By Ahmed Abouelhassan It comes as no surprise that the world is suffering considerably from greenhouse gases emissions and countries are rushing to slash their emissions and set the targets set by local governments and/or regional alliances and indeed globally as per the 2016 Paris climate accord. Different energy sources are viable for each country for plenty of reasons be it the country’s geography, economy or public support. One fact that seems to be asserting itself though is that wind is constantly taking a bigger share of the pie of the newly installed renewable energy sources worldwide. With prices constantly dropping and improvements in technology we can only expect this trend to keep on continuing.
With the world’s first floating wind farm in Scotland just going operational I would like to discuss specifically offshore wind farms and the recent developments taking place in this field. This new farm is a prime example of how far we went with the technology with the farm having five gigantic wind turbines each 129m tall with a third more under the water to help stabilise them. It will produce enough electricity to power 20000 homes. This coincides with recent research showing that we can harness up to 70% more energy than regular offshore wind farms by building ‘deep-water’ or ‘deep-ocean’ wind farms, since the influx of wind from higher altitudes keeps on feeding the farm with relatively high-speed wind. This has led some to even suggest that perhaps in the future turbines could be attached to kites and float in high altitude wind currents to avoid one of wind power’s major problems which is being an intermittent energy source. The UK is currently world-leading in regards to offshore wind power with it supplying 5% of the total energy demand in the UK, and forecasted to reach 10% by 2020. Offshore accounts for roughly 5.35 GW of the 16 GW of total wind power generated in the country and that number is only expected to increase. Proposed plans and expansions are currently set at producing up to 26.7 GW of power from wind with a shift towards offshore wind farms since many local councils strongly oppose installing wind turbines inland. The main driver behind the government favouring wind over other renewable sources recently has been affordability. With the government promising investors a price of £92.50/MWh for Hinckley Point C ( UK’s first new nuclear power station for a generation ), the average price of wind at £60-65/MWh (previously predicted to reach £75/MWh by 2020) looks promising and worthwhile. The price has been in a consistent, rapid decline, and is only half of what it was 5 years ago. One project that is helping to make this a success is the wind farm planned 120 km off the east coast of Yorkshire covering an area of 400km2 with an output of 1.2 GW produced by 7 MW turbines each standing 190m tall. A project of such gargantuan scale is expected to employ more than 2000 people and help the UK in producing cheap clean energy. Although a significant portion of these mega projects is funded by investors from European companies such as Statoil, EDF and Dong, there is an incentive to keep most of the actual construction and supply chain within the UK especially when considering the economic restrictions Brexit might bring. The £310mil Siemens wind turbine factory in Hull is a good example, employing up to 1000 people producing 75m long blades that weigh 28 tonnes. They will initially be used on offshore wind power projects in the UK with hopes of exporting the blades in the future. It is not only the UK that is heavily investing in offshore wind; the US and many European countries do too. Nine months ago the first offshore wind farm went operational in Rhode Island in the US, again with 5 large turbines standing at around 180m and powering 17000 homes. With more projects planned in the US and many more planned or under construction in countries like Germany, Netherlands and Norway, the future of offshore wind seems very promising. Wind power regardless of offshore or onshore has been growing at an ever-increasing rate with China dominating the market for recent installations. By the end of 2016, the global wind power production reached an impressive 487 GW, with China taking the lead at 168 GW followed by the USA and Germany with 82 GW and 50G W respectively. More than half of all wind power installed in 2015 and nearly half of that installed in 2016 came from China. With such promising figures, it is only to be expected that more governments will be looking towards wind power as a solution for meeting their emissions targets and creating much-needed jobs. It is very unlikely that wind is going to be the one size fits all solution for our growing energy demand, but it is definitely going to take us a long way in solving it.
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By Taha Zaweti Firstly, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a process that consists of the separation of CO2 from fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage location and long term isolation from the atmosphere. The debate continues on whether the CCS process is a cost-effective technique as many issues have arisen in the last few years highlighting that CCS is indeed a process that contributes substantially in reducing carbon dioxide emissions but on the other hand the cost of capturing and compressing the carbon dioxide is quite expensive. As most newly developed processes, the CCS process has its pros and cons. It has been proven to have a huge impact on reducing CO2 emissions. Power plants with a CCS process can reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80–90% compared to power plants without a CCS process according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) but will require 10–40% more energy than plants with equivalent output without CCS, of which most is utilised for CO2 capture and compression. Another downfall of a CCS process is the storing of CO2 and isolating it from the atmosphere where leakages of CO2 to the atmosphere might occur but according to the IPCC the possibility of this matter occurring from a well-designed and managed geological storage site is comparable to that associated with current hydrocarbon activity. The major concern regarding leakages is when the CO2 is transported through pipes. Although most pipelines are equipped with non-return valves, the pipes themselves may be damaged due to the excessive pressure required in transporting CO2, which will cause leakage of CO2 to the atmosphere. A CCS process. Credit: CO2CR Finally, the question of whether a CCS process is really worth it is an on-going argument with several points for and just as many against as mentioned above. Nonetheless a CCS process is definitely a good way to reduce CO2 emissions, but current technology and operating costs may not make it feasible. It may be viable in the future when better technologies are discovered.
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