latest research on renewable energy

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Renewable energy articles from across Nature Portfolio

Renewable energy is energy that comes from sources that are readily replenishable on short-timescales. Examples of these are solar radiation, wind, and biomass.

More ions in, less power out

Ion migration is generally understood to detrimentally impact the operational stability of perovskite solar cells, yet the underlying mechanism is not fully clear. By decoupling ion migration from other effects, research now shows that electric field screening induced by mobile ions is a dominant contributor to efficiency loss during solar cell ageing.

• Davide Moia

Wind power and solar photovoltaics found to have higher energy returns than fossil fuels

A key issue in net energy analysis is the omission of the effects of end-use efficiencies on the energy returns of technologies. Now, an analysis shows that these effects strongly favour the energy returns of wind power and solar photovoltaics, which are found to be higher than those of fossil fuels.

Optimizing all links in the chain

Large scale cellulosic biofuel production involves complex interactions between biomass supply, biorefineries and the networks that connect them. New fine-scale spatially explicit modelling seeks to better understand how these components could best integrate with carbon capture to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and optimize biofuel supply chains.

• Sabrina Spatari

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Ethylene production via photocatalytic dehydrogenation of ethane using LaMn 1 − x Cu x O 3

Light-driven approaches could lower the carbon footprint of chemical production. Here the authors use the perovskite oxide LaMn 1− x Cu x O 3 as a photocatalyst to convert ethane to ethylene and hydrogen.

• Guanshu Zhao
• Geoffrey A. Ozin

Decarbonization potential of floating solar photovoltaics on lakes worldwide

Floating photovoltaics represent a promising alternative to land-based solar panels. A large-scale analysis, comprising 1 million water bodies worldwide, shows that floating photovoltaics could contribute 16%, on average, of the electricity demands of some countries.

• R. Iestyn Woolway
• Alona Armstrong

Study on coupled mode flutter parameters of large wind turbine blades

• Yong Zhuang
• Guangming Yuan

Self-assembled network polymer electrolyte membranes for application in fuel cells at 250 °C

High-temperature operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells has some advantages but is also challenging due to the instability of proton transport above 160 °C. Here the authors report a polymer electrolyte membrane comprising well-dispersed and interconnected cerium hydrogen phosphate particles within a polymer matrix that performs well in a fuel cell at up to 250 °C.

• Seungju Lee
• Jong Geun Seong
• So Young Lee

Rethinking energy planning to mitigate the impacts of African hydropower

Meeting future energy demands in Africa will require expanded hydropower capacity, but the dams’ impacts on rivers, their emissions and alternative energy options call for careful planning. This study performs multi-objective energy system modelling for more sustainable dam expansion from the present to 2050.

• Angelo Carlino
• Rafael Schmitt
• Andrea Castelletti

Recycling of silicon solar panels through a salt-etching approach

The booming production of silicon solar panels, a core technology in the energy transition, calls for proper end-of-life management. Here the authors propose a salt-etching approach that enables efficient recycling of critical materials from end-of-life silicon solar panels, without the use of toxic reagents.

• Shuaibo Gao

News and Comment

Preserving the stoichiometry.

• Giulia Tregnago

Anchoring nanoparticles

• James Gallagher

Old electric-vehicle batteries can find new purpose — on the grid

An algorithm can monitor the health of retired vehicle batteries used to store surplus power fed into the electrical grid.

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Rapid progress of key clean energy technologies shows the new energy economy is emerging faster than many think

News 12 July 2023

But momentum in solar, EVs and heat pumps needs to expand quickly across more countries and to other parts of the energy system to move the world closer to net zero by 2050

The pace of deployment of some clean energy technologies – such as solar PV and electric vehicles – shows what can be achieved with sufficient ambition and policy action, but faster change is urgently needed across most components of the energy system to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, according to the IEA’s latest evaluation of global progress.

Published today, the annual update of the IEA’s Tracking Clean Energy Progress online resource reveals remarkable gains in the past year. Electric car sales reached a record high of more than 10 million in 2022, a nearly tenfold increase in just five years. Renewable electricity capacity additions rose to 340 gigawatts (GW), their largest ever deployment. As a result, renewables now account for 30% of global electricity generation. Investment in clean energy reached a record USD 1.6 trillion in 2022, an increase of almost 15% from 2021, demonstrating continued confidence in energy transitions even in an uncertain economic climate.

