Renewable energy could power the world within the next 30 years, and wind power is one of the cheapest, most efficient ways to get there. Except 80% of the world’s offshore wind blows in deep waters, where it’s difficult to build wind farms. A new design for a radically different kind of wind turbine could begin to change that.
Hywind is powering around 36,000 British homes, and it has already broken U.K. records for energy output. Wind Catching Systems launched the same year Hywind opened. It claims that one unit could power up between 80,000 and 100,000 European households. In ideal conditions, where the wind is at its strongest, one wind catcher unit could produce up to 400 gigawatt-hours of energy. By comparison, the largest, most powerful wind turbine on the market right now produces up to 80 gigawatt-hours.
[Wind Catching Systems]
There are several reasons for this substantial difference. First, the Wind Catcher is taller-approaching the height of the Eiffel Tower-which exposes the rotor blades to higher wind speeds. Second, smaller blades perform better. Heggheim explains that traditional turbines are 120 feet long and usually max out at a certain wind speed. By comparison, the Wind Catcher’s blades are 50 feet long and can perform more rotations per minute, therefore generating more energy.
The following article is a bit dated but is the key to the viability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Analysing the future cost of green hydrogen
Green hydrogen is an extremely promising source of energy, with the potential to power industries. Explore our key projections for this renewable energy source.
Insight
December 2, 2022
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Green hydrogen is an extremely promising source of energy; it has the potential to power industries while helping countries decarbonise their economies. But it also carries significant uncertainty in terms of demand and production costs. PwC recently analysed the emerging green hydrogen revolution and the current and future production costs of green hydrogen through 2050.
The shift from grey to green hydrogen
Hydrogen has long been produced using industrial processes powered by fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. This so-called grey hydrogen is widely available and inexpensive, costing just €1–2/kilogram. However, the process used to make it is greenhouse gas–intensive.
What is green hydrogen?
Green hydrogen is formed by using renewable energy, such as solar or wind, to power electrolysers that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Because it relies on renewable energy, green hydrogen is far more environmentally sustainable than traditional energy sources, yet it is also more expensive, at €3–8/kilogram.
As the cost of renewable energy production and electrolyser hardware declines, green hydrogen will become more cost-competitive, making it a viable source for applications ranging from power to transportation to industrial processes.
50%
The projected decrease in green hydrogen production costs by 2030
Potential green hydrogen cost trajectories across global markets
To better understand the potential future production costs of renewable energy around the world, we recently evaluated forecasts for different markets. The key projections from our model include the following:
Hydrogen production costs will decrease by around 50% by 2030 and then continue to fall steadily at a slightly slower rate until 2050.
By 2050, green hydrogen production costs in some parts of the Middle East, Africa, Russia, China, the US and Australia will be in the range of €1/kilogram.
Over the same time period, production costs in regions with limited renewable resources, such as parts of Europe, Japan and Korea, will be more than €2/kilogram, making it likely these markets will import green hydrogen from elsewhere.
Even densely populated regions with good renewable resources will import hydrogen, as land constraints limit the production of green electricity for direct use and conversion to hydrogen.
Priorities for private business and governments
To capitalise on the emerging opportunity, industries, in partnership with governments, need to start implementing pilot projects in order to gain experience and generate efficiencies through learning curves and scale effects. Governments also need to put the correct regulatory framework in place, which can dramatically swing the economics of projects and make countries more competitive in this rapidly growing market.
Our analysis points to a fundamental conclusion: demand for green hydrogen will grow, and the market is still evolving. However, the infrastructure development that will be required takes time and needs to be planned now. By taking the right steps today, countries can claim their rightful stake while advancing national sustainability agendas.
The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042, research indicates.
That’s a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate of between now and 2052.
In a study published in Climate Dynamics, researchers introduce a new and more precise way to project the Earth’s temperature. Based on historical data, it considerably reduces uncertainties compared to previous approaches.
Scientists have been making projections of future global warming using climate models for decades. These models play an important role in understanding the Earth’s climate and how it will likely change. But how accurate are they?
Climate models are mathematical simulations of different factors that interact to affect Earth’s climate, such as the atmosphere, ocean, ice, land surface, and the sun. While they are based on the best understanding of the Earth’s systems available, when it comes to forecasting the future, uncertainties remain.
Climate uncertainty
“Climate skeptics have argued that global warming projections are unreliable because they depend on faulty supercomputer models. While these criticisms are unwarranted, they underscore the need for independent and different approaches to predicting future warming,” says coauthor Bruno Tremblay, a professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University.
Until now, wide ranges in overall temperature projections have made it difficult to pinpoint outcomes in different mitigation scenarios. For instance, if atmospheric CO2 concentrations are doubled, the General Circulation Models (GCMs) used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), predict a very likely global average temperature increase between 1.9 and 4.5 degrees C—a vast range covering moderate climate changes on the lower end, and catastrophic ones on the other.
“Our new approach to projecting the Earth’s temperature is based on historical climate data, rather than the theoretical relationships that are imperfectly captured by the GCMs. Our approach allows climate sensitivity and its uncertainty to be estimated from direct observations with few assumptions,” says coauthor Raphaël Hébert of the Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Potsdam, Germany.
Global warming threshold
In the study, the researchers introduce the new Scaling Climate Response Function (SCRF) model to project the Earth’s temperature until 2100. Grounded in historical data, it reduces prediction uncertainties by about half, compared to the approach currently used by the IPCC.
In analyzing the results, the researchers found that we’ll likely cross threshold for dangerous warming (+1.5 C) between 2027 and 2042. This is a much narrower window than GCMs estimates of between now and 2052. On average, the researchers also found that expected warming was a little lower, by about 10 to 15%. They also find, however, that the “very likely warming ranges” of the SCRF were within those of the GCMs, giving the latter support.
We’ll likely cross threshold for dangerous warming (+1.5 C) between 2027 and 2042.Image: Climate Dynamics
“Now that governments have finally decided to act on climate change, we must avoid situations where leaders can claim that even the weakest policies can avert dangerous consequences,” says coauthor Shaun Lovejoy, a professor in the physics department at McGill University. “With our new climate model and its next generation improvements, there’s less wiggle room.”
