Electricity supply: Sustainable sources remain expensive

Ambitious governments' environmental objectives for the electricity sector are only possible at a high price. This is one of the conclusions of researcher ir. Hans Rödel, who is to receive his PhD at TU Delft on Thursday 9 October. He recommends a combination of different modern generation technologies, CO₂ capture and storage, the use of biomass and the recycling of waste heat.

The government wants to achieve a general CO₂ reduction of 30 percent and to increase the proportion of sustainable energy sources within the total energy supply to 20 percent by 2020.

According to scientist Hans Rödel this can only be achieved at a very high price in the electricity sector. Scenarios involving a low environmental burden lead to high costs and vice versa. 'One of the conclusions is that electricity from sustainable sources will for the foreseeable future remain more expensive than electricity generated from conventional sources.'

Rödel therefore recommends a combination of different modern generation technologies, CO₂ capture and storage, the use of biomass and the recycling of waste heat. This can help create a sound environmental balance while containing costs within reasonable limits.

Rödel notes here that CO₂ capture technology is still in its infancy and requires further development. Moreover, he believes that the environmental progress made as a result of rapid technological developments in the generation of electricity from fossil fuels is often overlooked.

Rödel developed a technological-economic simulation model which takes as its starting point the current range of generation facilities and which can be used to analyse future scenarios. He used this to create a future analysis of the Dutch electricity supply on the basis of four developed scenarios. The analysis took as its basis the existing, liberalised electricity supply and aimed to determine whether an effective balance could be achieved for the three key factors: environmental burden, cost of the electricity generation system and certainty of supply.

Rödel proposes that the government should at least determine and establish clear growth and stimulatory frameworks for the various production options. 'Choices that are made now will influence the environmental burden, cost and availability of the system for the coming 25 to 40 years.'

Source: Delft University of Technology

Related stories:

Mandates driving surge to the river for hydropower
(AP) -- Many decades ago, cost-conscious Henry Ford turned to hydroelectric plants to power his car factories like the one by the Great Miami River, near this Cincinnati suburb. That assembly plant is long gone, but the power plant and the technology behind it isn't. Far from it. The push to get electricity from moving water is only picking up steam.
Calif. utilities must use 33 percent renewable energy for power generation by 2020
California utilities, already struggling to meet a law requiring more renewable energy, saw the bar raised even higher Monday.
Flexible charge pump: New small-scale generator produces alternating current by stretching zinc oxide wires
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have developed a new type of small-scale electric power generator able to produce alternating current through the cyclical stretching and releasing of zinc oxide wires encapsulated in a flexible plastic substrate with two ends bonded.
HP beefs up data centers while trimming electric use
Hewlett Packard on Monday rolled out new services aimed at trimming appetites of electricity-hungry data centers while beefing up the amount of computing power crammed inside.
Some tips to save on energy costs from all those gadgets
We all love our gadgets - and love having more and more of them - but technophilia has a downside: Running all those gadgets takes energy. A lot of it.
Ocean offers hope for green energy
Five miles off the southern tip of Long Beach Island, an oversize yellow buoy floats alone, purposefully mounting the waves and occasionally phoning home.
Alternative energy hits the road
Anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot summer day knows that blacktop is exceptionally good at soaking up the sun's warmth. Now, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found a way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy source.
First Solar: Quest for the $1 Watt
Photovoltaic cells, once so costly they could be used only to power million-dollar satellites, are today turning up even on humble parking meters. Now a brash Tempe, Ariz., company called First Solar plans to take the technology to the next level by making it cost-effective enough to compete with coal-fired generation.

News discussion:

Space & Earth science news