Industry news
Things I noticed and thought were interesting
Week ending 2nd December 2018
1, BECCS. Capture of the CO2 from burning biomass may be the cheapest way of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. (The biomass absorbed CO2 as it grew). The UK’s largest power station, Drax, which mostly burns biomass pellets from the US, inaugurated a small experiment to capture a tonne of CO2 a day from the flue gases. This is the first BECCS trial in Europe. The CO2 is captured using a new solvent created by C-Capture, a spin-out from the University of Leeds in northern England. Estimates of the amount of CO2 that might be captured by BECCS in the UK range up to 50 million tonnes a year, or just over 10% of the country's emissions.
2, Rural microgrid with hydrogen. Belgian company Tiger Power won a contract to install 3 microgrids in an unelectrified part of Uganda. Tiger’s system includes batteries, can be simply shipped and requires no groundwork. It also stores hydrogen from electrolysis and employs the gas to make electricity in a fuel cell when the PV system is not able to meet demand. I believe this is the first use of hydrogen for storage in a unconnected microgrid in the world. The power from hydrogen is probable expensive compared to grid electricity but much cheaper than using diesel at night or when the battery runs low.
3, German vehicle charging station. Construction began at the world’s largest EV charging station on a major route in southern Germany. 144 charging points, rated mostly at 50kW but with some ultra-fast 350kW chargers, will charge up to 4,000 cars a day. Drivers will be able to shop and eat while their cars fill up with electricity. (Very few cars available today can charge at 350kW, which would fill a 50kWh battery in less than 15 minutes). My sense is that hubs like this, combining car charging with meeting rooms, office facilities and convenience food shops will become standard in the next few years. But the capital expenditure requirements are enormous. (Disclosure: I chair a UK car charging company).
4, Oil demand from buses. Interesting statistic from the International Energy Agency: electric buses will reduce oil demand by 230,000 barrels a day by the end of this year compared to 46,000 barrels from electric cars. (Together, this is about 0.3% of world oil demand).
5, Cheap electrolysis. Research from Australia shows the possibility of cheaper and long-lived catalysts for making hydrogen efficiently from electricity. Layers of Simple cobalt and nickel molecules, doped with a small amount of gold, show promise as a route to very low cost electrolysis.
6, Other hydrogen stories. One of Australia’s largest mining companies, Fortescue, said it would put US $15m into the new technology to ‘filter’ the hydrogen out of ammonia developed by Australian research centres CSIRO. The commercial attraction of this product is that is very much cheaper to ship hydrogen in the form of ammonia but reconversion costs are high. Australia’s west coast is one of the best places in the world to make cheap hydrogen from electrolysis which can then be exported to Asia as ammonia. The head of the mining giant gave an unusually strong statement in support of the investment "We are at the beginning of an energy revolution and Fortescue intends to be at the forefront of this once in a generation opportunity." Separately, Air Liquide said it would develop a ‘world scale’ hydrogen plant to provide the gas for fuel cell car refueling stations in California. The $150m investment will provide 30 tonnes of H2 a day to fuel the expected 40,000 fuel cells cars on California’s roads by 2022. (This project will not use electrolysis to make the hydrogen but rather steam reforming of agricultural biogas. In theory this is not carbon-intensive).
7, French energy policy. The news stories about President Macron’s speech focused on the closures of 14 existing nuclear reactors by 2035. Less predictable were his comments about continued support for EdF’s development of the next generations of nuclear stations based on the struggling EPR, his interest in the methanisation of biogas and the forecasts of a 3 fold increase in wind power and 5 fold increase in solar by 2030. (This would take France to about 40 GW wind and 50 GW solar, providing about 30% of total demand). Macron also mentioned increased support for geothermal power, better building insulation and a Franco-German push to develop a European battery strategy. But all this is overshadowed by the continuing widespread protests over the ‘carbon tax’ on vehicle fuels, showing just how politically difficult carbon pricing can be.
8, New solar collector. Conventional silicon PV cells can only collect a theoretical maximum of around 33% of the sun’s energy. A new approach from Californian company Novasolix could offer 90% at some future date, using very low cost materials and ‘reel-to-reel’ manufacturing. Carbon nanotubes act as antennas in the solar cell, picking up the electromagnetic radiation from the sun. Early trials show a 45% efficiency. Even in California, raising money for a momentous idea like this is difficult. Perhaps a country that wants to take a bet on a truly revolutionary form of solar collection might want to offer a home and funding to this team. (Thanks to Karl Graves)
9, Hydrogen trains. The iLint from Alstom has been in service on a railway line in northern Germany for a couple of months. Several other countries have expressed interest in this hydrogen fuel cell train, including Mexico and the UK. The next place where the train will be used looks as though it will be the Toulouse region in south-west France. Tests will begin in 2021. Hydrogen is a natural fit for trains which move back and forth on a single line, returning each night to a specific place. (Thanks to Thad Curtz)
10, Floating solar. An auction for part of a 150 MW floating solar project on India’s largest reservoir produced a price of about 4.7 US cents per kilowatt hour. The tariff is higher than average partly because the site is not in a particularly sunny part of the country. The reservoir also generates electricity from hydropower, meaning that evacuation of the solar electricity is simple.
(Work pressures have meant I have not been able to reply to all emails this week. Many apologies.)
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