Solar Energy

Nations rally behind renewables at COP28 climate talks

Published

8 months ago

December 3, 2023

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Nations rally behind renewables at COP28 climate talks

By Talek Harris, Nick Perry and Laurent Thomet

Dubai (AFP) Dec 2, 2023

Nearly 120 nations pledged to triple the world’s renewable energy within seven years at UN climate talks Saturday as the United States pushed to crank up nuclear capacity and slash methane emissions.

With smoggy skies in Dubai highlighting the challenges facing the world, leaders at the COP28 conference threw their support behind voluntary pledges aimed at ramping up alternatives to fossil fuels.

A massive deployment of solar, wind, hydroelectric and other renewables is crucial to efforts to replace planet-heating coal, oil and gas and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

– Fossil fuel fight –

But COP28 negotiators face far tougher talks on the fate of fossil fuels over the next two weeks.

“Everyone stuck to their traditional positions,” said one who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But on clean energy, more than half of all nations signed up to a commitment to triple global renewable capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030, the COP28’s Emirati president said.

However, major oil producers including Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran did not join, nor is top consumer China on the list.

“I do need more, and I’m kindly requesting all parties to come on board as soon as possible please,” COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber told delegates.

Clean power advocates welcomed the commitment but said it must be accompanied by the phaseout of dirtier forms of energy.

“The future will be powered by solar and wind, but it won’t happen fast enough unless governments regulate fossil fuels out of the way,” said Kaisa Kosonen, the head of Greenpeace’s COP28 delegation.

Jaber also announced a pledge by oil and gas companies responsible for 40 percent of global production — including Saudi giant Aramco and the UAE firm ADNOC he heads — to decarbonise their operations by 2050 and curb methane emissions.

But the pledges do not include the pollution when the fuels are burned by their customers, and were criticised for repackaging previous, non-binding commitments.

“This charter is proof that voluntary commitments from the oil and gas industry will never foster the level of ambition necessary to tackle the climate crisis,” said Melanie Robinson of the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research body.

– ‘Destructive’ methane –

It comes after the US Environmental Protection Agency said it would tighten curbs on methane emissions from its oil and gas industry.

The new standards will phase in the elimination of routine flaring of natural gas produced by oil wells, and require comprehensive monitoring of methane leaks from wells and compression stations.

Methane is responsible for about one-third of the warming from greenhouse gases, second only to CO2.

“It is fugitive gas, and it just is out there doing damage,” said US climate envoy John Kerry, who met his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Dubai Saturday to discuss how to curb the gas.

Their meeting followed an agreement with the US earlier this month where China for the first time agreed to include all greenhouse gases in its next national climate pledge for 2035.

Kerry also announced that Turkmenistan — which leaks more methane per unit of oil and gas than any other country — had signed up to an existing pledge to curb these harmful emissions.

The energy sector is the second-largest source of human-caused methane emissions.

Agriculture is the first, accounting for a quarter of methane emissions, mostly from livestock.

The US also joined a coalition of dozens of nations committed to phasing out coal power plants whose emissions cannot be captured.

– Nuclear option –

While COP28 rallied behind renewables, Washington led a call by more than 20 nations to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

In a declaration, countries ranging from Britain to Ghana, Japan and several European nations said nuclear power had a “key role” in achieving carbon neutrality by mid-century.

But its use as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels is highly controversial, with many environmental groups warning about safety risks and the disposal of nuclear waste.

Yet Kerry insisted “you can’t get to net zero 2050 without some nuclear”.

Environmental group 350.org said the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan highlighted the dangers.

“We don’t have time to waste on dangerous distractions like nuclear energy,” said its North America director Jeff Ordower.

More than 50 world leaders took the stage at COP28 for the second day in a row, with US Vice President Kamala Harris announcing a $3 billion contribution to a fund to help developing countries with energy transition and the effects of climate change — Washington’s first pledge to it since 2014.

Pledges made so far at the COP28 climate talks
Paris (AFP) Dec 2, 2023 -
The COP28 climate talks in Dubai have begun with a flurry of announcements promising action on global warming, led by its big-spending, oil-rich host the United Arab Emirates.

