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[maywillow] 01/3/2021 14:19

Scientists Warn That Filling The Sahara With Solar Panels Is A Bad Idea

Meredith Poor Friday at 04:58 PM in Renewables

Meredith Poor

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Friday at 04:58 PM

"Zhengyao Lu from Sweden’s Lund University and Benjamin Smith from Western Sydney University warned in a recent paper that turning the Sahara into a giant solar farm will have negative consequences for the global climate because of the way solar panels work.

Everyone knows the basics: photovoltaic panels absorb the energy of the sun. But just a step beyond these basics, we are reminded of the efficiency factor of solar panels, or the rate, at which it converts the energy it absorbs into electricity. The average to date is between 15 and 20 percent. So, 15-20 percent of the light solar panels absorb, they convert into electricity. The rest appears to be the problem, according to Lu and Smith."

Given that the Sahara is roughly 3000 miles across, it's worth pointing out that the largest 'reasonably sized' solar farm to meet global power production needs would be about 150 miles x 150 miles on a side. Any larger farm would generate power no one could use.

In any case, solar power farms would presumably be situated near their respective markets, so the Sahara would serve Europe and North Africa. Farms elsewhere would serve the southern countries in Africa. South America would have its own farms, as would North America. Sites in Asia might include the Gobi desert and certain parts of India. Australia has vast amounts of room, and might export power to countries like Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Probably the largest economically rational site in the Sahara would be about 80 miles x 80 miles.

[maywillow] 01/3/2021 14:19

Scientists Warn That Filling The Sahara With Solar Panels Is A Bad Idea

Meredith Poor Friday at 04:58 PM in Renewables

Meredith Poor

Power User
MP
Members
+ 702
779 posts

Friday at 04:58 PM

"Zhengyao Lu from Sweden’s Lund University and Benjamin Smith from Western Sydney University warned in a recent paper that turning the Sahara into a giant solar farm will have negative consequences for the global climate because of the way solar panels work.

Everyone knows the basics: photovoltaic panels absorb the energy of the sun. But just a step beyond these basics, we are reminded of the efficiency factor of solar panels, or the rate, at which it converts the energy it absorbs into electricity. The average to date is between 15 and 20 percent. So, 15-20 percent of the light solar panels absorb, they convert into electricity. The rest appears to be the problem, according to Lu and Smith."

Given that the Sahara is roughly 3000 miles across, it's worth pointing out that the largest 'reasonably sized' solar farm to meet global power production needs would be about 150 miles x 150 miles on a side. Any larger farm would generate power no one could use.

In any case, solar power farms would presumably be situated near their respective markets, so the Sahara would serve Europe and North Africa. Farms elsewhere would serve the southern countries in Africa. South America would have its own farms, as would North America. Sites in Asia might include the Gobi desert and certain parts of India. Australia has vast amounts of room, and might export power to countries like Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Probably the largest economically rational site in the Sahara would be about 80 miles x 80 miles.

[maywillow] 05/2/2021 10:25

Total SE said Friday that it has acquired a development pipeline of 2.2 gigawatts of solar projects and 600 megawatts of battery storage assets in Texas, U.S, from renewable energy company SunChase Power LLC and private investment firm MAP RE/ES.

The French oil-and-gas major said the pipeline includes four large-scale solar projects with battery energy storage systems. Construction of the first two projects should begin later this year, according to the company, and all projects are set to come online between 2023 and 2024.

The remuneration will be in the form of staged payments as the projects advance, Total said. No financial details were disclosed.



Write to Giulia Petroni at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2021 04:15 ET (09:15 GMT)

[solsticefire] 09/1/2021 18:31

And now the slushing begins.

[uppompeii] 06/1/2021 20:48

Well there's certainly been a lot of sloshing this month.

