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Sustainable Cooling: Electrocaloric Cooling Breakthrough

Posted on January 30, 2024January 30, 2024 by dishanth

As heatwaves intensify across the globe, the demand for air conditioning and refrigeration skyrockets. The ballooning demand for cooling strains energy infrastructure and escalates emissions from vapor compression systems. These conventional refrigerators and AC units rely on greenhouse gases and inefficient mechanical compressors that have reached their efficiency limits. With little room for improvement, vapor compression technology cannot sustainably shoulder doubling cooling demands. Scientists urgently search for climate-friendly innovations before the warming world overheats.

In a breakthrough discovery, researchers at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) pioneer a radically different cooling approach harnessing the electrocaloric cooling effect. This phenomenon describes particular ceramic materials that heat up or cool down when electric fields flip on and off. By cleverly leveraging this conductivity toggle, the LIST team designed an assembly that can pump heat without noisy, energy-draining compressors.

Electrocaloric cooling is a fascinating phenomenon where certain materials experience a reversible temperature change when an electric field is applied. In simpler terms, you can directly use electricity to manipulate their temperature, creating a cooling effect. This opens up exciting possibilities for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly cooling technologies.

The regenerative system developed by LIST alternates layers of electrocaloric capacitors with liquid coolant. Switching an electric field pulls heat from the fluid into the capacitors, cooling the system. Cutting voltage then dissipates the heat, so the cycle repeats. The smooth back-and-forth between hot and cold replaces high-maintenance mechanical parts with solid-state reliability. Scientists calculate that electrocaloric cooling efficiency leapfrogs vapor compression refrigeration by directly shuffling heat instead of wasting effort compressing refrigerants.

Since fluids naturally stratify by temperature, no added energy input is required to cycle hot and cold. The passive electrocaloric cooling generator minimizes electricity demands by exploiting thermodynamics rather than fighting against them. With game-changing energy savings over traditional refrigerator designs, this electrocaloric cooling technology paves the way for truly sustainable cooling.

Seeking real-world integration, LIST researchers collaborate with manufacturing partners to develop prototypes. The original discovery featured a single electrocaloric part, which limited heat transfer speed. The current regenerator assembly overcame this by interleaving many capacitors with parallel coolant channels. This boosts heat pumping capacity for powerful, real-world performance. Ongoing enhancements also aim to lower costs and extend operating lifetimes to enable widespread commercialization.

While the immediate goal focuses on eco-friendly refrigeration, the applications likely won’t stop there. Any process generating unwanted heat could benefit from electrocaloric cooling technology. Air conditioners, electronics cooling, industrial processes and even solar energy storage represent prospective opportunities. Because electrocaloric cooling systems thrive when miniaturized, microchip-level cooling also offers possibilities for computing breakthroughs.

For example, electrocaloric cooling films could provide on-chip cooling for high-performance computer processors, enabling faster computing speeds. Electrocaloric cooling systems can also be used to condense water vapor in air conditioning and dehumidification applications. This could allow environmentally-friendly refrigerants like water instead of HFCs to be used in vapor compression HVAC.

Additionally, the flexibility of electric-powered cooling lends well to renewable energy integration and smart grid load balancing. Electrocaloric heat pumps powered by wind or solar electricity during times of excess generation could store thermal energy for later dispatch while synchronizing supply and demand on the grid. With materials and system configuration innovations, electrocaloric cooling technologies show promise for revolutionizing thermal management across many sectors.

Despite enormous promise, unanswered questions remain regarding large-scale manufacturing and durability. However, early indications suggest the regenerator’s simple solid-state design will prove reliable over long stretches. By dodging complex mechanical components, the approach naturally steers towards sustainability. Cooling demand will only climb higher as climate change continues, but creative solutions like the LIST electrocaloric cooling regenerator offer hope we can innovate our way to a cooler future.

