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Tag: wind energy

The global race to produce hydrogen offshore

Posted on by dishanth
The global race to produce hydrogen offshore

Last year was a record breaker for the UK’s wind power industry.

Wind generation reached its highest ever level, at 17.2GW on 18 December, while wind power achieved its biggest share of UK energy production, at 60% on 26 August.

Yet occasionally the huge offshore wind farms pump out far more electricity than the country needs – such as during the first Covid-19 lockdown last spring when demand for electricity sagged.

But what if you could use that excess power for something else?

“What we’re aiming to do is generate hydrogen directly from offshore wind,” says Stephen Matthews, Hydrogen Lead at sustainability consultancy ERM.

His firm’s project, Dolphyn, aims to fit floating wind turbines with desalination equipment to remove salt from seawater, and electrolysers to split the resulting freshwater into oxygen and the sought-after hydrogen.

 

 

The idea of using excess wind energy to make hydrogen has sparked great interest, not least because governments are looking to move towards greener energy systems within the next 30 years, under the terms of the Paris climate agreement.

Hydrogen is predicted to be an important component in these systems and may be used in vehicles or in power plants. But for that to happen, production of the gas, which produces zero greenhouse gas emissions when burned, will need to dramatically increase in the coming decades.

Mr Matthews says his firm’s project is just getting going, with a prototype system using a floating wind turbine of roughly 10 megawatt capacity planned, but not yet built.

It’s possible that the system could be based in Scotland and the aim is to start producing hydrogen around 2024 or 2025.

But there are many other ventures in this area besides Dolphyn.

Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa and energy firm Siemens Energy are ploughing 120m euros ($145m; £105m) into the development of an offshore turbine with a built-in electrolyser.

German energy company Tractebel is exploring the possibility of building a large-scale, offshore hydrogen production plant powered by nearby wind turbines; and UK-headquartered Neptune Energy is seeking to convert an oil platform into a hydrogen production station, which will pump hydrogen ashore to the Netherlands via pipes that are currently transporting natural gas.

 

There are plans to convert this old North Sea oil platform into a hydrogen production plant NEPTUNE ENERGY

 

All of the excitement around hybrid wind energy and hydrogen generation systems is partly down to climate commitments but economics are also involved.

Large-scale hydrogen electrolysers are becoming more available while the costs of installing wind turbines has fallen “dramatically”, says James Carton, assistant professor in sustainable energy at Dublin City University.

He and others think the time is right to kick-start large-scale hydrogen electrolysis at sea, though the idea has been around for many years.

 

Electrolyser stacks break seawater down into hydrogen and oxygen ITM POWER

 

Oyster is yet another project in this area, and involves a consortium of companies including Danish energy firm Ørsted and British electrolyser specialists ITM Power, among others.

In the first instance, a wind turbine will power an onshore electrolyser that will churn out hydrogen. The device will be exposed to sea spray to simulate, to a degree, the harsh environment facing offshore equipment. ITM intends to design a system compact enough to fit into a single wind turbine.

The firm’s chief executive, Graham Cooley, points out that it is much easier to store molecules such as hydrogen than electrons in batteries.

“All the renewable energy companies… they’ve realised they’ve got a new product,” he adds. “Now they can supply renewable molecules to the gas grid and industry.”

The Oyster consortium hopes to have shown off a demonstrator of its system within 18 months.

 

ITM plan to build a hydrogen-producing unit that can fit into a wind turbine ITM POWER

 

Among the many potential uses for hydrogen is as a fuel for gas-burning boilers in homes. Converting the domestic gas grid to provide hydrogen, and fitting homes with boilers capable of burning it, would be a huge task.

However, it would mean that excess wind energy could in principle be used to supply this giant system, meaning very little of that energy would go to waste, says Mr Carton, referring to the gas main pipes scattered around the UK and Ireland: “We have a big tank, it’s just a really long tank in the ground.”

For some, this is all very exciting. But there are hurdles yet to overcome. A spokesman for the wind energy industry body WindEurope says that while renewable hydrogen produced via wind-powered electrolysis is “future-proof”, a decade or so of technological development is required before these systems will have a larger impact.

Jon Gluyas, Ørsted/Ikon chair in geoenergy, carbon capture and storage at Durham University, adds that the real question is whether it is cost-effective to set up such equipment at scale. Proponents, unsurprisingly, argue it is – but with energy systems the proof is only ever in the pudding. Ultimately, Prof Gluyas says a mix of different technologies and approaches will be needed for countries like the UK to be carbon neutral.

For Mr Carton, the vision remains tantalising. Schemes that solve the problem of wind’s variability by using excess power to good use could be transformative, he argues: “It’ll change the way we look at renewables.”

