Tag Archives: decarbonization

Uncovering the Hidden Value of Reciprocating Engines in Today’s Energy Markets

At-a-Glance

Electric utilities could be missing out on millions of dollars in value by using outdated grid modeling techniques. It is critical for a company to determine the optimum asset mix in order to remain competitive throughout the energy transition. Reuters, in collaboration with Wärtsilä, developed a report to outline the limitations of traditional grid modeling in the United States, explore how reciprocating engines capture value, and explain strategic pathways to a renewable energy transition. For more, read Uncovering the Hidden Value of Reciprocating Engines in Today’s Energy Markets.

Key Takeaways

  • A recent analysis by Ascend Analytics shows the use of hourly dispatch modeling for grid planning vastly underestimates the value of flexible grid resources such as batteries and utility-scale reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE). This is due to the use of normalized weather inputs that fail to capture real-life grid conditions with significant levels of variable renewable energy and failing to drill down to the five-minute level where much of the variability occurs.
  • As variable generation sources increasingly dominate U.S. grids, flexible assets such as batteries and RICE units are better suited to compensate for the gaps in renewable output because they can operate only when necessary. However, since these flexible assets act on sub-hourly timeframes, the value they provide to the grid is not captured in traditional daily or hourly models.
  • According to the Ascend study, RICE units appeared to be the most expensive of three dispatchable gas technologies when using an hourly model. The use of five-minute modeling shows the opposite to be true: RICEs deliver greater value than competing technologies, providing ratepayers with a lower cost solution in a world of growing renewable generation and pricing volatility.
  • Due to the variable nature of renewable resources, sub-hourly pricing volatility is set to increase dramatically across U.S. electric grids. A move to more granular production models will assist regulators and network planners in selecting technologies, like RICE units, that are best suited to increasingly volatile pricing conditions.

Path to 100% Perspective

The research outlined in the white paper clearly demonstrates the need to update resource planning models to account for real-time, five-minute variability in high renewable systems. It shows that commonly used methodologies for grid planning in the United States may result in suboptimal outcomes for ratepayers.

Following passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the United States is about to unleash new levels of variable renewable energy generation. Consequently, there is an urgent need for regulators to be made aware of the shortcomings of traditional hourly and weather-normalized modeling in forecasting current energy system dynamics. Without regulatory pressure to use more granular models, there will be little incentive for U.S. electric utilities to embrace sub-hourly models. This will lead to increasingly suboptimal results and rising costs for ratepayers, while electric utilities invest millions in assets that are poorly equipped to operate in a low-carbon energy world. Given the forecasted rate of increase in renewables on the grid, the shift to capture these fundamental dynamics is one that cannot wait.

Pathways to clean power

At-a-Glance

The coming years will see a monumental shift in the way that mining operations are run. With the clock ticking fast and the first net-zero deadline of 2030 steadily approaching, mining companies will need to make drastic changes to their power systems away from diesel and fossil fuels and toward green renewable energy sources. For more, read Pathways to clean power.

Key Takeaways

  • Mining companies are setting ambitious emissions reduction goals, with many of them pledging to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To meet these targets, all methods of producing clean energy need to be considered.
  • Wartsila is helping mining companies decide on the ideal power generation mix of green energy technologies using dynamic modeling and energy optimization to create personalized solutions for individual operations.
  • Wartsila enters historical data concerning production and power demand into the PLEXOS modeling tool to create a dynamic simulation of how a mining operation would function using a mix of different green energy types.
  • Once a plan is in place, Wartsila uses its GEMS Digital Energy Platform to identify a starting point in the energy management system to drive the optimal energy mix so decarbonization can happen.
  • The GEMS platform has been used at sites such as B2Gold’s Fekola mine in Mali, where it integrates and optimizes a hybrid energy solution – energy storage technology, a solar array, and a power generator – which led to improved power reliability and reduced emissions, fuel consumption, and operational costs of the mining operations. 

Path to 100% Perspective

The mining industry is looking for ways to improve the carbon footprint of its operations today. Because mining operations are energy intensive, this represents a significant challenge, but decarbonization is possible with a carefully planned approach. Various options are available for making a positive impact on carbon emissions. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are increasingly being utilized, but they represent only part of the solution. Energy storage, flexible and efficient power generation, and future carbon-neutral fuels are other available solutions. Using technologies like the GEMS Digital Energy Platform can help mining companies come up with a decarbonization roadmap that makes sense for them and future proofs their assets.