Source Happy Eco News

Super-charged: How Australia’s biggest renewables project will change the energy game

Posted on November 4, 2020 by dishanth

Australia doesn’t yet export renewable energy. But the writing is on the wall: demand for Australia’s fossil fuel exports is likely to dwindle soon, and we must replace it at massive scale.

The proposed Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) will be a huge step forward. It would eventually comprise 26,000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar energy, generated in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Once complete, it would be Australia’s biggest renewable energy development, and potentially the largest of its type in the world.

Late last week, the federal government granted AREH “major project” status, meaning it will be fast-tracked through the approvals process. And in another significant step, the WA government this month gave environmental approval for the project’s first stage.

The mega-venture still faces sizeable challenges. But it promises to be a game-changer for Australia’s lucrative energy export business and will reshape the local renewables sector.

The projects promise enormous clean development opportunities for Australia’s north and will create thousands of jobs in Australia – especially in high-tech manufacturing.

Writing on the wall

Australia’s coal and gas exports have been growing for decades, and in 2019-20 reached almost A$110 billion. Much of this energy has fuelled Asia’s rapid growth. However, in recent weeks, two of Australia’s largest Asian energy markets announced big moves away from fossil fuels.

China adopted a target of net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2060. Japan will retire its fleet of old coal-fired generation by 2030, and will introduce legally binding targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

There are signs other Asian nations are also moving. Singapore has weak climate targets, but on Monday inked a deal with Australia to cooperate on low-emissions technologies.

Export evolution

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) would be built across 6,500 square kilometres in the East Pilbara. The first stage involves a 10,000MW wind farm plus 5,000MW of solar generation – which the federal government says would make it the world’s largest wind and solar electricity plant.

The first stage would be capable of generating 100 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year. That equates to about 40 per cent of Australia’s total electricity generation in 2019. AREH recently expanded its longer term plans to 26,000MW.

The project is backed by a consortium of global renewables developers. Most energy from AREH will be used to produce green hydrogen and ammonia to be used both domestically, and for shipping to export markets. Some energy from AREH will also be exported as electricity, carried by an undersea electrical cable.

Another Australian project is also seeking to export renewable power to Asia. The 10-gigawatt Sun Cable project, backed by tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes, involves a solar farm across 15,000 hectares near Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. Power generated will supply Darwin and be exported to Singapore via a 3,800km electrical cable along the sea floor.

The export markets for both AREH and Sun Cable are there. For example, both South Korea and Japan have indicated strong interest in Australia’s green hydrogen to decarbonise their economies and secure energy supplies.

But we should not underestimate the obstacles standing in the way of the projects. Both will require massive investment. Sun Cable, for example, will cost an estimated A$20 billion to build. The Asian Renewable Energy Hub will reportedly require as much as A$50 billion.

The projects are also at the cutting edge of technology, in terms of the assembly of the solar array, the wind turbines and batteries. Transport of hydrogen by ship is still at the pilot stage, and commercially unproven. And the projects must navigate complex approvals and regulatory processes, in both Australia and Asia.

But the projects have good strategic leadership, and a clear mission to put Australian green energy exports on the map.

Shifting winds

Together, the AREH and Sun Cable projects do not yet make a trend. But they clearly indicate a shift in mindset on the part of investors.

The projects promise enormous clean development opportunities for Australia’s north, and will create thousands of jobs in Australia – especially in high-tech manufacturing. As we look to rebuild the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic, such stimulus will be key. All up, AREH is expected to support more than 20,000 jobs during a decade of construction, and 3,000 jobs when fully operating.

To make smart policies and investments, the federal government must have a clear view of the future global economy. Patterns of energy consumption in Asia are shifting away from fossil fuels, and Australia’s exports must move with them.

