Meet El Hierro…The first island powered 100% by wind!

Ahhh the Canary Islands the place of sun and sand…and the first place of 100% wind power! The smallest of the Canary Islands ‘El Hierro’ has become the first Island in the world to be 100% wind-powered. The island is owned by Spain and is located off the coast of Africa. They have built five wind turbines on the North Eastern tip of the Island for a capacity of 11.5 megawatts. The population of El Hierro is 10,162 as of 2003, therefore the 11.5 megawatts would be enough for all the people who live there.

According to the Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce, El Hierro has become the first island in the world to be energy self-sufficient. They have achieved this through a €54 million project combining a greater than 11 megawatt wind farm and two hydroelectric projects.

They have even implemented a back-up plan for when the wind isn’t blowing! Back-up power will be provided from pumped water storage. The hybrid wind/pumped hydro storage system will store surplus wind power by pumping water up 700 meters (approximately 2,300 feet) to fill the crater of an extinct volcano. When winds are calm or when demand exceeds supply, water will be released from the crater to generate 11.3 MW of electricity, filling an artificial basin created at the bottom of the extinct volcano. Water in the lower basin is then pumped back up again to the upper reservoir when there is excess wind power.

In terms of their carbon footprint, the wind farm and pumped water storage will slash their CO2 emissions by around 18,700 tonnes per year. The project will also eliminate the islands annual consumption of 40,000 barrels of oil. This being said, as a back-up precaution El Hierro will maintain its fuel oil power station. Makes sense I guess?

The closed-loop hybrid wind/hydro system was tested at the end of 2013, and they expect to save approximately £2.5M per year (calculated with January 2011 oil prices).

Hopefully other island nations take encouragement from El Hierro. Many of the surrounding islands burn oil to produce their electricity. The alternative wind, hydro and solar options and much cleaner and potentially make fuel cost free after the initial set up costs.

As of May 2014, the island has become completely self-sufficient for electrical energy. Well done El Hierro!

Balcombe village says no to fracking and yes to solar!

In the UK there has been controversy whether to embrace the process of fracking. Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. Fracking makes it possible to produce natural gas extraction in shale plays that were once unreachable with conventional technologies.

Fracking has really taken hold in the US but a small English Village called Balcombe in West Sussex is not too happy about the idea. Last summer we saw Balcombe become the core of heated anti-fracking protests which dismissed the ‘dash for cash’ method of collating gas from the earth. The residents of Balcombe have decided to take a new approach and have formed a community led approach to harness their energy from the sun. They are planning to utilise solar power in a big way!

 

 

Their mission is to raise £300,000 in a community share to finance solar power plants. The residents have suitably named the community led project ‘REPOWER Balcombe’. The scheme will offer for six solar arrays on roofs in and around the village and will source 7.5% of the village’s power demand. In an effort to retain local ownership the money will be raised through a community share issue, with shares opening primarily to residents of West Sussex only. The ultimate goal is for the village to be completely independent with hopes of solar energy providing all of its electricity needs.

REPOWER Balcombe spokesman Joe Nixon said;

 “Our goal is to set up a program of renewable energy solutions based in and around the community. The aim is to generate the equivalent of 10% of Balcombe’s electricity usage through rooftop solar panels within the next 6 months, and eventually to generate the equivalent of 100% of the village’s electricity usage from clean, renewable energy sources.”

He added that the solar panels would provide a cleaner alternative to shale gas. “We all need energy, but buying dirty fossil power from giant utilities is no longer the only option”.

The group have recently announced that they have completed a lease to host the first 19kw array on the roof of a cow shed at a local family owned farm. Currently talks are being carried out to establish the future of REPOWER. There are five further sites which could be fitted with solar devices this spring.

The project is estimated to deliver at least 5% rebate to investors during the 20 year lifespan of the scheme. Any profits made by the scheme will be invested into a community benefit fund.

A huge advantage of the scheme is that the community will be able to generate their own energy in a way that is beneficial to the village. Balcombe is in a winning situation as not only does it take the power away from the big energy companies, it also helps the environment not to mention providing jobs and infrastructure to the area.

 

 

Los Angeles receives an LED lighting makeover!

