Green Energy

A group of scientists in Nagoya University, Japan, have developed a possible solution to one of the biggest problems of the Internet of Energy, energy efficiency. They did so by creating a controller that has a sleep mode and only procures energy when needed. Widespread generation of electricity based on renewable energy has become necessary to combat the climate crisis. One solution to realize society’s electrification needs is the Internet of Energy, which would operate like the information Internet, except that it would consist of energy linked by smart power generation, smart power consumption, smart interconnection, and cloud sharing. When information is sent over the Internet, it is divided into transmittable units called “packets,” which are tagged with their destination. The energy Internet is based on a similar concept. Information tags are added to power pulses to create units called “power packets.” On the basis of requests from terminals, these are then distributed over networks to where they are needed. However, one problem is that since the packets are sent sporadically, the energy supply is intermittent. Current solutions, such as storage batteries or capacitors, complicate the system and reduce its efficiency. An alternative solution is what is known as “sparse control,” where the terminal’s actuators are active part of the time and are in sleep mode for the rest of the time. In sleep mode, they do not consume fuel or electricity, leading to efficient energy saving and reducing environmental and noise pollution. Although sparse control has been used with a single actuator, it does not necessarily provide good performance when multiple actuators are used. The problem of determining how to do this for multiple actuators is called the ‘maximum turn-off control problem’. Now, a Nagoya University research group, led by Professor Shun-ichi Azuma and Doctoral student Takumi Iwata of the Graduate School of Engineering, has developed a model control scheme for multiple actuators. The model has an awake mode, during which it procures and controls the necessary power packets for when they are needed, and a sleep mode. The research was published in the International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. “We can see our research being useful in the motor control of production equipment,” explains Professor Azuma. “This research provides a control system configuration method based on the assumption that the energy supply is intermittent. It has the advantage of eliminating the need for storage batteries and capacitors. It is expected to accelerate the practical application of the power packet type energy Internet.”

Oil and gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, creating a global energy crisis similar to the oil crisis of the 1970s. While some countries used the price shock to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal, others have responded by expanding the production of fossil fuels.

A new study appearing this week in the journal Science identifies the political factors that allow some countries to take the lead in adopting cleaner sources of energy while others lag behind. The findings offer important lessons as many governments around the world race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the devastating impacts of climate change.

“We are really interested in understanding how national differences mediate the responses of countries to the same kind of energy challenge,” said study lead author Jonas Meckling, an associate professor of energy and environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “We found that the political institutions of countries shape how much they can absorb costly policies of all kinds, including costly energy policies.”

By analyzing how different countries responded to the current energy crisis and to the oil crisis of the 1970s, the study reveals how the structure of political institutions can help or hinder the shift to clean energy. Meckling carried out the analysis in collaboration with study co-authors Phillip Y. Lipscy of the University of Toronto, Jared J. Finnegan of University College London, and Florence Metz of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands.

Because policies that promote the transition to cleaner energy technologies are often costly in the short-term, they can garner significant political pushback from constituents, including consumers and corporations. The analysis found that the countries that were most successful at pioneering cleaner energy technologies had political institutions that helped absorb some of this pushback—either by insulating policymakers from political opposition or by compensating consumers and corporations for the extra costs associated with adopting new technologies.

For example, Meckling said, many countries in continental and northern Europe have created institutions that allow policymakers to insulate themselves from pushback by voters or lobbyists or to pay off constituencies impacted by the transition. As a result, many of these countries have been more successful at absorbing the costs associated with transitioning to a clean energy system, such as investing in greater wind capacity or upgrading transmission grids.

Meanwhile, countries that lack such institutions, such as the U.S., Australia and Canada, often follow market-driven transitions, waiting for the price of new technologies to drop before adopting them.

“We can expect that countries that can pursue the insulation or compensation path will be early public investors in these very costly technologies that we need for decarbonization, such as hydrogen fuel cells and carbon removal technologies,” Meckling said. “But once these new technologies become cost competitive in the market, then countries like the U.S. can respond relatively rapidly because they are so sensitive to price signals.”