John A. Mathews is Professor Emeritus in the Macquarie Business School at Macquarie University. Elizabeth Thurbon is Scientia Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney. Hao Tan is Associate Professor with the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle. Sung-Young Kim (김성용) is Senior Lecturer in the Macquarie School of Social Sciences at Macquarie University. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

By John Mathews and Elizabeth Thurbon and Hao Tan, Sung-Young Kim

Source: Eco Business

BP to Cut Oil and Gas Production 40%, Invest 10x More in Green Energy

Posted on August 10, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

BP, the energy giant that grew from oil and gas production, is taking its business in a new direction, announcing Tuesday that it will slash its oil and gas production by 40 percent and increase its annual investment in low-carbon technology to $5 billion, a ten-fold increase over its current level, according to CNN.

Despite losing $16.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020, the ambitious plan to become a leading purveyor of clean energy sent the company’s share price soaring 7 percent Tuesday, as The New York Times reported.

“This coming decade is critical for the world in the fight against climate change, and to drive the necessary change in global energy systems will require action from everyone,” BP said in a statement, as CNN reported.

As part of its plan, the company will stop its oil and gas exploration in new countries and reduce its current production and carbon emissions by one-third, as The Washington Post reported.

In a discussion with analysts on Tuesday, BP’s Chief Executive Bernard Looney set his company apart from its European counterparts, which have made vague commitments to address the climate crisis. Looney’s pledge to invest around $5 billion a year in renewable energy like wind, solar and hydrogen, a clean-burning gas, made it the first oil and gas giant to specify its investment goal, according to The New York Times.

“This makes the BP the first supermajor to spell out, in detail, what the energy transition will actually entail, in practical terms,” said Pavel Molchanov, senior energy analyst for the investment firm Raymond James, to The Washington Post.

“BP today introduces a new strategy that will reshape its business as it pivots from being an international oil company focused on producing resources to an integrated energy company focused on delivering solutions for customers,” the company said, as Reuters reported.

The company expects demand for fossil fuels to fall by 75 percent by 2050, if the increase in global temperatures is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or by 50 percent if warming is less than 2 degrees, BP head of strategy Giulia Chierchia told investors, as CNN reported.

BP said its will cut its oil and gas production by at least one million barrels a day by 2030, a 40 percent reduction from 2019 levels, as CNN reported.

While the company will dramatically expand its portfolio of clean energy technologies, the next five years will see BP continue to invest most of its money in oil and gas production, according to CNN.

“We believe our new strategy provides a comprehensive and coherent approach to turn our net zero ambition into action,” Looney said in a statement Tuesday, as The Washington Post reported.

The investment in low-carbon initiatives is set to jump to more than $3 billion by 2025 and $5 billion by 2030, “en route to 50 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by 2030 alongside scale-up of other clean tech businesses,” Molchanov said, as The Washington Post reported.

The company sees a profitable future in providing clean energy to cities. According to The Washington Post, BP plans to advise cities on “power packages” with renewables, back-up batteries and financing. It also will also start to offer electric vehicle recharging stations at its retail gasoline stations.

Oswald Clint, an analyst at Bernstein, a market research firm, told The New York Times that BP’s plans were “peer-leading” and that its potential to smoothly manage large projects in the renewables area was “underappreciated.”

Environmental activists were lukewarm about the plans. Greenpeace UK described the announcement as a “necessary and encouraging start,” but said BP must go further. “BP has woken up [to] the immediate need to cut carbon emissions this decade,” senior climate campaigner Mel Evans said in a statement, as CNN reported.

By Jordan Davidson

Source: EcoWatch

Onshore renewables could boost UK economy by £29bn

Posted on July 20, 2020July 20, 2020 by dishanth

Investor Thrive Renewables claims removal of local planning barriers could unlock multi-billion pound potential of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower sectors.

Easing planning barriers for onshore renewable energy projects could unlock 45,000 new jobs and pump almost £29bn into the UK economy over the next 15 years, as well as saving money on consumer energy bills, according to a new analysis by Thrive Renewables.

The clean energy investment firm – which manages £93m of renewable energy assets – claims that, based on Committee on Climate Change estimates for achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the UK will need to build 5.5GW of onshore renewable energy capacity every year between now and 2035.

