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”, the first in an annual series of events regarding “Low carbon electricity systems”. KEMA, ECI and Leonardo ENERGY are jointly organising these events.
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”.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-11-20 06:30
The problem of additionality
Green electricity sold by utility companies is a peculiar product. It guarantees the origin of your power, just like an ethical investment fund guarantees the origin of your profit, but what is the solid evidence for such a guarantee?
Guarantees of Origin (GoO) provide official proof that a certain amount of electricity has been generated by renewable sources. However, this system of accreditation was created before various kinds of state incentives for renewable energy came into being and complicated the situation with the problem of additionality.
The question of additionality is basically a question of whether the green power would have been produced anyway if the sale had not taken place. In most cases, additionality exists when the supply of electricity is generated over and above the requirement to meet existing legal obligations, or does not receive any state subsidies.
According to the website of Eugene Standard, most green power labels in Europe still do not include criteria for additionality – a system they view as 'greenwashing'. Even if additionality seems to be ensured in principle, there are still ways to escape it in practice.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2008-09-22 13:04
How sustainable is a kWh?
What is the best technology to produce it?
These questions are often asked and the answers are not clear-cut, as there are a lot of variables.
Therefore, Leonardo ENERGY has produced this eco-sheet to help clarifying the issue. The environmental burden of generating one kWh from 7 different energy sources is quantified. It shows that there is no silver bullet solution, but there are advantages to explore.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-08-14 05:30
Driving rural development
The Beijing Olympic Games have certainly made us all aware of China’s ability to tackle massive projects. When it comes to generating hydroelectricity, the country has proven itself equally successful with the construction of the much-contested Three Gorges Dam. But hydroelectric generation in China is not limited only to such huge scale projects. In recent years, the country has become one of the most successful adopters of small hydroelectric facilities (plants up to 25 MW) as a means of achieving carbon emission free rural development.
The total installed capacity of small hydroelectric plants in China is estimated at approximately 50,000 MW and growing at about 6,000 MW annually.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2008-05-21 17:14
Yes, you can.
A hydro-powered heat pump is probably the most viable renewable power-source since it is fairly constant. Solar or wind inputs would be difficult, especially on a small scale. The outputs are variable and dependent on the weather so there can be problems matching the input power requirements. The very large number of photo-electric cells required to power a heat pump would probably make this option impractical.
Powering a heat pump from grid electricity derived from a renewable source (e.g. wind-farm or hydro) is a good option for the environment.
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Renewable Energy Systems
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2008-04-24 02:28
Shortening the way to grid parity
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By Bryony Samuel / Published on Thu, 2008-01-17 18:47
Distributed generation (DG) and renewable energy sources (RES) are attracting special attention. Both are seen as important in achieving two key goals:
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By David Schmetterer / Published on Tue, 2007-03-27 22:11
Just as it seems like solar is about to turn the corner, wind power technology is out of its adolescence, and even Biodiesel has its own day (March 18th, Rudolf Diesel's Birthday), there isn't much left to do but twiddle our thumbs and wait around for these technologies to be refined and adopted. The people at Verdant power have other ideas. They have developed riverine, or tidal, 'kinetic' hydropower. It requires no damming or redirection of water, and uses relatively small slow spinning turbines which resemble wind turbines. They are currently testing it in New York City's East River, powering a parking garage and a supermarket on Roosevelt Island. The technology is clean, out of sight, and the New York State Energy and Research Authority (NYSERDA) has identified over a Gigawatt (1,000 Megawatts) of potential capacity in the state. California has identified over 1.5 Gigawatts of potential (put into perspective, 1 GW is enough power to run approximately 1 million homes).
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Fri, 2006-12-01 10:10
Probably the oldest method of generating electricity is hydro power. Indeed, in the debate about renewable energies it is often overlooked that large-scale hydro power generation is old, conventional technique but fulfilling the prerequisites of a sustainable economy. Once having stood next to a major waterfall, you may have perceived an impression of what a tremendous power there can be in a water current. If some data is given on the level difference and the water current, it is fairly easy to calculate how much energy is being wasted for instance to attract tourists to the Rhine Fall near Schaffhausen in Switzerland by not utilizing it for power generation. This tremendous – and pretty noisy – spectacle could generate about 13 MW of electrical power – enough to drive two high-speed trains at maximum speed.
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By Wladyslaw Bobrowicz / Published on Sun, 2006-11-05 13:05
Date: January 15, 2007
Time: 15h00 - 16h00 European Standard Time
Speaker: Władysław Bobrowicz
This webinar was cancelled due to technical difficulties.
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By Wladyslaw Bobrowicz / Published on Sun, 2006-11-05 12:56
This Application Note introduces the theory and technology behind small hydro power (SHP) stations (defined as units below 10 MW). Currently, there are 17,000 such stations with combined power of 11 GW producing 42 TWh/year of green electricity while the EU's 2010 objectives for this technology are 14 GW and 55 TWh/year.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sat, 2006-09-23 10:19
All energy technologies have major advantages and disadvantages, and hydropower is no exception. In this briefing paper, Juergen Giesecke from Energie-Fakten presents a comprehensive overview of pros and cons, and a message that dams can make a major contribution to mankind's energy (and food) supply, provided that we exploit the pros while mitigating and managing the cons.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2006-05-22 12:54
Thanks to Dr J.R. Camacho for pointing this out - for over two decades, the world's largest dam and hydro power station is in Brazil: the Itaipu power station, with a 196 m high, 7.76 km long dam, generated more than 93 TWh (a TWh = Terawatt-hour or a thousand million kWh), a world record, and more than the 3-Gorges dam is expected to produce when reaching full capacity.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sat, 2006-05-20 14:14
The Three Gorges dam celebrated the completion of the construction of its dam today. The 22 GW project, 185 meters high and 2.3 km long sets over a hundred world records.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2005-07-25 13:08
Windsor Castle has received full planning permission to build a hydro-power station on the Thames River. The 200 kW station would cost £1 million, and provide a third of Windsor Castle's electricity needs.
Running 8,000 hours per year, this station would save 800 tonnes of CO2 emissions (European baseline), or 16,000 tonnes over a 20 year lifetime, or a cost of more than 60 GBP/tonne CO2 saved (not including maintenance and operating costs). At a tariff of 6 pence, the station saves 96,000 GBP per year, i.e. it will pay for itself in 10.4 years.
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