[waldron] 23/12/2020 14:28

UK company breaks solar cell technology world record

PowerSolarPlant

By James Murray 22 Dec 2020

Oxford PV’s perovskite solar cell technology has been independently proven to convert 29.52% of solar energy into electricity
Solar cell world record

Solar is viewed as a crucial technology as part of the efforts to decarbonise the world’s energy supply (Credit: Oxford PV)

A UK company has broken the world record for the amount of the sun’s energy that can be converted into electricity by a single solar cell.

Oxford PV’s perovskite solar cell technology has been independently proven to convert 29.52% of solar energy into electricity.

In contrast, standard silicon cells used on millions of homes globally have an average conversion rate of just 15-20% and a practical maximum conversion rate of around 26%.


World record for Oxford PV’s solar cell technology a “fantastic milestone”

Solar is viewed as a crucial technology as part of the efforts to decarbonise the world’s energy supply and is predicted to provide 50% of global electricity generation by 2050.

Oxford PV’s CEO Frank P. Averdung said: “Achieving another world record is a fantastic milestone for our perovskite based solar cell, as it demonstrates that we are one step closer to the provision of highly powerful and lower cost solar energy.

“We are thrilled to be at the heart of the solar revolution and play a vital role in decarbonising the world’s energy supply.

“We are currently at a global tipping point – climate change is dramatically worsening and the need to use alternative forms of energy has never been greater.

“Our solar cells are critical in accelerating the adoption rate of solar and tackling the ever-worsening issue of climate change. We have a clear roadmap to take this technology beyond 30%.”

The technology used in Oxford PV’s record-breaking cell involves coating ordinary silicon solar cells with a thin film of the material perovskite to better utilise photons across the solar spectrum.

The company said the synthetic perovskite material is affordable, sustainable and claims it could eventually replace silicon entirely. 35kg of perovskite generates the same amount of power as seven tonnes of silicon.


Oxford PV’s next-generation solar cells will be available in 2022

In 2022, Oxford PV will be the first company to sell these next-generation solar cells to the public.

Initial products, designed for residential roofs, will generate 20% more power from the same number of cells. With further development, the firm believes future solar cells can be “improved significantly”.

Dr Chris Case, chief technology officer at Oxford PV, said: “Our solar cells and modules not only demonstrate record efficiency but have passed externally measured industry standard reliability tests from the International Electrotechnical Commission.

“The considerable progress we have made is thanks to our dedicated and skilled scientists and engineers in the UK and a validation of the entire global perovskite research community who have been contributing to making perovskite successful.

“Our innovative approach is a breakthrough for solar power efficiency and will be instrumental in paving the way for an all-electric future.”

[uppompeii] 21/12/2020 09:19

Londoners arriving though... still, they don't venture more than a mile from Burnham Market or Brancaster Staithe.

[solsticefire] 20/12/2020 19:38

Should hope so after all this time.

[uppompeii] 20/12/2020 18:08

It is still nice.

[the grumpy old men] 20/12/2020 08:24

Engie Romania buys 9.3 MW solar park in Harghita county
Wind power, turbine Source: SeeNews

BUCHAREST (Romania), December 18 (SeeNews) - The Romanian arm of French electric utility company Engie said on Friday that it has completed the acquisition of a 9.3 MW photovoltaic park in the central county of Harghita.

The acquisition is in line with Engie Romania's strategy focused on the development of renewable energies that have a key role in the energy transition, the company said in a press release.

The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Prior to the completion of the deal, the park was part of Ever Solar, a local company owned by German photovoltaic park developer Soventix and developer Alpin Solar.

The photovoltaic farms were put into operation in 2015 and have so far produced approximately 55 GWh, the equivalent of annual electricity consumption of some 34,000 households.

"This acquisition marks a new stage in achieving our goal of becoming a major investor in the field of renewable energy in Romania by 2030, thus contributing to the group's ambition to be the leader in energy transition," Engie Romania president and CEO Eric Stab said.

