Materials For Energy

EQ Energy Sector Analysis: Variable States

Corinna Wu
Feature Editor: Paulina Jaramillo

(Article in Energy Quarterly (EQ) in the March 2011 issue of MRS Bulletin)

On August 14, 2003, a downed high-voltage power line in Ohio triggered a massive blackout across eight states in the Northeast and throughout Southeastern Canada. A total of 50 million people lost power for up to two days. The episode cost an estimated $6 billion and is considered to be the worst electrical system failure in the history of the United States.

The cascade of failures—due to both human error and equipment malfunction—made clear the problems of the United States’ aging and balkanized electrical transmission grid. The blackout spurred the U.S. Congress to pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which enforces mandatory reliability standards. Investment in the transmission grid had fallen during the 1980s and 1990s, but after the blackout, funding picked up again.

Against this backdrop, power companies and regulating authorities now have another challenge to face: how to integrate variable and intermittent renewable resources such as solar and wind into the mix. Currently, electricity from non-hydro renewable resources accounts for 3.8% of the total electricity produced in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2009, half of non-hydro renewable electricity came from wind and less than one percent from solar.

Although wind and solar are attractive because they do not produce greenhouse gases, they also pose difficulties because of their inherent variability. If wind and solar must supply a third of the energy generated, the job of meeting changing demand for electricity throughout the day becomes much more difficult. Power plant operators must meet the net load—the difference between user demand and this highly variable renewable output—by scheduling power generation from conventional sources.

An Energy Sector Analysis article published in the Energy Quarterly section in the March 2011 issue of  MRS Bulletin discusses various options to manage net load variability in the electric grid, with a focus on energy storage technologies. For materials scientists, a lot of potential research for grid-level energy storage lies in developing advanced battery technologies. Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems are another option and have been used since the 1970s, mostly to release short bursts of energy to smooth out fluctuations in the power supply.

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Gopal R. Rao
Editor, MRS Bulletin
Materials Research Society (MRS)

 

Battery turns entropy into electricity

(Chemistry World)

When fresh water rivers flow into the sea the concentration difference leads to a change in entropy.  Researchers have developed a battery that generates power from this entropy difference. They were able to extract energy with 74 per cent efficiency using manganese dioxide nanorods and silver electrodes.

While entropy-based power generation has been done before but is most reliably done today by separating fresh and seawater with membranes and as ions travel through the membranes they generate currents. The new method extracts energy from the difference in concentration between two solutions by storing it chemically in batteries.

The battery extracts energy through sodium and chlorine ions' movements into and out of the crystal lattice of the electrodes. The battery discharges in seawater as chlorine is taken up by the silver electrode and sodium is taken up by the manganese dioxide electrode. The ions are released when the battery charges in freshwater. Because of the higher ion concentration in seawater, the electrical energy discharged is greater than that needed for the battery to charge in freshwater.

Credit: ACS/Nano Letters

The researchers estimate that if the technology was used in all of the world's rivers, this renewable energy technology would hypothetically generate 2 TW, or approximately 13 per cent of current global consumption.

Source: Battery turns entropy into electricity

Batteries for Efficient Energy Extraction from a Water Salinity Difference
Nano Lett., Article ASAP, Publication Date (Web): March 17, 2011
DOI: 10.1021/nl200500s

 

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

 

Portugal Gives Itself a Clean-Energy Makeover

By Gopal R. Rao

(From the New York Times)

The August 9, 2010, issue of the New York Times has an interesting analysis of Portugal's attempt to harness their renewable energy resources to reduce dependence on foreign oil imports. The report articulates how while these efforts by Portugal have been very successful, with 45% of its electricity currently generated by renewable sources, at the same time, it has paid a price for this rapid transition within a period of five years in terms of higher electricity prices as well as significant changes to their power grid.

Excerpt: LISBON — Five years ago, the leaders of this sun-scorched, wind-swept nation made a bet: To reduce Portugal’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, they embarked on an array of ambitious renewable energy projects — primarily harnessing the country’s wind and hydropower, but also its sunlight and ocean waves.

Today, Lisbon’s trendy bars, Porto’s factories and the Algarve’s glamorous resorts are powered substantially by clean energy. Nearly 45 percent of the electricity in Portugal’s grid will come from renewable sources this year, up from 17 percent just five years ago.