Throughout Los Angeles streetlights have been replaced with modern LED lighting. Four years ago Los Angeles authorities took a bold step and a plan was put in place. The city has a long-term objective to radically reduce the energy consumption of the city streets with far-reaching benefits. At present street lighting can account for up to 40% of a city’s electricity bill.

The LED lighting offers a huge aesthetic benefit with bright white lights shining over the streets of Los Angeles. Prior to the new lighting, the city was covered with high-pressure sodium streetlights which created a vivid yellow glow. Many inhabitants are happy with the new look of the city streets but there is another underlying advantage. The new lighting has made travelling through the streets much safer due to the extra clarity given by the clearer lights.

The project wasn’t always smooth sailing as it was first criticised by many who believed funding should be invested in other welfare exercises such as education or crime prevention. In addition to this, it has been argued by many that Hollywood would never look the same again. The lighting has been integral to many Hollywood movies offering aesthetic attraction to filmmakers with its jaundiced appearance.

With 140,000 new bulbs installed, this has accounted for a gigantic 60% in energy reduction throughout the city. The scheme has been pioneered by Former President Bill Clinton who equated this carbon emissions reduction to taking 10,000 cars off the Los Angeles roads. The city is saving huge amounts of money each year which can free up funding available to fund other projects around the city. Aside from monetary advantages, the city has seen an increase in energy efficiency reducing their carbon footprint.

Director of Astute Lighting Ltd, Anwar Adam believes that this success could drive the LED lighting industry forward and has said:

 “Other cities will now be looking enviously at Los Angeles and their improved energy efficiency and decreasing energy bills. It can only be good for the environment if more councils and authorities follow suit and implement their own energy-saving measures wherever possible.”

Los Angeles aren’t the only ones switching to energy-efficient lighting. In March 2013, the City of Las Vegas finished equipping 42,000 street lights with LED fixtures. One month later, the City of Austin, Texas, announced plans to install 35,000 LED street lights.

The City of Los Angeles estimates it will see at least $7 million (US dollars) in electricity savings and $2.5 million (US dollars) in avoided maintenance costs annually with the switch to LED street lights.

The LED lighting has rid Los Angeles of its yellow jaundiced appearance.

Iceland plans to get hot and steamy…

The Earths centre is around 6000 degrees Celsius and is hot enough to melt rock. At just a few kilometres down, the temperature can be over 250 degrees Celsius if the Earth’s crust is thin.

Geothermal energy works as follows; Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam. We then drill holes down to the hot region; steam comes up, is purified and used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators. Walla we have energy.

Geothermal energy is not a recent development; it has been used for thousands of years. In some countries, they used this form of energy for cooking and heating. The name “geothermal” comes from two Greek words: “geo” means “Earth” and “thermal” means “heat”.

Iceland has decided to break records by becoming the first country to utilise the world’s magma as a source of power. The country has built a geothermal energy system to take advantage of the Earths heat to generate electricity.

Geothermal systems are currently well established in science which involves pumping water deep below the ground, which boils, turns to steam and pushes a turbine as it returns back to the surface. But Iceland has gone the extra mile. They have created a system which produces steam in a region of molten, rather than solid rock.

In Iceland the researchers fitted a valve where superheated steam could flow through in sufficient quantities to generate 36 megawatts of power. This will mark the second time researchers have effectively drilled into a magma bubble. The only country before this was Hawaii, who created a plug and installed it to the bottom of the hole for protection.

Iceland made precautions to connect the steam output to a nearby electrical plant in Krafla (Northeast Iceland), but the valve failed resulting in the hole needing to be closed. Regardless of this, the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) has confidence in that it can reopen the hole, 2.1 kilometres below the surface.

They also intend to drill an additional borehole in the Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest of the country. The IDDP said;

“The experiment at Krafla suffered various setbacks and tried personnel and equipment throughout. However, the process itself was very instructive, and… comprehensive reports on practical lessons learned are nearing completion.”

“The success of this drilling and research is amazing to say the least, and could in the near future lead to a revolution in energy efficiency in high-temperature geothermal areas of the world”

A major problem with geothermal energy is the cost of test drilling as approximately 50% of test drilling produces negative results with zero geothermal activity. This becomes difficult when commercial banks are involved as it is simply too high a risk to fund. Thus, countries must be confident on where this type of technology can and should be installed.