"Locally, our goal is to occupy a leading position in the segment of centralised renewable energy - given that wind and solar energy will have an increasing share in the future energy mix of the country - and to provide green energy to our customers, either natural or legal persons," he added.

"Romania has a high potential for solar energy, which will be capitalised more and more in the coming years. Therefore, our objective is to continue the development of the installed capacity portfolio of renewable energies, both through organic growth and acquisitions," Engie Romania said in the statement.

Engie Romania currently operates 110 MW of renewable energy in wind and photovoltaic capacities. Prior to this acquisition, the company was active in renewable energy with two wind farms, with an installed capacity of approximately 100 MW, located in Braila and Galati counties .

The Engie Group is present in Romania in natural gas, electricity and energy services.

Engie Romania is the main subsidiary of the French group in Romania and owns the companies Distrigaz Sud Retele, ENGIE Servicii, ENGIE Building Solutions, Alizeu Eolian and Braila Winds, serving a total 1.9 million customers. Engie Romania and its subsidiaries operate a distribution network of about 20,000 km, own two wind farms with a total capacity of 110 MW and have 4,000 employees.
More stories to explore


RENEWABLESNOW

[the grumpy old men] 20/12/2020 07:23

Total to build 35 MW solar plant in Angola PV Magazine
14:05 Fri, 18 Dec

[shalder] 19/12/2020 18:26

Well, apart from Norfolk, obvs.

[pvb] 19/12/2020 17:17

WE ARE ALL DOOMED!

[solsticefire] 19/12/2020 17:14

hxxps://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction
It's Nibiru disguised.

[waldron] 11/12/2020 16:35

A decade ago, NextEra, Iberdrola and Enel were sleepy regional utilities with little name recognition.

Now they are fast-growing giants with market values rivaling the likes of oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, thanks to their early all-in bets on wind and solar farms.

And still, many people have never heard of them.

Their early lead in the global transition away from oil has put these companies on track to become the major energy companies of the coming decades -- the "green energy majors." But they now face the threat of increased competition as some of the oil titans that have traditionally dominated the energy industry diversify into wind and solar power.

If the green majors are nervous about a coming clash, they aren't showing it. NextEra Energy Inc. Chief Executive James Robo dismissed the idea that oil majors in the U.S. and Europe posed a competitive threat at an investor conference this fall, saying that the companies' green projects were among the worst he had seen.

"I don't worry about the oil majors at all," he told the audience. "If I have 100 things I worry about at night, it's not even on the top 100." Mr. Robo declined to be interviewed.

For now, NextEra, Enel SpA and Iberdrola SA are Wall Street darlings, after Spain's Iberdrola and Italy's Enel became global builders of green energy projects, while NextEra became America's largest generator of wind and solar power.

Each of the companies has seen its share price soar in recent months as investors bet on their ability to lead the transition to a lower-carbon future with massive investments in renewable energy, battery storage and improvements to the electric grid.

That transition is expected to accelerate in the U.S. under President-elect Joe Biden, who has promised to focus on climate change, and within the European Union and China, where ambitious carbon-reduction efforts are under way.

Enel and Iberdrola have outlined plans to substantially expand their portfolios of renewable-energy projects over the next decade with about $170 billion in collective investments. NextEra, which hasn't disclosed a long-term spending plan, expects to have invested $60 billion in renewable energy projects between 2019 and 2022.

Still, analysts caution that increased competition within the renewables industry could reduce profit margins for the most established players.

"Oil companies entering the renewables market will need to accept lower returns on projects initially to gain market share, and this is going to result in a reduction in margins across the board," said Fernando Garcia of RBC Capital Markets.

Already, Denmark's Ørsted A/S, a company formerly known as DONG Energy that focused on oil and gas, has transitioned into a leading player in offshore wind projects. BP is planning a big shift too: It says it will increase its clean-energy investments in coming years as it dramatically scales back oil and gas production.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has decimated demand for fossil fuels this year, briefly turning U.S. crude prices negative and forcing the oil industry to lay off thousands of workers and slash spending. That has sapped the oil giants of much of their financial strength, making it harder for them to quickly transition into renewables projects, which require large upfront investment in order to reap steady returns over a longer period.

