1. Conventional Power Generation & T&D Infrastructure Development will be the strongest and largest source of revenue for power equipment industry.

6. Some major policies emerging from the Durban Climate Change Talks

According to Frost & Sullivan report, in Asia Pacific the strongest driver for renewable energy will be; Energy Security & fuel Diversity; Emphasis on Smart Energy; Growth in Energy Demand and Investment in new Infrastructure. These 4 drivers are going to support a 20 percent growth in renewable energy in the Asia Pacific markets in 2012.

Yet, there are some key restraints such as; economic uncertainty; project cost & currency fluctuation and delayed market liberalization, which is going to act as challenges for a constant growth. Efficient government support will, however, help to tackle a high degree of the restraints.

Source: Frost & Sullivan (Slide 5)

For the field of solar energy, China will act as powerful global manufacture of solar-energy solutions. She will also be one of the fastest growing solar markets in Asia, particularly for on-grid Solar PV. Other markets such as Malaysia have had Panasonic and Bosch investing heavily in PV manufacturing plants. Yet, Thailand is expected to have a weak progress in the solar market due to floods.

In Japan feed-in tariff is will help solar PV to be sustained, and experience a favorable growth. In other countries such as Australia, government policies such as imposition of ‘Carbon Tax’ will support the solar market to grow.

Forecast for Solar PV Installed Capacity in 2012

- Total Capacity installed 5,330 MW
- Market growth of 38.6 percent
- Japan represent 2,600 MW
- China Representing 1,360 MW
- India Representing 450 MW
- Australia representing 450 MW
- Korea representing 150 MW

In 2012, Asia Pacific will remain the world’s fastest growing market, in relation to its new installed capacity followed by North America and thereafter Europe. Besides, in Asia Pacific, china will be the largest consumer of renewable energy due to its strong demand of power. In the China, there will be drive to go towards offshore wind power.

Forecast for Solar PV Installed Capacity in 2012

- Total World Capacity Installed 21, 257 MW
- A Capacity growth of 26.7 percent
- China representing 15,000 MW

Nevertheless, coal fired power plants will maintain the strongest capacity creation. But, the emphasis will be on ultra supercritical boilers and other systems where pollution can be controlled and minimized. In countries like India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mongolia there will be an attractive demand for coal power in 2012. In overall, conventional power can expect an anticipated investment of $130 to $140 billion which represents a growth of 4 to 5 percent, but as mentioned the focus will be on clean coal fired generation plants.

In the expansion of smart grids, companies such as Schneider, CISCO and Toshiba will start to invest more attention. They will foster strategic international partnership to deploy new smart grid technology into countries. The expected investment is US$ 10 billion, which represent a growth of 60 to 70 percent, since 2011. The key markets for smart grid in Asia Pacific will be China, Australia, Korea and Thailand. There are currently smart grid projects which are reaching its completion stage in Korea and Australia.

Source: Frost & Sullivan (Slide 15)

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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Their concept over-rides previous assumption that the only way to increase efficiency of wind turbines is to go offshore and to build larger turbines.

John Dabiri, a professor of Engineering & applied Science as well as the director of the Center of bioinspired Engineering at Caltech, says that wind farms are not really that efficient. The conventional wind turbines occupy a large footprint, and much of the wind is untapped. The modern wind turbines are larger and taller, meaning that they do catch higher winds.

Nevertheless, the increase in size and height of wind turbines, leads to higher cost in terms of construction, engineering, maintenance and other environmental and landscaping costs.

In the Journal of Renewables & Sustainable Energy issued by the American Institute of Physics’ Dabiri gives a description on how to improve the efficiency of wind farm designs.

It is certain that the wind that can be harnessed at 30 feet is extremely much more efficient and constant than near the ground winds. Yet, if the low-winds were captured in an efficient way, then it would be no need to go for the higher altitude winds. Research has shown that capturing the wind that exceeds 30 feet can power several times the whole world energy demand.

The use of vertical-axis wind-turbines (VAWTs) settings proposed by Caltech will make it possible to establish wind turbines close to each other. This would avoid the drawback of large spacing between the horizontal-axis propeller-wind turbines.

