You will have heard many times now that the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic presents policymakers with an unprecedented opportunity to put climate measures at the forefront of any stimulus package.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

Which is indeed true. However, there is already an imbalance of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ of the energy transition, and that gap could get wider instead of closing if we’re not careful.

I’m not talking globally: we all know that there’s not a one-size-fits-all clean energy solution for the world. I’m talking about Europe, the poster child of the energy transition.

Because while many countries have significant renewables capacity and can boast ‘smart cities’, some are still having to burn coal ” and a lot of it ” to keep the lights on.

If the energy transition is going to be a socalled ‘just transition‘, then countries like Poland and the Czech Republic need to be front and centre of stimulus packages, and not at the back of the queue. In fact, if they’re not, the European Union can forget about ever hitting its 2050 climate neutral target.

Accelerating emissions reductions in central and eastern Europe could be the biggest win of any EU recovery package, and one that in turn could signpost the road to similar progress for countries in Asia facing the similar coal-versus-climate conundrum.

Coal accounts for around a fifth of the total electricity production in the European Union and remains a significant economic driver. It provides jobs to around 230,000 people in mines and power plants across 31 regions and 11 EU countries: these people and their potential reskilling need to be factored in to a ‘just’ energy transition.

The European Commission recognises the problem: in 2017 it formed its Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition, which works as an open forum to gather local, regional and national governments, businesses and trade unions, NGOs and academia.

And this summer, Frans Timmermans, EC Vice-President in charge of climate action, delivered a speech in the Polish city of Katowice in which he vowed that “we will not forget that not everyone in Europe has the same starting point” in the energy transition.

Timmermans said countries like Poland “have been bearing the weight of past decisions, taken in different political systems, which made hard coal and lignite the cornerstones of your industrial development. But this has to be ” and can be ” overcome.”

He said: “We will have to roll up our sleeves to make sure that this transition is socially fair,” and also highlighted that in terms of the transition from coal, “there is no other region in Europe today where a just transition is more important than in Silesia,” the region of Central Europe covering mostly Poland and with smaller parts in the Czech Republic and Germany.

He explained some 78,000 people are employed in the coal industry in the region and “for many households here, this industry is the main source of income.”

Timmermans, who is Dutch, added: “I’ve seen this in my life in my own country. Both my grandfathers were coal miners. We have lived through this. So I know how difficult it is to manage a transition such as this successfully.

“We will need to work together across different levels of government and across party lines to provide enough opportunities, secure jobs and bring investments where they are needed most.

And he accepted that “you can’t just pull the plug on 50 or 70 years of industrial history. We understand that and we won’t pull the plug. That’s why the Just Transition is our top priority.”

In July, Timmermans was part of the unveiling of a new report by Bloomberg Philanthropies and BloombergNEF (BNEF) called Investing in the Recovery and Transition of Europe’s Coal Regions.

It offered new in-depth analysis on the transition of the power sector in four key Central and Eastern European economies: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.

Undertaken as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ partnership with the European Commission’s Coal Regions in Transition Platform, the report revealed that through clean energy investment, these countries can be important drivers of Europe’s green recovery and climate efforts.

Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies, said that “growing the economy and fighting climate change go hand in hand, and BNEF’s latest report shows that there’s a smart economic way for countries that still rely on coal to phase it out quickly, right now.”

“By investing in clean energy, governments in Central and Eastern Europe can help drive the economic recovery from COVID-19, while also reducing air pollution, improving health, and slowing the effects of climate change.” Poland’s Climate Minister Michaà…‚ Kurtyka echoed those thoughts: “Energy transition is essential towards EU climate neutrality by 2050.”

But he stressed “it is not the only action. We need unprecedented changes in the existing way of life – change the way of mobility, housing, and even food production.

“We need to secure existing investments to guarantee the continuation of the transformation, strengthen local industry and direct new investments not only to reduce emissions, but also to increase employment and resilience of economies.”

He said Central and Eastern European countries “may soon be the driving force for the green recovery and implementation of EU climate ambitions. However, great opportunities often carry even greater responsibilities and the other EU member states need support from the Recovery Fund to stimulate economies, protect key sectors from the effects of the recession, and trigger a transformation with the mission of achieving climate and energy goals for 2030.”

The post How will Europe tackle its coal conundrum? appeared first on Power Engineering International.

