While the costs of producing renewable energy are more than some people might imagine, those costs tend to be more frontloaded in the expense of manufacturing, transporting and installing the equipment, such as massive wind turbines. Those costs could be brought down over time, however, through economies of scale. One of the significant drawbacks of renewable energy is the unpredictability and inconsistency of output. The wind blows when the wind blows and doesn’t when it doesn’t. You can make longer term estimates based on geography and seasonality, but hour by hour, day by day it’s unpredictable. Sudden changes in production from wind and solar farms can result in “ramping events.”

For example, if the wind quickly intensifies, the amount of electricity generated by the wind turbines rapidly increases, injecting excess energy into the power grid. As a result, grid operators quickly “ramp down” the power generation from other sources in order to prevent the system, which can only accommodate a finite amount of electricity, from collapsing. Likewise, a sudden and dramatic decrease in the wind can force the grid operators to quickly “ramp up” power supply by bringing extra generators online — and they only have a matter of minutes to complete this maneuver.

What is needed is an efficient, inexpensive way of storing the electricity produced by wind and solar plants so that electricity can be stored when production is high and released when production is low.

The need for this storage capability is growing stronger every day. The cost of oil, natural gas and coal is on the rise, and it’s having a direct impact on the cost of electricity for our homes and businesses. For example, the price of electricity in Dallas, Texas has rising 8% since the start of the year, and electricity rates in Houston are up 10 percent.

Enter the electric vehicle and an industrial-sized example of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure.

The lithium ion batteries that power electric cars lose a small percentage of their capacity to store electricity over time, and eventually will need to be replaced in the vehicle with a new battery. Also, lithium batteries are extremely difficult to recycle. So what to do with all of those old batteries? A decade or so from now these batteries will be getting retired by the millions.

It may be surprising to hear that once one of these batteries has reached the end of its useful life in the vehicle, it still has around 75 percent of its original storage capacity remaining, and it will continue to hold a charge for many years to come.

And, thus, you have an industry with millions of electricity storage devices that need to be disposed of, recycled, or repurposed, while at the same time you have an industry hungry for a cheap way to store electricity. Already, we are starting to see partnerships such as GM and ABB, a Swiss energy concern.

Source: www.technocrati.com

Un estudio financiado por la UE propone un suministro de energía más seguro a través de una red inteligente.El estudio también explica cómo se podría aprovechar una “SuperSmart Grid” o Súper Red Inteligente para producir energía de forma descentralizada y asegurar su transmisión a larga distancia. En última instancia, una red de distribución eléctrica con sus características podría permitir que todo el sistema energético procediera de energías renovables en el 2050. El estudio es parte de CIRCE, un proyecto financiado por el Sexto Programa Marco (6PM) de la UE.
Un nuevo estudio sugiere que Europa podría asegurar su abastecimiento energético y mitigar el cambio climático mediante las energías renovables. Sin embargo, uno de los inconvenientes de éstas es su intermitencia, característica que puede acarrear complicaciones en el sistema de suministro. Además, la red de suministro europea actual ha de renovarse, puesto que no es capaz de cubrir la creciente demanda energética.

Los investigadores de CIRCE proponen que se desarrolle una extensa red para que la electricidad generada a partir de energías renovables pueda recorrer grandes distancias. A este concepto lo han llamado Super Grid (“Súper Red”). Adicionalmente, una opción posible para superar los problemas que ocurren en la actualidad sería la descentralización de la producción de la energía renovable por medio de instalaciones pequeñas y repartidas, es decir, una Smart Grid o “Red Inteligente”.

Por lo tanto, mediante la conjunción de estas dos opciones se daría paso a la SuperSmart Grid o “Súper Red Inteligente” (SSG). La SSG poseería la capacidad de suministrar electricidad a un área extensa y conectaría instalaciones de generación pequeñas y repartidas. Según los socios de CIRCE, una SSG eficiente sería capaz de compensar todo tipo de fluctuaciones que se produjeran en un área extensa.

