By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Fri, 2007-06-01 16:19
Wind energy has been used for centuries by converting it into mechanical energy to move boats, in mills for grain transformation, or to pump water. Nowadays, technology allows us to use wind energy more efficiently. Wind mills allow us to produce electricity using a generator coupled to blades.
The first commercial applications date from the 1980’s with turbines of typically 50kW and rotors with diameter of 12 meters. Currently, manufacturers are able to provide turbines with a capacity of 5MW and above, with rotors that can go up to 130 meters.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2010-05-25 05:30
Economic fluctuations are main influence
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the US decreased by 7% or 405 million metric tons in 2009. This is the largest absolute and percentage decline since the start of EIA’s recording of annual data in 1949.
Energy-related carbon emissions in the US reached their highest values between 2004 and 2007, when they stabilised around 6,000 million metric tons per year. Following the declines in 2008 (-3%) and 2009 (-7%), the emissions are now back at the 1995 level of approximately 5,400 million metric tons per year.
Is this a big success for America’s carbon emission reduction programmes? The answer is mostly no — but from a certain perspective, yes. The EIA report includes a comprehensive analysis on the causes of the emission decline, showing that the economic downturn played a primary role.
Read full story
By Isabelle Heriakian / Published on Thu, 2010-03-11 16:08
A prospective wind farm consisting of 21 turbines with 2 MW double-fed induction generators is planned to be connected to a 110 kV substation in distribution system.
In this case study, different network configurations are modelled.
The influence of the accuracy of grid modelling on grid harmonic impedance characteristic at a particular point is analysed, and a comparison of the results is done for the different network configurations.
Read full story
By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 15:48
Developing economic well-being and preserving a healthy environment are not opposed forces but do, on the contrary, have a primary relationship and require a similar way of thinking: maximising the efficiency of a product over its life cycle will minimise its total financial cost as well as the total environmental impact over its life cycle.
The case studies below were developed to substantiate this Life-Cycle-Thinking by delivering high-level messages supporting decision making on the sustainable energy arena.
Read full story
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:46
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
Read full story
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:01
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2010-01-07 06:30
'Searching for a miracle'
Last September, an interesting new analysis was published by two California-based think tanks: Searching for a miracle / "Net Energy" limits & the fate of industrial society. The report, written by Richard Heinberg, is a joint initiative by the International Forum on Globalization and the Post Carbon Institute.
As with the book Sustainable energy / Without the hot air by David Mc Kay (on which we reported earlier on this blog), the report by Heinberg has as its principal merit a comprehensive analysis of the energy problem. With global warming becoming an increasingly important topic and the all-time peak of global oil production most probably behind us (July 2008, 87.9 million barrels per day), we can no longer hide behind local solutions. The world’s energy use will need a radical change in the upcoming decades.
But contrary to David Mc Kay’s book, Heinberg’s study also takes the cost, the reliability, and the potential transition speed of possible energy resources into account, as well as their physical and technical potential. However, Heinberg looks at the energy solutions separately and does not propose scenarios in which demand and production figures are added up and matched, as Mc Kay did.
It is worth noting that both experts put emphasis on the need for energy conservation and on the advantages of electricity as an energy carrier. Another common viewpoint of both experts is that they see only a very limited potential for biomass, ethanol, and biodiesel. Both also view wind energy and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) as very powerful options for the future.
Read full story
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Wed, 2009-12-23 11:46
A PSERC Public Webinar
The inherent variability of generation from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, may
1) increase the operating costs associated with additional ramping requirements, and
2) increase the amount of installed conventional generating capacity needed to maintain the operating reliability of a network.
Read full story
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 11:54
This document is an overall report of the seminar “Electricity in the next decade” regarding “Low carbon electricity systems” jointly organised by KEMA, ECI and Leonardo ENERGY.
Next to the topics presented during the first event, a few additional topics have been added in order to create a white paper and a more complete picture on the theme “Electricity in the next decade”.
Read full story
By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 11:32
Wind power forecast uncertainty raises concerns of the impact of wind power on power system and electricity market operations. This research project uses an optimal power flow (OPF) model in a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) framework to estimate the cost impacts from the uncertainty in wind farm output.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-09-01 05:30
Massive investments in wind and solar energy projects
China is well on track to surpass the US as the world’s largest market for wind turbines. While the European Union is struggling to reach its renewable energy targets, China is surpassing its own targets with ease. At the beginning of 2008, the target of the Chinese government was to have 5,000 MW of wind power installed by the end of 2010. Only a few months after proclaiming this figure, it was doubled to 10,000 MW. As of today, it looks like China is going to have 30,000 MW of wind power installed by the end of next year.
