Vietnam install solar power surge to 5 gigawatt in only 2 years

The Economist reports that Vietnam undergoes an unexpected surge in solar power. In 2017 solar power played almost no part in Vietnam’s energy mix so to speed the technology’s adoption, the government offered that year to pay suppliers a generous $0.09 for every kilowatt-hour produced by big solar farms. However, under the conditionthatthey started operations within the following two years. The Vietnam government expected some 850MW of capacity to be installed. Instead, by the end of 2019 the country found itself with 5 gigawatts.

Full article: Vietnam grapples with an unexpected surge in solar power (LINK)

 

 

This map is taken from Global Solar Atlas, available at: https://globalsolaratlas.info/downloads/vietnam 

Bosch to strengthen strategic collaboration with fuel-cell expert Ceres Power by increasing its stake

[Press release, Bosch, LINK]

• Bosch to increase its stake in Ceres Power to circa 18 percent.
• Two steps necessary: share subscription and purchase of existing shares.
• Strengthens already successful partnership.

Stuttgart, Germany, and Horsham, U.K. – Bosch has today, January 22, 2020, increased its stake in Ceres Power from 3.9 percent to circa 18 percent. The stake increase is achieved through a subscription by Bosch for new Ceres Power shares, as well as the purchase of further shares from existing shareholders. Bosch’s total investment will be approximately 90 million euros. To enhance the strategic investment and the strength of the partnership, under the terms of the transaction, Bosch is granted the right to appoint a Non-Executive Director to the board of Ceres Power. 

Photo credit: Bosch

Since signing a strategic agreement in August 2018, Bosch and Ceres have been successfully collaborating in the development of fuel-cell stacks for stationary applications. This enabled Bosch to start initial low-volume production of pilot fuel-cell systems in autumn 2019 in Germany. It is intended that the increased stake will further support the collaboration towards future potential scale up and mass manufacture of the Ceres SteelCell® for multiple applications including small power stations to be used in cities, factories, data centers and charge points for electric vehicles.

“ Bosch strongly believes that the highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has an important role to play in energy systems’ security of supply and flexibility ”
Dr. Christian Fischer, member of the Bosch management board

“Bosch strongly believes that the highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has an important role to play in energy systems’ security of supply and flexibility,” says Dr. Christian Fischer, member of the Bosch management board responsible for the Energy and Building Technology business sector. “Bosch, together with our development partner Ceres Power, has made good progress in the development of fuel-cell stacks for stationary power applications. With this enlarged investment in Ceres Power, we intend to further strengthen our successful collaboration with our development partner Ceres Power.”

“We welcome this further investment by Bosch which will support the continued evolution of our technology as we look to play an increasingly prominent role in tackling climate change and building a sustainable energy system for the future. We have established a successful partnership with Bosch by combining Ceres’ unique SteelCell® technology with Bosch’s engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain strength. This new investment will allow us to build on the strong momentum we have generated in recent years to further scale the business and expand into new applications,” says Phil Caldwell, the CEO of Ceres Power.

Ceres Power is a leading player in the development of next-generation SOFC technology. Its strategy is to commercialize its technology through licensing for mass production with partners, and to use this technology for grid-based and distributed power generation. The Board of Directors of Ceres Power believes there is significant future value for shareholders in broadening the application of Ceres Power’s technology, further strengthening its relationship with Bosch. Both parties believe that this transaction demonstrates the commitment to the partnership.

Viking Energy - a Offshore Vessel to Run on Ammonia-Powered Fuel Cell

[By The Maritime Executive 01-25-2020 07:21:41 ] The ShipFC consortium has been awarded €10 million ($11 million) in funding from the European Union to install the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel cell on a vessel.

The consortium consists of 14 European companies and institutions, co-ordinated by the Norwegian cluster organisation NCE Maritime CleanTech, and has been awarded backing from the E.U.’s Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 under its Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).

The project will see an offshore vessel, Viking Energy, which is owned and operated by Eidesvik and on contract to energy major Equinor, have a large 2MW ammonia fuel cell retrofitted, allowing it to sail solely on the clean fuel for up to 3,000 hours annually. As such the project aims to demonstrate that long-range zero-emission voyages with high power on larger ships is possible. The goal is also to ensure that a large fuel cell can deliver total electric power to shipboards systems safely and effectively. 

Full article: LINK

The stars are aligning behind hydrogen

Here is a promising forward-looking article by Mark Newman at Sandvik regarding the future of power to gas using Hydrogen and energy storage. The take away is that a hydrogen-based economy is much more likely today than 15 years ago. The reason is the recent expansion of electricity generation via wind turbines and photovoltaic cells. According to the article, batteries have improved a great deal over the years but are unsuitable for most grid-scale applications over a long period of an electricity outage. So far, pumped hydro plants have represented the standard for grid-scale energy storage, but it is only available in some locations due to its dependence on suitable geography.

