Category: Renewable energy

Subsidies for spare electricity generation capacity of fossil fuel power plants in an electricity grid with high proportion of renewable energy generation

July 23, 2018

Renewable energy’s share of total energy production is increasing in many parts of the world, and this would have a substantial impact on energy resilience of electricity grid, particularly in maintaining a stable flow of electricity to end-users in the event of lack of generation of renewable energy.   To smooth out the fluctuations in … More Subsidies for spare electricity generation capacity of fossil fuel power plants in an electricity grid with high proportion of renewable energy generation

Resilience of electricity system with high proportion of renewable power generation

July 16, 2018

Renewable energy such as solar and wind power’s share of the energy mix is increasing in many parts of the world. While increasing proportion of renewable energy helps reduce the carbon footprint of electricity generation and reduce the impacts on climate change, low frequency events such as weather non-favourable to renewable energy generation may impose … More Resilience of electricity system with high proportion of renewable power generation

Potential high transmission cost of electricity from offshore solar farm

July 12, 2018

Solar power scale linearly with the collecting area of the photovoltaic panels. Given the scarcity of low-cost land in major cities around the world, lack of space has presented as a significant constraint to the future expansion of solar power as part of a changing energy mix for cities. Thus, various ideas and proposals have … More Potential high transmission cost of electricity from offshore solar farm

Land price is a cost item for solar power generation

July 2, 2018

Solar power scale linearly with surface area. Thus, land is a critical cost component for the production of solar power and plays a critical role in determining the location of solar farms. Typically, solar farms are situated in areas with lower land cost such as the outskirts of a city. Newer designs of solar farms … More Land price is a cost item for solar power generation

Floating offshore wind farms add flexibility to a renewable energy resource but power transmission to land is a challenging problem

July 13, 2017

A recent article in Guardian (Link) reports the imminent deployment of a floating offshore wind turbine farm off the northeast coast of Scotland. Compared to conventional wind turbine with moorings on the seabed, floating offshore wind turbine farms are built on large floating structures, and enable windfarms to be deployed at longer distances off the … More Floating offshore wind farms add flexibility to a renewable energy resource but power transmission to land is a challenging problem

Surface functionalization for improving the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells

July 6, 2017

Article in Science, Vol. 354, Issue, 6309, pp. 203-206, “Improving efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells with photocurable fluoropolymers”   Summary of article: Efficiency of fluoropolymer coating on solar cells in absorbing solar photons in evaluated in this article. Perovskite solar cells, as a class of photovoltaic materials suffer from poor stability under normal … More Surface functionalization for improving the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells

Rare earth element doping for improving perovskite solar cell photovoltaic performance

July 4, 2017

Research article in Science, Vol. 354, Issue 6309, pp. 206-209, “Incorporation of rubidium cations into perovskite solar cells improves photovoltaic performance”   Summary of article: Expensive rubidium cations were used in improving the photo conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells, but cost and scarcity of the precious metal could be major factors preventing its use. … More Rare earth element doping for improving perovskite solar cell photovoltaic performance

Printable solar cells could revolutionize personal energy provision

April 16, 2017

Imagine a world where your smartphone is charged by a thin film of solar cell embedded on the smartphone casing. Such personal energy provision devices and technologies could dramatically revolutionize mobile digital technology for communication, given the availability of an unlimited power supply from the sun. But, the route for getting there remains arduous with … More Printable solar cells could revolutionize personal energy provision

Overabundance of renewable energy and the removal of feed-in tariffs

December 23, 2016

Renewable energy such as those from wind, tides and solar typically have higher production cost compared to electricity from oil, coal and gas, with coal being the cheapest fuel source for conventional power plants. With the emphasis on reducing air pollutants from fossil fuel fired power stations and the importance of lowering carbon dioxide emissions … More Overabundance of renewable energy and the removal of feed-in tariffs

Unaccounted for greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric power plants

November 19, 2016

Hydropower produced by turbines from water flowing down a large reservoir retained by a dam is one renewable energy source tapped by countries endowed with rivers traversing a terrain with large elevation changes. Often touted to be clean, non-polluting and sustainable, hydroelectric power generation does have environmental concerns, primarily in the area of impacting the … More Unaccounted for greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric power plants