While big oil companies once reported double-digit returns on invested capital -- in the heady days prior to 2014, when crude oil prices last topped $100 a barrel, some topped 20% annually, according to FactSet -- the big renewables players have been winning the race of late with slow and steady single-digit returns.

"There is no better example than 2020 to show how extremely different the risk profiles are," said Bernstein analyst Meike Becker.

Iberdrola, Enel and NextEra have taken different paths to morph from humdrum utilities into green growth companies.

Originally an Italian utility, Enel was actually later than some others to home in on wind and solar. Two years after forming its renewable development arm, Enel Green Power, the company sold about a third of it in 2010 to pay down corporate debt. Enel then focused on trying to build nuclear plants in Italy before citizens there rejected that plan.

But Enel's current chief executive, Francesco Starace, then the head of that green unit, said he recognized that wind and solar power had the potential to become competitive in the broader energy market as costs fell. The unit focused on developing projects in regions without large subsidies or incentives to show investors that they could stand on their own.

"At the time, this sounded like blasphemy or idiocy," Mr. Starace said in an interview. "But we did it stubbornly, and kept doing it, and eventually this prediction of ours became true."

Mr. Starace became Enel's CEO in 2014, and promptly repurchased the portion of Enel Green Power that had earlier been sold. He also reoriented Enel to pursue projects that could be completed within three years to account for the pace of technological change. That pretty much eliminated nuclear and coal plants, as well as large hydroelectric projects, leaving wind and solar farms in the mix.

Enel is now the world's largest renewable energy producer outside China, with an EUR84 billion market value, equal to about $102 billion, and projects in 32 countries. The company has a large presence in the U.S. and has developed wind and solar farms in remote areas in countries including Zambia and Chile. The company plans to spend about EUR70 billion, equivalent to $85 billion, to nearly triple its generation capacity in the coming decade, which it expects will give it around 4% of the global market.

Iberdrola, initially a domestic Spanish utility, was an early pioneer of renewables. It started in 2001, when the company unveiled a plan to expand internationally and invest in clean energy sources to help meet growing global demand for power.

It tapped Ignacio Galán to spearhead the strategy as CEO at a time when wind and solar power were still hugely expensive relative to other electricity sources. The company had historically focused on building hydroelectric and nuclear plants, as well as some coal- and gas-fired ones.

Iberdrola has expanded into renewables in part by aggressively buying up smaller players with attractive growth prospects. In October, it agreed to pay $4.3 billion for New Mexico-based electricity company PNM Resources Inc. -- its eighth deal this year. It plans to invest heavily in the U.S., where the company is third in renewables generation capacity behind NextEra and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Mr. Galán said in an interview that Iberdrola at first faced skepticism about its decision to focus on renewables, but now the tide has turned: The company's value has multiplied by six on his watch to around EUR71 billion, or $86 billion, far exceeding his initial ambition to double its size.

"All we have been fighting for for 20 years, every person recognizes that was the right decision," he said.

Iberdrola is now the world's second largest renewable energy generator outside of China, with projects in 30 countries, including an offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea and a wind and solar farm in Australia. It plans to spend EUR75 billion, equivalent to $91 billion, over the next five years to double its renewable power capacity.

Florida-based NextEra grew into America's largest renewable energy producer by keeping debt levels low, capitalizing on federal tax subsidies available to help finance wind and solar projects around the country and reinvesting its profits to expand further.

Over time, it developed the size and scale needed to consistently underbid other companies in auctions to develop projects. It operates two Florida utilities and sells renewable energy output to others. It also operates electric transmission lines in the U.S. and Canada, as well as natural gas pipelines.