Dabiri says that VAWT generate a series of benefits. The design is highly efficient and provides a low-cost way to capture near ground winds. In addition, it would decrease the level of negative environmental consequences generated by wind turbines such as damaging landscape views.

However, VAWT structures used today are less efficient and are commonly at risk of structural failures. However, improvement in materials used and aerodynamic loads can prevent these fatigue failures associated with VAWT.

According to recent studies, VAWT turbines are evolving in the right direction, and a pilot study suggests that off-the-shelf wind turbines are becoming more efficient.

The aim of the research is to find ways to make wind energy even more efficient. Dabiri says that the use of smaller power generation approaches to harnessed wind energy will be significantly cheaper as less expensive material will be used.

Soon a re-invented approach of harnessing wind energy might be used.

Source: Science Daily

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This upcoming solar farm is expected to produce 1.4 MW of electricity per annum, which will render it the largest solar farm in the UK. This new solar farm is the result of a joint venture between Solar Century (solar panel suppliers) and Light Source Renewable energy. In total the farm will be spread across 2.9 hectare in Wheal Jane, which is closed to Truro. There will be a total of 5,700 modules, which will release a capacity of 1.437 MWh. In other words, this will be sufficient to provide electricity to 430 households, and reduce CO2 emissions by 737 tonnes per annum.

In the UK, this is one of the very few projects that is being provided with ‘Feed-in-tariff’ rates, which are popularly called ‘clean energy cash back’. The programme established by the government was meant to motivate the installation of solar panels, and rewarding business that promotes the use of renewable. The companies generating electricity from solar are, in other words, paid a preferential rate above the prevailing energy rates. The common hinder for solar energy to take off is that fossil-fuel power is cheaper in comparison to solar energy; solar cells are relatively more expensive.

It was announced in February that the government was going to revise its feed-in tariff scheme for companies producing above 50 Kw. The aim was to reduce the incentive of the feed-in tariff for large solar installation by as much as 70 percent. So, large solar farms that joins the grid after the end of this month will be faced with severely lower rates.

Conor McGuigan who is the head of planning for Lightsource says that it is disappointing to see the government reducing the availability of feed-in-tariff for large solar manufactures. They do play a fundamental role in the overall supply of clean energy in the United Kingdom.

In addition, Wheal Jane is also a domestic tin mine site that house the country’s prime earth science park of clean energy with hydro, wind, solar and geothermal sources.
The CEO of SolarCentury, Derry Newman says that the movement towards solar energy in tine mine shows how energy productions are changing.

According to recent news, the progress of clean energy is spreading across the country. Another extensive-array of solar cells is being set up in Howbery Business Park situated at Oxforshire. It will consist of an array of 3,000 solar cells, which will produce around 682 MWh of energy per annum.

Source: Wired.Co

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At the opening of the annual session of China’s Parliament (National People’s Congress), Wen stated in his speech that there will be more active participation in the prevention of global warming.

The country aims to reduce 17% of carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product between the years 2011 to 2015 — a step to achieve its goal to bring down carbon concentration for at least 40% by 2020, in comparison to levels in 2005.

The premier asserted that by 2015, energy use per unit of GDP will be cut by 16%, and expects to raise last year’s 8.3% of non-fossil fuels in its energy infusion to 11.4%.

Between the years 2006-2010, Wen stated that China had achieved reasonable developments in terms of energy conservation, environmental protection and ecological improvement, and likewise had taken firm measures in the implementation of green technology.

China’s past five years revealed a decrease of 19.1% of energy consumption per unit of GDP, which almost reached the initial goal of 20%, according to China’s premier.

This year, as reported separately by National Development and Reform Commission, the leading economic planning agency is suggesting positive news. China’s target is to decrease at least 3.5% of both carbon concentration and energy consumption per unit of GDP in comparison to last year’s.

The country has taken on a bold step in increasing the use of renewable resources like solar and wind power. It intends to make more use of its nuclear power as well. At present, China utilizes two-thirds of its power requirements from highly contaminating coal energy resource.

