Tag Archives: energy

Going Mainstream with Solar

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Cost and efficiency issues continue to make solar power a tough investment to sell against power generated by fossil fuels. At the present price levels for oil it could still take another ten years of research and development to get solar prices down to the point where they can compete with petroleum, according to some experts. Despite the long path ahead for solar, there is conviction that solar power can become a mainstream source of power.

The biggest challenge is reducing the cost of photo voltaic (PV) panels to the point where interest shifts away from coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other non-renewable sources of electricity. In other words, it has to make economic sense combined with providing other benefits for buyers to choose solar over the other options. Buying is now done with acknowledgement that the cost will be higher but that there are other benefits such as personal energy independence and environmental issues. The tiny size of that market sector will keep a lid on solar sales, even with government incentives such as rebates and tax credits. The math of equation works this way; PV generated energy costs about 35 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour. The complex of fossil fuel options provides electricity at approximately 5-6 cents per kilowatt-hour, making solar energy six to eight times as expensive. Other challenges include developing cost-effective and longer lasting solar cells as well as reducing the amounts of toxic materials used in the production of the cells.

Experts in the field insist that solar energy doesn’t need to be equal to or less than the cost of electricity produced by traditional methods. Solar’s benefits as a renewable source of clean energy would make it a viable choice for many consumers if costs of photovoltaic energy can be reduced by technological and design advances to about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. With growing acceptance by consumers, higher production levels for PV panels and other equipment would reduce kW per hour costs even further due to economies of scale.

Beyond electricity produced by photo voltaics is the use of solar panels to power the development of clean burning chemical fuels, splitting hydrogen away from water to be used as fuel, and the development of fuel cells. The promise of solar power may not be a cost effective reality at this point but sunlight as fuel has two powerful characteristics; sunlight is free and more of it hits the surface of the Earth in an hour than could be consumed for the needs of the entire planet in a year.

By Anthony Ricigliano

Is the Other Hydrogen the Alternative Fuel Answer?

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Advice by Anthony Ricigliano: Hydrogen has long been thought to have the potential to replace fossil fuels and ultimately eliminate carbon based emissions completely. With water as its only post-combustion byproduct, hydrogen could deliver an ideal solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions as a plentiful, environmentally friendly, and zero carbon emission fuel. High hopes aside, the promise of hydrogen has been stunted by challenges on multiple fronts. These challenges include:

  • Cost and availability – Hydrogen is a relatively expensive fuel alternative. Outside California, availability is extremely limited. Even there, access points are few and far between.
  • Prohibitive technology and vehicle costs – Fuel cells, and the vehicles which incorporate them, are extremely expensive. Additionally, the experience of user has not been great.
  • Onboard Storage - In volume comparisons, hydrogen delivers much less energy than gas and diesel which limits range. Another issue is that onboard hydrogen storage systems have yet to meet size, weight, and cost objectives for commercialization purposes.

A solution to some of these hydrogen related issues is provided by ammonia, known as “the other hydrogen”. A compound consisting of nitrogen and hydrogen, ammonia can be used today as fuel in internal combustion engines, diesel engines, and fuel cells. Internal combustion engines can be adapted to run on ammonia with only minor modifications. The byproducts of combustion are water and nitrogen, with no carbon emissions.

Ammonia, which serves essentially as the delivery system for hydrogen, solves a couple of problems that exist with using hydrogen on its own. The combination of nitrogen and hydrogen results in a more stable compound, which can be liquefied at ambient temperatures and moderate pressure. This eliminates the primary difficulty of storing and transporting hydrogen. Another solution provided by ammonia is that it is widely accessible due its use across the country in fertilizers.

The issue which ammonia has not yet solved is its cost. Synthesized from hydrogen and nitrogen via the Haber-Bosch process, the production of ammonia is an extremely energy intensive undertaking, requiring high temperatures and pressures. The energy requirements for ammonia production represent about 2% of the total energy consumption in the world.

Like other fossil fuel alternatives, the biggest challenge to ammonia’s use as a mainstream fuel lies in its cost of production. One possible solution comes from another alternative energy source; wind. There are currently several pilot programs around the country using wind power for the synthesis of ammonia. Using wind farms’ excess power generated during low times of demand such as night and early morning hours, the lower cost energy is used to power the production process for ammonia instead of being put out to the electrical grid. There is still much that needs to be accomplished but the other hydrogen could play an important future role in our search for clean fuel alternatives.

Author Anthony Ricigliano

Peak Oil and the Alternatives

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The term “Peak Oil” refers to a global situation where the extraction of oil becomes more difficult and expensive due to dwindling oil reserves. Should the warnings of peak oil be true, the cost of everything from travel to plastic-based household items would increase dramatically. According to peak oil experts, the apex of available oil reserves has already been passed and the ramifications of peak oil will start being felt by consumers across the globe. While some of that pain has been delayed due to recessions and slower growth in the world’s large economies, these experts expect that economic recovery will spur greater demand from an increasing number of people. This, combined with decreasing supplies of the resource in demand will result in a spiral of increasing prices.

Peak oil is not a new concept, with the peak in U.S. production in 1970 predicted by M. King Hubbard in 1956. At the time, the U.S. was the world’s largest oil producer and the declining production ignited oil exploration and production across the globe, particularly the Middle East and Mexico. The two largest oil fields in the world, Ghawar in Saudi Arabia and Cantarell in Mexico were brought on line in relatively quick order.

