ASHRAE Nordic Chapter’s Post

Transcript

If $34 billion in capital investment would provide for the energy needs of 6 million people almost pollutant free, would you do it? That's the question Denmark, population of touch under that 6,000,000 is currently answering with a resounding yes. Green energy, as we all know, is looking likely to be one of the keys to humanity's future. If it's successful, it will represent a societal change with implications for the whole planet. While recycling your bottles and not leaving your TV on standby still has its place, it's becoming increasingly clear that bigger. Sweeping changes are needed to redress the climate crisis. In fact, there have already been some mammoth project in this area. Chinas Tengger Desert Solar Park covers 16 square miles. South Korea uses an area of a similar size to produce energy from waves, having built an artificial wall to create tidal power generating Seymour Lake. The UK powers around 600,000 homes with a single large wind farm off its West Coast. And Canada is set to open the world's biggest green hydrogen plant. Denmark, though, will be taking things one step further. Using an entire offshore island with the sole aim of making a ginormous step in the country's drive towards green energy. The island project the Danish government favor will be 120,000 square meters in size, roughly the same as 20 football fields, and cost $34 billion to produce. On three sides, the island will be protected by high sea walls, while the 4th side will offer docking space for boats needed to service the equipment it hosts. And we do mean they are producing an island. The artificial construction will be a large floating land mass. Located 50 miles off the Danish coast, where it will be tethered in a spot surrounded by wind turbines focused entirely on green energy, it will initially produce enough electricity to power 3 million homes, slightly more than Denmark's current total of households, 2.7 million. Still better, about 3 million figure is only for phase one of the production. In the long term, the capacity to provide energy from the island is expected to grow to a level at which it can fuel more than 9 million households. That's an initial output of around 3 gigawatts of energy. Increasing to close to 10 gigawatts overtime. It's all part of a larger plan. Denmarks environmentally conscious government announced in early 2021 that they are to switch from being the EU's largest oil producer to totally phasing out fossil fuels by 2050. They're already refusing further permits to search for oil in their North Sea territories. The energy island is intended as the next step on top of the 40% of Danish energy already produced with wind. It will have multiple purposes. 1 is to provide a hub for 200 plus wind. Turbines that will flank the main site Turbines are more efficient when located in the sea as they can both be larger and make use of typically higher wind speeds. The turbines will be huge. Individually, they could match the 184 metre height of Seattle Space Needle. As well as the positive effect they'll have on the environment, there will be some downsides, such as the impact of their production and their eventually becoming obsolete. Some studies say that the structures provide refuge for fish and other sea creatures such as oysters and mussels. Once in place there, of course, they can also kill birds. Huge amounts of wind energy produced around the island will be used largely to fuel a large green hydrogen plant. With wind energy so abundant out in the sea, it becomes efficient to split water molecules to release hydrogen using electricity. The process for producing hydrogen from water is one of electrolysis. Essentially, it involves passing current through the liquid which causes the water to react at the positively charged anode, leaving behind oxygen gas and positively charged hydrogen atoms. A permeable membrane between the two elements allows the hydrogen to pass. Back to the negatively charged cathode, the net effect is the production of hydrogen gas at one end of the reaction and harmless oxygen at the other. Where the source of the electricity used to carry out the reaction is green, as in the case of the wind turbines here, the whole reaction is essentially free of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Of course, without the green energy production, you'd still be swapping one form of energy for another. The environmental damage would already have been done in the production of the electricity used in the electrolysis, and you'd also lose some of that energy in inefficiencies in the reaction. This particular clever combination limits environmental damage essentially to the facilities required to build turbines, the island and associated requirements, and has almost no damage through the energy production itself. Once produced in such a clean manner that hydrogen can be used in a number of different ways beyond just energy for houses. That includes producing ammonia fuel that can be used to run ships in an environmentally efficient way, and producing green fuel for aircraft. The airplane fuel option is particularly attractive from a Greek perspective, as while planes. Had a lot of carbon dioxide to the environment. The production of fuel through this method can also draw carbon dioxide from air as part of the production process, adding to the green benefits. Hydrogen produced on the island is also expected to be used in the longer term to fuel vehicles and industrial plants. The offshore island could prove a big asset for Denmark, with long term economic benefits as well as environmental ones. Neighbouring Sweden has already found a way to use waste to create fuel to such a degree that it now imports waste and exports fuel, making money. On both ends. Similarly, Denmark will be pumping its offshore island produced fuel back to land as liquid in huge undersea pipes and can then fuel its own homes, industry and transport, but also export to the financial benefit of the country. Unlike its previous oil production, the fuel could also fetch a premium as a green form of energy. The Netherlands and Germany are said to be interested, Climate Minister Dan Jorgensen said of the project. The 10 gigawatts, when this is finalized, will be producing far, far more clean energy