Despite its rapid growth, NextEra has largely flown under the radar. Some lawmakers in Washington and elsewhere didn't know much about it until recently. The company several years ago launched a targeted effort to introduce itself so that its representatives wouldn't have to start meetings with tedious explanations, according to a person familiar with the company's strategy.

NextEra declined to comment. The company's executives still rarely speak to the press.

Investors, however, have been eyeing NextEra for years. Its share price has roughly tripled over the past five years to reach a market value of $146 billion, and for the first time it briefly topped Exxon's value this year in a watershed moment for renewables producers. Its project backlog totals 15,000 megawatts -- an amount just larger than its current portfolio, built over two decades.

BP Capital Fund Advisors, a Dallas-based investment adviser that has historically focused on oil and gas, bought shares in NextEra in March as part of an effort to diversify with investments in renewables. The firm was founded by the late T. Boone Pickens, the oil industry magnate who took an interest in wind and solar power late in his career. He died last year.

"NextEra stands alone in terms of what it offers in exposure to the renewable theme," said portfolio manager Ben Cook. "If you're investing in energy now...that has to be part of the equation."

Write to Katherine Blunt at [e-mail] and Sarah McFarlane at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2020 11:14 ET (16:14 GMT)

[grupo] 05/12/2020 06:33

New Solar Breakthrough Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
By Irina Slav - Jun 11, 2020, 3:00 PM CDT
Join Our Community

Plants and their ingenious way of turning light and air into fuel have been an inspiration for many scientists. Now, photosynthesis has made the basis for a possible solution to our carbon dioxide problem. Researchers from the Swedish Linköping University have found a way to use solar power to convert carbon dioxide into other chemicals for use as a fuel. They did this by devising what they called a photoelectrode covered in a layer of graphene—the much-hyped material that is basically a single layer of carbon atoms—which captures solar energy and creates charge carriers. Next, they convert carbon dioxide and water into methane, carbon monoxide, and formic acid.

This is the latest sign that a drive is underway to find ways to utilize the carbon dioxide that is the target of so many environmental initiatives and even the Paris Agreement itself. And this drive is gathering pace, with breakthroughs likely to keep coming.

Earlier this year, for example, the National Renewable Energy Lab and the University of Southern California announced they had made a new sort of catalyst that could make hydrogenation—a process than can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons—cheaper.

Their catalyst utilized nanotechnology to add nanoparticles of molybdenum carbide—a compound featuring a metal and carbon that has an extensive range of applications, among them the conversion of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide to be used in chemicals production, and into hydrocarbons.

Cost is an essential consideration in all projects seeking to make use of the carbon dioxide that we release in the atmosphere instead of just leaving it there and worrying about it. Carbon capture technology is notoriously expensive, for example, and many believe it would never become affordable enough to make sense as a large-scale solution to the world's emissions problem. But some technologies are that expensive, it seems.

Related: Bulls Beware: A Dark Cloud Is Forming Over Oil Markets

MIT last year released a paper detailing a device that could literally suck out the carbon dioxide from the air and store it for later use. The device's principle is ingeniously simple: as the battery charges, it sucks in carbon dioxide. During discharge, the CO2 is released into the ground. The battery itself is made up of arrays of electrodes with gaps between the arrays so the gas can enter the device. The electrodes have a natural affinity for CO2, which means they attract the gas molecules when they enter the device. Then they are released into storage space.

Then there is flaring capture. Flared gas is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions and a priority problem for the energy industry. There are already companies focusing exclusively on this. One such company, UK-based Capterio, says eliminating emissions by capturing the gas before it is flared reduces the carbon footprint of the emitter, saves them costs, and increases revenues because the gas can be used for other things instead of wasting it through flaring.

So, there is carbon capture and storage, there is reuse of the gas that emits the carbon dioxide before it emits it, and there is recycling the carbon dioxide into other chemicals that could be used for a range of applications, from plastics production to hydrogen fuel cells. With so many potential benefits—and with growing pressure from regulators—chances are there will be more breakthroughs in CO2 utilization before long.

