The new US administration’s policies could prove to be a pivotal moment in the global fight to tackle climate breakdown.

President Joe Biden signed a host of executive orders on ‘Climate Day’ at the end of January: to rejoin the Paris agreement, appoint a climate ‘tzar’, pull the plug on the Keystone XL oil pipeline and order the Pentagon to make climate change an issue of national security.

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

The US has an ambition for a zero-carbon energy sector: the question is how can the country deliver it in practice? What is the cost-optimal energy mix for the US to achieve a renewables-led energy system? Plus, can it possibly be delivered within the aggressive timeframes set out by the new President?

At the core of the US’s energy policy is a pledge to invest $2 trillion to create a zeroemission electricity system by 2035. The stated aim is to drive economic recovery and job creation, while protecting communities that lie in the crosshairs of climate change.

The naysayers are already claiming that the energy transition won’t be possible within that budget or timescale, with one source even estimating that the costs of realising a 90% decarbonised energy system would reach $7 trillion.

At Wärtsilä, we have used our energy experience and power system modelling to analyse the potential to meet the vast energy demands of the US using the lowest cost power source ” renewables.

Our recent report ” Aligning stimulus with energy transformation ” found that the US could achieve a zero-emission electricity system by 2035 through investing $1.7 trillion into wind and solar, plus energy storage and flexible generation to balance system intermittence and volatility.

The most productive areas for wind and solar in the US are in relatively lowly populated areas, so massively scaling up renewables is possible, but will require significant investment in network infrastructure to transport clean energy to homes and businesses where it is used.

However, even considering the construction of new transmission lines to export the increased amount of wind and solar power, our modelling shows the overall cost of a zero-emission electricity system would stay well within the US administration’s $2 trillion estimate.

Onshore wind and solar are by far the cheapest forms of new electricity generation and are the only economically viable way to achieve decarbonisation at the pace and scale required.

According to our modelling, the US vision for a zero-emission electricity system could be achieved by deploying 1,700GW of new renewable energy capacity over the next 15 years.

This is undoubtedly a huge undertaking, but would be transformative for the US, creating cleaner air, transforming the green economy and generating almost nine million sustainable jobs, according to our calculations.

Decarbonising Texas

States like California and Texas have already made tremendous progress in decarbonising, thanks to record levels of private sector investment in clean energy, which has pushed the US energy system to the brink of transformation.

Texas is the national leader in wind energy with 30GW of installed capacity, supporting 25,000 jobs.

The Lonestar State has extremely favourable conditions for renewables, with some areas driving world leading capacity factors of 50% from wind and 25% from solar.

Instead of trying to balance new installed renewables with centralized ‘legacy’ gas power plants, several Texan utilities are balancing their renewable generation with new technologies, such as energy storage, and state-of-the-art flexible power plants which will in the future use renewable fuels.

This combination of new renewables and flexible engine technology can be a fulcrum for the transformation that the US energy sector needs to undergo to regain profitability and grow its profits by expanding into new sectors.

With such a significant amount of new renewables deployed, flexibility in the form of energy storage and carbon neutral flexible gas power plants ” enabled by future zerocarbon fuels ” is key to balancing the grid.

Our modelling found that the US would need 410GW of new battery energy storage capacity by 2035, combined with 116GW of new flexible gas-fired power capacity operating on renewable bio- or synthetic carbon neutral fuels. That would be created via 151GW of new electrolyser capacity for Power-to-Gas fuel production.

In this approach firm, fast-starting natural gas power plants bridge the load to renewables in the short-term, while also future-proofing utility portfolios to burn carbon neutral fuels, such as synthetic methane and hydrogen, which are just around the corner.

Future fuels produced via a Power-to-X process present a huge opportunity to capitalise, not curtail, excess renewable energy to provide clean, flexible thermal balancing, alongside clean, transportable fuel to power buildings, mobility and industry.

At Wärtsilä we are already generating power with engines which can use blends of natural gas and hydrogen, and are being further developed to burn 100% green hydrogen within the next few years.

These fuels form a large seasonal storage to compensate for weather changes and seasonal variations like winter. They can be stored, transported and used to decarbonise all energy consuming sectors, from mobility to heavy industry, making the utility sector more relevant than it has ever been within the US economy.

This cost optimal zero-carbon energy system will come to fruition when energy systems reach 80-90% renewables, as Power-to-X will enable the final step to 100% renewable power by powering responsive gas engines with carbon neutral fuel.

While a wealth of cheap natural gas remains available, the direction of travel is clearly towards greater regulation on carbon. Future fuels represent the missing piece of the puzzle of how to bridge energy portfolios to zero emissions.

