Using waste and biomass for gasification can produce low carbon power efficiently particularly at a town scale

• The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) estimates that bioenergy can reduce the cost of meeting the UK’s 2050 carbon targets by more than 1% of GDP
• Gasification is a key technology for delivering low carbon energy – it can use a variety of feedstocks to produce electricity, heat, power, chemicals and materials
• The ETI is investing £5m in a 1.5MWe gasification project incorporating syngas cleaning and tar removal in the West Midlands to build confidence in the technology

A new report published June 26, 2017 by the ETI has concluded that using waste and biomass for gasification can produce low carbon power efficiently particularly at a town scale.

The ETI’s latest report “Targeting new and cleaner uses for wastes and biomass using gasification” sets out why it believes the technology could be so important to a future low carbon UK energy system, what the current UK landscape looks like along with analysis of earlier ETI research into waste gasification technologies.

ETI analysis of the UK energy system indicates that bioenergy should be a crucial part of the UK’s future energy mix as it can reduce the cost of meeting the country’s 2050 carbon targets by more than 1% of GDP.

Gasification, which can use a variety of feedstocks, is a key technology for delivering low carbon energy as electricity, heat and power as well as chemicals and other materials. This is because it  converts the energy held within a difficult to use solid fuel into an easier to use gas.

It is especially useful when operated at a town scale because the waste heat generated can be used in district heat networks to provide heat and power for commercial operations.

Currently, the technology and commercial risks are too high for typical investors and developers.  To accelerate the technology to the point where these risks are more acceptable, the ETI is investing £5m in the construction of a 1.5 MWe waste gasification demonstration project incorporating an engine fuelled by “ultra-clean”, tar free syngas.

The 1.5MWe facility being built in Wednesbury in the West Midlands will produce enough electrical power to supply 2,500 homes and will use advanced gasification technology to produce power at high efficiency and high reliability from sorted and processed municipal waste.

The plant will convert about 40 tonnes a day of post recycling, refuse derived fuel (RDF) produced locally into a clean syngas. The syngas will then be converted into power using a modified high- efficiency gas engine, and waste heat generated from the engine will be made available to heat a local swimming pool.

It will also incorporate a unique test facility which will allow the testing of new engines, turbines and upgrading processes which produce products from waste derived clean syngas including a proprietary methanol production process which boosts product yield significantly over rival technologies

Further details on the waste gasification plant can be found here.

The “Targeting new and cleaner uses for wastes and biomass using gasification” report can be found here.

http://www.eti.co.uk/news/using-waste-and-biomass-for-gasification-can-produce-low-carbon-power-efficiently-particularly-at-a-town-scale

Energy Technologies Institute http://www.eti.co.uk
Press Release dated 29 June 2017

Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States | Science

Abstract:

Estimates of climate change damage are central to the design of climate policies. Here, we develop a flexible architecture for computing damages that integrates climate science, econometric analyses, and process models. We use this approach to construct spatially explicit, probabilistic, and empirically derived estimates of economic damage in the United States from climate change. The combined value of market and nonmarket damage across analyzed sectors—agriculture, crime, coastal storms, energy, human mortality, and labor—increases quadratically in global mean temperature, costing roughly 1.2% of gross domestic product per +1°C on average. Importantly, risk is distributed unequally across locations, generating a large transfer of value northward and westward that increases economic inequality. By the late 21st century, the poorest third of counties are projected to experience damages between 2 and 20% of county income (90% chance) under business-as-usual emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_de_Jean_Charles,_Louisiana

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362

by Solomon Hsiang 1,2,*,†, Robert Kopp 3,*,†, Amir Jina 4,†, James Rising 1,5,†, Michael Delgado 6, Shashank Mohan 6, D. J. Rasmussen 7, Robert Muir-Wood 8, Paul Wilson 8, Michael Oppenheimer 7,9, Kate Larsen 6, and Trevor Houser 6

1. Global Policy Laboratory, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

2. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA.

3. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.

4. Department of Economics and Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

5. Energy Resource Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

6. Rhodium Group, New York, NY, USA.

7. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

8 Risk Management Solutions, Newark, CA, USA.

9 Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

* Corresponding author. Email: shsiang@berkeley.edu (S.H.); robert.kopp@rutgers.edu (R.K.)