Source: Physorg

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This is good news for our plant. The reduction in consumption of dirty products for greener ones is addressing the challenge of global warming as well as waning pollution. One of the most effective eco-oriented changes has been the introduction of reusable shopping bags. The most interesting part is that our reusable shopping bags are filled with ‘environmentally friendly products’.

An increasing number of environmentally conscious shoppers is leveraging green consumerism. Nevertheless, capitalism is making some minor adjustments, but they are still depleting natural resources and overwhelming the earth with waste, mass production and pollution.

The private corporate devils have adopted eco-friendly solutions but to a limit. They agree with the fact that green goods are an emerging market opportunity. However, the leaders of these large corporations are unwilling to embrace conservation to its full sense. Currently, consumers are faced with two options to maintain a higher standard of living: Either to resort to consuming less or to continue with consumption of environmentally unsound products.

It is certain that capitalism can foster innovation. However, capitalism isn’t willing to engage on an environmentally and ecological sane solution if there isn’t enough profit to be made.

South-West German Exemplifies greenness

In the south-west of Germany, we have one of the greenest cities on earth; Freilburg. There are two eco-villages in Freilburg, Reiselfeld and Vauban. The cities have been around for a dozen years with a well-established community. Nowadays, approximately 15,000 inhabitants of diverse income groups live in the region.
Vauban Changed into An Eco-friendly Village

In 1995, the Forum Vauban was formed. The group took the social initiative to go energy-efficient. It was then that the Vauban community started transcending towards greenness. The German Federal Foundation for Environment provided a sizeable grant to support the environmental conservation efforts. The group became increasingly more formal and wider public gathering was formed to exchange ideas.

The final product was a 400-page document with lucrative energy-and-environmentally sound proposals. This included ideas such as resource-efficient apartment, photovoltaic arrays, a cogeneration power plant, as well as a cogeneration unit for individual buildings.

Another initiative by the group was to reduce the presence of automobiles, supporting child-friendly pedestrian zone. Forum Vauban suggested banning parking in residential streets to avoid excessive use of cars. This would alter the habit of people. Currently, in Vauban less than the national average owns a car.

In Vauban people have been engaged in social planning, sharing ideas and concept to make its community a better place. Interestingly this has been achieved by self-organization of people. In other words, instead of complaining about the current state, people are doing something to make things happen.

Another concept for housing is to be resources efficient. For instance, single-family homes do waste both resources and space. The most convenient solution is to construct highly dense residential housing. For ancient buildings, renovation and retrofitting are essential. In the region, advanced passivhaus are used. These housing facilities (architecture) use on average only 15 percent of the energy in comparison to conventional German housing facilities; on average 20-KWh is used per square foot while the passivhaus architecture brings this down to only 1.3 KWh.

The Passivhaus architecture has this ‘passive’ ability to retain heat or coolness for winter and summer respectively. This reduces heavy cost used to for heating or air conditioning. A characteristic of the passivhaus design is that buildings have well-insulated windows, doors and walls. On average passivhaus cost 7 percent more than contemporary buildings.

In German there has since long been increasing pressure for alternative sources of energy. In 2008 around 14 percent of the country’s electricity supply came from renewable energy. The government is expecting to heighten this representation to 25 to 30 percent by 2020.

The Equal Power Policy

According to a founding member of Forum Vauban, Jörg Lange, who is a trained biologist is now concentrating his attention on the 2,000-Watt Society. It is a programmed promoted by a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The concept focuses on distributing an equal amount of energy to people.

It has been estimated by Swiss scientists that the earth can only accommodate an additional of six billion inhabitants if consumption per person is kept at 2,000 watts: 500 for transport, 500 for home consumption and 1,000 to grow food construct buildings and manufacturing. In Germany the consumption per person is around 4,000 Watts while in America it is twice that figure (8,000 watts per person).

Solving the trouble of global warming merely with alternative sources of energy is a misleading prophecy. Lange says that ‘You also have to cut how much we use.’

The idea of reducing consumption is opposed by politicians around the world. If economies start to consume less there will be gigantically transformations. Enhancement in technology is likely going to be the ultimate solution to decrease energy consumption in a smooth way.