Land-based wind power — this year deemed “potentially competitive” with fossil fuels by the International Energy Agency in Paris — has expanded sevenfold in that time. And Portugal expects in 2011 to become the first country to inaugurate a national network of charging stations for electric cars.

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While Portugal’s experience shows that rapid progress is achievable, it also highlights the price of such a transition. Portuguese households have long paid about twice what Americans pay for electricity, and prices have risen 15 percent in the last five years, probably partly because of the renewable energy program, the International Energy Agency says.

Although a 2009 report by the agency called Portugal’s renewable energy transition a “remarkable success,” it added, “It is not fully clear that their costs, both financial and economic, as well as their impact on final consumer energy prices, are well understood and appreciated.”

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Welcome

Welcome to the Materials Research Society’s (MRS) “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog. I am your host Russell R. Chianelli, MRS president in 1990 and career researcher in energy materials: batteries, catalysts, hydrogen storage and solar cells.

We all recognize the importance of energy in the coming years for global economic growth and security. We also recognize that energy production in any form has environmental consequences that must be considered. Materials research is key to the development and maintenance of reliable and safe energy sources which are affordable and environmentally acceptable.

It is the purpose of the “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog to discuss the scientific issues surrounding all areas of materials for energy: basic research, scale-up and commercialization, deployment, environmental impact including raw materials acquisition and finally disposal technologies. In order to effectively discuss these issues we have invited a series of experts as co-hosts to assist in guiding the discussions and to present current articles and resources for discussion. We encourage all interested parties in engaging in the discussions and suggest the April 2008 issue of the MRS Bulletin – Harnessing Materials for Energy.

 

 

Welcome and Blog On!!    

 

Bottled Wind Could Be as Constant as Coal

(From Wired Magazine)

Wind power has made incredible inroads into the U.S. energy system thanks to big, efficient machines standing hundreds of feet tall. But the future of wind power may be underground. In the abandoned mines and sandstones of the Midwest, compressed-air storage ventures are trying to convert the intermittent motions of the air into the kind of steady power that could displace coal.

Compressed-air energy storage plants use compressors to store electricity generated when it's not needed. The air, pumped into large underground formations, is like a spring that's been squeezed and when it's needed, it can deliver a large percentage of the energy that it received. The first and only such plant in the United States went online in 1991, and though the technology didn't take off, it did prove that it worked. And now, combining cheap wind energy and compressed-air storage could create a potent new force in the electricity markets.

http://snipr.com/urriy 

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society(MRS)    

Synthetic trees and algae can counter climate change, say engineers

An article in the Times (UK) (August 27, 2009) discusses geo-engineering using artificial trees to collect CO2 from the atmosphere.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6811264.ece

Excerpt:

Giant fly-swat shaped “synthetic trees” line the road into the office, where blooms of algae grow in tubes up the walls and the roof reflects heat back into the sky — all reducing the effects of global warming.

All this could be a familiar sight within the next two decades, under proposals devised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK) to alter the world’s climate with new technology.

The institution is recommending a series of technical fixes to “buy time” to avert dangerous levels of climate change.

It says that the most promising solution is offered by artificial trees, devices that collect CO2 through their “leaves” and convert it to a form that can easily be collected and stored.Tim Fox, head of environment and climate change at the institution, said that the devices were thousands of times more effective at removing carbon from the atmosphere than real trees.

More ....

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Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Plumbing the oceans could bring limitless clean energy

Link to Article in New Scientist (Nov. 19, 2008)

An article in New Scientist examines the potential for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), in other words, exploiting the difference in temperature between seawater near the surface and deep down.

Apparently, recently, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded its first grant for ocean thermal energy in more than a decade, giving Lockheed Martin $600,000 to develop a new generation of cold water pipes.

This could eventually lead to 500 MW OTEC plants on floating offshore platforms sending electricity to onshore grids via submarine cables, and factory ships "grazing" the open ocean for power.

Lockheed's first goal is to get a test facility up and running. The company has got together with Makai Ocean Engineering of Waimanalo, Hawaii, to build a 10 to 20 MW plant, most likely off Hawaii, that it hopes to have up and running in the next four to six years. The plant - including a 1000-meter pipe some 4 meters in diameter - would feed electricity to the island's energy grid via submarine cables.