Science  http://science.sciencemag.org 30 Jun 2017:

Volume 356, Issue 6345, pp. 1362-1369

Economic and Social Impact Assessment of China's Multi-Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Production

It is well known that solar photovoltaic technologies provide significant environmental, economic, and social benefits over conventional energy sources. One study in the Journal of Industrial Ecology investigates the economic and social impacts of China's multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules production stages. The main cost of these modules lies in raw materials and productions, with the greatest cost being the production of the multi silicon photovoltaic cells. Social impact analysis in the report shows that the employment contribution index is 0.72 - this is to say that module production in China greatly contributes to employment. However, the labor civilization degree and labor income contribution indexes are both at around 0.6, meaning that multi silicon PV production has a relatively small labor level and income contribution. Further, the modules contribute very little to GDP, as the report concludes that the production capacity contribution index is 0.183. With this, there is new support for research on more efficient ways to produce the raw materials, as well as support for the upgrading of manufacturing facilities in order to improve the labor civilization degree. 

http://www.mkc.com.eg/images/photovoltaic_plant.jpeg

Report by Beijia Huang, Juan Zhao, Jingyang Chai, Feng Zhao, and Xiangyu Wang
5/4/2017

For full report, see   http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/jiec.12576/abstract

The Cost of Wind Energy: The Impact of Dropping Prices

As the race for clean energy becomes increasingly competitive, the cost of wind energy across the United States continues to fall. Massive investments into clean energy technology have allowed for an increase in the amount of energy harvested from wind. Average hourly clearing prices in several regions are under $30 per megawatt-hour (MWh) due to low marginal generating cost of wind energy. Falling prices combined with the intermittent nature of wind pose a real challenge for grid operators. Because of the intermittent nature of wind, conventional resources, namely fossil fuels, must be ready to back up wind power, and low wind energy prices means that gas companies must lower their prices in order to stay competitive. Because of this, the role of fossil fuels within the energy market is fundamentally shifting; fleet operators must change the way that they manage fossil fuels in order to adapt to the market.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Windmills_D1-D4_%28Thornton_Bank%29.jpg/220px-Windmills_D1-D4_%28Thornton_Bank%29.jpg

For full story, see the following story 

by Peter Kelly-Detwiler

May 25, 2017

Electric Cars to Reach Price Parity by 2025

For the next 9 years, electric cars will be more expensive to produce than internal combustion engine vehicles, resulting in tougher competition for electric car manufacturers. In 2016, batteries were the largest cost in the manufacturing of electrical cars, making up 48% of total cost on average, but this is expected to decrease to 24% by 2026. This drop puts the cost of manufacturing for electric cars equal to the estimated cost of combustion vehicles at 2026. Battery costs are dropping at around 19% per doubling of manufactured capacity, and it is assumed that technological progress will allow for the same sustained rate. Base vehicle and powertrain costs, such as motors, for electrical vehicles are expected to drop as well due to simpler design and greater manufacturing volume. Because combustion vehicles must be created to meet fuel economy requirements, prices are expected to increase for their manufacturing. With these expectations, battery electric vehicles will be up to 15% cheaper than combustion vehicle counterparts by 2030. 

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/01/10/Business/Images/136667073.jpg

by Nikolas Soulpoulos

Bloomberg News Energy Finance

For article and full report, click here.

Report on Global Energy by 2040

According to a report by Bloomberg News Energy Finance, of the $10.2 trillion that is expected to be invested in new power by 2040, 72%, or $7.2 trillion, is expected to go to renewables. Renewable energy investment is expected to increase by 2-3% annually. The cost of new electricity from solar PV will drop by 66% by 2040, meaning that a dollar would be able to buy 2.3 times as much solar energy than it does today. Onshore wind will fall 47%, but offshore wind will decline by 71% because of competition, reduced risk, and larger projects and turbines. China and India are reported to lead energy investments, with each country taking up 28% and 11% of global energy investments by 2040. Wind and solar energy are estimated to take up a third of these of investments. The report says that European investment in renewables will increase by 2.6% annually until 2040, which means that total investments in renewables across Europe will reach almost 1$ trillion over the 2017-2040 period. In the Americas, it is estimated that there will be a $1.5 trillion investment in renewable energy by 2040, and in the US specifically, coal consumption is expected to drop by 45%. In Mexico, renewables are expected to make up 80% of total electricity by 2040, which is four times what it is today. The nation will become 29% more efficient in its electricity consumption by that time. The report predicts that global power sector emissions will peak by 2026 and decline by 1% annually until 2040. 

http://www.electricalindia.in/uploads/2253/ancillary-services-large.jpg

Bloomberg News Energy Finance 

June 15, 2017

For the full story, click here