That, it said, would require £4.75bn annual investment – including £2.75bn in onshore wind projects alone – amounting to a £66.5bn investment opportunity over the next 15 years. Unlocking that potential could deliver 45,000 new jobs, provide a £28.9bn economic boost, and save billpayers up to £1.5bn a year by 2035, according to the firm, which operates 15 renewables projects across the UK.

Echoing arguments from across the renewables industry, the report highlighted how onshore renewables were now both quicker to build and cheaper than nuclear projects and gas-fired power generation capacity, with onshore wind now considered to the lowest cost form of new electricity generation available.

Meanwhile, the same two years spent laying only the foundations for Hinkley Point C saw enough renewable power generation capacity installed in the UK to match the total planned generation of the flagship Somerset nuclear power project, the report said.

The analysis also stressed how giving existing onshore solar, wind, and other such projects a new lease of life by upgrading them with the latest, most efficient technologies offered yet another cost-effective means of delivering zero carbon energy.

“Renewables are the obvious choice for the government to take in driving our economic recovery, helping to ‘Build Back Better’ and deliver a net-zero carbon emission society,” said Matthew Clayton, managing director of Thrive Renewables. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel or – in this case – the wind turbine and solar panel. UK renewables have enormous potential that can be unlocked, fast. We already have what we need: abundant natural resources, proven technology, lowest ever costs and the right skills.”

However, Clayton warned that in order to maximise the opportunities on offer a clear, long-term and investible clean energy policy platform was required in the UK, and that planning barriers to new renewables projects needed to be torn down.

Firstly he said more policy certainty was needed over price stability in Contracts for Difference auctions, distribution network connection planning, and cost structures, as long-term investment decisions remains challenging for developers.

Moreover, Clayton said new onshore wind projects continued to face automatic blocks from many local planning authorities, as too often councils have failed to update their local plans – in some cases for decades – to reflect their myriad climate emergency declarations.

“By providing policy certainty and creating a more positive environment for onshore renewables, the government can unleash huge private sector investment, create thousands of jobs and deliver a greener, cleaner UK for us all,” he said.

There have long been calls for the UK’s national planning policy to be amended to remove barriers to new onshore wind projects, although earlier this year the government did unveil plans to allow onshore renewables projects to compete for in upcoming CfD auction rounds, providing a major new potential route to market for new projects.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also touted plans to reduce red tape in order to “build, build, build” as part of his strategy to stimulate the economy in the wake of the recession sparked by the coronavirus crisis.

However, it remains unclear whether the PM’s proposed planning changes could be used to accelerate rollout of renewables and clean technologies, given long-standing opposition to such projects from a vocal minority of the public.

Mewanwhile, some green groups have raised concerns that moves to dilute planning rules could lead to less democratic oversight of local planning decisions and green building standards being compromised.

By Michael Holder

Source: Business Green

Siemens Gamesa bags contract to supply giant turbines to UK wind farm

Posted on June 24, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

Sofia offshore wind farm off UK coast in North Sea is set to have 100 262-metre tall turbines after developer Innogy signed a deal with turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa.

A wind farm planned in UK waters in the central North Sea is set to be the first in Europe to boast a new generation of king-sized turbines produced by Siemens Gamesa.

Developer Innogy confirmed yesterday that it had signed a preferred supplier agreement with the turbine maker for 100 of its new 14MW offshore turbines, which are 262 metres tall, or just 47 metres shorter than The Shard.

The turbines are set to be installed at the developer’s planned 1.4GW Sofia offshore wind project, which is located just under 200 kilometres from the UK coast in the shallow Dogger Bank zone of the central North Sea.

Innogy expects to start onshore work for the project at its Teesside converter station site in early 2021 with offshore construction then starting in 2023. Once comissioned, it expects the farm to generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply roughly 1.2 million average UK homes with their annual electricity needs.

The order is conditional upon Innogy taking the final investment decision, which it expects to happen the first quarter of 2021.