 

 

By Chris Baraniuk
Technology of Business reporter

Source BBC

Denmark to build ‘first energy island’ in North Sea

Posted on by dishanth
Denmark to build ‘first energy island’ in North Sea

A project to build a giant island providing enough energy for three million households has been given the green light by Denmark’s politicians.

The world’s first energy island will be as big as 18 football pitches (120,000sq m), but there are hopes to make it three times that size.

It will serve as a hub for 200 giant offshore wind turbines.

It is the biggest construction project in Danish history, costing an estimated 210bn kroner (£24bn; €28bn: $34bn).

Situated 80km (50 miles) out to sea, the artificial island would be at least half-owned by the state but partly by the private sector.

It will not just supply electricity for Danes but for other, neighbouring countries’ electricity grids too. Although those countries have not yet been detailed, Prof Jacob Ostergaard of the Technical University of Denmark told the BBC that the UK could benefit, as well as Germany or the Netherlands. Green hydrogen would also be provided for use in shipping, aviation, industry and heavy transport.

Under Denmark’s Climate Act, the country has committed to an ambitious 70% reduction in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and to becoming CO2 neutral by 2050. Last December it announced it was ending all new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

Energy Minister Dan Jorgensen said the country was simply “changing the map”.

“This is gigantic,” Prof Ostergaard told the BBC. “It’s the next big step for the Danish wind turbine industry. We were leading on land, then we took the step offshore and now we are taking the step with energy islands, so it’ll keep the Danish industry in a pioneering position.”

 

The plan is for the island to grow from an initial 120,000 sq m in size to 460,000 sq m Source: DANISH ENERGY AGENCY

 

Green group Dansk Energi said that while the “dream was on the way to becoming a reality” it doubted the North Sea island would be up and running by the planned 2033 start date.

But Danish politicians across the spectrum have given their backing to the plan. Former energy minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen of the Social Liberal party said energy islands had begun “as a radical vision” but there was now a broad agreement to turn it into a reality.

A smaller energy island is already being planned off Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, to the east of mainland Denmark. Agreements have already been signed for electricity to be provided from there to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Last November the European Union announced plans for a 25-fold increase in offshore wind capacity by 2050, with a five-fold increase by 2030. Renewable energy provides around a third of the bloc’s current electricity needs:

  • According to the EU, offshore wind supplies a current level of 12 gigawatts
  • Denmark supplies 1.7 gigawatts
  • The new island would supply an initial 3 gigawatts, rising to 10 over time
  • The smaller Bornholm energy island would provide 2 gigawatts

While there is some secrecy over where the new island will be built, it is known that it will be 80km into the North Sea. Danish TV said that a Danish Energy Agency study last year had marked two areas west of the Jutland coast and that both had a relatively shallow sea depth of 26-27m.

 

 

Find out more about Denmark’s wind power:

 

 

 

Source BBC

Joe Biden’s climate agenda aims to trigger a realistic paying jobs boom

Posted on by dishanth
Joe Biden’s climate agenda aims to trigger a realistic paying jobs boom

In the small Canadian city of Saint-Jérôme, Québec, electric bus and truck manufacturer Lion Electric is preparing to expand south of the border, aiming to open a plant in the United States by 2023, with the capacity to produce 20,000 vehicles a year.

After signing deals with online retailer Amazon and school districts across North America, the company expects the new factory will hire 1,500 people, from electrical engineers to assembly-line workers, and create another 9,500 jobs in its US supply chain.

“There’s a lot of people involved in building a 100-per cent electric vehicle,” said vice-president Patrick Gervais.

The expansion by Lion Electric – which is set to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in March, through a merger with a US acquisitions firm – seems well-timed.

US President Joe Biden, who took over from climate-change sceptic Donald Trump on Jan. 20, plans to invest US$2 trillion in green infrastructure over the next four years.

Besides combating climate change, the administration says the plan could create more than 10 million jobs.

“When I think of climate change and the answers to it, I think of jobs,” Biden said in a speech Wednesday, on a day he signed a second round of executive actions to help curb climate warming and protect people and the economy from its impacts.

“We can put millions of Americans to work modernising our water systems, transportation (and) our energy infrastructure to withstand the impacts of extreme climate,” Biden said.

A government-backed study out this week said reaching net-zero carbon emissions from US energy and industry by 2050 – as Biden aims to do—could be achieved by rebuilding energy infrastructure to run primarily on renewables, at a net cost of about $1 per person per day.

The transition would involve increasing energy efficiency, switching to electric technologies, using predominantly clean electricity—especially wind and solar power – and deploying a small amount of carbon capture technology, the researchers found.

