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Tag:

hydropower

GE Partners On Wind & Hydro Hybrid Pilot Project

GE Partners On Wind & Hydro Hybrid Pilot Project

written by Joshua Hill

The German wind firm Max Boegl Wind AG approached GE Renewable Energy to collaborate on the project, which is theoretically set to be the first wind project with an integrated hydropower plant. The aim of the project is to use the hydropower plant as a stop-gap measure to continue generating electricity when the wind stops blowing.

Aiming for grid-connection by the end of 2017, and with the hydropower plant set to begin operation by the end of 2018, the project could be a significant step forward for the wind industry. In addition, the wind turbines GE are installing will be the world’s tallest, measuring 584 feet high, with the bottom 131 feet of the turbine acting as a water reservoir, able to hold 1.6 million gallons of water. The turbine itself will sit on another reservoir capable of holding an addition 9 million gallons of water.

ge-7

Innovative wind energy company Max Boegl Wind AG is partnering with GE to build a four-turbine pilot wind farm with integrated hydropower plant.

The principal is simple, as can be seen above: When the wind is blowing, the wind turbines will generate electricity. If the wind stops blowing, the hydropower kicks in, allowing the water to travel downhill to generate electricity. When the hydropower plant’s energy supply is high, it will pump the water back up the hill to the reservoirs, acting as a giant liquidy-battery.

Obviously, as can be seen below, there are specific geographical needs for the project to work: The wind turbines must sit atop a hill, and there must be room in the valley below for a man-made lake that can store the water when not in use up-hill.

ge-8

The idea of pairing renewable energy technologies like wind with a hydropower battery is not new, but this might be the first instance of this particular pairing reaching operation. It surely won’t be the last, however.



October 21, 2016 0 comment
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Local Energy Rules Episode 21 – One City Utility is Carbon Neutral, Today

Local Energy Rules Episode 21 – One City Utility is Carbon Neutral, Today

written by John Farrell

It’s one thing to own your utility and have a commitment to renewable energy, but it’s another thing to deliver. The municipal utility in Palo Alto, CA, set an ambitious target of 33% renewable energy by 2015 and to ultimately deliver a carbon neutral electricity supply. They will reach 48% renewable power in 2017 and met the carbon neutral goal starting last year.

Learn more about the strategies one municipal utility pursued to drive down its carbon emissions and acquire solar energy in this interview with Jim Stack, Senior Resource Planner of the Palo Alto Utilities, recorded via Skype on Feb. 27, 2014.

How Can a Utility be Carbon Neutral?
The foundation of Palo Alto’s energy supply is hydropower, making up as much as half of their total electricity generation each year. But other renewable energy supplies the other half, at a time when most utilities have targets of 25% renewable or less. The chart illustrates how Palo Alto plans to get 23% of its energy from solar, 11% from landfill methane recovery, and 12% from wind power in 2017.

Screenshot-2014-05-01-16.26.24

The carbon neutral target, while impressive, doesn’t mean that no fossil fuels are used. The statement means that on an annual, net basis, the cities electric customers produce no carbon emissions.

Building on Low-Cost Solar
The drive toward renewable energy and a carbon neutral energy supply was aided by dramatically falling costs for solar energy. When the utility went out for bids in 2012, it found solar producers willing to sell the utility power for 7¢ per kWh, a price that’s remained relatively steady since then. Low cost solar energy has meant that the city’s nationally recognized green energy purchasing program, with 20% customer participation, eliminated the price premium because clean energy was no more expensive than traditional power.

Having Control Matters
“If you were a customer of an investor owned utility, you’d be much less likely to see a program like [Palo Alto’s] put in place simply because investor-owned utilities have a much more traditional business model focused on profits and the bottom line,” says Stack.

Local control was a key to the success of the pursuit of a low-carbon energy system in Palo Alto. They aren’t hampered by regulators and the city’s bond rating means the municipal utility can also access lower cost capital than investor-owned utilities.

Municipal ownership has one big drawback, however, making the transition to renewable energy that much more impressive.  The city can’t access the 30% federal tax credit for solar energy projects that private developers can.  While they can still sign contracts with these developers to deliver solar, they miss the economic opportunity of direct ownership.

Keeping it Local
Palo Alto hasn’t been able to develop as much power in town as it would like, confesses Stack. As a mostly built-up urban environment with high land costs, and in a very sunny environment, local solar energy costs nearly twice what it costs to buy from projects nearby. All their renewable power comes from California, however, within a two hour drive of the city.