The change is from an opex model (i.e. doubling down on ongoing fuel costs, high maintenance costs and climate risk), to a capex model which offers predictable up-front investment in unlimited renewable power, with relatively low maintenance.

Ending fossil fuel subsidies

A zero-carbon energy system is viable for $2 trillion, but in a post-COVID-19 world, can the US be expected to generate that level of investment?

The signals coming from the White House suggest as much and reflect the changing investment structure and valuing of carbon.

The US spends an eye-watering $40 billion on fossil fuel subsidies, which have long been seen as public enemy number one for achieving decarbonisation.

However, that looks set to change as the new administration has called for the US to “be bold” and put an end to fossil fuel subsidies once and for all.

The impact of shifting that level of global capital away from fossil fuels would be vast and the ripples would be felt around the world, especially if it were to be redirected towards renewables and future fuels.

That level of subsidy with a focus on flexible power systems would enable us to rapidly commercialise future fuels and take a significant step in enabling and speeding up the energy transition.

Countless governments have set ambitious carbon neutral targets, but these are yet to be matched by clear strategies and firm action plans.

That is like trying to conquer Everest without a map and it must change if we are to realise the energy transition.

Having modelled power systems for over 145 countries worldwide, our experience tells us that every country can achieve a cost optimal, futureproof path to 100% renewable energy using technology that is available today.

But the path to net zero will not materialise through incremental steps and organic change.

An unplanned, step-by-step journey risks energy systems being burdened with technologies that do not support the transition to 100% renewable energy.

Governments and utilities must adopt clear strategies to drive action, developed in collaboration with all sectors of the economy and setting clear milestones for transformation.

Leading the world again

The US has the opportunity to accelerate the energy transition globally.

Current US policies demonstrate that the next four years will be dedicated to rapidly progressing the march towards a net zero energy system.

Energy companies can either use this opportunity to evolve and shape the new model, or they can be pushed along by regulation, attempting to cling onto an inflexible model where their value has been eroded by lower cost, clean technologies.

President Biden will outline the US climate plan on the global stage at the COP26 meeting in the UK in November.

Recently-appointed Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry says that the Glasgow climate summit is “the last best chance the world has to come together to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis”.

The chance of grasping that opportunity today seems more possible, especially if the utility sector steers the way.

The post Carrying the climate torch appeared first on Power Engineering International.

“It starts with identifying who you are and not protecting the past ” and that is a matter of mindset,” says Karim Amin.

He’s talking about the transition of Siemens Energy, of which he is executive vice-president of generation, yet it strikes me that Amin could equally be talking about the way the various sectors within the energy industry ” and indeed the whole industry itself ” are evolving.

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

“For me and for my colleagues, we are clear. We don’t identify ourselves with a specific product. We identify ourselves with an outcome.

“We are in the energy business, and the energy business had certain fundamentals in the past: there were ways of working and these ways are changingࢀ¦ and we will change.

“I think the real issue here is that it has to happen over time ” you cannot do it overnight. We are moving towards this by a number of steps and firstly, we are investing and innovating in the solutions of the future.”

Siemens Energy is the independent spin-off from Siemens AG created last April and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September. The company encompasses all forms of gas and renewable power generation, transmission and their associated technologies.

Amin talked about “identifying ourselves with an outcome”: so what is that outcome?

“Siemens Energy’s objective is to be leading the transformation of the energy system: taking it from being pretty much entrenched in fossil and CO2 technologies today, to the energy system of tomorrow that really caters for sustainable, affordable and reliable energyࢀ¦ that is also carbon free.”

He stresses that while this is a journey, it must be seen as “a customised journey”.

“Nobody has the ultimate answer of what the shortest path is from point A to point B. When you look at utilities, large scale power producers or industrial applications, I think there is an individual journey that needs to be carved out and developed for every group of customers or geographies.”

This, he says, is the key strategy of Siemens Energy: “We want to be the partner of choice by having a palette of technologies, business models, and also ideas that can be assembled and customised, leading the transformation journey towards decarbonisation.”

So we’re talking bespoke rather than one size fits-all? “Exactly,” he says, “and it’s also different not just in regions, but depending on the application.”

To illustrate this, he explains: “A couple of days ago, I was visiting one of the major smelters in the Middle East, and they have a specific industrial process. And the decarbonisation of this industrial process is completely different from that of petrochemical. And it’s completely different from food and beverage. Yet they all have CO2 reduction targets.

“That’s what I mean by ‘it’s individual’. It’s really getting into discussions about what matters to a specific industry and how you use existing assets and existing setups that they have to decarbonise. In many cases, it’s step by step. But in some cases, also, there are radical changes.” However, he emphasises that the ‘key pillars’ of any solution remain the same: “It needs to be sustainable ” absolutely. It needs to be affordable. And it needs to be reliable. These are the cornerstones of these individualised journeys.”