The energy landscape has been changing since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016 with the aim of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

The ambition was to keep a global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The primary focus of this effort to decarbonise the world’s economy has been centred on the power sector, that, according to the latest figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA), accounts for 47% of global emissions.

The strategy has witnessed a dramatic shift away from coal to gas generation, allied with aggressive renewable growth.

The initial thought was that natural gas, as a cleaner fossil fuel option than coal, could act as a bridging fuel to marshal the power sector into the zero-carbon age of renewable energy.

While renewables do not produce carbon emissions, they introduce a high level of intermittency due to changing weather conditions and variations in solar irradiation. This is often coupled with mismatches between the demand and supply of energy, which potentially causes electrical grid instability.

While demand-side management can play a large role in handling these mismatches, supply management through curtailment of renewables during times of oversupply, energy storage, and providing backup power with conventional fossil fuel plants is also required.

One option that is gaining traction is that by burning hydrogen as a fuel, either through co-firing or complete displacement of natural gas, gas turbines can provide low-carbon or even carbon free power solutions.

Europe hits the hy-road
Hydrogen ” Asia Pacific’s fuel of the future
Why it’s hydrogen’s time to take off

These capabilities make gas turbines ideally suited to helping to meet the World Energy Council’s trilemma of secure, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy.

With that aim in mind, in January 2019 the EU Turbines Industry Association members committed to developing gas turbines capable of operating on 100 percent hydrogen by 2030.

Going green with hydrogen

These are some of the challenges that are being investigated at the Zero Emission Hydrogen Turbine Centre, based at Siemens Energy’s Finspàƒ¥ng facility in Sweden.

The facility is home to the development, manufacturing and testing operations of the company’s mid-size industrial turbines and the centre is part of an EU-funded study to develop a gas turbine test facility as a zero-emission demonstrator plant.

At the core of this zero-emission cycle is green hydrogen. What is green hydrogen and how can it be produced? One answer is the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis.

The PEM is a process that allows the use of green electricity to produce green hydrogen, that can then be used for numerous industrial processes, as well as for grid services.

Like all forms of electrolysis, hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, with the help of electricity.

A direct current is passed through water and oxygen is formed at the positive anode, while hydrogen is released at the negative cathode.

In conventional electrolysis, something that promotes the conductivity, often salt, is added. In the PEM electrolysis however, a proton exchange membrane is used.

It allows for the necessary particle transport between anode and cathode and therefore replaces any additives to the water. This makes the whole process more environmentally friendly.

No-waste energy

The journey began back in May 2018 when key staff in Finspàƒ¥ng gathered together to share their ideas around what role the site could play in helping to meet the 2030 targets.

At Siemens Energy’s Finspàƒ¥ng facility the mid-size industrial turbines such as the SGT-600, SGT-700, SGT-750 and SGT-800 are developed and manufactured.

Prior to delivery, the machines are tested to ensure that they meet all the performance criteria. Each test takes around four hours and produces a lot of energy.

Only some of it can be sent to the electrical power grid. We had various ideas on how to best utilise this excess energy and one idea that was considered was to use it to produce hydrogen.

Hydrogen will be an important part in the energy mix of the European power grid going forward because of its role as an energy carrier. The idea was to use some of the produced excess electricity, together with additional electricity from solar panels that we would install, to feed into the electrolyser and produce green hydrogen.

The hydrogen that we produce would be used as fuel in the next gas turbine test, together with natural gas. The goal was to create a sustainable energy loop with the electricity produced from one test used to create hydrogen, which is then used to power the next turbine test and so on.

The concept was to make use of excess power and at the same time build a demonstrator plant for a zero emission energy system.

Having received positive feedback on the concept and strategy from Siemens Energy management and backed by financial support from the EU ERA-Net, Smart Energy Systems and the Swedish Energy Agency, the project was up and running.

Proving the technology

Following closely the European funding organisation’s innovation model the project contributes to three layers of research: the technology, the marketplace and the adoption, running from November 2019 to 2022.

The first part is focused on the technology, sizing and dimensioning of the components and how they best work together. By incorporating renewable energy, an electrolyser along with hydrogen and battery storage into the existing gas turbine test facility it creates a closed loop system.

The long-term target is to burn 100% hydrogen, but that is not the immediate goal with this demonstration plant. The demonstration plant works with hydrogen contents that are currently feasible, which is up to 60% hydrogen volumetric content.

The aim of this project is to prove how these technologies, such as turbines, electrolyser, renewable energy, and storage, can be grouped together

in an energy system meeting global decarbonisation targets. Even though some of the hydrogen is produced using natural gas, it is still classified as green hydrogen because it used electricity that would have been wasted.

