has shown some recovery, it’s been anything but complete. Oil is still trading much lower than it typically does, demand remains unreliable, and major producers have had to curb output to avoid further price crashes.

There are no guarantees about how all of this will play out, but some see it as the development that was needed for renewable energy to gain ground. An oil and gas industry that is even partially crippled will make way for alternative fuel and energy sources, including offshore wind power. And if the oil and gas struggles continue, we could even see meaningful shifts in energy investment.

Government Emphasis on Clean Energy

Without getting too far into politics, it’s important to note that government policy will play a role in any meaningful transition toward offshore wind power as well. Somewhat surprisingly, some analyses of clean energy and the 2020 election actually suggest that the industry is poised to progress regardless of outcomes. The suggestion is that there’s an inevitability to clean energy, and that in time, we’ll see more renewable options regardless of politics.

With that said, there’s no denying the fact that some in politics prioritize the transition to cleaner energy more than others. Should changes in the government this year result in more power for those who want to focus explicitly on environmental sustainability and energy-related job creation, the U.S. will have moved closer to the widespread viability of offshore wind power.

Demonstrated Effectiveness and Public Buy-In

We mentioned above that the UK is already seeing significant job creation and the availability of clean power as a result of its emphasis on offshore wind. But information from overseas isn’t necessarily likely to move the American public—at least not as much as the same information at home would be. However, there is some hope of a snowball effect once offshore wind power does begin to expand in the U.S.

That is to say, if Americans see for themselves that offshore wind is a developing industry—one providing new jobs and clean, affordable energy—public demand for a focus on clean power could intensify. It may be that in a few years’ time, it will be in the best interest of government officials and related companies alike to satisfy that demand.

Investment from Key Companies

Perhaps most important of all will be significant investment from key companies in the energy sector. This may come about as a result of greater government emphasis or a declining oil and gas industry, but it’s still the step that will truly bring about meaningful advancement in offshore wind power (and, possibly, that snowball effect).

Fortunately, it’s also something we may be witnessing the beginnings of. POWER covered changes being made by Duke Energy in the Carolinas, in pursuit of net-zero carbon goals by 2050. And among those changes are the transition away from coal and significant capital investment in renewable energy sources, including offshore wind. It’s only one example, but it’s a big one, and it’s the kind of story we’ll be seeing more of when the U.S. is ready to make more of a leap toward harnessing offshore wind.

—Alyssa Regina Rose is a writer with a passion for the environment. She believes that the world needs to switch to renewable energy now and hopes that her articles help people understand why.

Source: Power Mag