Renewable energy - it belongs to the XNUMXth century

On the BP Statistical Review of World Energy website, you can find information that by 2030, world energy consumption will exceed the current level by about a third. Therefore, the desire of developed countries is to meet the growing needs with the help of "green" technologies from renewable sources (RES).

1. Offshore wind farm

In Poland, by 2020, 19% of energy should come from such sources. In the current conditions, this is not cheap energy, so it develops mainly thanks to the financial support of states.

According to a 2013 analysis by the Renewable Energy Institute, the cost of producing 1 MWh renewable energy varies, depending on the source, from 200 to even 1500 zł.

For comparison, the wholesale price of 1 MWh of electricity in 2012 was approximately PLN 200. The cheapest in these studies was to obtain energy from multi-fuel combustion plants, i.e. co-firing and landfill gas. The most expensive energy is obtained from water and thermal waters.

The most well-known and visible forms of RES, i.e. wind turbines (1) and solar panels (2), are more expensive. However, in the long run, prices for coal and, for example, for nuclear energy will inevitably rise. Various studies (for example, a study by the RWE group in 2012) show that the "conservative" and "national" categories, i.e. energy sources will become more expensive in the long run (3).

And this will make renewable energy an alternative not only environmental, but also economic. It is sometimes forgotten that fossil fuels are also heavily subsidized by the state, and their price, as a rule, does not take into account the negative impact that they have on the environment.

Solar-water-wind cocktail

In 2009, professors Mark Jacobson (Stanford University) and Mark DeLucchi (University of California, Davis) published an article in Scientific American arguing that by 2030 the whole world could switch to renewable energy. In the spring of 2013, they repeated their calculations for the US state of New York.

In their opinion, it may soon completely abandon fossil fuels. This is renewable sources you can get the energy needed for transport, industry and the population. Energy will come from the so-called WWS mixture (wind, water, sun – wind, water, sun).

As much as 40 percent of the energy will come from offshore wind farms, of which nearly thirteen thousand will need to be deployed. On land, more than 4 people will be required. turbines that will provide another 10 percent of the energy. The next 10 percent will come from nearly XNUMX percent of solar farms with radiation concentration technology.

Conventional photovoltaic installations will add 10 percent to each other. Another 18 percent will come from solar installations - in homes, public buildings and corporate headquarters. The missing energy will be replenished by geothermal plants, hydroelectric power plants, tidal generators and all other renewable energy sources.

Scientists have calculated that through the use of a system based on renewable energy demand for energy—due to the greater efficiency of such a system—will fall statewide by about 37 percent, and energy prices will stabilize.

More jobs will be created than will be lost as all energy will be produced in the state. In addition, it has been estimated that about 4 people will die every year due to reduced air pollution. fewer people, and the cost of pollution will drop by $33 billion a year.

3. Energy prices up to 2050 - RWE study

This means that the entire investment will pay off in about 17 years. It is possible that it would be faster, since the state could sell part of the energy. Do New York State officials share the optimism of these calculations? I think a little yes and a little no.

After all, they do not “drop” everything to make the proposal a reality, but, of course, invest in production technologies Renewable energy. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a few months ago that the world's largest landfill, Freshkills Park on Staten Island, would be converted into one of the world's largest solar power plants.

Where New York's waste decomposes, 10 megawatts of energy will be generated. The rest of the Freshkills territory, or almost 600 hectares, will be turned into green areas of a park character.

Where are the renewable rules

Many countries are already well on their way to a greener future. The Scandinavian countries have long exceeded the 50% threshold for obtaining energy from renewable sources. According to data published in the fall of 2014 by the international environmental organization WWF, Scotland already produces more energy from windmills than all Scottish households need.

These figures show that in October 2014, Scottish wind turbines produced electricity equal to 126 percent of the needs of local homes. Overall, 40 percent of the energy produced in this region comes from renewable sources.

Ze renewable sources more than half of Spanish energy comes from. Half of that half comes from water sources. One fifth of all Spanish energy comes from wind farms. In the Mexican city of La Paz, in turn, there is a solar power plant Aura Solar I with a capacity of 39 MW.

In addition, the installation of a second 30 MW Groupotec I farm is nearing completion, thanks to which the city can soon be fully supplied with energy from renewable sources. An example of a country that has consistently implemented a policy of increasing the share of energy from renewable sources over the years is Germany.