By working with our gas turbines for this project, we hope to set a positive and practical example for the energy industry globally. To not only encourage hydrogen as a future fuel for gas turbines but also as a medium to store renewable energy sources; a gas that enables a time shift of energy that can be stored and used later.

When it comes to energy storage, batteries will play a significant role but may not be the only solution for storage in the future, as they are often only suitable for short-term power shortages. A robust energy system will need storage for both short-term as well as for middle and longterm storage.

Gas turbines can support the grid with frequency control and support to stabilise a grid with lots of intermittent renewable energy. Energy storage in the future will most probably be a mix of many different solutions and in this scenario stored hydrogen will play an important role.

The second element is a study to learn more about the market requirements and how this technology fits into society and contributes to a sustainable energy system in the best possible way.

We have conducted several market analyses with external companies that we are working with, but also internally within Siemens Energy. We have had lots of interactions with our gas turbine customers to better understand their plans for future operational profiles. From this we have seen a clear trend with significant interest in flexible alternatives.

The third layer is about the stakeholders and adaption for commercialisation, where the project will deliver the results to a broad range of stakeholders to increase awareness in the benefits of burning hydrogen in gas turbines and make it useful for next generation energy systems.

This is where our two academic partners are involved. The performance of most of the individual components in the system is already well understood. This project is about how we integrate them into one system. To achieve this, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Bologna are conducting studies into future energy systems that incorporate the technologies that we are testing and validating in this project.

Their work focuses on different optimisations of how to utilise energy carriers and combine them effectively.

We are using a gas turbine which is only one scenario. They are also looking at other scenarios and comparing cost and efficiency which will all provide interesting data for the stakeholders. For the local perspective of utilizing hydrogen and reducing CO2 in Finspàƒ¥ng, Sweden our local partners from the region are involved.

Opening the market

The project is extremely focused on the energy system and how this can be optimised in different areas. Our system is just one example that can be used as a validation point. It will deliver real operational data that can be used by energy system modellers.

These types of energy planning scenarios have already helped in dimensioning some of the system components in this project as well as setting up operational profiles.

One of the reasons that there is a need for this type of demonstration study is to foster understanding and improve the utilisation of technologies that are already proven and could have a big impact.

The main reasons they have not had greater adoption to date comes down to cost, and with a better understanding of how a system works, this will improve. For now, burning hydrogen is more expensive than using natural gas and requires large storage facilities.

To allow hydrogen to really start making inroads requires a change in regulations that makes it costly to release CO2 and well-planned subsidies would also help.

Changing the regulatory landscape is of course outside the scope of this project but we hope that it can deliver one more piece of evidence that this is the future of energy systems and that it works.

The technology is ready today and we can close the gap between the technology and market awareness of how this can be best utilised.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aasa Lyckstroem is Sustainability Officer & Manager of Product Positioning at Siemens.

The post Exclusive: Green for ‘go’ on hydrogen turbines appeared first on Power Engineering International.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

HyDeploy green energy trial UK

Why it’s cool: The UK’s first live pilot to inject zero carbon hydrogen into a gas network to heat homes and buildings at Keele University started in November 2019. As the first ever live demonstration of hydrogen in homes, HyDeploy aims to prove that blending up to 20% volume of hydrogen with natural gas is a safe and greener alternative to the gas we use now.

If a 20% hydrogen blend was rolled out across the country, it is estimated it could save around six million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

The HyDeploy demonstration is injecting up to 20% (by volume) of hydrogen into Keele University’s existing natural gas network, feeding 100 homes and 30 faculty buildings. The 20% hydrogen blend is the highest in Europe, together with a similar project being run by Engie in Northern France.

Project Players: Backed by Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition, the à‚£7 million ($9.1 million) project is led by Cadent in partnership with Northern Gas Networks, Keele University, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Science Division, integrated hydrogen energy systems manufacturer ITM-Power, and independent clean energy company Progressive Energy.

Electrolysis facility in the Greater Copenhagen area ” Denmark

Why it’s cool: The H2RES project will see the construction of a 2MW electrolysis plant with appurtenant hydrogen storage.

The plant will use electricity from offshore wind turbines to produce renewable hydrogen for buses, lorries and potentially taxis. The daily hydrogen production is expected to total around 600kg, enough to power 20-30 buses, while also making testing its use in lorries and taxis possible. In general, the power for the demonstration project will be sourced directly from àƒËœrsted’s two 3.6MW offshore wind turbines at Avedàƒ¸re.