The city does have programs focused on local distributed generation and energy efficiency, however. Already, 6.5 MW of solar energy has been installed on local rooftops (serving about 4% of peak demand). The utility intends to use its feed-in tariff, community solar, and other initiatives to increase local solar to 23 MW, serving 15% of peak energy demand and 4% of total sales.

Can it Work for You?
Stack says there’s nothing stopping other municipal utilities from moving in the same direction.  Renewable energy is less expensive than just about anything else and offers long-term price stability.

For communities without municipal utilities, he suggests lobbying for voluntary green purchase programs, community solar, and working on developing community-based renewable energy projects.

For more information on Palo Alto Utilities, see the section on Palo Alto in ILSR’s 2013 report showing 8 ways cities can boost their economy with local renewable energy: City Power Play.

Article by John Farrell, appearing courtesy Institute for Local Self-Reliance.



May 2, 2014 1 comment
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Run-of-River Hydropower Set For Big Gains, Turbine Maker Predicts

Run-of-River Hydropower Set For Big Gains, Turbine Maker Predicts

written by Yale Environment 360

A type of hydroelectric technology known as “run-of-river” hydropower is set to grow 10-fold over the next decade, potentially becoming a $1.4 billion industry, according to Dutch turbine maker Tocardo International BV. Run-of-river hydropower stations redirect part of a waterway through a diversion to spin turbines and generate electricity.

Run-of-river is considered a more benign type of hydropower than large dam projects because it is a smaller-scale technology that doesn’t create large upstream reservoirs that flood ecosystems and disrupt a river’s natural flow.

Some conservation groups are concerned that problems with migratory fish passage and other environmental issues could outweigh the power-generating potential of run-of-river hydro projects.  Tocardo notes, however, that flow monitoring and ecosystem protection strategies, such as fish ladders, are an important part of run-of-river hydropower deployment. The company implemented its first project to harness tidal streams at Den Oever, Holland, and it has been generating power for five years.



April 23, 2014 0 comment
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Scale and Extent of Dam Boom in China Detailed in Mapping Project

Scale and Extent of Dam Boom in China Detailed in Mapping Project

written by Yale Environment 360

China is planning to build at least 84 major dams in its southwest region, as shown in a map from the Wilson Center, eventually boosting its hydropower capacity by more than 160 gigawatts. By next year China’s capacity will surpass Europe’s, and by 2020 it’s projected to be larger than that of the U.S. and Europe combined.

China-dams-wilson-center-800

 

An interactive map shows the scale and number of major dams proposed, under construction, existing, and canceled. The dam rush is part of an ongoing effort by China to increase non-fossil energy sources to 11.4 percent of the country’s total energy consumption — a goal that has gained urgency due to severe air pollution in many northern Chinese cities. However, the hydropower push is not without its own major environmental consequences, the Wilson Center notes.

More than 70 of the dams planned or being constructed are located in so-called “biodiversity hotspots,” areas with rich species diversity that are threatened by development. The cascades of planned dams will submerge important corridors that connect tropical rainforests to the Tibetan Plateau and allow wildlife to migrate to cooler climates as temperatures rise.



April 20, 2014 1 comment
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European Union Gets 23.4% of Electricity From Renewables

European Union Gets 23.4% of Electricity From Renewables

written by Edouard Stenger

According to official statistics from Eurobserv’ER, 23.4 percent of the electricity in the European Union came from renewable energy sources in 2012. The total output for 2012 has been estimated at 763.5 TW. This represents an important increase from 2011, when these energy sources brought “only” 20.4 percent of total electricity.

Regarding gross final energy consumption, renewables brought 14 percent of the total in 2012, up from 12.9 percent in 2011.

Eurobserv’ER also provided employment statistics showing that the renewable energy industry has employed up to 1.22 million people in direct and indirect jobs in 2012 (50,000 less than in 2011).

Jobs were mostly in wind power (300,000 direct and indirect jobs), followed by solid biomass (280,000 jobs), photovoltaic (250,000 jobs) and biofuels (110,000 jobs).

This report also shows that the renewable energy picture varies greatly from country-member to another (cf. page 80 of the full report).

While Austria and Sweden lead with 68.3 and 67.1 percent of their total electricity from renewables in 2012, respectively, Lithuania, Hungary, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta got less than ten percent of their electricity from these sources.

Nine countries got from 20 to 50 percent : Latvia (43.4%), Denmark (41.7%), Portugal (35.6%), Finland (32.5%), Spain (31.7%), Slovenia (29.5%), Italy (26.6%), Romania (25.2%) and Germany (24%).