A favourable regulatory climate
The Chinese government has mandated that electricity companies must generate 8% of their power from renewable resources by 2020. Combine this figure with the enormous, steep, and ever expanding energy consumption in the country, and you realise that only a development of renewable energy at an up-to-now unseen scale will accomplish such a goal.
Read full story
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 03:18
This question was asked by a Leonardo ENERGY member who is supplying material for the wind sector and who wonders what the future will bring.
To answer this question, we first need to understand the current situation in this rapidly-evolving field. According to the wind energy barometer, the world currently has 121 GW installed, of which 65 GW (55%) in the EU. In 2008 alone, 27 GW of capacity have been added.
Read full story
By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:17
Over the past few years, French wind power has undertaken an unprecedented development. Few turbines are in place (756 MW), but the overall granted capacity amounts to about 2.7 GW. The administrative territory of Aveyron, one with the best wind power potential in the country, is an interesting case for understanding the ways in which industrial wind power is being developed and regulated in France. This paper presents Aveyron wind power development by dividing it into three periods. For each period, we also sketch national developments in wind power policy.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2009-07-01 05:30
Leviathan Energy presents a new design concept
While concentrated solar power is entering the commercialisation phase, 'concentrated wind power' is still in the area of bold claims intended to attract research money.
The idea of concentrated wind power is to build a structure that conducts the wind towards the turbine blades and in this way harvests more power.
Recently, an article on CleanTechnica presented a new design of this kind created by Leviathan Energy. It consists of a screen around the base of the turbine that changes air circulation. The company claims this passive structure can increase the turbine efficiency from 30% to as much as 150% at low wind speeds (0-6 meters per second).
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-06-23 05:30
Should the case of Spain cause worries?
Two recent decisions by the Spanish government regarding wind energy have highlighted concerns about the affordability of this sector.
The first decision was to create a special fund for the €10 billion government deficit originating from wind energy incentives. The second decision was to end the complete autonomy of the regions in licensing wind projects. These decisions were taken to avoid exceeding the target capacity of 20,155 MW under the government incentives currently in force. Via agreements with the regions, the wind industry was already projecting 41,000 MW. Such a figure would be unaffordable for the government if the current regimen of incentives is left in place. The new national registration of wind projects will also force wind developers to give priority to the most profitable wind sites nationwide, instead of considering projects only on a regional basis.
The Spanish government’s measures provoked a lively discussion on Power Globe and other Internet forums. Can Spain still be regarded as a textbook example of renewable energy promotion, or is the country on the edge of a bankruptcy due to excessive investments in wind?
Read full story
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2009-06-11 11:08
Our partner REEGLE has highlighted an interesting story. REEGLE is a one-stop shop and search engine for all renewable energy and energy efficiency-related information including jurisdiction and laws, policies and measures, finance and investment opportunities, reports and analyses and latest news.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2009-06-10 05:30
Design improvements provide the main potential - material costs the main barrier
When predicting the learning curve of wind energy, a distinction should be made between on-shore and off-shore wind. While the former started to develop in the mid 1970s, the latter only took off around the year 2000 and is consequently still lacking extensive historical data. As the figures of the NEEDS study show, today’s off-shore wind and on-shore wind electricity prices are of the same order of magnitude.
Cost of system drops faster than cost of turbine
Historical cost development curves of on-shore wind show large differences that depend mainly on the timeframe, the system boundaries, and the geographical area. As a general rule one can say that the experience ratio is higher for the complete system than for the turbine alone. This is confirmed by the bottom-up study of NEEDS, which shows that the relative share of the turbine cost in the complete wind energy cost increased in the past decades.
Read full story
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-06-03 15:12
With "island grids" we refer to isolated electricity networks with a relatively small demand. This may be networks on actual islands but also distant isolated network on the continent. Most of the island grids make use of diesel units for their generation. Larger systems may also use combined cycle gas turbine units or oil fired steam turbine units. The generating cost of such systems are relatively high compared to large systems due to the economy of scale and the use of expensive fuels.
Read full story