Project players: Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme under the Danish Energy Agency, àƒËœrsted, Everfuel Europe, NEL Hydrogen, GreenHydrogen, DSV Panalpina, Hydrogen Denmark and Energinet Elsystemansvar.

Europe hits the hy-road
Hydrogen ” Asia Pacific’s fuel of the future
Why it’s hydrogen’s time to take off

SGH2 ” City of Lancaster, California

Why it’s cool: Energy company SGH2 is bringing the world’s biggest green hydrogen production facility to Lancaster. The plant uses recycled mixed paper waste to produce “greener than green” hydrogen that reduces carbon emissions by two to three times more than green hydrogen produced using electrolysis and renewable energy, and is five to seven times cheaper. SGH2 green hydrogen is cost competitive with ‘grey’ hydrogen produced from fossil fuels like natural gas, which comprises the majority of hydrogen used in the US.

Developed by NASA scientist Dr Salvador Camacho and SGH2 chief executive Dr Robert T. Do, a biophysicist and physician, SGH2’s proprietary technology gasifies any kind of waste ” from plastic to paper and from tires to textiles ” to make hydrogen.

SGH2 anticipates breaking ground early in 2021, start-up and commissioning in 2022 and full operations in 2023.

Project Players: Fluor, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, Thermosolv, Integrity Engineers, Millenium, HyetHydrogen and Hexagon.

Hydrogen’s role in the energy transition
Europe’s love affair with hydrogen

Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field, Japan

Why it’s cool: The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) has been under construction in Namie town, Fukushima Prefecture, since 2018. The FH2R can produce as much as 1,200Nm3 of hydrogen per hour (rated power operation) using renewable energy. Renewable energy output is subject to large fluctuations, so FH2R will adjust to supply and demand in the power grid in order to maximise utilisation of this energy while establishing low-cost, green hydrogen production technology.

FH2R uses 20MW of solar power generation facilities on a 180,000m2 site along with power from the grid to conduct electrolysis of water in a renewable energy powered 10MW-class hydrogen production unit, the largest in the world. It has the capacity to produce, store, and supply up to 1,200Nm3 of hydrogen per hour (rated power operation).

Project Players: Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS), Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc., and Iwatani Corporation.

H2-Hub Gladstone facility ” Queensland, Australia

Why it’s cool: The HyP Gladstone facility will produce renewable hydrogen using water and renewable electricity from the local electricity grid, using a 175kW PEM electrolyser. The renewable hydrogen will be blended with natural gas, at volumes of up to 10% for supply to more than 770 existing customers on Gladstone’s entire gas network.

Beginning production at the end of 2021, HyP Gladstone’s 10% renewable hydrogen blend builds on the 5% supplied to customers from HyP SA and will be the highest volume of hydrogen delivered by an existing gas network. It will also be the first project to supply a renewable hydrogen blend to industrial facilities via the existing gas network.

Project players: Queensland government, HyP Gladstone.

The post Hydrogen: Five potential game-changers to watch appeared first on Power Engineering International.

The wind industry has underestimated fire risk for decades. Even now, statistics around fire losses are based on estimates and incomplete datasets.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

For a time, the industry could get away with not fully managing fire risk, as the size and number of assets per owner were low enough for many to not experience a fire in their portfolio.

However, as turbines begin to scale up and wind takes on a greater share of national energy mixes across Europe and North America, the industry cannot afford the financial and reputational damage that even a single turbine fire can bring.

Wind turbines catch fire primarily due to electrical or mechanical faults leading to ignition which spreads to the surrounding plastics and fibreglass nacelle.

Turbine fires tend to originate in the nacelle at one of three points of ignition ” converter and capacitor cabinets, transformer or the brake.

Converter and capacitor cabinets are necessary for the wind turbine to translate the variable frequency and amplitude of generated energy into a constant frequency and voltage that can be fed into the grid.

However, an electrical fault at these components can produce arc flashes or sparks, which can surround plastics in the cabinet and result in a fire. Transformers, which similarly convert energy into an appropriate voltage for the grid, can also be a point of ignition due to electrical faults.

Nacelle brakes are utilised in an emergency along with blades pitching to stop the turbine blades from spinning in seconds. This generates an enormous amount of friction and heat, and a mechanical fault at the nacelle brake can easily result in a fire.