As with any technology, there are issues with larger scale power generation. The article makes the point that scaling up won't be easy. "A 100 MW plant might have a pipe 30 feet in diameter suspended 3000 feet. That's not a small challenge. You've got this huge structure vertically suspended. You've got a lot of stresses and strains from current, from the movement of platform on the surface - how you are going to anchor it and install it?"

However, the technology has sufficient potential that it will likely find a place in the overall energy pie.

Credit: New Scientist

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Editor, Materials360(r)
Editor, Meeting Scene
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Utilities putting new energy into geothermal sources

An article on geothermal energy in the November 3 issue of the Los Angeles Times.

Geothermal sources draw power firms in quest for renewables.

By Marla Dickerson
November 3, 2008

Reporting from Reno -- Not far from the blinking casinos of this gambler's paradise lies what could be called the Biggest Little Power Plant in the World.

Tucked into a few dusty acres across from a shopping mall, it uses steam heat from deep within the Earth's crust to generate electricity. Known as geothermal, the energy is clean, reliable and so abundant that this facility produces more than enough electricity to power every home in Reno, population 221,000.

"There's no smoke. Very little noise," said Paul Thomsen, director of policy and business management for Ormat Technologies Inc., which owns the operation. "People don't even know it's here."

Geothermal energy may be the most prolific renewable fuel source that most people have never heard of. Although the supply is virtually limitless, the massive upfront costs required to extract it have long rendered geothermal a novelty. But that's changing fast as this old-line industry buzzes with activity after decades of stagnation.

Read complete article ....

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Editor, Materials360
Editor, Meeting Scene
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Building a Community Dialogue on the Global Energy Landscape and Materials Innovation

It has been more than a month since the preliminary release of the MRS Bulletin issue, Harnessing Materials for Energy. From anecdotal evidence, the issue has been well received, with positive comments, requests for bulk quantities, and healthy single copy sales. It has been and will continue to be distributed far and wide to scientists, policymakers, energy leaders, educators, and students in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.

But our goal is not to have it “liked.” Our goal is to have it used.

It is time to look beyond the cover, and to build a dialogue in the community. By placing together the full spectrum of energy technologies from source through transformation to use and efficiency (shown in the Preface, illustration of the energy landscape, and Introduction), it is possible to see challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We can beyond worrying about the future to joining the many researchers, entrepreneurs, and corporations looking for and building robust solutions. What important challenges have emerged? What scientific approaches might speed progress? What can we learn from experiments around the world, such as sugarcane ethanol in Brazil, hydrogen in Iceland, nuclear power in France, coal liquefaction in South Africa, wind energy in Germany, electric cars in Israel, and solar in California? Will immediate implementation trump stronger developments of tomorrow? What is needed for widespread use of cellulosic ethanol, white LEDs for general lighting, nuclear breeder reactors, carbon sequestration, methane hydrates, organic solar cells, or plug-in hybrids? I ask the readers of this blog to give thoughtful input to the unanswered questions and unquestioned answers related to materials and energy. Start with a look at the introductory content in the MRS Bulletin issue, Harnessing Materials for Energy. Where should materials research go next?

Please add your comments here. In future posts, we will examine other articles in the issue. We also welcome suggestions for future blog coverage, which can be e-mailed to materialsforenergy@mrs.org.

Dr. Elizabeth L. Fleischer
Editor, MRS Bulletin
Materials Research Society

MRS Bulletin Special Issue "Harnessing Materials for Energy"

The Materials Research Society and the MRS Bulletin are pleased to announce the availability of the April special issue of the MRS Bulletin "Harnessing Materials for Energy" on the web.

The MRS Bulletin special expanded issue, “Harnessing Materials for Energy,” focuses on the most important materials research challenges that need to be addressed to move toward secure, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy to meet the world’s accelerating energy needs. The issue follows the full energy chain including production, storage, distribution, use, and efficiency. The articles are designed to present an objective and global view of the energy challenges within each energy sector and the promising transformational materials research directions for meeting these challenges as far into the future as is scientifically feasible to consider (targeting 10-, 25-, and 50-year outlooks).

A related Energy Forum is slated for Monday, March 24, at the 2008 MRS Spring Meeting.

 

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)