Peak oil has largely been dismissed by global governments and OPEC but there is persuasive evidence that that these two fields and others ranked in top ten of the world’s largest oil reserves are producing ever decreasing amounts of petroleum. The decreased production at these fields is also important due to the fact that they produced the cleanest and highest quality oil. Cantarell peaked in 2004 with production dropping drastically ever since. Saudi Arabia does not share data on field production but computer models and overall production levels indicate that the Ghawar Field, which is the world’s largest, peaked in early 2006.

Peak oil continues to be hotly debated but if production levels at these two fields are any indication, the issue cannot be ignored and concentrated efforts must be made to conserve the oil that is left and develop alternatives to fossil fuel.
Increasing miles per gallon and other conservation efforts are gaining traction and are finding their way into mainstream thinking. Alternative energy production, particularly wind and solar, are making inroads as well but their production as a percentage of whole remains in the 1% to 2% area. On a level playing field these two alternatives are still not competitive with power generated by fossil fuel, which is still relatively cheap. These alternatives will become more competitive as technological advances decrease costs but the biggest trigger will probably arrive in the form of skyrocketing energy prices as demand increases.

News by Anthony Ricigliano

The Earth’s Newest Island

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By Anthony Ricigliano:
The Earth has a brand new island in the form of a chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan after it broke off from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland. The ice island is slowly drifting across the Arctic Ocean with the potential to make its way toward oil platforms and busy shipping lanes off of Newfoundland.

The ice island is approximately one hundred square miles in size and is the largest northern hemisphere ice island since 1962. "It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo. The challenge now is to track the likely trajectory of the island to determine the potential danger which could be wreaked in the shipping lanes and Canada's offshore platforms in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.
The island is drifting toward the Nares Strait which could feed the island into southbound ocean currents. These currents would carry the island down Canada’s east coast and directly into the busy shipping lanes and oil drilling operations unless the usual winter freeze arrives on time and locks down the Strait. If it gets into the Nares Strait earlier than expected or the winter freeze is late, the floating ice shelf would become problematic.

Besides the obvious problems presented to ships, another complex problem is the threat to the offshore oil platforms in its path. Smaller icebergs can be redirected using water cannons or by towing but this ice shelf is so big that changing its direction would be difficult, if not impossible. If the platforms are threatened, they will probably have to shut down operations and be moved. The logistics of this type of action take time, money, and are very complicated, especially when the rigs are fixed to the ocean floor. The complexities would increase considerably if multiple rigs are threatened at the same time.

At its current size, the island contains the equivalent of the fresh water flowing through the Hudson River for two years. While it's likely to break into smaller icebergs as it bumps into other icebergs and jagged islands, the bergs will still be huge in comparison to what normally floats out of the Nares Strait. The bergs would also be affected by wind, waves and higher temperatures as they head south.

The ice sheet is already a topic in the global warming discussion and should remain so during its journey. At this point, however, experts are reluctant to attribute the giant ice island to climate change due to all the variables that affect glaciers in the area. The ongoing retreat of Greenland's glaciers has accelerated in recent years, and is one of the least understood pieces of the climate puzzle.

Despite the variables beyond those directly tied to global warming, the event coincides with worrisome signs of warming in the Arctic. Over the last forty years, Arctic temperatures have risen by 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit and Arctic sea ice measured in June was at its lowest level for the month since records started being kept in 1979.

Whether it’s a result of global warming or other factors, this ice island is likely to be the center of attention for environmentalists as well as the area’s shipping and oil industries.

Author Anthony Ricigliano

Going Big in Wind

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Dogger Bank, UK — 9 GW

Offshore wind power projects have the advantages of vast areas in which to set up shop and the capability to benefit from steadier and faster winds. The largest of these proposed projects is the Dogger Bank development, which is part three of the UK’s offshore wind licensing program. Dogger Bank will have a massive target installation capacity of 9 gigawatts with potential to expand to 13 gigawatts
The project will be directed by Forewind, a consortium of major energy companies including Scottish and Southern Energy, subsidiaries of RWE, Statoil and Statkraft. The consortium won the license to develop the Dogger Bank zone in January. The area of the site is 3343 square miles with turbines ranging 77 to 150 miles from shore. The depths of Dogger Bank range between 59 and 206 feet. The unrivaled size, the distance from shore, and the area’s depth present several logistical challenges. They include the actual construction of the project and the subsequent connection to the grid.

Due to the challenges involved in the undertaking, the project will take years to get started and then several more years to complete. To those points, Forewind has yet to target a date to go online and doesn’t plan to make its first investment decisions on the project until 2014.

Rated for nine gigawatts, Dogger Bank is massive project, especially when compared to current and proposed wind farms. The largest wind farm of any kind is the 782-megawatt onshore wind farm in Roscoe, Texas, which completed its fourth phase under the direction E.ON Climate and Renewables in October 2009.

The recently approved Cape Wind project will be the first offshore wind project in the U.S. Cape Wind will be rated to produce up to 468 megawatts of wind power with each turbine producing up to 3.6 megawatts. It is anticipated that Cape Wind will produce enough power to cover about three quarters of the electricity demand for Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The scale of the Dogger Bank project will require cutting edge engineering combined with construction equipment built to take on greater challenges than the current offshore wind projects present. For example, the Resolution, a charter specifically built to anchor offshore wind turbines, is able to anchor the turbines at depths down to 59 feet. Coincidentally, that is the shallowest depth at Dogger Bank, meaning that anchoring capabilities will have to be extended by another 150 feet to anchor turbines in the area. Allowing time for this kind of upgrade may be one of the reasons that Forewind is willing to wait another four years to start their budgeting process.

Author Anthony Ricigliano