Para que Europa cumpla con sus objetivos de reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero entre un 60% y un 80% para el 2050 (en relación a los niveles preindustriales), es necesario que exista un sistema basado puramente en energías renovables, según afirmaron los investigadores. Éstos añadieron que dicho sistema debería cumplir con la política que restringe el aumento medio de la temperatura global a menos de 2 grados centígrados.

La energía renovable que importase la UE podría contribuir a lograr el objetivo de Europa consistente en que el 20% de toda la energía proceda de fuentes renovables en el plazo de los próximos 12 años. En este sentido, diversas instalaciones, como centrales termosolares situadas en los desiertos del norte de África, podrían abastecer de energía renovable a Europa. Los expertos coinciden en que las condiciones de dichas zonas son más rentables para la producción de energía solar.

La integración del mercado de la energía en Europa daría estabilidad al sistema y los consumidores podrían comprar energía a menor precio. Según los investigadores, la electricidad procedente de fuentes renovables del norte de África aumentaría la seguridad energética al diversificarse el origen de las importaciones: el mercado energético a escala mundial garantiza un suministro de energía importada más estable.

CIRCE es un proyecto financiado con 10 millones de euros mediante el Sexto Programa Marco (6PM) de la UE que estará en marcha hasta 2011 y se dedica a evaluar los efectos del cambio climático en el área del Mediterráneo.

Meeting energy needs while being efficient and using environmentally responsible technologies is probably the single greatest change that needs to happen to alter the effects of climate change now. In the United States and the European Union, governments are backing smart grid and renewable energy programs. Undoubtedly, the two technologies go hand-in-hand, but where should we put our efforts (and dollars/euros) first? What is a smart grid? According to the US Department of Energy:

Grid 2030 vision (PDF 1.1 MB) calls for the construction of a 21st century electric system that connects everyone to abundant, affordable, clean, efficient, and reliable electric power anytime, anywhere. We can achieve this through a smart grid, which would integrate advanced functions into the nation’s electric grid to enhance reliability, efficiency, and security, and would also contribute to the climate change strategic goal of reducing carbon emissions. These advancements will be achieved by modernizing the electric grid with information-age technologies, such as microprocessors, communications, advanced computing, and information technologies.

President Obama has funded smart grid technologies in the Economic Stimulus Package, and there is no doubt that a large amount of power is wasted with our current grid system; however, would it be better to invest in renewable energy now? Off-Grid explains:

The greedy and slothful companies are in fact motivated by billions of economic stimulus dollars being handed out. The stimulus money could be used more effectively installing renewable power and microgrids in local communities. Harvesting extra efficiency from the national grid could postpone the next power plant, but so could introducing widespread household-level renewables. Installing micro-grids everywhere would cut down on the losses made in transmission.

The current national grid system is inefficient. Large amounts of power is lost in transmission and generating stations. Off-Grid reports:

Transmission and distribution lines are imperfect conductors, with over 10% of power lost as heat. If these so-called line losses were reduced by a tenth on the distribution system alone, the power saved would equal all the wind generation installed in the U.S. in 2006, according to the industry’s Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI. That’s 2,454 megawatts, or approximately the equivalent of three typical coal-fired power plants.

Why haven’t the utility companies already implemented smart grid technologies using their own profits? The answer is because they are motivated by money, and there has been no incentive to do so until Obama’s stimulus package came along. The European Union faces another problem from its aging grid system. According to a report from Europe’s leading science academies, the EU will not be able to distribute the renewable energy (20% of all energy) they have committed to build by 2020. In fact, problems with the EU grid could appear as soon as 2011. A solution is to create off-grid and micro-grid supplies for small communities rather than overhaul the entire grid system. Off-Grid explains:

Scandinavian countries potentially have excess capacity in hydroelectric plants that could, ideally, be sold to places such as Germany. If agreements can be made with north African countries, solar power collected in the Sahara desert could be transported up into southern Europe. “In order to do that, you need to design the transmission system so it can cope with the large power flows through existing countries’ networks [but] Italy’s transmission system is not designed for that, nor is Spain’s.”

Distributing energy efficiently is important no matter the source, but we need to invest in alternative energy now. Creating micro grids that use renewable energy seems like the logical first step while the larger grid infrastructure system is improved.