So what does this mean for a company like Siemens Energy which for many is synonymous with the gas turbines?

“The future of the large gas turbine is not going to be as in the pastࢀ¦ and for us in Siemens Energy that’s okay. Because we are not, per se, in the gas turbine business ” we are in the power generation business. And that’s what really matters.

“Before gas turbines, we were doing steam turbines, and tomorrow we will be doing more hybrid solutions and systems.”

I wonder what he sees as the key enabling technologies to get to a decarbonised energy system?

“Storage is the game changer. And storage comes in different shapes and forms. Electrical storage, using batteries, is a matter of industrialisation scale, having really reliable technology that could store large amounts of electricity at reliable and affordable prices.

“So here’s it’s about how to industrialise that and reach the economies of scale and the maturity of the technology.

“Then you have other forms of storage ” chemical storage, for example, like hydrogen ” and that’s a completely different economy. Here you’re talking about the feedstock supply chain cost of green hydrogen. Because what matters is that it is ‘green’: it has to have less impact on the environment versus the hydrogen that you get from hydrocarbons. And there is a delta between the two costs ” green hydrogen is still too expensive.”

But in terms of bringing down the cost of green hydrogen, he is confident that “we will get there”.

“If you see how the prices of batteries, wind parks and solar PV have performed over the past 10 years, even five years, it’s impressive. And I think we are on the same projectile for hydrogen.

“The questions are: How fast will this happen? And what are the elements that would help to really accelerate this?”

So having posed the questionࢀ¦ what are these elements? “I think the most important two things are the regulation and the carbon pricing ” the technology itself will follow. I don’t think the technology is the bottleneck. CO2 pricing would make green hydrogen feasible if government regulations point the industry towards that.

“I think these two elements would take us immediately to the next level faster than we think.”

He says hydrogen “needs to be decoded and the formula needs to work. Everybody’s busy right now with finding the best way of doing it”.

Hydrogen is also an example of what Amin earlier described as “investing and innovating in the solutions of the future”.

“We invest a lot in the electrolyser ” the unit that produces hydrogen. That’s one integral part of our portfolio. We focus on: How can we do this more cheaply? How can we scale it up? How can we go to the levels needed for commercialisation?”

I’m talking to Amin on a video call ” one of the ‘new normals’ of pandemic communications ” and he has found the past 12 months valuable as a reminder of the importance of electricity.

“One of my lessons learned during the lockdown periods, when people in some countries were shut away in their homes and aircraft were grounded, was that hospitals still needed to run, critical infrastructure needed to run, and this made electricity supply, generation and transmission so critical.

“In many, many countries we got permission for our engineers to cross borders and travel so that they could keep running the power plants that feed hospitals. I think this was a very powerful message and made many of us understand better than ever before what this industry and its workers really mean for society. And I think we should take this as an important learning as we go into 2021.”

I ask if he believes that the pandemic will accelerate a green energy transition.

He thinks that perhaps it will, not least because “there are many stimulus packages and they are all connected to environmentally-friendly technologies”. However, he thinks a greater driver already exists: “I think the pressure from society now puts a burden and a task on all of us. Even at home, I have two young girls and they are so switched on to these topics.

They don’t ask me: ‘How do you build a power plant’. They ask me: ‘How is the power plant that you’re building better for the environment?’ There’s a consciousness about the environment among the next generation that is so high that I think it will work its magic.”

And to help that magic along, Amin likes to turn on its head the old adage that ‘seeing is believing’.

“With certain things, you need to believe them before you are able to see them. We need to start to believe in a different world. Then we will be able to see the path.”

The post Don’t protect the past, believe in the future appeared first on Power Engineering International.

If you follow the field of photovoltaics, it’s likely that you’ve heard the term ‘perovskite’ sneak into conversations more and more frequently. So, what is a perovskite and who should be listening?

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

Technically, perovskite is a specific arrangement of atoms into a crystal or structure with a composition of ABX₃, where A, B, and X describe specific types of atoms. Even more specifically, perovskite traditionally refers to calcium titanate (CaTiO₃). Perovskite-structured materials have long been a topic of research with their oxide formulations having applications in magnetic and piezoelectric materials.

However, more recently, perovskite has become the common term for a class of halide-containing materials. They often contain Pb as the B-site atom and a whole slew of atoms on the A-site. Perovskite has even come to describe materials that are inspired by the ‘original’ halide perovskite, Methylammonium Lead Iodide, or MAPI for short, that do not have the perovskite structure. These halide perovskites, MAPI specifically, originally emerged as a potential dye in dye-sensitized PV cells.