One way to help insulate policymakers from political pushback is to hand over regulatory power to independent agencies that are less subject to the demands of voters or lobbyists. The California Air Resources Board (CARB), a relatively autonomous agency that has been tasked with implementing many of California’s climate goals, is a prime example of such an institution. Thanks in part to CARB, California is often considered a global leader in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, despite being a state within the U.S.

Germany, another global climate leader, is instead using compensation to achieve its ambitious climate goals. For example, the Coal Compromise brought together disparate groups—including environmentalists, coal executives, trade unions and leaders from coal mining regions—to agree on a plan to phase out coal by the year 2038. To achieve this goal, the country will provide economic support to workers and regional economies that are dependent on coal, while bolstering the job market in other industries.

“We want to show that it’s not just resource endowments that shape how countries respond to energy crises, it’s also politics,” Meckling said.

The U.S., as a whole, does not have strong institutions in place to absorb political opposition to costly energy policies. However, Meckling said that policymakers can still drive the energy transition forward by leveraging the leadership of states like California by focusing on policies that have more dispersed costs and less political opposition—such as support for energy research and development—and by clearing the way for the market to adopt new technologies once the cost has gone done.

“Countries like the U.S. that do not have these institutions should at least focus on removing barriers once these clean technologies become cost competitive,” Meckling said. “What they can do is reduce the cost for market actors.”

As climate change alters the planet, it is causing massive changes to our oceans. Because these waters absorb excess heat and energy from our atmosphere, the ocean has soaked up 90% of the heat generated from greenhouse-gas emissions. All that heat is causing marine heat waves, melting sea ice, and sea-level rise, which pose big risks to marine wildlife, ecosystems, and coastal communities But one form of renewable energy could draw from the ocean’s power to help fight climate change and protect the planet’s vulnerable waters. Marine energy—power generated from ocean waves as well as ocean and river currents and tides—could be a valuable part of the world’s carbon-free renewable energy portfolio. Yet, marine energy technologies are still in the early stages of development, in part because there is little data to guide their progress toward commercial success. That is why researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are developing data-gathering tools to help accelerate the development of these promising technologies. “Marine energy technologies could be a big help in fighting climate change,” said NREL water power researcher Casey Nichols. “The faster we can get marine energy technologies up and running, the faster they could help us power the blue economy, energize isolated communities, and move us to a renewable energy grid.” Nichols, along with fellow water power researcher Andrew Simms and a broader NREL team, builds tools that collect high-quality data for marine energy developers. Called Modular Ocean Data Acquisition (or MODAQ), these data collection systems can provide information on a vast variety of marine energy prototypes, including their potential energy production and performance characteristics (like, for example, how they move and respond to ocean waves). With MODAQ, users can assess their prototypes’ promise all the way from the lab bench to the open ocean to quickly hone their designs. “To have a successful deployment,” Nichols said, “you need to collect the right data in the right way. If you don’t, you can lose a ton of money and a ton of time. It could really hinder your project. We developed MODAQ to use the highest-quality measurement equipment while following industry standards to ensure the data collected is accurate.” MODAQ consists of three distinct products: MODAQ Field, MODAQ Cloud, and MODAQ Web. Together, these tools offer everything from in-the-field data acquisition and remote control of ocean bound devices to data storage and processing. Users can access a clean, easy-to-understand data summary almost as quickly as the data is collected. And, because MODAQ is marine-energy-standards compliant, developers can use the tool to conduct accredited tests—third-party verifications of a device’s performance—which can help boost investor and customer confidence in the technology. “MODAQ is like Lego blocks for data acquisition,” said Simms, who, along with fellow technician Mark Murphy, built MODAQ’s hardware (what he calls its “brains”). Simms and the NREL MODAQ team can tailor each Lego block to meet the specific needs of each prototype. These custom-built MODAQs are in high demand, too, which is why Nichols recently found himself on a beach in Hawaii—arguably one of the best places to collect marine energy data. The state’s waves carry the equivalent of 25 times its energy needs. Harnessing just a portion of that clean energy could help offset the high costs of shipping crude oil to the islands. And one research team at the University of Hawaii is aiming to do just that. With their custom MODAQ, the researchers are refining a small-scale version of their wave energy prototype, the Hawaiʻi Wave Surge Energy Converter (HAWSEC, for short), which could someday power Hawaii’s coastal communities. The team’s MODAQ enabled them to collect reliable data at the lab bench, in wave tank tests at Oregon State University, and in an open water field test at Hawaii’s Makai Research Pier. “We basically built one hardware system for three device deployments, which we’ve never done before,” Simms said. “We spent a lot of time making MODAQ safe and reliable to use in the wave tank area and on the beach,” Nichols added. “Saltwater environments are harsh on many materials, so we designed the system to live through all that.” So far, the Hawaii team’s MODAQ data has closely matched models generated with NREL’s Wave Energy Converter Simulator (also known as WEC-Sim)—a sign that WEC-Sim’s theoretical models provide realistic results. “The simulation and experimental data were very close, which was exciting to see,” Nichols said. That’s exciting for the HAWSEC team, too, which can confidently rely on all that sound data to build a larger prototype for their next wave tank tests. For the HAWSEC team and other marine energy developers, MODAQ systems provide accurate, reliable, and standardized data to assess their devices’ performance so they can avoid building their own data collection systems from scratch (often at great expense). Because the MODAQ team is continually improving their system, developers can start with a solid foundation and simply add components to evaluate the unique features of their device. “Marine energy technology developers are basically trying do something entirely new in one of the harshest environments on earth,” Simms said. “Data is one of the best tools we have to improve the reliability and reduce the cost of marine energy industry deployments.” In the next couple of years, Nichols, Simms, and the rest of NREL’s MODAQ team are developing MODAQ 2.0, an even more accessible and cost-effective version of the system. But for now, Nichols is excited to see more developers use MODAQ 1.0 during device deployments. “There are so many uses for this technology,” Nichols said, “and I’m very excited to see where it will go.”

