The future of renewable energy & technology: The key emerging renewable power alternatives.
Many industry experts believe that current methods of farming clean energy, such as wind & solar power, are a finite solution. Currently, we are focused on developing the technology within these sectors by making our turbines bigger, more efficient & more cost effective.
However, some experts predict that within the next decade, we will run out of land to build & commission new solar & wind farms.
Do we continue to develop our existing technologies by building more efficient solar panels or larger wind turbines? We may then run the risk of land shortage & be forced to decommission current farms years down the line, meaning extra expense & time wasted rebuilding with newer more efficient technology.
The question then rises - how do we achieve Net Zero?
Does the answer lie in upgrading our current tech, or do we turn to alternative sources?
Floating Offshore Wind:
Floating offshore wind farms have emerged as a strong candidate on the path to net zero providing answers to many questions with resources available to be deployed right now.
Wind strengths are much stronger further offshore than we currently deploy arrays & given the deeper parts of the ocean are currently untouched, it eradicates many current day issues of finding suitable sites to commission wind farms.
Afterall, over 70% of our planet is covered in water.
Floating Wind Farms provides an answer to many issues of current offshore wind farms, being that they can not exceed a certain depth due to structural integrity & operation & maintenance issues. Suddenly, a much wider portion of the earths water which were previously inaccessible to offshore wind farms is now available & untouched. It is ‘open season’ for brand new renewable energy projects.
With anything in our oceans, there is always the concern of environmental impact. Floating wind is extremely environmentally friendly as the turbines are simply anchored to the sea floor & no structures are built in the ocean itself. Additionally, the recent developments of low carbon steel from companies such as Vestas has seen wind turbines become more environmentally friendly than ever.
This all sounds like a perfect recipe – but there is one key piece missing. You!
The lack of talent & skilled workers to fill the vacancies in this new & emerging sub sector is frighteningly low! And, as a potential candidate this is a gold mine.
With talent shortage comes wage inflation, a plethora of available jobs, paid for training schemes & more. There are concerns that even by commissioning more farms, we still would not reach net zero as our current technology simply does not produce enough power. By some estimates, it is said that global renewable energy capacity will have to triple between 2021 and 2030 alone if we are to hope of achieving net zero by 2050.
This opens the door for an unprecedented amount of investment from governments & private equity funds to begin commissioning more and more offshore wind farms every year.
Nuclear Fusion:
Nuclear fusion is a very new & emerging technology currently undergoing extensive research around the world due to its proven potential to output enormous amounts of energy in just seconds. The process mimics that which occurs in stars & has potential to output energy on a level which would outperform the worlds entire current renewable energy portfolios in minutes.
A stellarator is a plasma device that relies primarily on external magnets to confine a plasma. Scientists researching magnetic confinement fusion aim to use stellarator devices as a vessel for nuclear fusion reactions. The name refers to the possibility of harnessing the power source of the stars.
In late 2023, the Joint European Torus (JET) project in Oxford managed to run a Stellarator which produced an unprecedented 69 megajoules of power in just 5 seconds!It generated energy by fusing two hydrogen variants – deuterium and tritium. When these combine they produce helium and vast amounts of energy, a reaction that will form the basis of future fusion powerplants.
If this ran for an entire hour, it would produce 13,799,952 watts of power!
The technology is very much in early stages of development however some of the worlds top scientists & engineers have left companies such as Google, Tesla & Harvard in pursuit of what has now been labelled ‘The Holy Grail’ of clean energy.
The fusion industry already has early backing from many notorious billionaires such as Bill Gates!
However, Fusion power is not a new discovery & has been regularly said to be "only 20 years away" for around 50 years now.
Can we really rely on this as an alternative when offshore wind could be an answer right now?
Hydrogen:
Hydrogen is the most abundant of all elements, estimated to contribute to around 75% of the mass of the universe, in theory making it the most desirable form of energy!
Although hydrogen is almost everywhere in the universe, it does not exist freely or independently like a coal seam or oil field. You can’t find a hydrogen reservoir. Hydrogen must come from other sources of energy, such as water. This means hydrogen is an energy carrier. Current projections indicate that by 2030 the hydrogen economy could be worth around $500bn.
In the (near) future, hydrogen technology advancements could see ships, heavy-duty vehicles, and even rail transport systems driven by hydrogen because burning hydrogen does not release carbon dioxide – making it an ideal form of fuel for our vehicles.
One fantastic element of hydrogen is its potential to boost the decarbonization of economies. That’s thanks to its ability to turn excess renewable energy into stored hydrogen energy. Electrolysis involves splitting water (H2O) into hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O2) with electrolyzers. Power this reaction with photovoltaic solar panels or wind power, and you have emissions-free green hydrogen, ready to store and transport where needed. This capability means no excess renewable energy will ever be wasted, for example, on windy days when supply outstrips demand.
What are the challenges?
Hydrogen’s primary obstacle is its production costs, which are higher than current oil and natural gas equivalents for final energy produced. Forecasts suggest that this cost may reduce as large-scale projects come online.
Most hydrogen currently comes from oil refineries and other fossil-fuel-based industries. While capturing and using this type of hydrogen is better than letting it go to waste, it still cannot be disassociated from its carbon-emission-heavy birthplace.