CPS Energy board approves plan to phase out coal by 2028

At-a-Glance

CPS Energy’s board of trustees voted 4-1 on January 23 to approve a new energy mix, which will see the municipally owned utility phase out its use of coal by 2028. For more, read CPS Energy board approves plan to phase out coal by 2028.

Key Takeaways

  • Under the approved plan, CPS Energy will shut down one of two remaining coal plants in 2028 and convert the second to a natural gas plant by 2027, which will run indefinitely.
  • The new mix aims to minimize CPS Energy’s reliance on the grid and to ensure it has plenty of dispatchable energy – meaning it can be turned on and off when needed.
  • Known as Portfolio #2, the plan will add roughly 4,928 megawatts of generation capacity to the utility’s portfolio over the next seven years, including 1,380 megawatts from combined cycle natural gas and about 800 from reciprocating internal combustion engines that run on natural gas or diesel.
  • Another 500 megawatts will come from wind, 1,180 from solar, and 1,060 from lithium battery storage.
  • CPS Energy officials emphasize that the utility will revisit the portfolio every two to three years, and Portfolio #2 offers enough flexibility that as cleaner technologies come online, they can be added to reduce CPS Energy’s reliance on natural gas.

Path to 100% Perspective

Utilities in the United States are seeing the value and beginning to invest in flexible gas solutions as part of their portfolios to integrate a growing share of renewables in the most efficient manner. CPS Energy’s plan, which includes fast starting gas power plants, will give the utility a solid and much cleaner portfolio that provides optimized and reliable electricity to its customers. Their plan also sets a precedent for how a Texas utility can accelerate the transition toward 100% renewable energy with hybrid solutions. Including flexible gas assets in the portfolio is now becoming the best and fastest way to integrate renewables and ensure security of supply, regardless of weather conditions.

Wartsila energy storage systems keep island grid secure

At-a-Glance

Wartsila will supply two 10 MW / 10 MWh energy storage systems consisting of its GridSolv Quantum integrated energy storage system and GEMS Digital Energy Platform software to Caribbean Utilities Company Ltd. (CUC) in the Cayman Islands. The project, which will be CUC’s first energy storage facility, will enable the utility to approximately double its renewable energy capacity on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands. For more, read Wartsila energy storage systems keep island grid secure.

Key Takeaways

  • The new energy storage facilities will allow CUC to operate its generating assets, including a 5 MW solar farm, in a more efficient manner, reducing fuel costs to electricity consumers.
  • The energy storage systems will also facilitate up to a total of approximately 29 MW of distributed customer-sited renewable energy resources without causing instability to the grid.
  • The systems are expected to provide extensive power system optimization capabilities and the battery will have the ability to react much faster than the existing plant, reducing the risk of customer outages caused by a loss of generation.
  • The systems are expected to become operational in late 2023.
  • Wartsila is no stranger to optimizing island power grids as its GEMS software and GridSolv energy storage systems are being used to manage 4.5 MW of wind energy, 1 MW of solar and 2.5 MW of energy storage on the island of Graciosa in the Azores, and provide 25 MW of energy storage for Bahama Power and Light.

Path to 100% Perspective

Island grids face unique reliability and resiliency challenges before considering the intermittency caused by increased integration of renewables. Places like the Cayman Islands demonstrate how steps are being taken to not only work toward renewable energy goals to reduce carbon emissions, but also to optimize energy generation and improve grid reliability in the face of seasonal variability and extreme weather events

Booming Investment In Renewables Is Set To Continue In 2023 And Beyond

At-a-Glance

Climate tech has come to the fore like never before with its potential to be a safe haven investment in a macroeconomic environment of uncertainty. For more, read Booming Investment In Renewables Is Set To Continue In 2023 And Beyond.