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Palestinians living in Gaza have long endured an unstable and costly electricity supply, so Yasser al-Hajj found a different way: solar power.

Looking at the rows of photovoltaic panels at his beachfront fish farm and seafood restaurant, The Sailor, he said the investment he made six years ago had more than paid off.

“Electricity is the backbone of the project,” Hajj said, standing under a blazing Mediterranean sun. “We rely on it to provide oxygen for the fish, as well as to draw and pump water from the sea.”

The dozens of solar panels that shade the fish ponds below have brought savings that are now paying to refurbish the business, he said, as laborers loaded sand onto a horse-drawn cart.

Hajj said he used to pay NIS 150,000 ($42,000) per month for electricity, “a huge burden,” before solar power slashed his monthly bill to NIS 50,000.

For most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents — living under the rule of the Hamas terror group, which has fought several wars with Israel, and a 15-year-old blockade by both Israel and Egypt said to be aimed at preventing weaponry from entering the Strip — power cuts are a daily fact of life that impact everything from homes to hospital wards.

While some Gazans pay for a generator to kick in when the mains are cut — for around half of each day, according to United Nations data — ever more people are turning to renewables.

From the rooftops of Gaza City, solar panels now stretch out into the horizon.

Green energy advocates say it is a vision for a global future as the world faces the perils of climate change and rising energy costs.

Swap to green power

Gaza bakery owner Bishara Shehadeh began the switch to solar this summer, by placing hundreds of gleaming panels on his rooftop.

“We have surplus electricity in the day,” he said. “We sell it to the electricity company in exchange for providing us with current during the night.”

Solar energy lights up the bright bulbs illuminating the bustling bakery, but the ovens still run on diesel.

“We are working on importing ovens, depending on electrical power, from Israel, to save the cost of diesel,” said Shehadeh.