Financial risk of fire

The rate of fires has remained consistent over the past decade according to available data ” typically one in every 2000 turbines will burn down every year. While technologies which are less susceptible to fire such as electric braking systems have been developed, many of the key ignition points are necessary for electricity generation and as such, cannot be designed out of the turbine.

While the frequency of fires has remained constant over the years, the financial risk of fire has increased with the size and complexity of turbines. As turbines are getting increasingly bigger and therefore more expensive, a single fire can have a much greater impact.

Additionally, as wind farms scale up from dozens of turbines to large, 100+-turbine projects, owners must account for the greater probability that their largescale projects will experience a fire over the course of the project’s 25-year lifetime.

Most wind turbine fires completely destroy the turbine. Given projects tend to be sited far away from the community, by the time the local fire authority reaches the sight, the fire will have reached a size that spreads from inside the nacelle to throughout the turbine.

Once a fire reaches this size, there is no way to put it out. As the average turbine hub height is over 80m, a fire at the nacelle is out of range for ground-based firefighting, while sending a team up to put the fire out would constitute a significant health and safety risk.

However, if fires can be suppressed while still localised to the nacelle, the turbine will face minimal damage. While fire-resistant materials can slow the spread of a fire throughout the turbine and reduce the chances of ignition, only fire suppression systems can put out a flame once it has been set.

An automatic fire suppression system detects a fire and snuffs it out, either at the point of detection (direct) or by flooding the nacelle with a suppressant agent (indirect).

Installing a fire suppression system at the three most common ignition points in the nacelle will ensure that any fire damage to the turbine is minimal and allow it to continue operating without replacement.

Given the average fire suppression system costs between $4,500 and $13,000 depending on size and whether it is direct or indirect, and based on the expected frequency and cost of a wind turbine fire as outlined above, the benefit of full protection for a 3MW+ turbine significantly outweighs the cost of installation.

Protection measures

Fire risk is not only a concern for the wind farm owner. A wind turbine fire can spread to the surrounding environment, sparking wildfires and potentially spreading into nearby communities.

As such, stakeholders at the government and community level are increasingly pushing to ensure that wind turbine fires are suppressed before the flames can spread beyond the asset.

A growing list of authorities in Germany, and a number of both local and state governments in the US, are acknowledging that fire suppression is necessary to protect new wind farms and their surroundings in the event of a fire in a wind turbine. Regulators in Ontario, Canada have taken it a step further, enabling local authorities to insist that fire suppression is retrofitted to existing sites.

In addition to compliance with government regulators, wind farm owners and operators must also communicate their commitment to fire prevention and protection with landowners and other community stakeholders.

By taking the right steps to fully protect a turbine from a fire incident, the industry can not only reduce the financial penalties of replacing a wind turbine but also ensure better relations with the communities powered by renewables.

With the goodwill of local stakeholders and evidence for tackling key concerns, the wind industry will be in a better position to continue its unprecedented growth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Krcmar is Global Sales Director at Firetrace. She has
over 10 years of experience in the fire protection industry
focusing on the renewable sectors including wind and battery
storage. She is a member of the AWEA Wind Environmental,
Health, and Safety Standards Committee Meeting and the NFPA
855 Committee for Standard for the Installation of Stationary
Energy Storage Systems.

The post The burning issue of wind turbine fires appeared first on Power Engineering International.

U-Battery is an advanced modular reactor, capable of providing a low-carbon, cost-effective, locally embedded and reliable source of power and heat for energy-intensive industries and remote locations.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

The technology is part of the UK government’s efforts to support advanced nuclear technologies, and is one of three vendors to have passed through to Phase 2 of the Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) Feasibility and Development project, a à‚£46 million programme to support the design and development of advanced, modular reactor designs.

Progression through to Phase 2 of the programme saw U-Battery awarded almost à‚£10 million to conduct design and development work, the next step in bringing the new nuclear technology to market.

In Phase 1 of the AMR programme, U-Battery demonstrated the feasibility and viability of its proposed technology, both technically and commercially.

U-Battery has also received additional funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to design and build ‘mock-ups’ of the two main vessels for the reactor and the connecting duct. The investment was awarded under the ‘Advanced Manufacturing and Materials’ programme.

During the next phases of the programme, U-Battery is looking to identify future opportunities to develop partnerships as it progresses through delivering the design and development work, and progressing towards delivering the FOAK.