Key Takeaways

  • Clean energy investment significantly accelerated and is expected to surpass $1.4 trillion in 2022, says the World Economic Forum. 
  • Three-quarters of overall growth in energy investment is attributable to clean energy, which has been growing at an average annual rate of 12% since 2020.
  • Governments across Europe are doing their part to assist in the energy transition in a meaningful way, with the EU accelerating the speed at which permits are given to renewable energy projects.
  • Germany approved plans for each state to allocate a minimum amount of land for onshore wind farms and EU energy ministers backed laws with targets to get 40% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.
  • Deloitte’s Renewable Energy Outlook for 2023 report forecasts that the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) extension of tax credits for renewable energy projects will lead to up to 550 gigawatts of additional clean energy by the end of the 2020s.
  • Private investment in renewables in the U.S. reached a record high of $10 billion in 2022, investment levels that Deloitte forecasts are expected to continue into 2023 as investors are attracted by transparent and predictable returns on mature technologies that are backed by the IRA’s 10-year tax credits.

Path to 100% Perspective

Recent investments in clean energy make it abundantly clear that the renewable revolution is here. Increasing and being consistent in these investments is necessary to realize a 100% renewable energy future. As energy leaders take stock post-COVID and restructure their models, now is a key moment to set clear frameworks for achieving net zero. For most, it’s not about starting from scratch, but understanding where and how to invest to drive future resilience.

Two Partnerships Expand Access To Clean Energy & Transport In The Eastern US

At-a-Glance

A couple of energy projects in the Eastern United States are helping to increase access to clean energy and clean transport, while helping to level the playing field in other ways too. For more, read Two Partnerships Expand Access To Clean Energy & Transport In The Eastern US.

Key Takeaways

  • New York-based Autel Energy is partnering with Legacy Clean Energy (LCE), a minority-owned business in Charlotte, North Carolina, to offer electric vehicle charging solutions for corporations and marginalized communities across the country.
  • In Pennsylvania, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Lightsource bp have joined forces with a 25-megawatt solar project now in operation. With the addition of this second solar farm to SEPTA’s statewide portfolio, both companies boast 42 megawatts – rough electricity to fulfill 20% of SEPTA’s total demand.
  • By partnering with Lightsource bp, SEPTA’s Elk Hill Solar 1 project has enabled Pennsylvania to reduce its carbon footprint by 28,000 metric tons of CO2 each year.
  • The solar farm not only contributes to achieving Pennsylvania’s clean energy goals but also increases energy security and diversifies their portfolio. 

Path to 100% Perspective

Engaging private industry in the path to 100% is critical to develop the solutions and innovations needed for decarbonization. These examples show what’s possible when private companies and utilities partner to expand both capacity and access to clean energy. Partnerships like these are needed to accelerate the transition to net zero, meet decarbonization goals, and limit the impacts of climate change.

The Hydrogen Economy Will Soon Be Ready For Takeoff, Including Planes and Power Plants

At-a-Glance

Does the aviation sector have its head in the clouds? Indeed, the experts are working hard to make hydrogen a sustainable aviation fuel. For more, read The Hydrogen Economy Will Soon Be Ready For Takeoff, Including Planes and Power Plants.

Key Takeaways

  • A study by Clean Sky 2 and Fuel Cells & Hydrogen 2 says that hydrogen-powered aircraft could be ready for flight as early as 2035.
  • The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed a year ago includes up to $7 billion to establish between 6 and 10 regional hydrogen hubs across the country. The goal is to create a network of hydrogen producers and industrial consumers with an interconnected infrastructure to accelerate the use of clean hydrogen.
  • In its Hydrogen Economy Outlook, Bloomberg New Energy Finance says green hydrogen could supply 24% of the world’s energy demands by 2050 while cutting CO2 levels by 34%.
  • To help accelerate the use of green hydrogen, the U.S. Department of Energy is taking an “Earthshot”, launched in June 2021, to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per one kilogram in one decade. Currently, hydrogen from renewable energy costs about $5 per kilogram.
  • The hydrogen hubs will be essential to achieving economies of scale, bringing about price parity and driving adoption.

Path to 100% Perspective

Hydrogen is one of several potential future fuels that can help phase out fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy as part of the final push to decarbonize energy systems. At the moment, hydrogen is the most promising candidate of the P2X fuel for power plants. Hydrogen is carbon-free, has the highest production energy efficiency of the P2X fuels, and with time it is predicted to become the most cost competitive due to low renewable electricity prices. The most sustainable form of hydrogen is green hydrogen, which is produced through electrolysis of water utilizing renewable electricity. Important for green hydrogen production is access to renewable electricity and clean water. Locations with favorable conditions for these will become hydrogen production hubs.