But observers have warned that the headline-grabbing pledges could distract from the real battles on fossil fuels and negotiating a formal COP28 text at the end of the two-week talks.

As pressure builds during what is expected to be the hottest year on record, here are some major funding pledges and declarations announced so far at COP28.

– Loss and damage –

The first day of the talks Thursday saw the launch of a landmark “loss and damage” fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the increasingly costly and damaging impacts of climate disasters.

The UAE and Germany pledged $100 million each, France $109 million, $50 million from Britain, $25 million from Denmark and $17.5 million from the United States, the world’s biggest historical polluter.

Campaigners said the US offering was woefully inadequate.

The total committed as of Saturday was some $656 million, according to a tally by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.

That falls vastly short of the $100 billion a year that developing nations — which have historically been least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions — have said are needed to cover losses from natural disasters.

– Tripling renewables –

At least 116 countries committed Saturday to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030 and double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements.

G20 nations, which account for nearly 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, paved the way for a deal when they endorsed the renewable energy goal in September.

While supporters are expected to push for the pledge to be included in the final outcome of the talks, there are fears that the COP28 hosts were willing to shunt the more ambitious targets into voluntary deals.

– Fossil fuels –

The US committed to phasing out its existing unabated coal plants as it joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) Saturday.

Abatement generally means when the emissions from a power plant are captured before going into the atmosphere.

Global CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants reached a new high in 2022 and the US has the world’s third-biggest capacity behind China and India.

Colombia became one of the largest fossil fuel producers to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, a movement led by climate vulnerable island nations to end new development of coal, oil and gas.

Meanwhile, 50 oil and gas companies representing 40 percent of global production also pledged to decarbonise their operations by 2050. But the non-binding agreement does not include emissions when their fuels are burned by customers.

– Tripling nuclear –

More than 20 countries led by the US called Saturday for the tripling of world nuclear energy capacity by 2050. While nuclear generates almost no greenhouse gases, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 dealt it a severe blow.

But experts and activists point to the fact that new nuclear plants can take decades, while renewable energy is rising fast.

– Food and farming –

More than 130 countries have agreed to prioritise food and agriculture systems in their national climate plans.

The non-binding declaration was welcomed by observers, with food systems estimated to be responsible for roughly a third of human-made greenhouse gases.

But some criticised it for lacking concrete goals — and not mentioning fossil fuels or signalling any change to more sustainable diets.

– Healthy future? –

Over 120 countries signed up to a declaration to “place health at the heart of climate action”. It called for governments to step up action on climate-related health impacts like extreme heat, air pollution and infectious diseases.

Almost nine million people a year die from polluted air, while 189 million are exposed to extreme weather-related events.

The declaration notes “the benefits for health from deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”, but makes no direct reference to the fossil fuels responsible for most human-caused pollution. COP28’s themed day on health is Sunday.

– UAE climate investment fund –

The UAE said it is putting $30 billion into a new private climate investment fund.

The oil-rich COP28 host said that the fund, called Alterra, would partly try to focus on climate projects in the developing world, and hoped to stimulate investments totalling $250 billion by 2030.

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Solar Energy

3D-printed microstructure forest enhances solar steam desalination

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

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3D-printed microstructure forest enhances solar steam desalination

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 24, 2024

To address the global freshwater scarcity issue, researchers in Singapore have developed advanced solar steam generators (SSGs) for seawater desalination. This method, powered by renewable energy, mimics the natural water cycle by using solar energy to evaporate and purify water, offering a potentially cost-effective solution compared to traditional, energy-intensive desalination techniques. However, current SSG technologies face limitations due to the complexity of fabricating designs that maximize surface area for optimal water evaporation.

Drawing inspiration from nature, the team utilized 3D printing to create innovative SSGs. Their findings, published in Applied Physics Reviews, highlight a novel technique for manufacturing efficient SSGs and introduce a groundbreaking method for printing functional nanocomposites using multi-jet fusion (MJF).

