Renewable energy and energy transformation
Renewable energy and energy transformation
In his first days on planet Earth, man dealt with the surrounding environment out of a desire to secure his urgent nutritional needs, and in order to survive he did not need more than 2000 calories per day; He was a vegetarian to the core.
Once he discovered fire, his lifestyle changed completely. He took up hunting and learned to cook, and his consumption index began to rise rapidly, reaching – currently – 230 thousand calories per day, and with it the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air rose to 416 parts per million, and with it separating those Siamese twins – economic development and greenhouse gas emissions – seemed difficult, Even if it is inevitable.
Driven by two main engines: reducing emissions and competitive prices.Renewable energy projects have developed over the past ten years at an average rate of 20% annually, which pushed them to the forefront and then turned them into a destination for global investments, in light of a dramatic decline in the prices of electricity produced from renewable sources. At the local level, prices per kilowatt-hour fell to less than 3.0 US cents for wind energy, and 2.0 US dollar cents for solar energy, with a fixed value for decades up to twenty-five years, and not concerned with fuel tensions that are extremely sensitive to variables, and whose prices do not know how to stabilize.
Until now, renewable energy projects are established for the main purpose of pumping electricity into the grid, without limiting it to a specific use. On the other hand, the network accommodated the variation in its productivity rates due to the variation in solar radiation, and its connection to the movement of the sun from sunrise to sunset on the one hand, as well as wind speeds on the other hand.
On the other hand, the development of energy storage technologies raises the passion of those working on planning the energy future, to raise the level of independence of renewable sources. Battery prices have fallen from a thousand dollars per kilowatt in 2010 to less than a hundred dollars now, and the decline is still continuing.
Looking forward, it is expected that renewable energy projects will shift towards integrated solutions. In other words: it will enter into the fabric of strategic projects, such as: water desalination projects, green hydrogen production, energy storage, and waste disposal, which gives these projects a distinctive environmental footprint on the one hand, and ensures their supply of green electricity with competitive costs on the other hand, whether they are connected to the grid or integrated with other sources.
Hence, it is expected that in the near future – within five years – the structure of its markets and marketing methodologies will differ in a significant way, reflecting a greater level of reliability and independence.
In the field of reducing the evaporation of water from canals and rivers, the quantities of water – whose evaporation in space is prevented – will become the main purpose of deploying floating solar cells on bodies of fresh water, as the price of the water avoided by its evaporation increases the attractiveness of floating cells, which have a high cost compared to their counterparts.
At the same pace, marketers of projects to produce energy from waste will be able to spread their technologies, by presenting them as primarily environmental projects, through which waste is disposed of safely and healthily, sparing countries indirect costs to health, while the resulting energy – thermal or electrical – is considered a by-product that improves the economics of the project, and does not determine its fate.
Also, wind or solar power plants will be located near the electrolyzers; To obtaingreen hydrogen, either for direct use, or as a feedstock for the production of green ammonia.
The global hydrogen market – whose production volume amounts to approximately one hundred million tons annually – is currently described as a custom-made market, meaning the design of hydrogen production units to feed a specific project, perhaps an oil refinery, a fertilizer plant, or any other purpose.
As for electric cars, feeding them with clean electricity increases their environmental value. Renewable energy stations are then established to supply charging points spread on roads or in cities with their electricity needs, while taking advantage of the electrical network to transfer green electricity from project sites to consumption points.
Hence, energy markets are developing day after day, with tomorrow bringing new project formulas that integrate renewable energy projects and technologies into the energy fabric, and will not only make it a major and reliable element, but will also make it a facilitator for obtaining integrated solutions. And tomorrow is near to see!