A number of countries around the world have some confidence when it comes to geothermal energy as they are located on what is known as ‘The ring of fire’.  This is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes.

So, while all eyes are currently on Iceland…if successful we could see a huge jump in geothermal, utilising the natural resources the Earth has to offer.

Blustery UK breaks wind power records

The UK has come on leaps and bounds in regards to offshore wind power. It has been a bumpy road which wasn’t always cheap, but we’ve helped drive forward the industry which will benefit many people. Just like Germany who helped boost the solar industry over the best decade leading to cheaper solar power for all.

So what have we done? We have only gone and set new national wind power records with a total 2,841,080 megawatt hours (MWh) of wind power produced during December. This is enough power to supply 5.7 million British homes with electricity or alternatively meet 10% of Britain’s total electricity demand!

During the week of December 16^th 2013 our wind turbines generated a record 783,886 MWh of power, which equates to 13% of Britain’s total electricity demand over the week.

Wait…there’s more…the Saturday before Christmas (21^st), one of the UK’s busiest shopping days of the year, wind farms created 132,812 MWh of power, 17% of the country’s total electricity demand for the day. This day alone broke the ‘single day’ record of wind power produced in the country.

Currently the UK is ahead of China and America who both have great potential for wind power developments. At present, Britain gets more electricity from offshore wind farms than all other countries combined. Our waters currently contain more than 1,000 turbines.

 

 

 

 

Kenya and their drive towards 50% solar power by 2016

Many countries around the world are acknowledging the need for the implementation of renewable sources of energy. Kenya has put forward the identification of nine sites to build solar power plants that could deliver more than 50 percent of the country’s electricity by 2016.

The total cost of construction is expected to cost around £730 Million, according to early designs which are very nearly completed. The assembly is set to begin this year with half the cost contributed by a partnership between private companies and the government.

The project is expected to bring down electricity costs and protect the environment according to senior administrator at Kenya Renewable Energy Association, Cliff Owiti. He says;

“We hope that when the entire project is completed by 2016, more than 50% of Kenya’s energy production will consist of solar. Already we are witnessing solar investments in Kenya such as a factory that was opened here in 2011 that manufactures solar energy panels.”

For a developing country, this would be an incredible feat for more than 50 percent of energy being generated by renewables. Owiti went on to say that over $500 million had already been invested in solar projects in Kenya;

“The costs related with hydroelectricity are very high, considering they are influenced by the low water levels in major supply dams. With high investments in solar, we will witness almost no blackouts and power charges will reduce because electricity will be in high supply.”

It has also been said that with the completion of the project, with solar power working efficiently, electricity costs could decrease by up to 80 percent. This would have a dramatic impact on the lives of the Kenyan public. Not only would they have lower bills, but they would be confidently leading the way, with many developed countries falling behind in terms of renewable energy targets.

At present, other construction plans include a wind farm, located near Lake Turkana. This will be the largest Sub-Saharan African wind farm and is set to be operating by 2015. Construction on the euro 582m Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) is due to start in June.

The wind farm will cover 40,000 acres in Loiyangalani district in north-eastern Kenya, reaching from 450m at the shore of Lake Turkana to 2,300m above sea level at the top of Mount Kulal. Due to the day-to-day temperature variations, there are strong, predictable winds between the lake and the desert, with an estimated average speed of 11m per second. A total of 365 wind turbines will be built.

Kenya ranks 22nd in Africa for the quantity of electricity it produces, and 46th in the world in the generation of solar energy. But it could rank third for solar in the next four years, according to data from the Energy Regulatory Commission, a government agency.

10 Million UK homes for solar panel installations?

In order for the country to fulfil its renewable energy potential, energy experts have said that ten million homes in the UK should have solar panels attached to their roofs during the next six years. This would mean over a third of households would be generating energy from solar which would let the UK harvest about 6% of its annual electricity needs from the sun. Nearly half a million homes in the UK have solar panels installed today.

The solar industry has observed a boom in sales over the last 5 years and an increasing number of households are embracing the technology. Those who have energy efficient electric heating and use feed-in tariffs are seeing the greatest benefit, and are safeguarded from the big six price rises.

