26-05-2012, 04:10 PM
Low Carbon Electricity Systems
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INTRODUCTION
This document is the overall report of the seminar “Electricty in the next decade”, the first seminar in an annual series of events regarding “Low carbon electricity systems”. KEMA, ECI and Leonardo ENERGY are jointly organizing these events.
Next to the topics presented during the first event a few additional topics have been added in order to create a white paper and a more complete picture on the theme “Electricity in the next decade”.
LOW-CARBON ELECTRICITY GENERATION
Low carbon electricity generation focuses on renewable energy resources such as wind, solar - PhotoVoltaic (PV) and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) – hydroelectric power but also new technologies are emerging/maturing such as ocean energy, combined heat power (CHP) and fuel cells.
At least one example of each of the above mentioned renewable energy resources is discussed in this section, with the appropriate renewable energy source indicated in the respective paragraph heading itself.
WIND: Large-scale wind generation[21]
Electrical energy is generated from wind by means of wind-forced mechanical rotation of electrical generators using wind turbines. Wind turbines range from a few kWs, often referred to as micro-generation for domestic application, to tens of MWs, as implemented in large wind farms.
The potential for wind as a renewable resource in the world is considerable. Moreover, wherever the wind exceeds approximately 6 m/s there are possibilities for exploiting it economically, depending on the costs of competing power sources[9]. This potential is not limited to land-based wind turbines as significant possibilities exist of installing large wind farms in shallow waters around the coasts or further off-shore.
State of the art
Wind energy is one of the fastest growing energy technologies, with an average global growth over the last several years of more than 30% annually. At the end of 2008 global installed capacity stood at over 121,000 MW. Around 54% of the globally installed capacity (65,000 MW) is located in EU countries, with Germany alone accounting for 27.8% of the global installed capacity. Spain, the USA, India and Denmark follow[9],[17]. Total production in 2008 amounted to 142 TWh, according to EWEA[17].
Impact/Potential on electricity generation and infrastructure
It is expected that power generated from wind energy will contribute significantly to the electricity supply of Europe in the next decade and even beyond. It is anticipated that more than 300GW of installed power, of which 120GW off-shore, will be installed throughout Europe in the year 2030, producing 935TWh, of which 469TWh off-shore[17].
Additional benefits regarding low carbon society
As wind is delivered free of charge the operational costs of energy dramatically reduces with increasing wind power. The costs savings has been calculated to be almost € 500 million per annum[10]. This could be invested in grid extensions and interconnectors amongst others.