The transition to clean energy is occurring at different speeds across regions and sectors, however. For example, nearly 95% of global electric car sales in 2022 took place in China, the United States and Europe. Stronger international cooperation is needed to spread progress on electric cars and other key technologies to all regions, particularly emerging and developing economies.

Clean energy deployment is also occurring faster in some parts of the energy system – such as electricity generation and passenger cars – where costs have fallen and technologies are already relatively mature. Meanwhile, rapid innovation is still needed to bring to market clean technologies for parts of the energy system where emissions are harder to tackle, such as heavy industry and long-distance transport. Positive steps on innovation have been made in the past few years, but a further acceleration is needed to soon bring to market more low-emissions technologies for these areas.   

The 2023 update of Tracking Clean Energy Progress , available on the IEA website, tracks progress towards aligning the global energy system with a path to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. It does this by assessing over 50 different components, from sectors to technologies to infrastructure. The IEA also released today the newly redesigned Clean Energy Technology Guide , an interactive digital database that allows users to visualise the readiness and geographical distribution of more than 500 different innovative technologies or components across the global energy system, along with the accompanying Clean Energy Demonstration Projects Database .

“The clean energy economy is rapidly taking shape, but even faster progress is needed in most areas to meet international energy and climate goals,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “This update of Tracking Clean Energy Progress highlights some very promising developments, underlining both the need and the potential for greater action globally. The extraordinary growth of key technologies like solar and electric cars shows what is possible.”

Although many sectors are not yet fully on track for international climate goals, the new analysis identifies crucial advances over the past year. For the first time ever, announced manufacturing capacity for electric vehicle batteries has reached levels sufficient to fulfil expected demand requirements in 2030 in the IEA’s scenario for achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This is backed by the momentum from major industrial strategies such as the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and the European Union’s Green Deal Industrial Plan.

Solar PV has been upgraded to “on track”, as its progress now aligns with milestones consistent with net zero ambitions. Solar PV generated a record of nearly 1 300 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, up 26% from 2021 and logging the largest absolute generation growth of all renewable technologies in 2022. The number of manufacturing projects in the pipeline for solar PV also saw massive growth in the context of widespread government support, especially in China, the United States and India. If all announced projects are realised, global manufacturing capacity for solar PV will more than double in the next five years, outpacing 2030 demand in the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 Scenario.

Notable progress was made in the buildings sector – which has been upgraded from “not on track” to “more efforts needed” in the Tracking Clean Energy Progress three-tier rating system. Governments are increasingly introducing stringent building energy codes and performance standards, and the use of efficient and renewable technologies for buildings such as heat pumps and low-emissions cooling equipment is accelerating. Energy efficiency policies were also strengthened globally in the past year, such as in India, which enacted new policies for appliances, vehicles, industrial facilities and commercial buildings.

Policy is advancing in many regions. Earlier this year, for example, Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to establish a legal and regulatory framework for carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and Namibia released a hydrogen strategy in late 2022.

Several technologies have seen important breakthroughs in innovation since the last updates to the IEA’s Tracking Clean Energy Progress and Clean Energy Technology Guide . The world’s largest battery manufacturer announced it would begin production of sodium-ion electric vehicles batteries, an alternative battery chemistry that can help reduce reliance on in-demand critical minerals. Two large-scale demonstrations of solid oxide electrolysers, a highly efficient technology to produce low-emission hydrogen, started operating earlier this year. There have been positive steps in innovative clean technologies for aluminium refining and cement-making – both industries in which emissions are difficult to tackle. Furthermore, in early 2023, the first shipment of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) was taken from Belgium to be geologically stored off the coast of Denmark beneath the North Sea, a landmark achievement for the carbon capture sector.

While progress can be observed across all of the 50-plus components of the energy system evaluated in Tracking Clean Energy Progress , the majority are not yet on a path consistent with net zero emissions by 2050. Stronger policy support and greater investment are needed across a wide range of different technologies, in all regions of the world, to enable a broader and faster shift towards clean energy to keep net zero emissions by 2050 within reach.

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Should we worry about wasting renewable energy? Here’s why ‘spilling’ excess power is expected – and efficient

Senior Research Associate, Renewable Energy & Energy Systems Analyst, UNSW Sydney

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Dylan McConnell's current position is supported by the 'Race for 2030' Cooperative Research Centre.

UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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In Australia’s electricity system, more and more energy from sunlight and wind is being “spilled” – or not converted to electricity.

In the last year, the amount of renewable energy spilled was roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of 750,000 typical households, or three months of consumption for the state of South Australia. Some have attributed these dynamics as being driven by a “ solar power glut ”.

At face value, this seems like a terrible waste of renewable energy, even more so in the face of a slump in rate of renewable energy growth and the pressing need to reduce emissions.

But the story is more complex. Such spillage, also known as curtailment, is also an expected and efficient feature of renewable energy systems.

What is ‘spilled energy’?

The energy market operator defines spilled energy as “energy from variable renewable energy resources that could be generated but is unable to be delivered”.

It represents energy that could have been converted to electricity, but wasn’t. The unconverted energy simply remains in the environment.

It is typically broken down into two categories, based on the cause of the spillage. Firstly, there is curtailment based on the operation of the transmission network. Power generation can be constrained due to operation limits or congestion in the network, resulting in spilled energy. This can occur when there are too many generators in the same area, trying to send power through the same transmission line. Secondly, a generator may reduce output due to low market prices, which the operator calls “economic spill” also known as “economic curtailment”.

The amount of this curtailment has been growing in recent years. In the last 12 months this curtailed energy represents more than 8.5% of the total potential. This varies considerably by region, with as much 12% spilled in Victoria in the last year.

Why is spillage efficient?

It doesn’t make economic sense to try and utilise every renewable electron. The cost to store, transmit and utilise every single watt of power from a renewable energy source would be exorbitant.

For example, we don’t build additional highway lanes to accommodate traffic for the busiest single hour on an Easter weekend. In a similar way, it doesn’t make sense to build transmission to ensure every single watt is transferred. This would be expensive and result in severely underused infrastucture. For the more common weather conditions – when it isn’t blowing a gale or in the middle of a sunny day – the network would be considerably oversized.

Studies that model energy systems primarily powered by renewables commonly find it is more economically efficient to build additional renewable capacity, and spill some generation when there is an abundance of supply above demand.

The Integrated System Plan, a roadmap for the electricity system prepared by Australia’s energy market operator, projects an increase of renewable energy curtailment in the best case scenario. Approximately 20% of renewable generation is expected to be spilled by 2050. This is roughly equivalent to the current consumption of the state of New South Wales.

On one level, this shouldn’t be surprising.

Households often buy larger solar PV system relative to their consumption.

And it’s now common practice to install solar panels in excess of the capacity of the inverter to convert the power and send it to the home or grid. This is usually done to maximise use of the inverter and exports across a limited connection.

These two examples are broadly analogous to what happens on the grid, with economic curtailment and transmission-based curtailment.

Are current levels efficient?

At a system-wide level, current levels of spillage are above what was expected. The integrated system plan suggests curtailment rates of around 5% might be considered appropriate for today’s penetration of renewable energy, compared with the today’s level of around 8.5%. This difference relates to how things are working in the real world, including how rules around accessing transmission capacity currently work.

A recent discussion paper from the Australian Energy Market Commission highlights this mismatch, and suggest that “in the absence of reform, actual levels of curtailment are likely to exceed the levels forecast in the ISP”, pointing to issues with the current arrangements for generators accessing transmission capacity.

They imply the current system is resulting in higher than expected congestion, leading to increased costs for consumers and potentially unnecessary transmission builds. Managing transmission access remains a challenge for developers building new renewables projects.

Australia’s fleet of coal-fired power generators is another key driver of economic curtailment. While coal generators are more flexible than commonly understood, they have their limits. Specifically, they can only reduce operation down so far, to so-called minimum generation levels. Below these levels, they have to turn off completely, which is a costly exercise.

Coal generators therefore prefer to continue to generate, even at negative prices, rather than completely shut down. As a consequence, and to avoid paying to generate, renewable energy is spilled, rather than coal shutdown. In the context of the energy transition and the need to reduce emissions we actually have a glut of coal, rather than renewables.

Where to next?

The curtailment story is complex. On the one hand it is an expected phenomenon, and one we should get used to as we transition more toward a renewable-dominated electricity system. We should, however, be encouraging consumers to make use of this abundance of renewable generation where possible, such as by shifting their useage to the middle of the day .