Minister for Energy and Clean Growth Kwasi Kwarteng celebrated the milestone, noting that the UK’s fast-growing offshore wind sector was set to play a “vital role” in the UK’s transition to a net zero economy.

“The UK has invested more in offshore wind than any other country and is already home to the world’s largest offshore wind farms,” he said. “Now the UK will be the first European nation to boast this cutting-edge turbine technology at Sofia offshore wind farm. Offshore wind will play a vital role in a future net-zero UK economy, and already supplies 10 per cent of UK electricity demand – a figure we expect to double by the middle of the decade.”

Siemens Gamesa said that the SG 14-222 model, which is 25 per cent more powerful than the firm’s next-best model, will be market-ready by 2024. Each enormous turbine will have a 222-metre diametre rotor and sweep an area of 39,000 metres squared.

Advocates of large scale turbines argue that their increased capacity helps to reduce costs and environmental impacts from new offshore wind farms, making the technology even more competitive.

Sven Utermöhlen, Innogy’s senior vice president of renewables operations offshore, said that the Sofia wind farm’s remote location, at 195 kilometers from the coast, necessitated the advanced technology.

“Siemens Gamesa’s towering 14 MW machine is a perfect match for our flagship Sofia project, together cementing offshore wind‘s central role in the world’s clean energy future,” he said. “This turbine embodies the impressive technology we need to build our ground-breaking project that is further from shore and more technically challenging than any of its predecessors.”

His colleague Richard Sandford, director of offshore investment and asset management, said the deal would have positive implications for the broader UK economy.

“It is also to be noted that the company [Siemens Gamesa] is a staunch supporter of the UK’s offshore wind sector, having shown impressive commitment to the development of its own facilities and to the local supply chain,” Sandford said. “This is of utmost importance to us as we work to support the Sector Deal commitments, particularly in relation to UK content.”

Siemens Gamesa and Innogy said the deal would lead to “significant opportunities” across the supply chain in the UK, noting that Siemens Gamesa already had more than 2,000 UK employees.

Source www.businessgreen.com

By Cecilia Keating

Renewable energy topped coal in US for 40 days straight

Posted on May 25, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

Renewables have generated more electricity than coal for the last 40 days, surpassing previous records.

Wind, solar and hydroelectricity have produced more electricity than coal since March 25, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration analyzed by the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

That tops the previous record of just nine consecutive days of renewables beating out coal in power generation.

Renewable energy first surpassed coal-fired generation in April of last year.

Coal’s decline comes as a number of sectors set goals for renewable generation.

A number of utilities have announced their intention to cease their reliance on coal and close coal-fired power plants by dates ranging from 2030 to 2050.

Big-box retailers like Target have also made pledges to transition to renewable energy to power their stores.

But many states are also pushing the shift toward green energy, increasing renewable energy mandates for utilities within their borders.

The latest streak for renewables comes amid an overall decline in electricity demand as the coronavirus shutters businesses around the country — limiting the need to rely as heavily on coal.

Low natural gas prices and warm weather also help fuel the shift.

IEEFA previously predicted that renewable generation would consistently surpass coal by 2021.

“But in the first quarter of 2020, renewable generation unexpectedly exceeded coal, and with this strong performance continuing in the second quarter, there is an increasing chance that the milestone could occur this year,” the group said.

By sinktip

Successful carbon removal depends on these 3 conditions.

Posted on December 16, 2019August 12, 2020 by dishanth

There is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the past 400,000 years, with carbon dioxide levels exceeding an unprecedented 400 parts per million.

The pace of carbon emissions has become such a problem that even if we can meet the carbon reduction targets set out in the 2016 Paris Agreement, global temperatures will likely rise above 1.5˚C by 2030 – which will increase the risks and impacts of droughts, floods, extreme heat, and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

Fortunately, growing international pressure over the past decade has led to the development of solutions for tackling our carbon emissions problem. One category of these solutions is known as negative emission technologies (NETs), which focus on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

These carbon-removal solutions may be critical in our fight against climate change, but they need to meet certain conditions to effectively curb carbon emissions.