“We created SSGs with exceptional photothermal performance and self-cleaning properties,” said Kun Zhou, a professor of mechanical engineering at Nanyang Technological University. “Using a treelike porous structure significantly enhances water evaporation rates and ensures continuous operation by preventing salt accumulation – its performance remains relatively stable even after prolonged testing.”

The technology works by converting light to thermal energy, where SSGs absorb solar energy and convert it to heat to evaporate water. The porous structure of the SSGs aids in self-cleaning by removing accumulated salt, ensuring sustained desalination performance.

“By using an effective photothermal fusing agent, MJF printing technology can rapidly create parts with intricate designs,” Zhou added. “To improve the photothermal conversion efficiency of fusing agents and printed parts, we developed a novel type of fusing agent derived from metal-organic frameworks.”

The SSGs feature miniature tree-shaped microstructures that mimic plant transpiration, forming an efficient, heat-distributing forest.

“Our bioinspired design increases the surface area of the SSG,” Zhou explained. “Using a treelike design increases the surface area of the SSG, which enhances the water transport and boosts evaporation efficiency.”

In both simulated environments and field trials, the SSGs exhibited a high rate of water evaporation. The desalinated water consistently met drinking water standards, even after extended testing.

“This demonstrates the practicality and efficiency of our approach,” Zhou said. “And it can be quickly and easily mass-produced via MJF commercial printers.”

The team’s work shows significant potential for tackling freshwater scarcity.

“Our SSGs can be used in regions with limited access to freshwater to provide a sustainable and efficient desalination solution,” said Zhou. “Beyond desalination, it can be adapted for other applications that require efficient solar energy conversion and water purification.”

Research Report:3D printing of bio-inspired porous polymeric solar steam generators for efficient and sustainable desalination

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Solar Energy

Renewables overproduction turns electricity prices negative

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

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Renewables overproduction turns electricity prices negative

By Nathalie Alonso and Catherine Hours

Paris (AFP) July 24, 2024

With the proliferation of solar panels and wind turbines an unusual phenomenon is becoming more and more frequent: wholesale electricity prices turn negative.

While that may brighten the mood of consumers whose power bills have surged in recent years, it could undermine the further development of renewables, a key element in the fight against global warming.

The increasingly frequent phenomenon is “extremely problematic” for the wind and solar sector, said Mattias Vandenbulcke, strategy director of the renewables industry group France Renouvelables.

“It allows some to have harmful, even dangerous rhetoric which says ‘renewables are useless’,” Vandenbulcke said.

In southern Australia, wholesale electricity prices have been negative some 20 percent of the time since last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The share of negatively priced hours in southern California was above 20 percent in the first half of the year, more than triple from the same period in 2023, the IEA said.

In the first six months of the year in France, there were negative prices around five percent of the time, beating the record set last year, according to the electricity grid operator RTE.

In Switzerland the price tumbled as far as -400 euros (-$436) per megawatt hour on July 14. The lowest prices are usually recorded around midday during the summer when solar production is at its peak.

– ‘A warning signal’ –

The trend has been accelerating for the past three years as demand in Europe has unexpectedly dropped since the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Prices turn negative on the spot wholesale electricity market when production is strong while demand is weak.

Around a fifth of the total is traded on this market, where electricity is bought for the following day.

Negative prices help reduce the bills of consumers, said Rebecca Aron, head of electricity markets at French renewables firm Valorem, but the impact is delayed and difficult to discern among the other factors that send prices higher and lower.

Large, industrial consumers that can shift production to times when prices are negative and buy on wholesale markets can reap the biggest rewards.

Negative prices are “a warning signal that there is way too much production on the electrical grid”, said energy analyst Nicolas Goldberg at Colombus Consulting.

Electricity grids need to be kept constantly in balance. Too much can lead to the electricity to increase in frequency beyond norms for some equipment. Too little can lead to some or all customers losing power.

There are currently few options to stock surplus electricity production so producers have to reduce output.

Many renewable producers stop their output when prices are set to turn negative. It takes one minute to stop output at a solar park, two to three minutes for a wind turbine.

But not all stop their production.

– Tripling renewables –

“Renewable energy can be controlled, but depending on production contracts, there might not necessarily be an incentive to stop,” said Mathieu Pierzo at French grid operator RTE, which has the responsibility for balancing the electricity load.