According to the 2,000-Watt Society, people should be granted an equal amount of energy.

Source: Red Pepper, Heather Rogers

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The organisation is currently cooperating with large solar system integrators. They are aiming at installing CPV cells in solar module installation at a global agenda.

Here is clip from JDSU, demonstrating their approach of harnessing solar energy:

Solar concentrated Photovoltaics is a highly efficient technology helping to boost up the productivity of solar power generation. The CPV Industry Report 2010 suggests that CPV system installation will expand with $70 million in America and is expected to exceed $3 billion by 2015. Currently, the CPV market is mainly used by power plants at shopping centers, college campuses and industrial buildings generating between 500 kilowatts to 10 megawatts. The residential roof-top housing market installation generates only 5 KW for each household.

Alan Lowe, president of Communication and Commercial Optical Production at JDSU says that the demand for electricity will rise constantly over the coming years, and there will be a need for affordable and sustainable energy. The technology proposed by JDSU supports this expansion in energy demand.

Greg Sheppard, chief research officer at an analyst firm known as iSuppli says that CPV technology has already shown its efficiency and now larger projects are being launched. In 2011, CPV installations will account for around 100 MW, and it is expected to reach 1 GW by 2015. This particular technology will have a competitive advantage over conventional solar technology, especially in sunny areas like deserts.

Competitive Advantage of JDSU CPV Cells

The JDSU CPV cells are designed to collect the sun’s spectrum in various junctions, enabling a conversion efficiency of nearly 40 percent. It is thus a very competitive system for solar system integrators. The main purpose of the CPV cells is to collect concentrated sunlight at an amplified power of 500 to 1000 times its normal energy volume. There is a multiple of advantages that are derived from the technology such as cost efficiency as cost per KW generated is lower than typical photovoltaic technologies and fewer semiconductor materials used are as well..

JDSU has for several years been concentrating on creating performing solar power technology for the satellite industry. It is only recently that JDSU introduced the CPV technology for land installation. The company does also provide other associated products to solar energy such as digital monitoring technology for smart grids.

Source: World of Renewables and JDSU

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Recently, Cogentrix Energy LLC, which is a ruling electric power generation-projects-development company, revealed that they are joining in on a contract with the Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), Xcel Energy Company. They are going to establish a solar facility near to Alamosa, in the Southern Colorado. The project is going to be completed by the second quarter of 2012, with a potential solar energy capacity of 30,000 KW.

The president of Cogentrix Energy, Tom Bonner said, “Our focus has always been on developing quality power generation facilities that deliver reliable power to our customers,” In the past, Cogentrix Energy has been involved with lasting business relations with Xcel Energy and other electric generating project companies. Bonner is eager to assure that their contribution to the renewable energy requirement is effectively met.

The solar systems that are going to be used for the concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) will be provided by Amonix Inc. The corporation is currently a leading designer and manufacturer of concentrating photovoltaic systems. They supply a CPV technology having optics and dual-axis tracking systems to maximize the exposure of sunlight to the photovoltaic cells. The result of using high-technology systems provided by Amonix is that this CPV facility will be able to produce more energy per acre than other solar generating systems. A total of 30,000 KW of solar energy will be supplied to Xcel energy’s customers, which will be sufficient to power roughly 6500 homes.

In San Luis Valley of Colorado, next to a current transmission system of Xcel Energy, estimated 225 acres of land will be used to erect this innovative solar facility. According to research, San Luis Valley of Colorado is one of the finest locations to generate solar energy in the United States. It has a high altitude and an abundance of sunshine.

The local permits have already been approved to Cogentrix, and they are presently securing capital for the project. The construction of the facility is predicted to commence in the First quarter of 2011. In the second quarter of 2012, the facility will be operational providing electricity to Xcel Energy’s customers over a long-term contract of 20-years.

The CEO of Cogentrix as well as a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, Robert Mancini said that the company is enthusiastic to be a forerunner in the green evolution as “… more sustainable electric power generation is going to become a larger component of the nation’s energy…”

The focus of Cogentrix is to develop renewable power. It is involved in solar technology; solar photovoltaic & concentrated photovoltaic. Currently, the company considers that solar energy will become one of the key energy sources of the future in the United States of America. The trend is steadily heading towards that direction as material cost is falling and the efficiency of both manufacturing and generating electricity from solar energy is improving. The government has supported this expansion effectively with solid financial incentives offered.