than we can use as a country. So this is part of a strategy to help other countries meet their targets. He's also indicated that the state ultimately expects the project to be quite lucrative once the initial capital investment phase is over. When it's complete, the island will remain just over half state owned, but we'll also have some elements of private enterprise, with 49% of the asset expected to be sold off. This is still very much a long term plan though. Currently the island is scheduled to be up and running by 2033, though many are already expressing doubts over whether that date is achievable. The 51% state ownership is seen by Jorgenson as a perfect compromise as it allows the use of private expertise but maintains overall state control. Even the beginning of construction is still years away, with a planned 2026 start date following on from a search for investors and further technical planning, as well as assessments of the environmental impact of the project itself and of the extent of interest among potential energy buyers at this early stage. The exact location, though known to be somewhere out to sea to the West of the country's. Outland Peninsula is being kept under wraps. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this will be the most expensive construction product in Danish history. It's the next big step for the Danish wind turbine industry, Professor Jacob Ostergard of the Technical University of Denmark said. We were leading on land, then we took the step offshore, and now we're taking the next step with energy islands. So it'll keep the Danish industry in a pioneering position. Denmark's green revolution is well underway already. Of course. The country already generates more than 50. Percent of the EU's entire wind energy There are strong laws around biodiversity, sustainable forestry and sustainable fuels. Going forward, an annual energy report will track the road to carbon neutrality, which is a key policy target for 2050. It's not even Denmark's only huge energy construction. At the same time as agreeing to construct this island, the country's politicians committed to a second project on a natural island called Bornholm, located in the Baltic Sea to the east of the country, similarly dedicated to green energy production. The aims are lofty, Jorgensen said of the broader project. Only by inspiring others and developing new green solutions they also want to use can we really do something to combat climate change. Would you like to see projects like this enacted where you live? Renewable energy can have a transformative impact on our world, but just how sustainable is it? Renewable energy is energy derived from a source that's able to replenish itself over time, whether that's power derived from air, water, solar, nuclear reactions, or biomass. But not all of these renewable energy sources are equally sustainable. Sustainable energy has been described as energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It needs to be affordable, accessible, replenishable, safe for the environment, and available in the long term. So how do some of our sources of renewable energy shape up? Solar panels had been around for quite some time, and generational leaps have been made in solar cell technology. But manufacturing solar panels can have potentially negative consequences for our environment down the line. Fabricating the panels requires caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. The process uses water as well as electricity. It also creates waste. The panels themselves require reducing and refining silica to produce high purity silicon in a process that has a substantial energy and environmental cost. They also require the mining of materials such as silver, and while panels can be recycled, the process is not yet efficient or widespread. Some estimate that by 2050, end of life photovoltaics could make up 10% of global e-waste. On the upside, utility scale solar panel arrays have gotten cheaper and more efficient to construct over the years. As our technology and construction methods continue to improve. New developments in thin film photovoltaics and advances in material science could see more sustainable photovoltaics in the future. Wind turbines are widely regarded as one of the most efficient sources of renewable energy, but there are still some hurdles to overcome if they're to be considered fully sustainable. For one, wind turbines are bound by geography, their best installed in areas with windy climates. Transferring the energy they generate to far away locations could be a problem. But wind turbines have another major issue. They can generate large amounts of waste. Wind turbine blades are made from glass or carbon fiber reinforced composites, which are extremely difficult to recycle. Built to withstand hurricane force winds, the blades can't be easily cut, crushed, recycled or repurposed. That's why most used wind turbine blades are sent to landfills. Hopefully, there has been growing interest in finding new ways to recycle the fiberglass blades, as well as a growing interest of initiatives for repurposing old blades into bridges and other structures. Hydropower is the leading source of renewable energy. However, it mostly relies on large dams which disrupt river ecology, caused deforestation, lead to the loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, release greenhouse gases, and can displace thousands or even 10s of thousands of people. To make river hydropower more sustainable, researchers and innovators are working to develop Fish Friendly. Turbines and dams that generate electricity without disrupting the flow of water. Others are working to harvest tidal energy. Smaller modular dams are also being developed to harvest energy with minimal interference in the local ecosystem. All three renewable energy sources promise a sustainable supply of energy, but we are not ready to completely replace fossil fuels as our primary source of energy in a world. Without fossil fuels, renewable energy needs to be much more sustainable. Massive innovations in energy storage, transportation and capture need to occur if we're to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming to agreed upon levels. By harnessing our innovation, we can accelerate the transition to a sustainable world.