Before long, researchers realised they functioned remarkably well as solar absorbers on their own and the field of perovskite PV was born. Since then, over the last decade, researchers have explored a number of different formulations pushing to higher photoconversion efficiencies. As researchers approach the fundamental efficiency limits of this technology, they are exploring applications in tandem structures which would allow for even greater gains.

Another positive for this technology is the ease of fabrication. It is amenable to a variety of deposition techniques ” such as solution phase, vacuum deposition ” and substrates (e.g. rigid, flexible) providing a lot of avenues for manufacturing and deployment.

The US-MAP Consortium, led out of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a national laboratory of the US Department of Energy, is poised to create a bridge between this emerging industry and the partner laboratories (the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds at the University of Washington, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Toledo) to accelerate the commercialisation of this technology.

While highly promising, there’s still work to be done before you will be seeing perovskite solar modules in mass deployment. Large scale field testing of perovskite PV modules is still lacking.

While reports of fielded perovskites are starting to reach the literature, more work to create market confidence and enable deployment is on the horizon. Proven field performance is a critical step in assessing the bankability of the technology and one of the remaining hurdles before widespread commercialisation of this technology can move forward.

In addition to US-MAP, recent funding opportunities from the US Department of Energy focused on exactly these outstanding research questions; therefore, we anticipate that the next few years will see rapid advances regarding these and other outstanding questions.

However, the excitement for perovskites shouldn’t stop at traditional solar modules. Recent work out of NREL has demonstrated their use as smart windows. The tailoring of the thermochromic properties can enable changes from transparent to a variety of colours when exposed to warming sunlight (see image below). Additionally, the darkened window is a fully functioning solar cell in the dark state, creating a two-for-one gain in using these windows.

Perovskites tunability is not limited to its composition. Beyond solar applications, perovskites have also shown promise in a number of different application spaces. For example, they are being explored for use as radiation detectors.

Their tunable bandgap, large light absorption coefficient, large mobility, and long carrier recombination lifetime, while good properties for PV applications, also make them useful in both imaging and spectroscopy applications across a wide energy range. Again, the solution processability of these materials and ease of manufacturing have also excited the detector community.

Other potential applications for halide perovskites are as emitters; for example as LEDs in solid state lighting, and various display applications. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with Professor Eli Yablonovich’s mantra: “A great solar cell has to be a great LED.”

The research teams at NREL have recognised the promise of these technologies and have active research programmes to help see these technologies succeed. Through broad industry and academic collaboration, the groups work across these technology spaces to address some of the outstanding research questions.

A recent example of these partnerships is highlighted by the recent R&D 100 award for the Aplex Flex PV technology for flexible all-perovskite tandem devices.

The last ten years of research into halide perovskites has been exciting and fast paced. The next decade is likely to show the emergence of even more new application spaces for this technology. As we race to commercialisation, perovskite has been redefined to mean so much more than its original crystal. The remaining question now is which of these applications will win the race to market?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura Schelhas is a research scientist and group manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, USA. Her current research interests are focused on the intersection between photovoltaic reliability, emerging new technologies, and materials characterization.

The post Redefining perovskite appeared first on Power Engineering International.

The world has undergone the largest decrease of global poverty in the past few decades. Over 100 million people have been connected to the electric power grid every year since 2010.

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

This growth has been accomplished mostly by increased reliance on burning fossil fuels. Various quality of life indicators across all countries suggest that an average total energy consumption rate of about 5kW per person is required for decent standards of living.

Taking into account the expected population growth, lifting the global population from poverty to modern comforts will likely require a global energy consumption three to five times our current consumption.

At the same time, we have to significantly reduce our production of greenhouse gases to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts. Since the growth of energy consumption happens in a developing world that cannot afford to overpay for energy, this rapid increase of energy production has to be fundamentally cheaper than fossil fuels.

Here we have arrived at the quandary of sustainability. To globally sustain modern civilization, we need an energy source that is emissions-free, scalable, reliable, and cheaper than coal ” and we need it fast. In the early days of the nuclear age, it was thought that light water reactors (LWR), which comprise most of the current nuclear fleet, were not scalable due to
the perceived scarcity of uranium. Since then we have realised that uranium is much more plentiful, and thus instead of transitioning to various advanced (and more efficient) reactor concepts, we stuck with the current technology. Perhaps now is the time to rethink nuclear power.

Molten salt reactors (MSRs) present a new approach to industrial fission power. The nuclear fuel is dissolved in a high-temperature alkali-halide melt, such as lithium fluoride or sodium chloride, and circulates about the primary loop between the fissioning core and primary heat exchangers.

