Innovations to make renewable energy more efficient, sustainable, ecological

The world is working to replace petroleum-based power sources with renewable energy after realising that the ‘ ‘world’s gluttonous appetite for energy is the cause behind climate change and global warming. However, even renewable energy sources do not come without challenges and places to improve upon to make electricity generation sustainable and eco-friendly

The world economy is living through a phase of continuous change. We often fail to notice, but the natural sources of power are all around us, continuously shaping the energy sector, our lives and our future. The transition of the economy to renewable energy has already started, and its evolution is coinciding with a much more visible revolution in the form of digitalisation.

Wind Energy

Wind energy has the potential to serve the global demand for low-cost, clean energy. Research even suggests that wind could provide about half of the world’s electricity by 2050. According to a report released by Power-technology.com in 2019, India has the second-highest wind capacity in Asia, with a total capacity of 35 gigawatts (GW). Apart from China, India was the only Asian country to make it to the list. The country has the third- and fourth-largest onshore wind farms in the world – the 1500 megawatt (MW)Muppandal wind farm in Tamil Nadu and the 1064 MW Jaisalmer Wind Park in Rajasthan.

Innovations In Wind Energy

Stationary Energy Storage: For all its virtues, wind at some point, even in the windiest parts of the planet, stops blowing. A stationary battery, which uses chemical interactions between materials to store electricity at a set location for later use, is undergoing revitalisation to deal with this issue. These batteries make it possible to store the electricity generated when the wind is at its peak to be made available to the grid when there is a supply-demand gap.

Airborne Wind Turbines: One of the two kinds of airborne wind turbines can access stronger and more consistent wind at altitudes near 1000 feet. This turbine, named Makani Airborne Wind Turbine, could also be deployed in deep offshore waters, leading to access to a renewable energy resource four times greater than America’s current electrical generation capacity. The other kind of turbine, Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine, uses a helium-filled, inflatable shell to ascend to high altitudes, giving it access to stronger and more consistent winds than tower-mounted turbines, and the generated power is sent to the ground via tethers.

Windstalk: It consists of carbon fibre reinforced resin poles, which stand 55 meters (180 feet) high and are anchored to the ground in concrete bases. The poles are packed with a stack of piezoelectric ceramic discs. Between the discs are electrodes connected by cables that run the length of each pole – one cable connects the even electrodes, while another connects the odd ones. So, instead of relying on the wind to turn a turbine to generate electricity, when the pole sways in the wind, the stack of piezoelectric discs are compressed, generating a current through the electrodes. To indicate how much power the poles are generating at any given time, each pole’s top is fitted with an LED lamp that glows and dims relative to the amount of power. This is still a concept that uniquely combines aesthetic intrigue and artistic concepts and will not generate low-frequency vibrations like wind turbines.

Wind Lens: In a bid to make electricity production more efficient and less invasive to humans and nature, a Japanese researcher, Professor Ohya from Kyushu University, has come up with the concept of wind lens. It encircles the wind turbine and speeds air up while protecting the blades from foreign object damage. Studies have shown that the wind lens can have two to five times more power output than traditional wind turbines because it harnesses more wind.

Wind turbines have a detrimental effect on the bird population due to migration patterns and birds being caught and injured or even killed by the towering high-speed blade.  To fix this issue, the wind lens shroud around the blade helps protect birds from entering the blade’s path, and a mesh has been added on either end to prevent birds from being pulled into its blades. The addition of this mesh creates a negligible decrease in power production, therefore having more benefits. In addition to the mesh, the wind lens is designed to avoid birds by making it more compact and shorter, making it possible for birds to fly over the wind lens, unlike the wind turbine.

Hydropower

Hydropower is one of the world’s leading sources of power generation and currently generates 20 per cent of electricity worldwide, with countries such as Norway receiving 99 per cent of its electricity from hydropower.

Innovations In Hydro Energy

Fish-friendly turbines: Alden turbines include Archimedes hydrodynamic screws, water wheels and Vortex turbines for low head applications. It has three blades, no gaps, is bigger and rotates more slowly. These measures significantly reduce the danger of trauma or death to fish passing through, yet the ‘ ‘turbine’s larger size and other design considerations are optimised to preserve high efficiency and energy production.

Digitalisation: It is key to enable growth in the hydropower sector by capturing the value of data. International Hydropower Association says that manufacturers believe that by implementing diagnostic services, acoustic monitoring, and remote expert support, hydropower maintenance can be improved and made more cost-effective. Current estimations show that the digitalisation of the world’s 1225GW installed hydropower capacity could increase annual energy production by 42 trillion-watt hours.

Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technology: These devices capture energy from ocean water’s natural motion, such as waves or tides. MHK power sources can generate more than 538 terawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power millions of homes.

Cooling towers: One of the primary uses of water in the thermoelectric power industry is to cool the power-producing equipment. Water is used to cool the equipment along with rotating the turbines. Still, at the same time, the hot equipment heats the cooling water, and then that overly hot water is released back to the water body, which disastrously disturbs the local aquatic system. Modifications have been made in cooling towers to solve temporary heat rejection and thermal pollution problems. Systems in this process reuse cooling water in a second cycle rather than immediately discharging it back to the original water source. Most commonly, wet-recirculating systems use cooling towers to expose water to ambient air; some of the water evaporates; the rest is then sent back to the condenser in the power plant or back to its source after bringing the temperature back to normal.

It is estimated that 1.1 billion people in the world today have no access to electricity – this is 14 per cent of the world’s population. Increasing access to clean forms of energy makes a critical contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set by the UN to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services by 2030.