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What is happening in the energy landscape
The Energetic industry is being reshaped by decentralization, digitization, technologies, changes in demand for renewable, prices and greater sustainability as a matter of public policy. As risks change, so do opportunities.
Lately the energy sector is more volatile than ever and we are not only talking about prices, which is normal, interesting things are happening around the world and today we have to review them in summary mode.
1.- The first mobile nuclear power plant
The first floating and mobile nuclear power plant is already moving around the world to install on a ship and is in Russia.
The plant known as "Akademik Lomonosov" will become the northernmost nuclear power plant on Earth to replace an old coal power plant that supplies more than 50,000 people with electricity in Chukotka.
The estimates of this mobile nuclear plant installed on a ship is that it can operate without the need to refuel for more than 3 years.
Its facilities (the ship's crew is 70 members) will have enough energy to illuminate and heat a city of approximately 100,000 inhabitants.
Of course, Greenpeace has already warned that this is directly insane if we look at the history of nuclear accidents in Russia not to mention that it will move in waters that are very difficult to access in the event of an accident.
2.- Generate energy in the dark
An engineer from the University of California (Los Angeles) has developed a device that generates energy in conditions of total darkness.
The prototype was published in Joule magazine, it works under the concept of radiative cooling of the sky to keep the cold side of a thermoelectric generator several degrees below ambient temperature.
The concept tries to harness the energy that is generated after sunset, when the temperature of the building structure drops until it is colder than the surrounding air.
Although the demonstration implemented was low-cost and produced only enough energy to illuminate an LED, obviously, there is a long way to go if it is to be used as a battery storage option for solar cells, but we are facing a new way of research to generate light from darkness.
3.- More work in the renewable sector
The rise of renewable energy technologies creates job opportunities throughout the global supply chain. By the end of 2022, the sector employed 11 million people worldwide, according to the recent report published by IREAN from Renewable Energy and Jobs.
The renewable energy sector employs 11 million people worldwide
More countries are manufacturing, marketing and installing renewable energy technologies. While leading markets such as the United States, China and the European Union welcomed the highest concentration of jobs, other Asian countries have emerged as exporters of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, the report notes.
The photovoltaic solar power remains the top employer among renewable energy technologies in 2022, representing a third of the sector's workflow.
Asia, hosted more than 3 million jobs in the photovoltaic sector. Latin American countries also experienced growth, in line with the increase in regional demand for photovoltaic energy.
While China was leading Europe in offshore wind investment in 2022, the US and North African markets have also started to turn oil and gas expertise into offshore wind jobs. Off-grid renewables, along with expanding access to electricity, have contributed to job creation across Africa and Asia.
Many governments have prioritized the development of renewable energy, first, to reduce emissions and meet international climate targets, but also to obtain broader socio-economic benefits.
4.-Lithium drops 30% in price
One of the main and most expensive components of rechargeable batteries is lithium, therefore, the final price of a battery will depend - in part - on this wonderful metal.
Some years ago, the automotive sector was preaching that the shortage of this material was a difficulty for the advancement of the electric car. Well this year the value of lithium has fallen by 30% And it is not by a divine appearance, just new mines have been opened in Australia.
For now! one less excuse that prevents the advance of the electric car.
5.- Take advantage of the energy of the subway tunnels
Researchers at L’Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have calculated that they can recover the heat that accumulates in subway tunnels.
The heat that comes from the subway brakes, engines, people and the heat of the ground in general should be used to heat thousands of homes.
According to the research, the system should function similar to a refrigerator, with a network of pipes containing a special fluid or simply water to transfer heat inside the tunnel walls and connect them to heat pumps.
In winter, cold water would be bombarded into the pipes and would emerge heated to the surface, the other way around, in summer. According to the researchers, it would be an economical and very efficient system with a useful life of more than 50 years (the heat pumps would be replaced every 25 years)
Even, in reality, energy could be extracted, although the investment in the facilities would be much higher, but it is a viable option.
6.- Artificial intelligence jumps to renewables
New technologies are providing palpable efficiency benefits in the renewable sector, but as it is being verified, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are taking them to a new level.
To give examples:
- The UK is using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help predict how much energy its turbines and solar panels will harvest when the wind blows or the sun is brightest.
"Improving solar forecasts will help us run the system more efficiently, which ultimately means lower bills for consumers."
- Google revealed this year that thanks to Artificial Intelligence it can predict the production of its wind farms 36 hours in advance, which allows the technology giant to bid to supply energy to the grid in advance and at lower values.
- The world of batteries is not far behind. Here scientists have been looking at how AI can more accurately predict how many cycles a battery can have (how many months or years it will last before it starts to degrade). Better life cycle prediction could help identify why some batteries fail earlier and others fail, or predict those needed in a fleet of trucks, for example.
Remember our article on Artificial Intelligence applied to architecture, very interesting.
7.- Electric buses will triple
The electric automotive sector is booming and not everything is electric cars. Lately, electric public transport, mainly buses, are taking over the streets of many cities.
According to the latest Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables report on the international electric bus landscape… “globally, electric buses will triple by 2025”.
globally, electric buses will triple by 2025
Although we are not all going at the same pace - we can see the following graphs - there is an upward trend internationally that will benefit us all.
Of course, and as we already have in this article, China is in the lead representing a whopping 98% of the world market in the adoption of electric buses on its streets. The Chinese market, the most promising in the sector, will surpass one million electronic buses in 2023 and reach 1.3 million in 2025, according to the report.
To support this high concentration of E-buses, a total of more than 50,000 e-bus charging points will be installed by the end of 2022. This number will more than double by the end of 2025.
8.- How much we depend on oil imports
Eurostat has recently published a very interesting graph about the dependence of the EU countries on oil imports and, therefore, on an external energy dependence that can lead to major bankruptcies, negatively affecting the country's economy.
Spain is one of the European Union countries that is most exposed to more expensive oil, since 74% of the total energy it consumes has to be imported from abroad and, according to 97.9%, is oil. show the recently published Eurostat energy dependency statistics.
For EU member states, net oil import levels approached their oil consumption levels, with dependency rates ranging between 96% and 104%. Dependency rates above 100% indicate an accumulation of oil reserves, while negative dependency rates indicate a net exporting country.
9.- Renewables continue to rise
According to the Global Report on the State of Renewables 2022 (Published by the UN together with the Frankfurt School and Bloomberg New Energy Finance), in 2022, global investment in renewable energy reached US $ 288.9 billion and financing for new capacity was almost three times higher than in the coal and gas sector.
The energy capacity of renewables - excluding large hydroelectric plants - it has gone from 414 gigawatts in 2009 to 1,650 gigawatts that we will have by the end of this year. The most notable increase, solar power, which at the beginning of 2010 was at 25 gigawatts and this year will reach 638 gigawatts.
In the energy sector, renewable energies are increasingly preferred for the new generation of electricity. Some 181 GW of renewable energy capacity were added in 2022, a new record slightly higher than the previous year.
Renewable energy has been established globally as a major source of electricity generation for several years and the estimated share of renewables in global electricity generation was over 26% at the end of 2022, so we are on the right track.
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