Both the bakery and the fish farm have relied partially on foreign donors to kickstart their switch to solar, although their owners are also investing their own cash.

The great inventor Thomas Edison once said, “So long as the sun shines, man will be able to develop power in abundance.” His wasn’t the first great mind to marvel at the notion of harnessing the power of the sun; for centuries inventors have been pondering and perfecting the way to harvest solar energy. They’ve done an amazing job with photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight directly into energy. And still, with all the research, history and science behind it, there are limits to how much solar power can be harvested and used—as its generation is restricted only to the daytime. A University of Houston professor is continuing the historic quest, reporting on a new type of solar energy harvesting system that breaks the efficiency record of all existing technologies. No less importantly, it clears the way to use solar power 24/7. “With our architecture, the solar energy harvesting efficiency can be improved to the thermodynamic limit,” report Bo Zhao, Kalsi Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering and his doctoral student Sina Jafari Ghalekohneh in the journal Physical Review Applied. The thermodynamic limit is the absolute maximum theoretically possible conversion efficiency of sunlight into electricity. Finding more efficient ways to harness solar energy is critical to transitioning to a carbon-free electric grid. According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar could account for as much as 40% of the nation’s electricity supply by 2035 and 45% by 2050, pending aggressive cost reductions, supportive policies and large-scale electrification. How does it work? Traditional solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV) rely on an intermediate layer to tailor sunlight for better efficiency. The front side of the intermediate layer (the side facing the sun) is designed to absorb all photons coming from the sun. In this way, solar energy is converted to thermal energy of the intermediate layer and elevates the temperature of the intermediate layer. But the thermodynamic efficiency limit of STPVs, which has long been understood to be the blackbody limit (85.4%), is still far lower than the Landsberg limit (93.3%), the ultimate efficiency limit for solar energy harvesting. “In this work, we show that the efficiency deficit is caused by the inevitable back emission of the intermediate layer towards the sun resulting from the reciprocity of the system. We propose nonreciprocal STPV systems that utilize an intermediate layer with nonreciprocal radiative properties,” said Zhao. “Such a nonreciprocal intermediate layer can substantially suppress its back emission to the sun and funnel more photon flux towards the cell. We show that with such improvement, the nonreciprocal STPV system can reach the Landsberg limit, and practical STPV systems with single-junction photovoltaic cells can also experience a significant efficiency boost.” Besides improved efficiency, STPVs promise compactness and dispatchability (electricity that can be programmed on demand based on market needs). In one important application scenario, STPVs can be coupled with an economical thermal energy storage unit to generate electricity 24/7. “Our work highlights the great potential of nonreciprocal thermal photonic components in energy applications. The proposed system offers a new pathway to improve the performance of STPV systems significantly. It may pave the way for nonreciprocal systems to be implemented in practical STPV systems currently used in power plants,” said Zhao.

In a prior article I discussed probability-based energy systems, how they can negatively impact the grid and how Bitcoin helps solve some of the problems associated with wind and solar power.

In this article, I would like to address the most frustrating critique that I hear all the time: Bitcoin is a waste of energy.

WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?

The fact is Bitcoin doesn’t use that much energy. The big brains at Harvard estimate that the Bitcoin network only consumes about 0.55% of global electricity production. Comparatively, it is estimated that 6-10% of electricity production is lost in transmission and distribution alone.

If Bitcoin used an order of magnitude more energy, it still wouldn’t be an issue. What most people don’t understand is that if you don’t use energy, you lose it, so what the hell are you going to do with it all anyways?

Actual batteries? Good luck with that. California plans to achieve carbon-neutral goals through extensive use of industrial-scale battery usage. This plan directly conflicts with its own goals, necessitating the mining of millions of tons of raw materials in order to produce said batteries. Furthermore, the goal only allows them to power about a million homes for four hours. To achieve their goal, it would require a battery capacity that exceeds current global capacity by five times. That’s a lot of batteries.