Energy innovation

The AMR programme sits under the banner of the UK government’s Energy Innovation Portfolio, through which the UK government has committed to investing around à‚£460 million in nuclear research and innovation between 2016 and 2021.

As part of this commitment, within the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme, BEIS expects to invest around à‚£180 million in nuclear innovation. Between 2016 and 2018, Phase 1 saw over à‚£20 million of funding provided to support innovation in the civil nuclear sector, building on the recommendations set out by the Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board.

In December 2017, Phase 2 funding was announced, making up to à‚£8 million available for work on modern safety and security methodologies, and studies into advanced fuels.

Within the Advanced Manufacturing & Materials (AMM) programme, the government aims to develop technology to support the UK manufacture of components for modular reactors and other reactor types by 2030.

The first phase of the AMM programme provided initial funding of à‚£5 million to develop technologies in advanced manufacturing and materials. The programme’s second phase will invest à‚£20 million into increasing the manufacturing or technology readiness of suitable technologies towards demonstration and commercialisation.

Support for nuclear innovation is a key priority for the UK government, and advanced modular reactors are an important part of that. These technologies will contribute to the establishment of a new, low-carbon industry which can support the UK’s clean economic recovery as it moves towards net-zero emissions by 2050.

Minister for Business and Industry, Nadhim Zahawi, has previously stated that “advanced modular reactors are the next step in nuclear energy and have the potential to be a crucial part of tackling carbon emissions and climate change.” He added they “could also create thousands more green collar jobs for decades to come.”

Potential uses

U-Battery has the potential to drive significant economic benefits through deployment to global markets. U-Battery has many potential applications and can be deployed in a cogeneration configuration. In addition to the provision of low carbon heat and power to remote locales, or heavy industrial sites, U-Battery has a wide array of other potential uses including the delivery of back-up power to large nuclear reactors, solutions for water-scarce areas through desalination and the generation of hydrogen for decarbonising the transport sector.

U-Battery is a market-led development and is intended to complement other low-carbon forms of generation.

Its unique concept enables a shorter development timeframe, and a low cost, low-risk design and licensing process. Its modular design allows quality assurance and testing to occur during the manufacturing stage, while minimising civil construction times, reducing construction risk and financing costs, and easing transportation to global customers.

U-Battery’s development is being supported by several international industrial partners with extensive nuclear and engineering expertise.

U-Battery is powered by TRISO fuel, a proven accident-tolerant technology whose design prevents the release of radioactive material and minimises the need for back-up shutdown systems (which has benefits for design and construction costs).

Based on the system’s configuration and built-in safety systems, the energy source can be located directly adjacent to the point of use, making U-Battery a unique offering as a source of low carbon, baseload, and reliable power, and reliable power, able to process heat at 700 degrees Celsius.

This is the reason it offers such a wide range of applications. U-Battery is currently undertaking a dual track development approach in the UK and Canada, since both markets present significant opportunities for the technology. However, the potential global market for the technology is considerable: conservative estimates value the global AMR market at à‚£92 billion between 2025 and 2040, and U-Battery has already identified many potential sites in Canada and the UK, which units could be deployed to.

In the UK, U-Battery can support the decarbonisation of several strategic heavy and energy-intensive industries, including the paper, glass, steel, ceramics, minerals and chemicals sectors.

Future energy mix

As a society, we know the threat posed by climate change. We must take steps now to decarbonise our economy and position ourselves to deliver on net zero by 2050. This will enable us to mitigate the worst damage from climate change, as well as creating economic opportunities throughout the UK.

The best way to achieve this is through proven low-carbon technologies, such as nuclear and renewables, as well as innovative low-carbon technologies.

To maximise the role nuclear power can play in the delivery of net zero will require the deployment of further large-scale nuclear plants, as well as smaller/advanced reactors which can contribute to meeting the need for heat and hydrogen, as well as electricity.

U-Battery agrees with the recommendation from the Nuclear Innovation Research and Advisory Board that it “would be prudent to plan for nuclear energy to provide at least half of the firm low-carbon electricity not provided by renewables.”

Nuclear undersells the contribution it can make ” the technology and processes used in generating energy are carbon free, and nuclear energy across the whole lifecycle is as low carbon as using renewable sources.

As an industry, we need to focus on collaborating with our nuclear partners to pool our resources and knowledge and ensure the industry’s cost effectiveness, efficiency and continued high levels of safety.