Study co-author Margaret Torn, a senior scientist with the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said building clean infrastructure equates to jobs, including in the United States, “as opposed to sending money overseas to buy oil from other countries”.

“There’s no question that there will need to be a well-thought-out economic transition strategy for fossil fuel-based industries and communities,” she said in a statement.

“But there’s also no question that there are a lot of jobs in building a low-carbon economy.”

 

A wind farm shares space with corn fields the day before the Iowa caucuses, where agriculture and clean energy are key issues, in Latimer, Iowa, US. Image: Jonathan Ernst, via Reuters.

 

Fossil-fuel unemployment

Opponents of Biden’s plans to jumpstart climate action have raised concerns about the loss of jobs in traditional fossil fuel industries—oil, gas and coal.

Republican lawmakers have pointed to the executive order Biden signed within a few hours of taking office, cancelling construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Work on the pipeline—intended to carry more oil extracted from tar sands in Canada to the United States—would have sustained 11,000 US jobs in 2021, they maintain.

However, researchers and environmental advocates argue that clean energy offers far higher levels of employment compared to fossil fuels.

A 2019 study by University College London found that the broadly defined “green economy” in the United States—including renewable energy, environmental protection and low-carbon goods and services—provided nearly 9.5 million jobs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US jobs in the coal mining industry, comparatively, halved between 2012 and 2020, employing some 44,600 people in October last year.

Under Biden’s green transition, the greatest job-growth potential could be in retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient, said Adam Zurofsky, executive director of advocacy group Rewiring America, which is pushing for US homes to switch rapidly to electric heating and cooking.

This is due to the huge number of buildings across the country that need updating and the array of skills involved, from carpentry to electric installation, he said.

Such jobs are intrinsically American jobs, he added.

“You can’t retrofit a building or install solar panels (remotely) from China or India,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Zurofsky previously oversaw energy policy for New York state, and worked on shutting down the last remaining coal-fired power plants there.

Often communities would not object on environmental grounds, he said, “but that plant paid a lot of property taxes for the local school district… (and it) employed people in the town.”

The transition away from fossil fuels needs to be carefully planned and managed, including allowing a period of time to help people adjust, he emphasised.

 

A worker descends from the top deck of a car carrier trailer carrying Tesla electric vehicles at Tesla’s primary vehicle factory after CEO Elon Musk announced he was defying local officials’ coronavirus disease (Covid-19) restrictions by reopening the plant in Fremont, California, US. Image: Stephen Lam, via Reuters.

 

Decent work?

Another concern is the quality of jobs that might be created by Biden’s green infrastructure plan.

“It’s also about dealing with inequality and making sure the jobs created in the green economy are well-paid and have labour standards attached to them,” said Mike Fishman, executive director of the nonprofit Climate Jobs National Resource Center.

“Most of the jobs in solar installation (and) retrofitting tend to be both non-union and low-paid,” he added.

This week, Biden promised that his plan to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic through green economic stimulus would create “good-paying union jobs” at the “prevailing wage and benefits”.

But it could face significant resistance from Republicans in the Senate, particularly when it comes to inclusion of labour standards like fair wages and making it easier for workers to unionise, said Fishman.

“That will be a fight,” he added.

If successful, Biden aims to use the federal government’s procurement spending to ensure that companies given contracts have to abide by those labour conditions, which would also guarantee rights like paid leave and overtime.

The government spending, if approved, could include deploying more than half a million new electric-vehicle charging outlets across the country by 2030 and—critically, for firms like Lion Electric—converting all 500,000 US school buses to zero emissions.

“The green economy is the future—it’s the new economy,” said Gervais. “You do it for the environment but it’s also a viable business model.”

“We’re creating jobs that did not exist before,” he said. “It’s really exciting.”

 

This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate.

 

 

Source Eco-Business

An offshore wind farm with the ability to ‘power one million households’ is fully up and running

Posted on by dishanth
An offshore wind farm with the ability to ‘power one million households’ is fully up and running

A major offshore wind farm in the Netherlands is now fully operational, with its owners, Danish energy firm Orsted, claiming it provides enough green electricity to power one million households.

Situated 23 kilometers (around 14.3 miles) off the coast of Zeeland, in the southwest of the Netherlands, the 752 megawatt (MW) Borssele 1 & 2 offshore wind farm spans an area of 112 square kilometers. It uses 94 wind turbines from Siemens Gamesa.

In an announcement Friday, Orsted described the facility as the second-largest operating offshore wind farm in the world. The largest, Hornsea One, has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts (GW) and was also developed by Orsted.