This is where hydrogen comes in, writes Mark Newman: "Like electricity, hydrogen is an energy carrier as opposed to fuel, since it needs to be manufactured. The fuel, in this case, is the wind or the sun which is used to make electricity that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis. The part that I think is key is the fact that hydrogen doesn't always need to be used in conjunction with fuel cells in order to make electricity again when a demand peak occurs, but can instead be added into the natural gas grid and mixed with methane and be used in the same way as the methane would be used. There are numerous projects being undertaken around the world to investigate the feasibility and limits to doing this, for example, in Leeds, UK, and in Sydney, Australia, to mention just two."

"It very much looks as if the stars are aligning behind hydrogen. Some market assessments conservatively put growth rates in high single figures, but some large and credible companies are openly saying these estimates are much too low. Some have said the truth is more likely to be close to 10-fold growth by 2050."



Source: Full article LINK

Agerement made for the German coal phase-out

Reuters report, in German: LINK) that the German federal government has reached an agreement with the states and energy utilities companies on payments of several billion euros to finance the German coal phase-out (Kohleausstieg).

The compensation for the utilities companies for abandoning brown coal will amount to 2.6 billion euros in the West and 1.75 billion euros in the East, said Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Thursday in Berlin. 

 

"We will thus end the age of coal-fired power generation in a planned and economically sensible way. This is a great success", said Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU). 

 

 

 

The warmer than normal annual average temperature in Sweden since the 90s continues

The winter continues to be mild, and today Stockholm and other Swedish cities set their heat records for January, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The weather conditions are, according to SMHI's meteorologists, due to southwesterly winds that bring mild Atlantic air to Scandinavia. Although the temperatures for the season are high, it is not possible to connect a single mild winter to global warming. 

- But we have a climate indicator for winter temperatures for the whole of Sweden from 1860. We see a striking change since the 1990s, compared with the period 1961-1990. The cold winters are becoming increasingly unusual, says Erik Engström, a climatologist at SMHI, to TT.

Below you can see that the past two decaedes only one out of 20 years was slighly cooler than normal (2010).

The top maps show the annual average temperature deviation (in ° C) from the normal yearly average temperature (average 1961-1990) for the year 2000 to 2019. The analyzes are based on observations from all stations that daily report temperatures in Sweden. The lower map shows how much the average temperature for the period 1 January to 14 January 2020 deviates (in ° C) from the normal average temperature for the period (average 1961-1990). The analyzes are based on observations from about 200 stations that report daily temperatures (source SMHI).

Sweden electricity export to Finland booms due to delay in Finnish nuclear reactor completion

Swedish Radio reports (LINK) that Sweden exported record amounts of electricity to neighboring countries in 2019, according to new statistics from the industry organization Swedenergy.

It was up 50% last year compared to the year before and equaled about 15 percent of the total production of electricity in Sweden. 

One of the main reasons is problems with the electricity supply in Sweden's neighbors, with a delayed new nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 in Finland causing problems, and reservoirs in Norway have been emptier than usual. Once Olkiluoto 3 enters commercial operation early next year, OL3 will supply about 15% of Finland's electricity demand

 

 

'The Turning Point' explores the destruction of the environment, climate change and species extinction from differentperspective,by Steve Cutts

'The Turning Point' explores the destruction of the environment, climate change and species extinction from differentperspective. Music by Wantaways. Created in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Clip Studio Pro and Cinema 4D. Written, directed and animated by Steve Cutts

Music by Wantaways
Stream song on Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/track/6Or84r...
Download song on iTunes:    https://music.apple.com/au/album/the-...

Britain's electricity since 2010: wind surges to second place, coal collapses and fossil fuel use nearly halves

According to a report in The Conversation (LINK, republished below) by  Grant Wilson, Great Britain generated 75% of its electricity from coal and natural gas in 2010. Now a decade later, these fossil fuels accounted for just 40%, with coal generation collapsing from the decade’s peak of 41% in 2012 to under 2% in 2019. Today natural gas is in the lead at 38%, followed by wind power at 21% and nuclear at about 19%.

Chart created by Grant Wilson, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham., University of Birmingham.

Full article re-publishe through Creative commons license:

Cheap and efficeint solar panles killed Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project before it came online

The 110 MW Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada was the world’s first utility-scale facility to use molten salt power tower energy storage. It has 10,347 tracking mirrors (heliostats) that follow the sun and reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a heat exchanger, a receiver, atop a 640-foot (200 m) tower. 

 

Crescent Dunes is designed for 10 hours of storage and was to deliver 500,000 MW hours of electricity per year, day and night, to 75,000 homes. In September 2011, SolarReserve received a $737 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the project and broke ground. The project had a 25-year agreement with NV Energy for 100 percent of the electricity, but this was terminated by NV Energy in October 2019 due to the project having "failed to produce." Alleging a takeover by the DOE, SolarReserve has raised the possibility of this project filing for bankruptcy. 