Germany has been leading the way with solar power, with a major push over the last decade. Currently, solar power costs about a Euro cents 10 per kilowatt hour in Germany, compared with about 6 to 8 Euro cents per kilowatt hour with gas and the most carbon intense form of fuel, brown coal. Wind and solar energy have effectively merged into the energy mix and are now contributing to renewable energy targets within Germany.  This is somewhat due to a determination by the German Government in 2011 to eliminate nuclear energy generation and concentrate purely on clean energy, a decision made in the wake of the disaster of Fukushima.

Ajay Gambhir from the Imperial College London has said that by 2030, the cost of solar should be equivalent to that of the dirtiest forms of coal and gas. Due to economies of scale, installing more solar panels will bring the cost of the technology down dramatically as Germany has recently shown.

According to academics from the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London, due to current trends, over the next 20 years the cost of fossil fuels are expected to stay the same, whilst solar energy should reduce to 6 to 8 Euro cents per kilowatt hour by 2030. It has been argued that this will only be achievable with the installation of more solar panels on houses, large public buildings and offices. The implementation of solar farms would also accomplish UK government targets, which involves building large arrays of solar panels over empty fields.

In the UK, the installation of renewable energy into the electricity grid has thus far been a slow process. Several of the UK’s present-day coal-fired power stations and aged nuclear reactors will have to be taken out of service by the end of the decade, but efforts to substitute this generation with renewable power has so far evolved sluggishly.

Research from the Grantham Institute has publicised that solar energy could in for an enormous expansion in the UK. Though, this being subject to favourable policies within the government to boost the installation of more solar panels across the country.

Over 495,000 homes across the UK are now solar powered, according to the latest statistics published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

 

The pirates of the Caribbean: Project Geothermal Energy

In today’s world renewable energy is on the rise with solar and wind proving popular developments. Another form of energy currently being harnessed is Geothermal which is thermal energy stored in the earth. In recent months, a few companies have been planning to develop geothermal energy projects in areas across the Caribbean. The regions include Nevis Island, Dominica and St. Vincent.

At present, the Caribbean’s electricity is generated via polluting oil or diesel fired generators both of which are not good for the environment. This has impelled the government to examine alternative energy sources around the islands. Wind and solar power have also been considered due to their low-carbon emissions but by many are viewed as providing a supply of power too erratic, changing from one day to the next. The government want a steady, confident source of energy.

The location of the islands has a huge part to play as they are positioned in an ideal place for geothermal energy development. The islands are above and near two continent plates where volcanic activity has formed high temperature lakes. Bruce Cutright, the chief technology officer at Nevis Renewable Energy International said the island of Nevis is, “blessed with an attractive source of geothermal energy”. If the Caribbean government could harness this correctly, it would have a huge impact on the environment and result in an electricity cost saving to the government and local population.

Cutright considers the most appropriate technology to implement to be flash steam generators. He says; “High temperature steam will be produced from the deep geologic reservoir, directed through a steam turbine that will turn an electrical generator to produce electrical power,”

Other countries around the world have been installing this type of technology gradually over the past few years. New Zealand is one of the leading countries that have already taken full advantage of geothermal energy by developing more than 800 megawatts (MW) of geothermal capacity. This accounts for about 19% of its energy supply according to the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development.

Cutright has stressed that the plan is too young to talk about specifics but has indicated that, “it would be the intent of the Nevis Island Government and the electrical utility to work cooperatively with NRE International to produce electricity at a geothermal generating facility, distribute this power through the existing transmission network on the island, to serve the people and the industry on the island of Nevis.”  He advised that the similar developments across the Caribbean are expected to face a number of monetary and physical challenges.

“Because of the small size of the markets on each island, it is somewhat more difficult to attract the capital investment necessary to construct and operate geothermal power plants,” he said. Other countries around the world have struggled with capital investment and therefore took matters into their own hands. For example, In Chile the government are playing with the idea of subsidy’s or support to private developers.

At present, Mexico and more northern areas are gradually installing geothermal plans but South American regions are falling behind due to a number of reasons ranging from costs to environmental issues. In early 2013 the World Bank declared that it would begin a $500M fund to help nurture geothermal concessions around the world. Geothermal projects take a long time to develop and can take up to a decade to complete.