On the other hand, some of these levels of curtailment are beyond what is expected. That’s in part because we still have an excess of coal power. We separately need to ensure grid congestion is properly managed, and access arrangements are reformed, to prevent unnecessary costs to consumers and renewable developers alike.

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Engineering study shows renewable energy will enhance power grid's resilience

A new Dartmouth Engineering study shows that integrating renewable energy into the American Electric Power System (AEPS) would enhance the grid's resilience, meaning a highly resilient and decarbonized energy system is possible. The researchers' analysis is based upon the incremental incorporation of architectural changes that would be required to integrate renewable energy into AEPS.

The paper, "A Hetero-functional Graph Resilience Analysis of the Future American Electric Power System," was recently published by IEEE Access.

"We concluded that there are no structural trade-offs between grid sustainability and resilience enhancements, meaning these strategic goals can be pursued simultaneously," said Principal Investigator Amro Farid, a professor at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and research affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"Whether you are of one political inclination or another, value resilience or sustainability, the efforts are entirely aligned and should serve as the basis for a bipartisan consensus on the transformation of the electric power grid," said Farid.

The results of the structural analysis are the first to take into account the hetero-functionality of the grid's resources, including renewable energy, using a new method that uniquely captures the true connectedness and capabilities of the grid. Using the novel hetero-functional graph theory, which Farid has been developing for over a decade, the researchers analyzed more than 175,000 energy resources throughout the United States such as power plants, substations, and transmission lines.

"Through the hetero-functional graph theory analysis of the American Electric Power Systems, we were better able to track the systems capabilities and structural resilience as the AEPS underwent both attacks and developments," said first author Dakota Thompson, a Dartmouth Engineering PhD candidate. Dartmouth Engineering alumnus Wester Schoonenberg also contributed to the study.

The authors received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the American Multi-Modal Energy System (AMES) project, which supported this work.

The researchers are already working on their next project: developing a synthetic model of the AMES, including electric power, oil, natural gas, and coal infrastructure, so that the research community can study how the model can evolve to meet current and future needs.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth . Original written by Julie Bonette. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Dakota J. Thompson, Wester C. H. Schoonenberg, Amro M. Farid. A Hetero-functional Graph Resilience Analysis of the Future American Electric Power System . IEEE Access , 2021; 1 DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3077856

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Future energy demand does not need new fossil fuels, study says

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Energy groups did not need to develop any new oil, gas and coal projects to meet future demand, an academic paper says, at a time when rhetoric over the role of fossil fuel companies in addressing climate change is escalating.

Researchers from University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development studied projected future global demand for oil and gas production, and for coal- and gas-fired power generation, under a range of scenarios that limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

In all of the scenarios, which are all taken from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, existing fossil fuel capacity is enough to meet the world’s energy demands, it concludes.

The study is the first peer-reviewed paper published in a scientific journal to argue that no more fossil fuel projects are needed as renewable energy sources take up the demand, and expands on the findings produced in 2021 by the International Energy Agency.

The IEA said energy groups must stop all new oil and gas exploration projects if the world was to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and limit global warming to 1.5C degrees.

Greg Muttitt, a senior associate at IISD, said the research drew on “a large range of scientific evidence . . . But its message to governments and fossil fuel companies is very simple: There is no room for new fossil fuel projects in a 1.5°C-aligned world.”

“Achieving the Paris Agreement goals means governments need to stop issuing permits for new fossil fuel exploration, production or power- generation projects,” said Muttitt.

Almost 200 countries agreed to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels as part of the Paris Agreement in 2015, with many countries setting targets to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

The oil and gas industry has repeatedly pushed back against the IEA, including its forecast that demand for fossil fuels will peak before 2030.

“I don’t think they’re remotely right,” the chief executive of oil producer Chevron told the Financial Times last October. “You can build scenarios, but we live in the real world, and have to allocate capital to meet real world demands.”

Last December, countries reached an agreement as part of the UN’s COP28 climate summit to transition away from fossil fuels in an attempt to reach global net zero emissions by 2050.

The text asks all countries to set “ambitious” emissions targets over the next two years that take into account their fossil fuel use, in an effort to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The rise in temperature is at least 1.1C.

A cut in greenhouse gas emissions by about half by 2030 is required to limit warming, with the burning of fossils fuels being the biggest contributor. However, according to scientists at Nasa, emissions from fossil fuel are still rising. Emissions rose 1.1 per cent in 2023 compared with 2022.

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