This has several fundamental advantages compared to existing LWR technology. First, the system provides high temperature heat, over 600à‚°C, about twice the LWR outlet temperature. Second, the molten salts remain liquid at atmospheric pressure up to ~1400à‚°C, so the system can operate at low pressure. Third, pairing alkali metals with halogens results in strongly bounded compounds with no chemical energy left for rapid reactions.

Fourth, molten salt is an ionically bonded liquid, which does not suffer radiation damage, unlike covalently bonded solid fuel, so the fuel does not degrade over time.

Fifth, the molten salt is exactly the chemical medium amenable for partitioning and extraction of valuable elements, in particular isotopes for medical and industrial application. Sixth, the liquid fuel in continuously mixed and homogenized as it circulates about the loop, eliminating potential hot spots. Seventh, the molten salts dissolve uranium, thorium, and plutonium, offering fuel flexibility. And last but not least, the liquid fuel is much easier to cool in the event of station blackout, eliminating potential for meltdowns.

In short, MSRs offer a high-temperature low-pressure system that can be refuelled as it operates, without limitations of fuel lifetime, with relatively cheap thin-walled structural components, no chemical or pressure driver to spread the radionuclides, potential for full passive safety, and the possibility for additional revenue streams from valuable medical isotopes.

Furthermore, it can consume problematic actinides from current spent nuclear fuel or weapon grade plutonium stockpiles.

The technology

The basic technology of molten salt reactors was developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the 1950s-70s, where three MSRs were constructed and operated under Dr Alvin Weinberg’s leadership. He coined the MSR promise as “burning rocks” in “a pot, a pipe, and a pump”.

The most notable system was the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), a graphite-moderated fluoride salt fuelled reactor, which operated in 1965-69, and served as a small 8MW technology development platform. At the end of that operation the ORNL researchers were confident in the merits of the technology, developed several conceptual designs of commercial-scale demonstrators and expected to proceed with construction in the 1970s.

Due to changes in priorities of governmental funding the ORNL MSR programme died instead. In 2001, the MSRs were recognized by the Generation-4 International Forum as one of the next-generation reactor concepts with improved safety, cost, and efficiency.

Since then there has been a significant international revival in interest in the MSR technology, primarily in North America, Europe, Russia, and China. The Chinese programme is the most ambitious. Officially started in February 2011 at the Shanghai Institute for Nuclear and Applied Physics (SINAP), it managed to replicate most of the past ORNL technology. In 2017 SINAP researchers announced a goal for their first demonstrators by 2020, which was apparently delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Large diversity

In the US and Canada, several private companies were started after 2010, many aiming at developing demonstrators by the end of this decade. There is a large diversity in MSR concepts pursued by these developers.

Flibe Energy is developing a two-fluid thorium fuelled breeder, the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), which was the original aim of the ORNL programme. Thorcon Power aims for a system most similar to the MSRE, but with the shipyard construction, and targets Indonesia as its first market.

Terrestrial Energy is developing the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), which integrates the reactor and heat chargers into a sealed replaceable vessel. Terrapower, backed by Bill Gates, is working on a chloride salt fuelled reactor without a moderator, the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR).

Kairos Power uses a fluoride salt to cool solid fuel in the form of pebbles first invented for high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. This is not an exhaustive list, but illustrates the variety of technologies pursued due to different engineering trade-offs.

Nuclear energy is one of the most regulated areas of human activity, for good reason. These regulations are tailored to existing technology. Developing new regulations requires topical experts. Until recently, molten salt technology was neither taught nor well known in the field of nuclear engineering. Tools used to model nuclear reactor physics have not considered flowing fuel.

We need a better understanding of chemistry and the thermophysical properties of hot molten salts with dissolved actinides and fission products. The compatibility of molten salts with structural materials needs to be proven and methods for fissile material accountancy and control need to be developed for liquid fuel to satisfy international and domestic safeguards.

Valves, flanges, pumps, off-gas systems, various sensors and detectors need to be engineered and demonstrated. Universities, national laboratories, and the MSR developers are developing the necessary expertise, tools, and workforce, with private and US Department of Energy funding. That said, we have built and operated MSR systems already, in the 1950s and 60s. The real challenge is to be economically competitive with fossil fuels. Many believe this is the best realistic option.

Sustaining our technological civilisation likely requires a new energy source that is significantly better than those currently available. MSRs offer a novel approach to fission, a high-temperature heat delivered from an inherently safe low-pressure system, the possibility of consuming undesirable actinides in the spent nuclear fuel and plutonium stockpile, and production of desirable medical isotopes. Passive safety, high-temperature heat production, and consummation of nuclear waste are significant factors, which will help with both economic viability and public acceptance.