 

Cost of Solar Technology in $ Per Megawatt-Hour (Source & credit: BloombergNEF) 

 

According to a recent article in Bloomberg (LINK), cheap solar panels have grown wildly more efficient in recent years, and that is a disaster for such companies as SolarReserve that can’t easily upgrade their dated components. As can be seen in the graph above, the current cost (2019) per megawatt-.hour is almost 2.5 times higher for the Cresent Dune plant as compared to a photovoltaic solar farm.

 

 

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project as seen from an airliner (Wikipedia) 

 

Background: SolarReserve (LINK)

CNBC on how energy storage could revolutionize industries in the next 10 years

CNBC reports (LINK) that over the last decade a surge in lithium-ion battery production has led to an 85% decline in prices, making electric vehicles and energy storage commercially viable for the first time in history. Today the batteries hold the key to transitioning away from fossil fuel dependence, and are set to play a greater role in the coming decade.

Credit CNBC

UBS estimates that over the next ten years the energy storage market in the United States could grow to as much as $426 billion, and there are many ways to buy into the surge, including chemical companies, battery cell makers, car companies, solar companies and utility companies. “Capturing the massive economic opportunity underlying the shift to controls and battery-based energy systems requires that planners, policymakers, regulators, and investors take an ecosystem approach to developing these markets,” sustainability-focused research firm Rocky Mountain Institute said recently.

Credits: Ron DiFelice, Thanks for sharing LinkedIn!

IBM proposes sustainable successor to lithium-ion battery

IBM Research reports (LINK) on a cobalt and nickel free battery technology based on a new cathode and electrode material. Dr. Young-Hye Na (LINK) is the manager of the research group dedicated to ‘Materials and Process Innovations for Energy Industry’ at IBM Almaden Research Center. Her research team is currently focusing on the development of next generation energy storage systems including metal-air batteries, solid-state electrolytes, new battery chemistries based on Cobalt-free cathode materials, and microbatteries.

Most lithium-ion battery material stacks include metals such as nickel and cobalt, which pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks in the sourcing of metals. Especially cobalt that is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices. Recently, International Rights Advocates sued Apple, Tesla, and other tech companies over the deaths of children working in these mines (LINK).

The new battery still uses lithium, but because it is generated from seawater rather than mined, there is little impact on the environment.

IBM development lab for next-generation batteries (Photo credit: IBM Research's lab in Almaden, California)

US Federal officials plan to approve a massive solar farm with energy storage in the desert outside Las Vegas

According to the Los Angeles Times United States Federal officials plan to approve a massive solar farm with energy storage in the desert outside Las Vegas. A $1-billion project that will provide electricity to Nevada residents served by Warren Buffett’s NV Energy. At 690 megawatts across 7,100 acres, the facility would generate more power than the largest solar farm currently operating in the United States.

 

 

Germany’s energy consumption and power mix in charts 2019

Fraunhofer ISE just released the 2019 Energy charts for Germany (LINK). In 2019, solar and wind energy plants jointly produced approx. 173 TWh. This puts them ahead of the sum of lignite and hard coal at 151 TWh.

 

Credit: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

 
Photovoltaic systems fed approx. 46.5 TWh into the public grid in 2019. Production increased by approx. 0.8 TWh or 1.7% compared to the previous year. The installed PV capacity at the end of October was approx. 48.6 GW. The expansion in 2019 amounted to October approx. 3.3 GW. The maximum solar capacity was approx. 33.5 GW on 19.04.2019 at 13:00. At this time, 48% of the total power generation came from photovoltaic. The maximum share of solar energy in the total daily energy of all electricity sources on 29 June was 27%. From March to September 2019, the monthly electricity production of PV systems was higher than those of coal-fired power plants.

Wind energy produced about 127 TWh in 2019 and was about 15.7% higher than in 2018, making wind energy the biggest energy source share, followed by lignite, nuclear energy, and gas. In eight months, wind power production exceeded the lignite-based generation, and in all twelve months, wind energy was ahead of nuclear energy. The maximum capacity generated was approximately 46.7 GW on 15 March 2019 at 19:00. The share of onshore wind was approx. 102.6 TWh. Offshore Wind was able to increase production from 19.1 TWh in 2018 to 24.4 TWh in 2019. Approx. 20.2 TWh were generated in the North Sea. Offshore production in the Baltic Sea amounted to approx. 4.1 TWh. At the end of October 2019, the installed capacity of onshore wind at 53.1 GW and offshore wind at 7.6 GW.

Hydropower produced approx. 19.2 TWh compared to 15.9 TWh in 2018. The installed capacity is about 4.8 GW. It has hardly changed compared to the previous year.

About 44 TWh were produced from biomass. Production has been declining slightly since 2016. In total, renewable energy sources solar, wind, hydro, and biomass in the year 2019 about 237 TWh. They are thus 7% above the level of the previous year with 221 TWh.