News of Borssele 1 & 2′s commissioning is the latest example of European countries embracing offshore wind and comes after the European Union said it wanted to increase its offshore wind capacity from 12 to 300 GW by 2050.

The “Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy” from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, also aims for 40 GW of ocean energy such as tidal and wave power within the same time frame.

A number of major offshore wind projects located in European waters are now in the pipeline. These include the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in Britain, which left the EU in January 2020.

A 50:50 joint venture between SSE Renewables and Equinor, the Dogger Bank facility will have a total capacity of 3.6 GW once completed, making it the largest in the world.

At the end of last week, it was announced that a deal to fund the first two phases of the project had been completed. According to SSE, investment for Dogger Bank A and B will amount to approximately £6 billion (around $8 billion).

While Europe is now home to a mature offshore wind sector, the one in the U.S. is still relatively new.

The country’s first offshore wind farm – the 30 MW, five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, which is also operated by Orsted – only started commercial operations at the end of 2016.

The next few years could see the sector develop, however, with companies starting to invest large amounts of money in schemes located off the East Coast.

Back in September, for instance, oil and gas giant BP took 50% stakes in Equinor’s Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects, which are located off the coasts of New York State and Massachusetts respectively.

 

 

By Anmar Frangoul

Source CNBC

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

Posted on by dishanth
What Will It Take to Make Offshore Wind Viable in the U.S.?

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

Vestas Introduces Low-Wind Variant Suited For India’s Wind Market

Posted on by dishanth
Vestas Introduces Low-Wind Variant Suited For India’s Wind Market

The global demand for sustainable energy solutions in low and ultra-low wind areas continues to grow as renewable technology improves in efficiency and cost. This trend is especially prominent in India, the world’s fourth largest wind energy market, where the energy demand is expected to double and the government intends to add around 100 GW wind power in the predominantly low-wind market by 2030.1

While the new turbine is globally applicable, it initially targets low and ultra-low wind condition projects in India and USA. It increases the turbine swept area by 67 percent in comparison to V120-2.2 MW, and with a large rotor to rating ratio, it significantly improves the partial load production in low-wind conditions. The V155-3.3 MW improves the annual energy production (AEP) by more than three percent for a 300 MW wind park with 46 fewer turbines, creating an improved level of business case certainty.2

“With the introduction of the V155-3.3 MW wind turbine, Vestas is connecting our proven 4 MW platform technology with customized solutions to improve our customers’ business case in low and ultra-low wind conditions,” says Thomas Scarinci, Senior Vice President of Product Management Vestas. “With this product designed specifically to optimise energy production in low and ultra-low wind conditions, we are confident that we can bring enhanced value to our customers and partners in India and other suited markets.”

As the turbine will be predominantly locally manufactured and sourced in India, it reinforces Vestas’ existing commitment to the country’s growing renewable energy industry. Vestas will increase its already prominent manufacturing footprint in India by establishing a new converter factory in Chennai and expanding its current blade factory in Ahmedabad. These investments follow our previously announced new nacelle and hub factory in Chennai, which is currently under construction. The production ramp-up will add around 1,000 new jobs within the next year to the approximately 2,600 people currently working for Vestas in India. While the expanded production setup in India will serve the growing wind market in the region, it will also act as a strategic export hub.

“We have installed close to 4 GW of wind turbines in India over the last two decades and established a large production footprint, and we’re excited to leverage this as we support the government’s ambitions for renewable energy. With the introduction of the V155-3.3 MW turbine, we are able to offer improved energy production and business case certainty for our customers in India’s growing wind market,” says Clive Turton, President of Vestas Asia Pacific. “With the production ramp up in India, we anticipate increased employment across our existing hubs, underlining our commitment to better support our customers and drive the country’s renewable energy transition.”

With an optimized blade design and market specific towers up to 140m hub height, the turbine is designed to meet local transportation requirements. Built on the globally proven 4 MW platform, the V155-3.3 MW features a full-scale converter delivering excellent grid compliance, faster active and reactive power during dynamic frequency and voltage events.

With 35 GW of 4 MW platform turbines installed in 47 countries, the V155-3.3 MW has been developed within Vestas’ leading standards within design, testing and manufacturing, ensuring customer’s business case certainty.

Prototype installation is planned for the third quarter 2021, while serial production is expected by the first quarter of 2022.

1 GWEC, India wind outlook toward 2022
2 Compared to V120-2.2 MW

 

 

Source: CleanTechnica

How the First Net-Zero Energy Communities in the U.S. Operate

Posted on by dishanth
How the First Net-Zero Energy Communities in the U.S. Operate

 

   

 

   

   

 

   

  

 

     

 

 

 

 

     

  

 

 

 

   

   

 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Source: Earth911