About the author

Dr Ondrej Chvala is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee. He teaches introduction to Energy Science and Technology, Nuclear Reactor Theory, Numerical Methods and Fortran, and instigated and teaches a study abroad class in the Experimental Reactor Physics Laboratory in Prague. Dr Chvala’s current research is focused on molten salt reactor modelling including depletion simulations, chemistry control, nuclear material safeguards, and
system dynamic modelling.

The post Reactors worth their salt appeared first on Power Engineering International.

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

What is JEDI all about and how are you driving innovation in Europe, especially in the energy sector?

The goal of JEDI is to be the European version of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the US: an initiative for disruptive innovation, for Europeans and democracies to be leaders in the fields of science and disruptive technologies. Rather than focusing on technology for the sake of technology, we aim to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the environment, healthcare, digital, education and space fields through innovation.

We are driving innovation by organising Grand Challenges to push the boundaries of science. These Grand Challenges focus on the frontiers and bottlenecks that need to be overcome to have a game changing impact on our societies. Environment, energy and climate change represent a large part of our efforts. We plan to launch Grand Challenges on water filtering, carbon capture, alternatives to pesticides, batteries without toxic materials future energy storage, datacentres with a 10x lower energy consumption, and many more.

In the other fields, we’ve just done a major Grand Challenge to disrupt the traditional pre-clinical drug discovery process ” a global success with 130 teams from the best institutions in the world participating, an astounding 54 billion molecules scanned to ultra-fast-track the discovery of a treatment against COVID -19 ” a track we absolutely need on top of the vaccines.

Tell us more about the Hydrogen Grand Challenge

Let us be clear: it is all about Green Hydrogen ” that’s to say, hydrogen produced without carbon emissions. Today, everyone can produce hydrogen without many technical difficulties, but the elephant in the room is to produce green hydrogen that is cost-competitive and make hydrogen truly a contributor to lower carbon emissions. The cost of green hydrogen is, as of today, a major hindrance, which explains why only 5% (and that is an optimistic figure) of the hydrogen produced today is through renewable energies. The rest of it comes either from fossil energy (grey hydrogen) or nuclear plants (blue hydrogen).

If we want Europe to reach its targets (cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 and being climate neutral by 2050) we must use every tool at our disposal ” and green hydrogen is a critical one. It is now evident a linear approach and incremental improvements will not be up to this task. Major breakthroughs are therefore needed. To break these barriers, we are the first ones in Europe to implement a successful DARPA-inspired method: we organise an open competition with clear and ultra-ambitious objectives that have to be reached by one of the participating teams, coming from industry, startups or academia.

There is a big financial reward ” but we may also select a short list that we further encourage along the way. We only award the big prize if the metrics are reached. Our approach is highly ambitious, but simple, getting the best teams to work on a clear but very challenging problem. We remove all bureaucratic constraints that often plague traditional research funding, deliver practical infrastructure and even partial funding along the way, while being the most demanding in terms of scientific, technological and deadline results though cooperation and competition.

This is more or less the opposite of what you see in traditional research programmes. This is why we are complementary to all existing efforts, and also why there is so much enthusiasm in the technology and scientific field about JEDI Grand Challenges. From Nobel prize winners who take part in our scientific committees to technology founders, CEOs of large technology firms or heads of major research labs ” our only criteria are excellence, disruptive approaches and speed.

Another key point is that we believe we need to support the best in their research and ensure that the breakthroughs don’t remain on the lab’s shelves but become products and industries. This is why the intellectual Property remains the property of the winning teams. Ultimately, teams compete both for the prize and the prestige associated with being the winner of a JEDI Grand Challenge.

The Green Hydrogen Challenge is actually composed of four distinct Challenges that are complementary and should trigger the interest of the best teams. They are: massively decreasing the cost of producing green hydrogen; massively decreasing the cost of storing hydrogen; producing green hydrogen without toxic or rare materials; and direct hydrogen propulsion of an unmanned aerial vehicle over a certain distance.

Soon, we will disclose the precise metrics of success that we aim to achieve for each of these four challenges, as well as the private and public strategic partners that we are currently selecting. These selected partners will be deeply involved in both crafting and supporting these breakthrough challenges that could change the name of the game in the energy sector.

What role do you see hydrogen playing in our move to net zero?

Hydrogen can be the ‘next big thing’, both the energy of tomorrow that will bring a major contribution to carbon emissions reduction, as well as a gamechanger in terms of energy storage in relation to the ramp-up of renewables in the mix. Policymakers, particularly in Europe, are rightly aware of that. As previously mentioned, the EU has ambitious climate targets and we will only achieve if we are highly ambitious in terms of R&D!