According to Agora Energiewende, in 2014 renewable energy accounted for 25,8% of supply in this country. By 2020, Germany should receive more than 40 percent from these sources. The energy transformation of Germany is not only about the abandonment of nuclear and coal energy in favor of renewable energy in the energy sector.

It should not be forgotten that Germany is also a leader in the creation of solutions for "passive houses", which largely do without heating systems. “Our goal of having 2050 percent of Germany's electricity come from renewable sources by 80 remains in place,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said.

New solar panels

In laboratories, there is a constant struggle to improve efficiency. renewable energy sources – for example, photovoltaic cells. Solar cells, which convert our star's light energy into electricity, are approaching a 50 percent efficiency record.

4. Graphene on foam for solar-to-steam conversion with MIT

However, systems on the market today show an efficiency of no more than 20 percent. State-of-the-art photovoltaic panels that convert so efficiently solar spectrum energy - from infrared, through the visible range, to ultraviolet - they actually consist of not one, but four cells.

Semiconductor layers are superimposed on each other. Each of them is responsible for obtaining a different range of waves from the spectrum. This technology is abbreviated CPV (concentrator photovoltaics) and has previously been tested in space.

Last year, for example, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a material consisting of graphite flakes placed on carbon foam (4). Placed in water and directed at it by the sun's rays, it forms water vapor, converting up to 85 percent of all solar radiation energy into it.

The new material works very simply - porous graphite in its upper part is able to perfectly absorb and store solar energyand at the bottom there is a carbon layer, partially filled with air bubbles (so that the material can float on water), preventing heat energy from escaping into the water.

5. Photovoltaic antennas in a field of sunflowers

Previous steam solar solutions had to concentrate the sun's rays even a thousand times in order to work.

MIT's new solution only requires ten times the concentration, making the entire setup relatively cheap.

Or maybe try to combine a satellite dish with a sunflower in one technology? Engineers at Airlight Energy, a Swiss company based in Biasca, want to prove it's possible.

They have developed 5-meter plates equipped with solar array complexes that resemble satellite TV antennas or radio telescopes and track the sun's rays like sunflowers (XNUMX).

They are supposed to be special energy collectors, supplying not only electricity to photovoltaic cells, but also heat, clean water and even, after using a heat pump, powering a refrigerator.

Mirrors scattered over their surface transmit incident solar radiation and focus it on the panels, even up to 2 times. Each of the six working panels is equipped with 25 photovoltaic chips cooled by water flowing through microchannels.

Thanks to the concentration of energy, photovoltaic modules work four times more efficiently. When equipped with a seawater desalination plant, the unit uses hot water to produce 2500 liters of fresh water per day.

In remote areas, water filtration equipment may be installed instead of desalination plants. The whole 10m flower antenna structure can be folded and easily transported by a small truck. New idea for use of solar energy in less developed areas it is Solarkiosk (6).

This type of unit is equipped with a Wi-Fi router and can charge more than 200 mobile phones a day or power a mini-fridge in which, for example, essential medicines can be stored. Dozens of such kiosks have already been launched. They mainly operated in Ethiopia, Botswana and Kenya.

7. Pertamina skyscraper project

Energetic architecture

The 99-story skyscraper Pertamina (7), which is planned to be built in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is supposed to produce as much energy as it consumes. This is the first building of its size in the world. The architecture of the building was closely related to the location - it allows only the necessary solar radiation to enter, allowing you to save the rest of the sun's energy.

8. Green Wall in Barcelona

The truncated tower acts as a tunnel to use wind energy. Photovoltaic panels are installed on each side of the facility, which allows energy to be produced throughout the day, at any time of the year.

The building will have an integrated geothermal power plant to complement solar and wind power.

Meanwhile, German researchers from the University of Jena have prepared a project for "smart facades" of buildings. Light transmission can be adjusted by pressing a button. Not only are they equipped with photovoltaic cells, but also for growing algae for biofuel production.

The Large Area Hydraulic Windows (LaWin) project is supported by European funds under the Horizon 2020 program. The miracle of modern green technology sprouting on the façade of the Raval Theater in Barcelona has little to do with the above concept (8).

The vertical garden designed by Urbanarbolismo is completely self-contained. Plants are irrigated by an irrigation system whose pumps are powered by energy generated photovoltaic panels integrates with the system.

Water, in turn, comes from precipitation. Rainwater flows down gutters into a storage tank, from where it is then pumped by solar-powered pumps. There is no external power supply.

The intelligent system waters the plants according to their needs. More and more structures of this type are appearing on a large scale. An example is the Solar Powered National Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (9).

Designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito and commissioned back in 2009, it is covered by 8844 photovoltaic cells and can generate up to 1,14 gigawatt-hours of energy per year, supplying 80 percent of the area's needs.

9. Solar stadium in Taiwan

Will molten salts get energy?

Energy storage in the form of molten salt is unknown. This technology is used in large solar power plants such as the recently opened Ivanpah in the Mojave Desert. According to the still unknown company Halotechnics from California, this technique is so promising that its application can be extended to the entire energy sector, especially renewable, of course, where the issue of storing surplus in the face of energy shortage is a key problem.

The company claims that storing energy in this way is half the price of batteries, various types of large batteries. In terms of cost, it can compete with pumped storage systems, which, as you know, can only be used under favorable field conditions. However, this technology has its drawbacks.

For example, only 70 percent of the energy stored in molten salts can be reused as electricity (90 percent in batteries). Halotechnics is currently working on the efficiency of these systems, including using heat pumps and various salt mixtures.

10. Molten salt tanks for energy storage

The demonstration plant was commissioned at Sandia National Laboratories in Arbuquerque, New Mexico, USA. energy storage with molten salt. It is specifically designed to work with CLFR technology, which uses mirrors that store solar energy to heat the spray liquid.

It's molten salt in a tank. The system takes the salt from the cold tank (290°C), uses the heat of the mirrors and heats the liquid to a temperature of 550°C, after which it transfers it to the next tank (10). When needed, the high temperature molten salt is passed through a heat exchanger to generate steam for power generation.

Finally, the molten salt is returned to the cold reservoir and the process is repeated in a closed loop. Comparative studies have shown that using molten salt as the working fluid allows operation at high temperatures, reduces the amount of salt needed for storage, and eliminates the need for two sets of heat exchangers in the system, reducing system cost and complexity.

A solution that provides energy storage on a smaller scale, it is possible to install a paraffin battery with solar collectors on the roof. This is a technology developed at the Spanish University of the Basque Country (Universidad del Pais Vasco/Euskal Herriko Uniberstitatea).

It is intended for use by the average household. The main body of the device is made of aluminum plates immersed in paraffin. Water is used as an energy transfer medium, not as a storage medium. This task belongs to paraffin, which takes heat from aluminum panels and melts at a temperature of 60°C.

In this invention, electrical energy is released by cooling the wax, which gives off heat to the thin panels. Scientists are working to further improve the efficiency of the process by replacing the paraffin with another material, such as a fatty acid.

Energy is produced in the process of phase transition. The installation can have a different shape in accordance with the construction requirements of buildings. You can even build so-called false ceilings.

New ideas, new ways

Street lights, developed by the Dutch company Kaal Masten, can be installed anywhere, even in non-electrified areas. They do not need an electrical network to operate. They glow only thanks to solar panels.

The pillars of these lighthouses are covered with solar panels. The designer claims that during the day they can accumulate so much energy that they then glow all night. Even cloudy weather won't turn them off. Includes an impressive set of batteries energy-saving lamps LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE.

The Spirit (11), as this flashlight was named, needs to be replaced every few years. Interestingly, from an environmental point of view, these batteries are easy to handle.

Meanwhile, solar trees are being planted in Israel. There would be nothing extraordinary in this if it were not for the fact that instead of leaves, solar panels are installed in these plantings, which receive energy, which is then used to charge mobile devices, cool water and broadcast a Wi-Fi signal.

The design, called eTree (12), consists of a metal "trunk" that branches out, and on the branches solar panels. The energy received with their help is stored locally and can be "transferred" to the batteries of smartphones or tablets via a USB port.

12. Electronic tree tree

It will also be used to produce a water source for animals and even humans. Trees should also be used as lanterns at night.

They can be equipped with information liquid crystal displays. The first buildings of this type appeared in Khanadiv Park, near the city of Zikhron Yaakov.

The seven-panel version generates 1,4 kilowatts of power, which can power 35 average laptops. Meanwhile, the potential for renewable energy is still being discovered in new places, such as where rivers empty into the sea and merge with salt water.

A group of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to study the phenomena of reverse osmosis in environments in which waters of different salinity levels are mixed. There is a pressure difference at the boundary of these centers. When water passes through this boundary, it accelerates, which is a source of significant energy.

Scientists from the University of Boston did not go far to test this phenomenon in practice. They calculated that the waters of this city, flowing into the sea, could generate enough energy to meet the needs of the local population. Treatment facilities.