Deep Geothermal – One Renewable Energy Source to Rule Them All?

At-a-Glance

Deep geothermal technologies, such as the gyrotron, may be the key to harnessing the heat stored below the Earth’s crust to make abundant zero emissions energy. For more, read Deep Geothermal – One Renewable Energy Source to Rule Them All?

Key Takeaways

  • Gyrotrons, which produce high power beams, are currently used in fusion research. Paul Woskov, an MIT researcher, has posed the idea of using the technology to drill geothermal wells that can reach the Earth’s mantle.
  • MIT spinoff Quaise Energy received a grant from the Department of Energy to scale up Woskov’s lab experiments using a larger gyrotron. The goal is to vaporize a hole 100 times the depth of Woskov’s current experiments by sometime next year.
  • Quaise Energy plans to start harvesting energy from pilot geothermal wells that reach rock temperatures at up to 500°C by 2026. The team then hopes to begin repurposing coal and natural gas generating plants using its system.
  • Many of the skills developed over the past century by the oil and gas industry are readily transferable to deep geothermal, meaning that a ready-made, well-trained workforce is already available. Current fossil fuel infrastructure can be readily repurposed to rapidly advance geothermal energy.

Path to 100% Perspective

A variety of technologies will have a role to play along the Path to 100%. Deep geothermal is an emerging technology that can help ease the transition. What makes this technology exciting is that it’s compatible with existing thermal power plants, which can be converted to run on steam instead of coal and natural gas. Building conditions to enable investment in thermal balancing power plants is a key step to frontloading net zero and adding geothermal energy is one way to make this possible. There are many other renewable sources in use today that are the subject of scale-up research and expanded deployment, including ocean energy, bioenergy, and renewable synthetic fuels from Power-to-X (P2X). Ocean, biomass, and geothermal are not forecast to get to the scale that solar and wind could reach, but all are important. All of these technologies are part of the analysis and discussion around the transition to a 100% renewable energy future.

California’s Solar Problem Could Be Solved by Floating Wind Farms

At-a-Glance: 

In its quest to decarbonize its energy, California is heading offshore. Besides being green, tapping the winds over the Pacific Ocean offers an additional benefit: Good timing. For more read California’s Solar Problem Could Be Solved by Floating Wind Farms.

Key Takeaways:

  • While current solar capacity in California provides a deluge of power supply in the middle of the day, the peak demand for power is in the evening, when solar isn’t as reliable. This is especially troubling during extreme weather conditions.
  • Wind turbines off the coast capture steadier ocean winds than those on land, sometimes 50% more, and it usually peaks at night, making it a useful complement to solar power during the day and reducing the need to turn to gas-fired plants and battery storage
  • Matching supply more precisely with demand is an essential, but often overlooked, element of the energy transition. Traditional power supply relies on having dispatchable generators, usually burning fossil fuels, on call to match fluctuating demand. 

Path to 100% Perspective

California can reach its goal of serving 100% of retail load with renewable energy. However, this cannot be achieved with its current portfolio of resources. The rolling blackouts in summer 2020 show that California needs additional resources to supplement the tools already in place. More specifically, California needs new resources that complement the wind, solar, and hydro needed for a shift to a 100% renewable electricity system. Slow ramping, long start, baseload resources must be replaced by faster, more flexible resources that are capable of running on sustainable fuels. Sustainable fuels produced by excess wind and solar energy, plus storage resources, can enable California to cleanly and reliably shift energy from low-net loads to high-net loads.

US Renewable Power Set to Get More Than 20% Boost From New Climate Law

At-a-Glance: 

Accelerated by the Inflation Reduction Act, solar capacity will more than triple from 2021 to 2030 and battery storage will jump exponentially, predicts BNEF. For more, read US Renewable Power Set to Get More Than 20% Boost From New Climate Law.