Let’s also be optimistic: green hydrogen already exists. Some technologies are already well-known by business and scientists, but we need to find ways to either radically optimise them or to invent totally new approaches.

We are therefore not necessarily talking about reinventing the wheel, but about massively speeding up and scaling up research and technologies that haven’t yet been pushed or matured enough. The bottleneck isn’t caused by trying to make green hydrogen ‘greener’, but is rather about accelerating or inventing these technologies ” to derisk them, so that after the Grand Challenge is complete, they can be adopted by the private sector and industrialised. This is the core role of JEDI, to run complementary to public incentives and to create scale.

How long do you think it will take to develop the global hydrogen supply chain we need to get the sector up and running?

Since hydrogen has been studied for decades now, and acceleration is spurred on by consciousness of the climate emergency, the supply chain is already moving forward quickly and many global players are actively working to build a significant ecosystem. For this very reason, we, as Europeans, must seize this opportunity and this turning point. I expect to see many innovations and breakthroughs happening in the next five years, before benefitting from a massive ‘scaling-up’ phase for the next 10 years. Of course, it’s a cycle: the more you innovate, the more scaling accelerates. However, the key question is whether or not a European hydrogen supply chain can alongside a global one. Japan and South Korea have already invested in green hydrogen since 2016 and Canada has prominent hydrogen players too.

Thankfully, all over Europe, local, national and European initiatives are being established. We welcome the work of the EU Commission, the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, and national strategies (in France and in Germany, most notably), private-backed projects (North H2 in the Netherlands), private-public associations (Hydrogen Europe, Hydrogen Europe Research, World Hydrogen Council). Of course JEDI is deeply connected to them.

Our approach is complementary to these research programmes and hydrogen projects. However, we focus on the hard technology frontiers, and on hard problems to crack, ensuring a game changing impact in the next five years, not the next 30 years. While national research programmes will probably look at reducing costs for hydrogen production by 10-20%, we at JEDI are talking about 60-70%. I’m a strong believer in hydrogen and I know that those two goals are needed.

Any final comments?

In order to slash green hydrogen production costs by a factor of three, to develop membranes without rare metals, to make hydrogen-powered aviation competitive and safe, we will need to have the best of the best among innovators and scientists. We will also need strategic partners, large corporates, foundations and public administration who wish to go beyond the speeches and embark on real action. Through these challenges, they will get to have access to the best teams working on hydrogen, energy and storage technologies, exploring the frontiers of technologies that will allow us to achieve our climate goals and economic resilience.

As a final word: Our deep conviction is that for all the global challenges that humanity is facing, be it climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic, it is all about our capacity to take calculated and bold risks, and to act swiftly.

Speed and boldness are of the essence to put us back in the driving seat when designing our best future and being ahead of the curve ” be it for vaccines, treatments or climate. Public administration, the private sector but also new forms of partnerships building on the technology ecosystem and civil society ” like JEDI ” all have their role to play.

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The Deutsches Zentrum fàƒ¼r Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) is Germany’s research centre for aeronautics and space. The DLR operates the Institute for Solar Research, which researches and develops concentrating solar power (CSP) for solar thermal power plants that convert the sun’s rays into electricity, heat and fuel. One of the major experiments underway at the institute is a solar thermal power plant centred around a solar tower located in Jàƒ¼lich, some 60km (37mi) from Cologne. The project has been operating as a solar thermal test facility for commercial tower power plants since 2009 and is unique to Germany.

This article was originally published in Power Engineering International Issue 1-2021. Read the mobile-friendly‚ digimag‚ or‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

Solar thermal plants utilise energy from the sun to heat a fluid to a high temperature and the fluid then transfers its heat to water, which in turn becomes superheated steam. The steam is then used to turn turbines in a plant with the energy converted into electricity by a generator. There are different types of solar thermal plants ” linear concentrating systems, including parabolic troughs and Fresnel reflectors; solar towers; and solar dish systems ” although they all make use of mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight on a point. Parabolic troughs are composed of long parabola-shaped reflectors that concentrate sunlight onto a pipe that runs into the trough. The receiver pipe can reach temperatures upward of 400à‚°C as the trough focuses sun’s rays at up to 100-times its normal intensity. The fluid in the pipes is heated, returns to heat exchanges, where the heat is transferred to water generating superheated steam. The steam moves the turbine and produces electricity.

Parabolic dishes are thought to concentrate sunlight more efficiently than troughs, with the internal fluid reaching temperatures upwards of 750à‚°C. In solar towers, the tower acts as a receiver for sunlight by standing amidst a large number of solar mirrors, or heliostats. Within the tower is a mounted heat exchanger where the heat exchange fluid is warmed. Electricity is produced when the hot fluid is used to create steam to run a turbine and generator.