Cogentrix has a widespread portfolio of projects, more than 300 MW of renewable power, which are in the pipeline over the long-term.

According to Xcel Energy, solar installation at San Luis Valley is a proceeding move towards the renewable energy commitment in Colorado.

Source: World of Renewables

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The expansion of electricity capacity for 2009 was of a total of 27.5 GW. Renewable sources such as wind power, photovoltaic (PV), biomass, hydro and concentrated solar power accounted for 37.1 %, 21 % 2.1 %, and 1, 4 % and 0.4 % respectively. The remaining was constructed from gas fired power stations (24 percent), coal-fired power stations (8.7 percent), oil (2.1 percent), nuclear (1.6 percent) and waste incineration (1.6 percent)

However, some of the facilities expanded for energy output are not operating on full potentials. For example, the constructed gas-fired power stations will produce 28 TWh yearly on reaching full capacity. Other sources such as wind will produce 20 TWh and PV 5.6 TWh per annum.

The “report” suggests that if the actual growth rate is sustained then by year 2020 more than 1400 TWh of electricity will be produced from clean energy sources. With such a capacity, renewable energy would represent around 35 to 40 percent of Europe’s electricity consumption. This would definitely contribute to achieve the current goal of generating 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources of energy by 2020.

Indeed, to meet the 20 percent target some obstacles need to be addressed. Emphasis must be laid on improving access to grids, invest more in R&D and encourage the use of renewable electricity systems. According to the study, the cost of renewable technology will not be influenced by the time (in the future) but rather on production volume.

Overview of 2010 Snapshot

Several targets set are being met earlier than expected. For wind energy, the total installed capacity reached above 74 GW in 2009. It is already 80 percent more than the target for 2010, which is 40 GW. The current target established by the European Wind Association is to reach an installed capacity of 230 GW (40 GW offshore) by year 2020. This will be enough to provide roughly 20 percent of the energy consumption required in Europe.

The expansion in biomass is doubling the output from 108 TWh to 200 TWh in 2008 to 2010. Nevertheless, there are competing uses of biomass such as for transport fuels and heating. These competing alternative uses might hinder its use as bio-electricity. The positive aspect of bio-electricity is that it can be stored to be used when demand for electricity increases.

In Europe the use of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is only moderately developed. It generated 0.43 GW in May 2010. However, it is a growing source of electricity. For 2020, CSP can provide an estimated 30 GW of electricity, assuming that European Solar Industry Initiative ESII is implemented. Spain has most of the CSP projects currently in Europe.

Typical solar photovoltaic (PV) has since 2003 increased its total installed capacity by 100 percent per annum. It reached a total of 16 GW in 2009, which accounts for around 2 percent of the general capacity. In 2010, PV is expected to expand with a further 10 GW of installed capacity. Moreover, solar photovoltaic has surpassed the suggested amount of installed capacity prescribed by EU’s white papers on renewable energy sources.

There are other sources of renewable energy which are progressing gradually in research and development such as geothermal, wave and tidal power. They are thus not incorporated in the Renewable Energy Snapshots. Nonetheless, they will be included in the years to come.

There is one particular source of energy which is not expected to increase much. Hydropower does already represent the major part of renewable energy but it is not predicted to expand much, as most of its resources are already being exploited. Yet, hydropower, such as pumped hydro will be used as a storage capacity for alternative sources of energy.

PDF Report: Renewable Energy Snapshot 2009

Sources: Escience, Europe Commission Link 1 and link 2

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Fascinatingly, solar-powered reactors can be used to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. Besides, this reactor can also change water into both oxygen and hydrogen.

These two elements (oxygen and hydrogen) can be processed to produce hydrocarbon fuels. It is done through a mechanism called the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Generating fuel using this methodology is quite similar to current fuel systems used. There would not be a need for a radical change in engines as well as refueling stations. What is intriguing is that if fuel could be produced from atmospheric carbon, driving cars would thus be completely carbon neutral.

Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have a team of scientists who have created a Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5). A machine collecting carbon dioxide emitted by power plant’s exhausted fumes. Yet, they suggest that in the future they will be able to capture CO2 directly from the air.

The CR5 system has big parabolic-mirrors that intensify sunlight on two chambers divided by rotating rings of cerium oxide. The cerium oxide is heated up to 1500 degrees celsius as the rings spin. The machine releases oxygen in one of the chambers. However, the oxygen is sprayed away.

The ring continues to spin and the newly de-oxidised cerium shifts into the second chamber. In that chamber carbon is injected. The de-oxidised cerium will now take a molecule of oxygen to generate cerium oxide and carbon monoxide.

A team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology located in Zurich has developed a similar machine. However, this apparatus uses zinc oxide, calcium oxide and steam to produce a steam of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The system that they have invented can already collect and use atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Yet, these two reactors are not fully prefect. The one that the New Mexico team is working on can only operate for a few seconds per trial. The Swiss model can only generate roughly 10 KW. However, both the reactors are expected to be improved in terms of yield capacity and consistency.

Generating usable fuel from carbon dioxide and solar energy is a promising solution. It will help in bring down the level of greenhouse emissions.

Ken Caldeira from the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University, California said to new scientists (news) “This area holds out the promise for technologies that can produce large amounts of carbon-neutral power at affordable prices…”

He also suggested that this CR5 technology could evolve the future of energy to another level.

Source: New Scientist and Telegraph

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Two varieties of solar power exist today able to supply large requirements: Solar thermal and photovoltaic cell technologies.
Basically speaking, solar thermal energy is generated when the sun heats fluids that produce steam and the steam is then utilized to power a generator or turbine. Utility scale enterprises use mirrors or lenses that focus the sun’s rays in a concentrated manner like a kid with a magnifying glass.

With photovoltaic solar cell technology [PV], the sun radiates on to the solar panel or the solar film where it converts into an electrical current. This PV apparatus is a semi conductor cell. Photovoltaic is defined as converting or producing electric current or charge after exposure to a light source or radiated energy.

Smaller kinds of solar photovoltaic devices have been around for some time now such as calculators, flashlights, garden lights etc. Mid size utilization would be powering a home a couple rooms within a home or a garage. Large utilization of Photovoltaic usage would be enormous utility scale solar power arrays installed in large areas with unremitting sunlight directed at the facility.

The use of large scale solar power plants is still novel and in development stages. Technology is progressing rapidly as is the overall interest in solar as a source of renewable power. The government however, has been slow to adapt to utility scale solar power. It is still treading in new turf when commencing discussions regarding Utility scale solar power plants. California is beginning to move into utility solar to a larger degree. Pacific Gas and Electric [PG&E] is working on a development alongside Topaz Solar Farms which they hope will begin generating power by next year and move into peak production by 2013.

It has been forecast that the PG&E solar project will add a further 1.1 million megawatts to the California grid with more projects projected at a utility scale for California and Nevada. They are also looking at utilizing solar thermal power also. Further solar power plans are under evaluation for Florida, Arizona and surprisingly New Jersey. US Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar has discussed fast tracking some developments for this year of 2010 that would mean fourteen projects slated for US government property. In January of this year, the number of applications was one hundred twenty eight sent to the Bureau of Land Management for building large utility solar facilities.

One of the potential road blocks for rapid development of utility scale solar plants is a dearth of transmission capabilities. Most big utility solar facilities need to be built in remote locations where land is available and sunshine is abundant, and the remote desert locations fill this requirement. Secretary Salazar has since made an announcement that approximately five thousand miles of transmission cabling onto land corridors on managed land has been allotted. They are also managing the right of way access applications for other available lands.

Solar energy is free and a widely available source of power. Certain spots in the US have the ideal conditions to sustain utility scale solar power. The solar power plants run clean and are renewable energy sources as opposed to fossil fuel operations, which are finite petro based systems and come at a cost to the environment. What is required is a durable and long standing plan for creating new and reliable supplies of power including utility scale solar power.

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