Ensuring long-term capture and storage of carbon removed

Professor Howard J. Herzog, Senior Research Engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative and leading expert on carbon capture and storage, says: “the best way to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is not putting it there in the first place”. There is truth in this when you consider how difficult it is recapturing and storing carbon dioxide for the long term, when it has already been emitted.

Nature provides the simplest carbon removal solution – planting more trees. This is an effective solution depending on how well the land is managed to protect from deforestation and natural disasters. If not protected, trees may only store carbon for hundreds of years, compared to the thousands of years needed to slow climate change.

Alternatively, technologists have found ways to burn biomass containing naturally recaptured carbon dioxide and use the energy released to pump the carbon dioxide underground for long-term storage. Known technically as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), this technology is promising but requires suitable rock formations such as basalt and forsterite to react with the carbon dioxide to avoid leakage.

Carbon Upcycling Technologies, an innovative startup founded by Apoorv Sinha, is combining carbon dioxide with fine particles such as fly ash, graphite, talc and olivine to produce solid nanoparticles that can be used for a range of material solutions. In 2017, Carbon Upcycling Technologies used its nanoparticles to create a corrosion-resistant coating, locking carbon away and generating revenues in the process.

Reducing carbon removal costs and meeting carbon storage capacities

The cost and storage capacity limits of removing carbon differ depending on the solution. Planting trees is arguably the cheapest and most natural way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but its storage capacity is limited by the available land and impacted by deforestation.

Similarly to how solar power requires sunshine, carbon removal solutions also require certain conditions to work effectively. If certain conditions are not met, the full carbon capture capacity of these technologies cannot be realized.

A 2017 Michigan study optimistically suggests that carbon removal solutions have the potential to mitigate 37 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year, where annual emissions are roughly 38 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year. However, even if this were the case, reaching this storage potential would require a portfolio of solutions with carbon capture costs lower than traditional storage or emissions. Technological solutions are making progress – but investment and time are still required to reduce carbon removal costs and to scale-up the adoption of these solutions.

A Swiss-company, Climeworks, has constructed a plant which extracts carbon dioxide directly from the air using a filter and chemical process, storing carbon dioxide as a concentrate. Technologies like these are known as Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS). Despite the novelty of this idea, Climeworks’ plant in Italy can only capture up to 150 tons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere, equivalent to taking just 32 cars off the road. Combined with high capital and carbon removal costs, solutions like these alone are not sufficient.

Reducing the market and technology risks of carbon removal solutions

Most carbon removal solutions are still in development, and it may take years for them to commercialize. The pathway to commercialization requires large investments into research and development without guarantees of financial return. This may not fit the risk profiles of many traditional investors or funders, limiting the available funds for the development of new solutions.

Cyclotron Road, an early-stage funder and incubator, provides grant and investment capital to innovative hard-tech social enterprises. Robert Ethier, a former investment director for Cyclotron Road, says this capital is “to help them reduce market and technology risk [and] accelerate them to commercialization [by] leveraging programmes and partners”.

At an early stage, risk-tolerant patient capital, invested into the right social entrepreneurs and provided with the right business and industry support, is critical to speed up the development of carbon removal solutions. This means that funders with higher risk tolerance – such as incubators, accelerators, philanthropists, international agencies, governments, academic institutions and angel investors – have a critical role to play a in providing the capital needed to commercialize carbon removal technologies.

So what?

There is a growing portfolio of carbon removal technologies, including those gifted by nature. Although in different stages of development, carbon removal solutions have the potential to serve as a necessary defense against pending climate catastrophe, but cannot serve as an insurance policy for the carbon dioxide we are emitting, and will emit.

Carbon removal technologies must be combined with other solutions and global efforts to reduce global carbon emissions. However, knowing that there are nascent solutions available should motivate the development, cost-reduction and scaling-up of these solutions. The future of the world depends on it.

Written by

Neil Yeoh, Global Shaper, New York II Hub

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.