Wind Energy: Here to Stay

Achieving 100% renewable energy is an aspiration that is more easily said than done, but in British Columbia such a future appears to be more achievable due to advances in wind energy technology. British Columbia, which has a reputation as a climate change leader, with the first carbon tax in North America, ranks lowest in terms of per capita wind power of all 10 Canadian provinces, in spite of abundant resources.  To learn more about recent wind power developments, I decided to attend the event by the BCSEA and CANWEA in Downtown Vancouver  on April 10^th at the Bill Reid Gallery (named after the late indigenous  artist who hailed from my former home of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands).

Wind is Affordable

Wind turbines in Landskrona, Skane, Sweden on historic site.

In the popular press, wind power is criticized as being a granola technology which cannot be expected to meet the energy demands of a modern industrialized society. In British Columbia, we are frankly spoiled rotten by the low electric prices due to the construction of hydro power on the Columbia and Peace River Systems.  Thus, consumers have experience a shock as old infrastructure needs to be upgraded and electric bills must rise. Wind power appears a way to bring about a new era of environmentally friendly, low-cost power to British Columbia.  CANWEA discusses similar ideas in their WindVision 2025 BC report

 Because the hydro dams were built in the 1960s through the 1980s, the nominal (inflation unadjusted costs) were far lower than today.  These assets are referred to as “heritage assets” due to their very low production costs.  I was under the impression that the cost of wind energy would in the long-term lead to higher energy prices for British Columbians than an emphasis on hydro.  While hydro, as even small hydro was more competitive than wind just a few years ago, improvement in wind technology,  now makes wind competitive with new small and even large hydro in some cases.  The improvements are based around the adoption of new wind turbine technologies which are designed to operate in lower wind environments.  Clean Technica has a good discussion of the “stretch rotor” technologies.  Today, wind under many circumstances will cost as much in real (inflation adjusted) terms as the hydro dams of the past at 10 cents per kilowatt hour.  It was remarked by one of the speakers that new wind farms will become tomorrow’s heritage assets.  Investing in wind makes far more sense than other renewable sources, particularly as it integratable and the problem of the wind isn’t blowing now is not a large issued Event incredible in BC.

Wind farms from my trip to Ireland

Wind is reliable!

Analysis has shown that British Columbia could operate 6000 MW or 2000 wind turbines worth of power, without raising reliability issues.  This good fortune is based on two factors (1) British Columbia has extensive hydro reservoirs which can act like storage batteries (2) Wind energy production is much greater in the winter when BC’s electricity demand is highest.

And the answer is!

Bob Dylan was right after all.

Very awesome idea

Carbon Sponge Could Absorb Coal Emissions (via Green Building Elements)

This press release today brings potentially good news concerning the reduction of GHG emissions from coal-powered energy plants. Emissions from coal power stations could be drastically reduced by a new, energy-efficient material that adsorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, then releases it when exposed…

Keystone Pipeline Adversaries Hope It Wilts Under Pressure, Now Petcoke Is The Problem

An interesting report claiming that bitumen has a 24% increase in carbon. The report is avialable at http://priceofoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/OCI.Petcoke.FINALSCREEN.pdf

15-30% of bitumen ends up as pet coke.

Solar Downdraft Tunnel

Solar downdraft tower generate electricity on the fascinating principle of cooling air at 1.3 Kilometers high creating a strong downdraft to drive turbines

 Klaus Lackner at Columbia proposed such a system for ambient carbon capture.  The proposed tower use salt water to cool warm, dry air, causing it to fall. This convection current driving turbines, capturing  45% of the thermal potential energy and more than recovers the pumping energy. Israeli researchers estimate that a large plant around 1.3 Km high could generate enough electricity at prices equivalent to hydropower.  A 3000 foot project is planned for Arizona.     See article on Treehugger 

Here is a Youtube video describing the concept

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 This is different than the solar updraft towers which heat air causing it to rise examined by Australia-based 
Enviromission.


Cost for various plant configurations grabbed from Youtube frame shot (Old numbers that appear not to be inflation-adjusted)

Southwest airlines wins Environmental award

Southwest Airlines wins environmental award as they realize that saving fuel can be quite lucrative, similar to what Amory Lovins has been saying.  Unfortunately, cheaper flights mean more demand for air travel and we could face a Jeavon's Paradox.  Herman Daly notes that the market cannot define the appropriate scale of an economic system or industry in relation to the ecosystem, it can only allocate factors of production.

One barrier to the renewable energy is cost. I came across an interesting article on the ost of renewable energy on Clean Technica. It argues that renewable electricity, while currently costing more now, will be cheaper than fossil fuel facilities.

 With the rate of introduction of renewables continuous till 2030, and the goals being met, the average price of electricity generated from a mix of renewable energy sources will be at an average of 7.6 cents per kWh by 2030. The trend at that time will continue to be downward. At the same time, the price of “conventional” fossil-fuel-powered electricity generation will already be at approximately 9.0 cents per kWh. That means that renewable electricity supply will be cheaper by 2030 or earlier

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1961e)

In Germany, and also in British Columbia, most generation facilities are also old.  Electricity in the future, regardless of the source will cost more than today, renewable or conventional.  This means a narrower cost difference or even cost equivalence for renewable energy.  Similar conclusions have been found by Jacobson as well as researchers examining the Danish City of Aalborg.

Renewable Electricity Supply to be Cheaper by 2030 (via Clean Technica)

  Macro-Economic Benefits An increasing number of countries have formulated policies to introduce renewable energy sources into their electricity supply in order to combat global warming or to decrease their dependency on imported fossil fuels. A positive side effect of this development has been the…

New vista Villages

Here is a proposal that claims that they could house, feed and otherwise provide a respectable lifestyle in million-person metropolitan regions on only 10% of the world's arable land while being self-sufficient in food.

http://www.newvistavillage.com/