Many more of the 27 EU members got from ten to twenty percent of their electricity from renewables : Slovakia (18.9%), Ireland (18.7%), France (16.1%), Bulgaria (15.7%), Greece (15.2%), Estonia (15.2%), Belgium (11.7%), the Czech Republic (11.5%), the United Kingdom (11%), Poland (10.6%) and the Netherlands (10.5%).

Other important differences can be noticed in the share of each renewable energy source in the total. Hydropower represents 43.9 percent of the total renewable energy produced in 2012. Wind follows with 26.6 percent, biomass (19.5%), and solar energy (9.2%). Geothermal and ocean energies make up the remaining 0.8 percent.

This means that overall, hydro provides 10.3 % of total electricity consumed in the EU, wind power, 6.2 %, biomass, 4.5 % and solar only 2.1%.

To conclude, Eurobserv’ER notes that the European Union and its 27 country-members is only six percent away from one of its 2020 goals: 20 percent of renewable energy in the total energy consumption. The analysts are optimistic as in 2006 the share of renewables was of only nine percent. By keeping that annual growth at 0.7 to 0.8 percent, the EU should succeed.

This would be the second success of the European Union policy on climate and energy. We have indeed previously seen that the EU should achieve its greenhouse gases emissions reduction goal. Perhaps it is time to move on to higher ambitions?



April 3, 2014 6 comments
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Hydropower “Battery” Could Even Out Wind Energy Supply

written by Yale Environment 360

Norwegian hydropower stations could be linked to wind farms and serve as giant “batteries” to even out power supply fluctuations, a Scandinavian research organization says.

A major hurdle for renewable energy suppliers is intermittent power production — sometimes too much

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December 31, 2013 5 comments
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Damming the Congo

written by Walter Wang

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is looking to capture the more of powers of the Congo River in what will be the largest and most powerful hydroelectric dam in the world. The Grand Inga Hydropower Project will produce up to 40,000 megawatts of electricity, doubling current dam champion, Three Gorges in China. The dam will

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December 19, 2013 0 comment
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Do Dams Bring More Harm or More Good?

written by Walter Wang

As China forges ahead with its goal to generate 120,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020, they are damming more and more rivers. According to China, this is a safe strategy that will curb pollution, control floods, and minimize climate change. Conservationists and scientists across the globe however, disagree.

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November 5, 2013 0 comment
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Iceland Seeks to Cash In On Its Abundant Renewable Energy

written by Yale Environment 360

Still reeling from recent financial crises, Iceland is hoping to use its bountiful sources of geothermal and hydroelectric energy to help boost its economy. Among the country’s more ambitious plans is an undersea cable to carry renewable generated electricity to the U.K.

Amid clouds of steam spewing from magma-heated

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October 7, 2013 0 comment
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Backing Up Wind Power: The Policy Issues Associated with Hydroelectricity

written by Walter Wang

What happens when there’s no wind and wind turbines stop turning? What provides the back up power for this clean energy source on calm, windless days?

While wind may be the fastest growing renewable energy source in the US, in order for us to rely on wind power, there needs to be some backup

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June 28, 2013 1 comment
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Will Huge New Hydro Projects Bring Power to Africa’s People?

written by Yale Environment 360

A giant new hydro project on the Congo River is only the latest in a rush of massive dams being built across Africa. Critics contend small-scale renewable energy projects would be a far more effective way of bringing power to the hundreds of millions of Africans still without electricity.

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June 3, 2013 2 comments
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Green Energy Investments to Triple by 2030, Analysis Predicts

written by Yale Environment 360

Annual investment in renewable energy is predicted to triple between now and 2030, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

In an analysis of several factors shaping the global energy future — including economic conditions, market demands, and the evolution of technologies

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April 23, 2013 0 comment
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Ontario Completes Renewable Energy Tunnel Project

written by Walter Wang

Just under two years ago, Energy Refuge went to Ontario for a conference on water technology. At the time, we visited the site of the Niagara Tunnel Project, when a hard-rock tunnel boring machine had finally broken through the other side.

Now, the Ontario government has just finished the

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March 27, 2013 0 comment
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Top Ten Highlights of Cleantech in East Europe

written by Walter Wang

More and more countries throughout the world are starting to rely more on renewable energy and energy efficiency as a means of sustaining the current environment for future generations. While many people do not often think of Eastern European nations in this mix, the truth is that a number of them are taking great strides in the field

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September 12, 2012 0 comment
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