By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2009-04-30 13:39
Rocks travelling down to the smelter produce 90 GWh a year
At the Los Pelambres opencast Copper Mine in Northern Chile, carbon free electricity is produced in a very original way. Crushed rock containing copper ore is used to generate electricity as it travels down from the high-altitude mine to the processing plant located in the valley below.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-04-28 16:09
A report by the World Economic Forum
The Investors Community at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos of January 2008 mandated a Green Investing report. This report was to be presented at the next Annual Meeting in January 2009. The remit of the report was to explore the potential engagement by leading investors in addressing climate change.
Huge investments required
The report starts by sketching the scale of the challenge. It points out that green energy is often considered a luxury. Nevertheless, a huge volume of investment will be required to avoid catastrophic climate change and ensure our future energy security. Various experts all place the estimated cost in the range of US$500 billion per year.
Fortunately, the investment in green energy in the past five years has already been substantial. According to the report, 'Clean energy technologies are becoming increasingly cost-competitive with fossil-based energy. A carbon price will eventually level the playing field, but in the meantime clean energy solutions require support from policy makers.'
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-28 15:04
Jørgen S. Nørgård, Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Birgitte Brange, Elsparefonden, Denmark
Tom Guldbrandsen, Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Peter Karbo, Elsparefonden, Denmark
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-28 14:58
Mithra Moezzi, Ghoulem Research, United States
Françoise Bartiaux, Institute of Demography, University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-28 14:47
Silvia Rezessy, Central European University, Hungary
Paolo Bertoldi, European Commission, DG JRC, Italy
Monique Voogt, Ecofys Netherlands, Netherlands
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Mon, 2009-04-27 17:35
EU27 energy losses in distribution transformers reach 33.4 TWh/year.
Starting now, until 2025, EU has the opportunity to save 12 TWh/year and avoid 4 MTonnes CO2 if renovation of old transformers is carried out using efficient ones (instead of conventional ones).
The engagement on energy efficiency is also a matter of electricity networks regulators. The current models don't allow for fully efficient investments. A long term signal is required.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Mon, 2009-04-27 17:15
The Energy Efficiency Action Plan has set an indicative goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020. It suggests several initiatives to improve energy efficiency in the coming years. Network loss reduction in the power systems is one of these initiatives. This issue was discussed in the recent consultation paper “Treatment of Losses by Network Operators” published by the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG).
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By erikjanrodenhuis / Published on Mon, 2009-04-27 08:57
Although the renewable energy sector is maturing fast, still the developers are experiencing some hurdles to come to financial closure of actual projects. A prominent problem is that the technologies are generally associated with unfamiliar, high and unclear risks. Therefore a tool was developed that provides insights in the risks present in renewable energy projects, assists to communicate these risks and helps finding ways to effectively manage the project risks.
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By Steve Aubertin / Published on Mon, 2009-04-27 08:25
Traditionally published reports have provided sales value data (historic and forecast) for various types of transformers, international trade values and regional market share data of the major suppliers. For most of the four decades transformer prices have been depressed and the relationship between sales value and sales volume has remained fairly constant and market value information was sufficient for most international marketing purposes.
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Sat, 2009-04-25 18:37
There are many advantages of superconducting underground power transmission cables claimed over conventional copper cables, but none of them carries very far. One claim frequently made is space saving in densely populated urban areas.
Now here you see some superconductor cables on the left and conventional HV and EHV cables of similar power transmission capabilities on the right side.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Fri, 2009-04-24 15:37
Geographic diversification of wind farms can smooth out the fluctuations in wind power generation and reduce the associated system balancing and reliability costs. The paper uses historical wind production data from five European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain) and applies Mean-Variance Portfolio theory to identify cross-country portfolios that minimize the total variance of wind production for a given level of production.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Fri, 2009-04-24 14:18
Market trends and potential energy production
Compared to the traditional wind market, the market for small wind turbines is growing at a slow speed. But according to Miamari Siitoinen, Marketing Director of Eagle Windpower Oy, 'the wind is turning' and small wind turbines are currently witnessing a strong increase in demand.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Fri, 2009-04-24 07:27
Leonardo ENERGY opens here a new series of policy briefing brochures with a sharp look to pertinent topics on the European energy agenda aiming at providing its users instruments to interpret these issues and have an objective opinion on them!
Motor Driven Systems account for about 50% of electricity consumed in Europe and represent a major potential for energy savings!
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Fri, 2009-04-24 04:26
Climate Policy in the US is beggining to gain momentum. Any effective climate policy will need to achieve large reductions in both the amount of energy used and the carbon intensity of energy in each of the following sectors: transportation, electricity production and heat for homes, businesses and industries!
The Department of Engineering and Public Policy of the Carnegie Mellon University has a long track record on Sustainability issues and has issued a Briefing Note aimed at improving US Climate Policy... or glare some light over it!
Your comments are also welcome!
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-21 18:02
Cables are important components in the transportation and distribution of electricity. Due to the increased need for power, but also because overhead power lines are often replaced by (underground) power cables in densely populated areas, the importance of power cables has grown over the years.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-21 15:10
Grid parity - the point where the cost of generating electricity by solar systems equalises the average (wholesale) price of generating electricity by means of conventional methods - is the Holy Grail for the photovoltaics industry. For concentrating photovoltaics in the sunniest locations in the world, this point is not far off. The most optimistic estimates put it at 2011, whereas pessimists expect we'll have to wait as long as 2020. Therefore, a prediction market at Leonardo Visions to build a consensus view among Leonardo ENERGY users on this important issue.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-04-21 12:47
Potential production capacity far overrated
The Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) headquartered in Rotterdam and headed up by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, has developed a master plan for large-scale wind energy production in the North Sea. The operative adjective here is large-scale. The plan projects a potential annual production of 13,400 TWh by 2050.
The principal idea is to develop a huge ring of wind farms on offshore marine sites in the Exclusive Economic Zones of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK and to connect them by a power cable super ring. Such a ring would enable fewer connections with the coast, avoiding the necessity of connecting every wind farm with the grid separately.
The plan sounds good and looks brilliant. The trouble is that it appallingly neglects some basic technical aspects of wind energy. A quick verification of the annual production figure leads one to suspect that OMA simply "forgot" to take a capacity factor into account...
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By erikjanrodenhuis / Published on Tue, 2009-04-21 11:01
Although the renewable energy sector is maturing fast, still the developers are experiencing some hurdles to come to financial closure of actual projects. A prominent problem is that the technologies are generally associated with unfamiliar, high and unclear risks. Therefore a tool was developed that provides insights in the risks present in renewable energy projects, assists to communicate these risks and helps finding ways to effectively manage the project risks.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2009-04-13 10:36
The evolutionary path of the U.S. electricity grid is at an historical crossroad. Decisions are going to be made about the direction of grid development so that it can meet extraordinary economic challenges, critical needs for energy security, and essential requirements for a sustainable way of life. This is a defining moment in terms of our nation’s commitment to providing an electric energy system, including the bulk transmission network, that meets societal needs of the 21st century and beyond.
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