Some producers are paid a fixed price under their contract or are compensated by the state if prices fall below a certain level.

Fossil fuel and nuclear power plants can adjust their production to some extent, but halting and restarting output is costly.

In the future, solar and wind will also have to “participate more in balancing the electricity system”, Pierzo said.

Solar and wind production is set to rise further as nations agreed at the COP28 climate conference last year to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

“Rising frequency of negative prices sends an urgent signal that greater flexibility of supply and demand is needed,” the Paris-based IEA warned last week.

“The appropriate regulatory frameworks and market designs will be important to allow for an uptake in flexibility solutions such as demand response and storage,” it said.

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Solar Energy

NREL explores long-term strategies for sustainable perovskite solar panels

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

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NREL explores long-term strategies for sustainable perovskite solar panels

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 24, 2024

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are examining the future of perovskite solar panels, focusing on scaling, deploying, and designing panels to be recyclable.

Perovskite solar panels could play a key role in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With the technology still in its developmental stages, researchers are emphasizing the importance of designing these panels to minimize environmental impact.

“When you have a technology in its very early stages, you have the ability to design it better. It’s a cleaner slate,” said Joey Luther, a senior research fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and coauthor of the newly published article in the journal Nature Materials. “Pushing perovskite PV toward enhanced sustainability makes more sense at this stage. We’re thinking about how we can make sure we have a sustainable product now rather than dealing with sustainability issues toward the end of its practical life.”

The article highlights the PV research community’s influential position to prioritize remanufacturing, recycling, and reliability efforts, aiming to make perovskite PV one of the most sustainable energy sources available.

“Perovskites could unlock the next evolution of high-efficiency PV, and it is our responsibility to assure they are manufactured, used, and recycled sustainably,” said the lead author of the study, Kevin Prince, a former graduate researcher at NREL who now researches perovskites at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin in Germany.

While silicon solar panels dominate the industry and cadmium telluride (CdTe) panels have established recycling programs, perovskites are at a critical point where sustainability issues can be addressed from the start.

The most effective circular economy begins at the design stage, considering materials sourcing, product lifetime, and end-of-life management. Researchers suggest assessing environmental impacts by looking at carbon emissions during production, embodied energy, sustainable material sourcing, and module circularity.

The journal article identifies critical sustainability concerns for each component of a perovskite solar panel. For instance, lead can be diluted with metals like tin to reduce lead content, though this may affect PV efficiency and durability. Expensive precious metals such as silver and gold could be replaced with cheaper alternatives like aluminum, copper, or nickel. Fluorine-tin oxide is recommended over the scarcer indium-tin oxide for front electrodes.

“We want to have the lowest amount of embodied energy in the fabrication,” Luther said. “We want to have the lowest amount of emissions in the fabrication. At this stage, now is the chance to look at those components. I don’t think we have to change anything. It’s more a matter of what decisions should be made, and these arguments should certainly be discussed.”

The authors discuss various ways to improve the circularity of perovskite panels. Remanufacturing involves reusing parts from old modules to make new ones, while recycling converts waste materials into raw materials for reuse. Attention is needed for the specialized glass used in perovskite modules, which is crucial for structural support and protection while allowing maximum sunlight penetration. Establishing a recycling pathway for this glass will be essential as PV deployment increases.

Silvana Ovaitt, a PV researcher and coauthor of the paper, noted that cleaner electricity grids will lead to cleaner manufacturing processes, further reducing emissions.

“Another concern is the transportation of the final modules and the raw glass because those are the heaviest items,” Ovaitt said. “Local manufacturing will be a great way to reduce those carbon impacts.”

The researchers explain that increasing the durability of PV modules, thereby extending their useful life, is a more effective approach to reducing net energy, energy payback, and carbon emissions than designing for circularity alone. A longer lifespan means panels won’t need to be recycled as often.

“Ultimately, we want to make them as durable as possible,” Luther said. “But we also want to consider the aspects of whenever that time does come. We want to be deliberate about how to take them apart and to reuse the critical components.”

Research Report:Sustainability pathways for perovskite photovoltaics