Alemania está experimentando con «gas eólico», una nueva tecnología que convierte el sobrante de energía eólica en hidrógeno para almacenarlo en la red de gas natural. El Grupo E.ON ha instalado en Falkenhagen una planta piloto que, aprovechando la energía renovable, producirá, a partir de 2013, unos 360 metros cúbicos de hidrógeno cada hora a través de electrólisis; es decir, descomponiendo el agua en oxígeno e hidrógeno gracias a una corriente eléctrica. Para ello «se necesitan 2 megavatios (MW)», según informaron fuentes del experimento.

La idea es verter este hidrógeno en la red de gas y utilizarlo como gas natural convencional. «Así, la red de gas se convierte en un sistema de almacenamiento de energía renovable», aportando una solución al problema del excedente al tiempo que facilitaría que este tipo de energías pudieran «ser suministradoras de producción continua» y no estar al vaivén de condiciones atmosféricas.

Además, según los responsables del proyecto, se abre «la posibilidad de que el gas natural se convierta en una energía limpia», un tema no baladí teniendo en cuenta que en los próximos 25 años la demanda de energía mundial crecerá, según la Agencia Internacional de Energía, un 40 por ciento y la de electricidad un 84 por ciento, y que para que el incremento de la temperatura global no supere el umbral de los 2º C, es necesario que la mayor parte de ese aumento proceda de fuentes que no emiten gases de efecto invernadero.

En esta línea, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, miembro del Consejo de E.ON AG y responsable del área de Tecnología y Desarrollo, afirma que se necesitan «nuevas formas de almacenamiento para poder incrementar la integración de la eólica». Aún así, fuentes de la compañía no creen «que este proyecto suponga un cambio en el mix energético». Sin embargo, a largo plazo, y «si esta tecnología consigue la aprobación de los mercados, podría tener gran impacto en la industria eólica», añaden.

En estos momentos, explican que puede añadirse hasta un 5 por ciento de hidrógeno al gas natural en la red sin ningún problema, y a medio plazo los expertos esperan que sea posible elevar este porcentaje hasta el 15 por ciento. «En algunos usos existen restricciones por las cuales sólo es posible añadir hasta un 2 por ciento, pero, en cualquier caso, esto no supone ningún problema para el proyecto», indican.

Fuente: www.larazon.es

For decades traditional fuels have enjoyed global dominance on the energy market virtually unchallenged, but that situation is changing. News out this week shows that global renewable energy deals surged last year by a massive 40%, triggered by the Japanese nuclear disaster and buoyed by an increase in billion dollar transactions.

The finding is contained in a PriceWaterHouse Cooper report published on Monday which reveals that renewable energy deals hit a record high of $53.5 billion in 2011 – compared to $38.2 billion in 2010.

“Deal-making in the renewables and energy efficiency sectors is intensifying as the sector evolves. Sustained high deal numbers and record total value reflect a maturing of the sector,” Paul Nillesen of PwC said. “The trend is all the more noteworthy given the uncertainty in the market and in government policies on renewables. We believe that deal flow will continue to be significant in the medium term,’ he added.

The entrance of pension and insurance funds in offshore wind farm in Denmark confirms the trend towards a maturing market and the creation of secondary markets, with assets sold for a second or third time, PwC said. The group predicted that as offshore wind projects increase in size, the need for a strong balance sheet to support the technology becomes more important. “This creates scope this year for a landmark wind power combination between players from one or more of Asia Pacific, Europe and North America,” Ronan O’Regan of PwC said.

But PwC’s report did not come without warnings. Continued Eurozone uncertainty could hamper heals in 2012 and US and European manufacturers are coming under cost pressures, it said. However, Nillesen said that waiting for things to improve is not necessarily the right strategy: “If a deal is highly strategic, and mission critical, then parties will still feel it is worth doing on the right terms.”

Source: www.evwind.es

In an interaction with the members of the Confederation of Indian Industry – Southern Region, Mr Girardi pointed out that Chile had 4,000-km-long coastline that afforded possibilities of developing tidal energy, and being a volcanic country, geo-thermal energy was also possible.

A member of the delegation led by Mr Girardi said at the interaction that while everybody knew Chile as a producer of copper, not many knew it was also rich in lithium. Lithium is a metal that is used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. Chile would welcome any kind of partnership in this area too, he said, noting that the Japanese had formed similar partnerships in the neighbouring Argentina.

Mr Girardi said that the mining sector in Chile would need investments of about $40-50 billion. Such huge mining operations would need energy. “We foresee a tremendous need for solar energy,” he said.

Mr T.T. Ashok, Chairman, CII-Southern Region, said India was set to emerge as a hub of wind, solar, biomass and bio-fuels related manufacturing and exports because of its very strong manufacturing and R&D orientation.

“The two countries need to expedite the proposed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement that can cover protection of bilateral investments, services, and education,” Mr Ashok said.

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com

But it’s the type of thin-film solar panels and where the photovoltaic power plant will be built that foreshadows a potentially sizable business opportunity as well as a way to maximize renewable energy production.

Energy producer Invenergy will build the Grand Ridge Solar project in Illinois adjacent to its 210-megawatt wind farm. (Powered, not coincidentally, by GE wind turbines.)

By pairing wind and solar farms, Invenergy makes more efficient use of the transmission system, given that both sources of electricity are intermittent and tend to hit peak production at different times of day. That helps power grid operators balance supply and demand.

“You put those two together you have a much more dispatchable and local renewable system,” Victor Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business, told me Thursday. “We’ve built 30 gigawatts of wind farms so adding solar is a good utilization of assets.”

Abate says it’s too early to tell how big a market that could be but notes that installing solar at just 10% of those wind farm sites would sell out GE’s solar panel production for the next five or six years.

The company is building the U.S.’s largest solar panel factory in Colorado, which will annually manufacture 400 megawatts of cadmium-telluride thin-film photovoltaic panels. (That poses a competitive threat to First Solar, the industry leader that dominates the market for cadmium-telluride solar panels.)

But GE will be supplying a different type of thin-film solar panels made by Japan’s Solar Frontier to the Invenergy project in Illinois. It’s the second win this week for Solar Frontier’s CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) technology.

On Monday, renewable energy developer enXco announced that it would build a 150-megawatt solar farm in the Southern California desert using Solar Frontier panels near its wind farms in the Tehachapi Mountains. Those wind and solar farms will share a 4,500-megawatt renewable energy transmission line under construction in the Tehachapi.

That is by far the biggest deployment of CIGS technology, which a number of Silicon Valley startups have been working on for years to commercialize as it promises cheaper solar electricity through by lowering production costs.

Source: www.forbes.com

“In a recent meeting with the oil minister, he elaborately explained on plans to explore oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea,” Ali-Asghar Yousefnejad stated.

Iran announced on December 11 it has discovered a large gas field in the Caspian Sea with at least 50 trillion cubic feet (some 1.4 trillion cubic meters) of reserves.

The field, in waters 700 meters deep, lies wholly within Iran’s territorial waters, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi explained.

He added excluding this new discovery Iran has 11 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves in the Caspian Sea.

Qasemi also announced that Iran is now the sole country in the region which has found access to the technology to drill wells in deep waters.

Previously, deputy oil minister Mohsen Khojaste-Mehr told the Mehr News Agency that extensive operations are underway to explore new gas deposits across the country which will probably increase the country’s proven gas reserves.

The Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) has envisaged boosting the country’s gas production by 250 million cubic meters per day to reach 1.4 billion cubic meters per day.

Second to Russia, Iran holds the world’s second-largest gas reserves, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy in June.

Source: www.tehrantimes.com