There is a financial incentive, as well. If something is usable, then it has value. All those tons of CO2 that are released into the earth's atmosphere are no exception. Flared gas alone costs about $27 billion in lost revenues every year. While it's true that most CO2 emissions cannot be monetized in the same way that flared gas can be monetized, part of them can still be captured and used productively. The technology is in the works.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

[grupo] 05/12/2020 06:27

Century Old Space Science Revives Solar Power Dream
By Haley Zaremba - Dec 01, 2020, 3:00 PM CST
Join Our Community

The economic and industrial turmoil created by the novel coronavirus pandemic will forever be associated with the year 2020, but its impact will be much farther reaching and longer lasting than just one anomalous calendar year. COVID-19 is changing the global economy as we know it, and fewer sectors are being as thoroughly battered, challenged, and transformed as the energy industry. Until this year, decarbonization of the global economy seemed like an idealistic environmentalists217; pipe dream. Now, it seems an inevitable and fast-approaching reality as veteran oil empires crumble and renewable energies pick up steam. Headlines dramatically but earnestly reference the previously utopian “end of oil” while global leaders design green stimulus packages and organizations as influential and lauded as the World Economic Forum call for a “new energy order” and a “great reset.”

And as renewable energy companies take off to become the “new energy giants” they’re not just looking to take over the entire Earth’s energy industry--renewables are set to go galactic. The final frontier has been a major point of interest for the energy sector for years now; in fact, outer space is seen as a potential breeding ground for untold numbers of industries including mining, tourism, research and development, and data collection and analysis, to name just a very few. The commercial possibilities for the space economy are so considerable and as yet untapped that Bank of America Merrill Lynch projected back in 2017 that the space industry could explode to more than eight times its current size by 2050 to reach a total value of nearly $3 trillion.

Related: Brazil’s Oil Giant Slashes Its Five-Year Investment Plan

Already, there has been a lot of talk about bringing small nuclear reactors into space, but now it looks as if solar will get its piece of the pie in the sky as well. While they’re still very much in the research and development phase, large-scale solar-based power stations floating in the Earth’s orbit could very well be the future of our global energy systems. These stations would then beam power down to Earth in a green and emissions-free energy solution without the same issues of variability that wind and solar experience down on the ground. This beamed energy would have the potential to transform the global energy industry as well as the climate.

The concept is not a new one. It was dreamed up by a Russian scientist named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky way back in the 1920s, but until now the idea has been more fantasy than reality. But now, scientists and engineers around the world are getting close to taking the fiction out of science fiction. There are a lot of moving pieces to the puzzle, however, and many of the logistics of how to bring these massive power stations fruition are still in question.

“One of the key challenges to overcome is how to assemble, launch and deploy such large structures,” reports Future Planet. “A single solar power station may have to cover as much as 10 sq km (4.9 sq miles) – equivalent to 1,400 football pitches. Using lightweight materials will also be critical, as the biggest expense will be the cost of launching the station into space on a rocket.”

While these are far from the only challenges to be faced in the development of these cutting-edge space stations, some of the best minds of our time are diligently working toward ironing out all these kinks and deploying an orbital solar station in the next couple of decades. Already, a team of Chinese researchers has developed a system that is projected to come online as soon as 2050. The system, called Omega, “should be capable of supplying 2GW of power into Earth’s grid at peak performance.” That’s the equivalent of about six million solar panels. At the risk of employing a grossly overused word, the successful launch of a renewable power system of that magnitude would be the very definition of disruptive.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

[solsticefire] 22/10/2020 18:22

Best be safe,Walls have ears.

[goalkeeper] 21/10/2020 22:31

Frey Bentos know something, that's all I am allowed say at the moment.

[uppompeii] 20/10/2020 21:11

You missed a 20