At U-Battery, we believe the future of nuclear is exciting and we are proud of the reliable and sustainable energy it provides, the modern lifestyles it supports, its other applications ” such as medicine – and future innovative developments. We look forward to nuclear making a valuable contribution far into the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Threlfall is General Manager of U-Battery

The post Fuelling nuclear innovation in the UK appeared first on Power Engineering International.

Harvesting wind energy to generate electricity has become one of the pillars of the transition towards a green and carbon neutral economy.

Thisà‚ articleà‚ wasà‚ originallyà‚ publishedà‚ in Power Engineering International Issue 5-2020. Read theà‚ mobile-friendlyà‚ digimag orà‚ subscribe to receive a print copy.

While onshore wind farms represent 89% of the total installed wind capacity in Europe, the cumulative installed capacity of offshore wind – 22GW, 11% of total in 2019 – has increased by an average 30% yearly over the last decade.

To date, most wind turbines were built in relatively shallow waters of under 60m depth, where they are supported by bottom-fixed foundations, such as monopiles (large steel pipes up to 10m in diameter).

Many of the most accessible shallow water locations have already been populated by wind turbines, but the offshore wind sector still has an enormous growth potential.

However, 80% of the European wind potential is located in water depths deeper than 60m.

The cost of fixing offshore wind turbines in position in the ocean will increase non-linearly with water depth, as the dimensions of foundation, the amount of steel and the size of the lifting vessels will all increase.

Therefore, continuous upscaling of the current design is not sustainable to unlock the remaining offshore wind potential and innovative solutions must be brought to the market.

Floating wind turbines are composed of the turbine and mast, a floating platform ” such as a semi-submersible or spar buoy ” and a mooring system of lines plus anchors to maintain the system in position.

By freeing the requirement of a stiff connection between the turbine and the seabed, floating turbines can theoretically be installed at the windiest locations without any water depth constraint.

One of the main drivers for installing turbines further offshore is to harvest stronger and more reliable wind. For instance, the average capacity factor (the ratio of energy output to the maximum potential energy output) of onshore wind is approximately 24% and the average for bottom-fixed offshore wind is 38%, up to a maximum of 48%.

Hywind Scotland, the first commercially installed floating wind farm achieved 54%. As a corollary effect, the displacement of wind turbines further from shore reduces the risk of visual impact that could put off coastal communities.

Floating turbines will be built nearshore or in dry docks and towed to their final location. This will decrease the need for heavy lifting and underwater operations, limited to the mooring system only, decreasing the cost and risk of the turbine installation. Similarly, decommissioning operations will be less costly and risky, limited to the reverse procedure.

Additionally, at the end of operational life, various anchor systems can be removed, for example, suction caissons and drag embedment anchors, while the widespread monopiles of fixed-bottom turbines are cut and left in place in the seabed.

Challenges and hurdles

Demonstration projects have proven that floating turbines are technically feasible, but the cost of this technology remains the main hurdle to be cleared before a large scale deployment is possible.

While the cost of bottom-fixed offshore wind has strongly decreased over the past decade to reach a competitive level ($48-60 per MWh), the cost of floating offshore wind is twice this amount.

Offshore operations are always costly, from site investigation to installation and operation/maintenance. Installing turbines further offshore and in deeper waters will increase the cost due to the remoteness of the farm, inaccessibility of the seabed and harshness of the environment.

Challenges of connecting the wind farm to the electric network will also grow as a function of the distance to shore.

Floating platforms are not new in the oil and gas industry. However, wind turbines are lighter and taller than those platforms, inducing different loading conditions and responses. In addition, the capital investment for oil or gas rigs is amortised over a very large energy output.

On the contrary, each wind turbine will produce a much smaller amount of energy output, requiring in turn more cost-effective engineering solutions, across site survey, fabrication, mooring systems, operation and maintenance. It is not enough to optimise existing solutions, new procedures and technologies must be brought to practice.

Europe at the forefront

Europe has already the largest installed offshore wind capacity ” 22GW out of a world total of around 28GW ” although offshore wind only represents 2.3% of the total energy production (0.3% worldwide).

China has the fastest growing rate of its offshore wind capacity, but Europe is now leading the development of floating wind turbines, with several world firsts and ongoing projects.

Hywind Scotland was the first commercial floating wind farm in the world, installed 25km from the Scottish shores in 130m water depth. The five 6MW turbines (154m in diameter) were built on a spar platform.