Key Takeaways:

  • Enough solar power plants will be built from this year through 2030 to generate 364 gigawatts of electricity, BNEF estimates. That’s more than three times the capacity of all US solar plants in operation last year.
  • A gigawatt is roughly the output of a commercial nuclear reactor and, depending on the region, can power 750,000 homes. 
  • BNEF predicts147 gigawatts of new wind installations, many of them in coastal waters along New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and toward the end of the decade, California. 
  • The IRA also includes a new tax credit for large energy storage systems — typically, big packs of lithium-ion batteries — plugged into the power grid. BNEF forecasts 107 gigawatts of storage installations through 2030, up from just 5.7 gigawatts in use this year.

Path to 100% Perspective:

The passage of the IRA means there has never been a better time to make a long-term investment in U.S. decarbonization goals, but just investing in renewables is not enough. Solar and wind are variable, and will need a reliable backup to maintain the grid. As renewables become the new baseload, the need for flexible power generation and reliable storage solutions will be more important than ever.

In its Front-Loading Net Zero report released in 2020, Wärtsilä Energy outlined the benefits of investing now in predictable, low maintenance, renewable energy and storage technology.

“Flexibility creates the conditions where renewable energy is the most profitable way to power our grids: ensuring back-up power is available when there’s insufficient wind or solar,” according to the report. “Investing in renewable baseload is now viewed as buying ‘unlimited’ power up-front, as opposed to betting against fluctuating oil prices and narrowing environmental regulation.”

 

US wind, solar tripled over the past decade: analysis

At-a-Glance: 

The United States generated three times as much renewable electricity from the sun and wind last year in comparison to 2012, a new analysis has found. Seven states alone now produce enough electricity from these sources, as well as geothermal energy, to cover half of their consumption, according to an online energy dashboard. Read more in US wind, solar tripled over the past decade: analysis.

Key Takeaways:

  • Just five years earlier, none of the states mentioned— South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico — had achieved this level of renewable energy progress.
  • Among the dashboard’s key findings was evidence that the U.S. produced enough wind energy to power 35 million typical homes in 2021 — or 2.7 times as much wind energy as in 2012. 
  • The U.S. also generated enough solar energy that year to power 15 million homes — or 15 times as much solar energy as in 2012, according to the dashboard. 
  • The dashboard found that the country now has nearly 4.7 gigawatts of battery storage, or 32 times as much as in 2012. This helps support the use of more renewable energy and keep the lights on during extreme weather events. 
  • California, Texas and Florida exhibited the most growth in solar power and battery storage from 2012 to 2021, while Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa ranked highest for wind power growth.

Path to 100% Perspective

The rise in renewables is a key step in the Path to 100%, and the numbers should continue to grow as the Inflation Reduction Act makes now a perfect time to invest in clean energy technology.

As mentioned in the article, the key to integrating renewable energy into the system is backup power– both thermal and storage. That’s because solar and wind are variable– you can’t always count on them to produce power at peak demand times.

Throwing Shade Is Solar Energy’s New Superpower

At-a-Glance: 

In America, solar power could be a new cash crop for farmers as the new innovation known as agrivoltaics grows. It is the process of farmers leasing land to solar farms and incorporating the panels as they plant crops or raise livestock. Read more in: Throwing Shade Is Solar Energy’s New Superpower.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Inflation Reduction Act includes billions of dollars in renewable energy funds that will accelerate the adoption of solar and other renewables. This will hasten the creation of large utility-scale arrays on existing cropland, perfect for its light winds, moderate temperatures and low humidity.
  • Farmers can lease their land for hundreds of dollars an acre, a much easier income than labor-intensive traditional farming. They can plant crops that thrive in shade or cool their cows under solar panels to double their income stream.
  • Critics worry that solar farms are unattractive and could change the character of rural communities, and that the panels could block access to the soil.
  • Despite positive advantages, agrivoltaics, at least on a large scale, remains a subject of research more than a method of doing business. It costs more to place solar panels high enough off the ground to allow for planting and livestock to fit underneath.

Path to 100% Perspective

In order to decarbonize, we must increase the usage of renewable energy sources like solar. Agrivoltaics could provide one solution to add more utility-size solar panels in more parts of the United States. More research is needed to determine how best to achieve this goal, but the premise is promising and if achieved, could hasten the Path to 100%.

 

Photo by Micha Sager on Unsplash

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