DLR’s uber solar towers

The Jàƒ¼lich project consists of two solar towers that contain four test chambers, where solar irradiation experiments can be carried out. The Jàƒ¼lich site hosts more than 2,000 heliostats that concentrate the solar radiation and direct the sun’s rays to a central receiver at the top of the tower. The Institute of Solar Research explains the process that takes place at this point:

“The radiation heats a circulating heat storage medium to very high operating temperatures (around 560à‚°C for molten salt circuits, up to 900à‚°C for particle systems and up to 680à‚°C for air systems like in Jàƒ¼lich)”. The heat then generates steam that drives the turbines and generates emissions free power. For CSP generators, which store the sun’s energy as heat before converting it to electricity, molten salt allows power plants to continue generating electricity even at night, due to its efficient storage of heat.

Why use molten salt? Because it’s a medium to store large amounts of heat with relatively small volumes of fluid, ensuring a more stable power supply from intermittent sources like solar. The larger tower in Jàƒ¼lich stands at 60m high and can produce up to 1.5MW of electricity. The power can be fed into the local medium-voltage network, providing electricity for research purposes. In 2020, the research team expanded the test facility with a second tower with three test levels on which experiments can take place simultaneously; a process made possible by the control software of the mirror field which can align subgroups of mirrors to the different target areas of both towers. According to DLR, a particle receiver is being built on the upper level accommodating experiments with ceramic beads as a heat transfer, storage and transport medium. The middle level is equipped for process engineering applications, such as research on high-temperature processes for solar water splitting.

The lower level hosts the DLR’s current research on molten salt as a carrier medium for high-temperature heat. This is also where the pump, tank and heat exchanger for this system is installed and used. The aim of the DLR research at Jàƒ¼lich is to achieve higher temperatures and better efficiency in order to reduce electricity production costs, among other things. According to the site’s project information: “The focus is on mirror systems for directing and concentrating solar radiation, solar absorber and energy storage systems and their effective use, as well as theoretical and IT-supported analyses and developments in the field of fluid mechanics and heat transfer.

“Depending on the development status and goal, individual components, functional groups or even a complete solar power plant system can be tested, evaluated and optimised.”

Miriam Ebert, project manager at the German Aerospace Centerà‚´s Institute for Solar Research, said: “We analyze how liquid salts behave at even higher temperatures. Our goal is to raise the salt temperature to 600à‚°C.

“In doing so, we are striving to further increase efficiency and also reduce the cost of electricity production. On a small scale, the molten-salt circuit in our pilot plant works almost like a larger, solar-thermal power plant. This means that our findings can be scaled up to an industrial level.”

These types of plants are thought to be more efficient in terms of converting steam to electricity, are more cost-effective due to storing heat rather than power, and are capable of producing dispatchable baseload power.
The low emissions and clean energy make the solar thermal power plant a popular choice for all countries beyond the borders of Germany. We look forward to seeing what the DLR Institute of Solar Research can deliver in terms of emissions-free solutions to drive the energy transition.

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Read the full, mobile-friendly digimag

The technologies causing a buzz in 2021

What’s the next big thing in energy? Tricky question, isn’t it? Too many variables. So let’s narrow the scope.

What are the energy technologies that will see significant progress this year and into 2022? Those that have a body of research and development behind them already and are either in commercial operation or on the cusp of it.

Have a think and do please let us know your thoughts and, in particular, projects of interest. Meanwhile, the PEi team has already thought about it and in this issue we profile some of our choices.

Hydrogen is of course one of them and we hear from JEDI: no, not the ones with light sabres, but instead the European group striving to be “leaders in the fields of science and disruptive technologies”.

“Speed and boldness is of the essence to put us back in the driving seat when designing the future ” we want to be ahead of the curve,” says Andre Loesekrug-Pietri, Chairman of the Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI). Find out in our interview how he plans to do it.

Many of you will know what perovskite is: some of you won’t. Either way, turn to our article by research scientist Laura Schelhas, who explains why perovskite is causing a buzz in solar and tells us why that ‘buzzing’ is going to get louder this year.

And while we’re talking solar, elsewhere in the magazine we take you on a virtual tour of Germany’s research centre for aeronautics and space, which is using concentrating solar power and molten salt storage to deliver fascinating results.

These articles offer a glimpse of just some of the energy innovations taking place across the sector and we will bring you more in each issue. Indeed, our previous issue covered nuclear fusion, hydrogen-fuelled gas turbines and floating wind power, so if you missed it, they are invaluable industry insights you’ll want to catch up with.

For now, I hope you enjoy this issue of PEi. And do please get in touch with those projects you believe should feature in future issues.

Kelvin Ross
Editor, Power Engineering International

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