Three massive suction anchors of 16m length, 5m diameter and weighing 300 tonnes were used to anchor each turbine, demonstrating their applicability in sand. It currently powers 20,000 UK homes.

The Kincardine floating offshore windfarm is currently the largest project under construction, off the coast of Scotland, in 60m-80m water depths. The 50MW project will use some 9.5MW turbines mounted on the semi-submersible Windfloat platforms, making use of an active ballasting solution to maintain the stability of the platform.

Further projects are in development, such as the 100MW Atlantis pre-commercial farm based on the Ideol semi-submersible damping pool platform. Hywind Tampen will be one of the deepest (260-300m water depths) offshore wind farms, with construction set to start in 2022.

It will be based on the same platform as Hywind Scotland, demonstrating the capacity of floating wind turbines to be free of water depth constraints. Shared anchors will be used for the first time to reduce the foundation costs.

Ultimately, the cost of floating wind energy will decrease due to a reduction of uncertainties, including demonstrated survivability of concepts during a storm, and economy of scale such as standardisation of fabrication.

But to decrease enough will require development of new practices based on the most recent research.

What’s next?

The digital revolution is upon us. Robots and autonomous systems can be used to control offshore floating wind farms, overcoming the risks of sending staff to a remote and harsh environment and enabling optimal operation of a complex system.

Seabed investigation, inspection and maintenance of the deployed structures could be undertaken in a more costeffective, yet thorough and reliable, way.

Similarly, the development of smart sensors embedded in all parts of the floating wind farms offer a fast and comprehensive insight into the state of a wind farm, or detect damage after a storm. Besides, it would be impractical to undertake in-person inspections on the very large wind farms under development, and those proposed and needed for the future.

Smart sensors and autonomous robots will generate a huge amount of data.

Machine learning has become a game changer in the analysis of big data sets and can already control the wind turbine blade position to maximise the energy production or avoid damage during a storm, based on weather data.

Algorithms could be trained to detect damage before it becomes critical, triggering maintenance or repair. Design algorithms could be developed to optimise anchor design or interpret site investigation data, combining different sources of information, ultimately reducing the necessary amount of data and increasing the reliability of predictions.

The potential of floating wind energy has been recognised in Europe and worldwide.

While the technical feasibility of some technologies has already been proven, unleashing the full potential of floating wind now requires the convergence of new technologies, adequate policies and economic incentives.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Benjamin Cerfontaine obtained his PhD at the University of Liàƒ¨ge in 2014. He was awarded an MSCA fellowship at the University of Dundee, then became a lecturer at the University of Southampton in 2020. He is specialised in physical and numerical modelling of innovative foundations for offshore renewable energy devices.

Susan Gourvenec is Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies in Intelligent & Resilient Ocean Engineering and Deputy Director of the Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute. She is a specialist in offshore geotechnical engineering.

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How conventional power is breaking conventions

The energy transition is advancing at a different pace across the world, yet there is no doubt that Europe is at the forefront.

And evolving too is the conversations that frame the transition, particularly those that centre around the role of the so-called ‘conventional’ power sources such as gas and nuclear.

The role of gas in the energy transition is now, quite rightly, regarded to be as essential as developments in wind, solar and storage.

And few possibilities are as exciting as the prospect of running an industrial gas turbine on hydrogen: the phrase ‘game-changer’ is used pretty cheaply across the sector these days yet this really is a development that could radically reduce emissions not just in the power sector but also in the commercial and industrial space.

In this issue, we have an exclusive insight into the Zero Emission Hydrogen Turbine Centre in Sweden, which is operated by Siemens Energy.

“We hope to set a positive and practical example for the energy industry globally,” says Siemens Sustainability Officer Aasa Lyckstroem. “Our system is just one example that can be used as a validation point. It will deliver real operational data that can be used by energy system modellers.”

Equally exciting are nuclear developments into advanced modular reactors and we spotlight a government-backed drive in the UK to take research projects to the next level. But the usually unspoken conversation in energy transition talks involve the C-word: coal.

However, there are positive signs that the European Commission is determined to wean countries like Poland and the Czech Republic off coal in a measured way that protects communities that depend on the ‘black stuff’ for their livelihoods (not to mention their energy) while at the same time reskilling as much of the workforce as possible.

Because the energy transition is enabled by innovation but delivered by people ” and we need to keep as many of these people on board as possible.

Until next time,

Kelvin Ross

Editor, Power Engineering International

The post Power Engineering International Issue 5 2020 appeared first on Power Engineering International.