Distributing Power Generation Solves Two Problems at One?Go
Increase the use of renewables, decrease grid dependency
Those who read my articles regularly know that I live in a nearly self-sufficient house:
As mentioned in that article, making a single-family home self-sufficient is only the first step. We urgently need to find solutions to power large housing complexes, industrial areas, and entire villages and suburbs.
What can we do?
Option 1: Burn coal in old, large power plants. Hmm, maybe not such a good idea. The climate doesn’t need even more CO2.
Option 2: Burn oil and gas in old, large power plants. Still not the best of ideas. Still lots of CO2, and lots of dependencies from autocrats.
Option 3: Stick to nuclear power. A little better, but still not good. Although not too bad on the CO2, the risks and disposal problems attached to nuclear power are not future-proof.
Option 4: Distributing renewable power generation. There we go. It’s the only sustainable option at hand. Let’s explore this option a little further in this article.
What Does “Distributed” Mean?Exactly?
The term “distributed” is used widely and in many contexts. Therefore, there are many different definitions of what it means.
In the context of this article, distributed power generation means that power is produced geographically close to where that power is consumed. No matter if you want to power a single-family home like mine, a large housing complex, an industrial area, an entire village, or a suburb, power should not come from a far-away central nuclear or fossil power station.
Of course, distributed power generation can occur with non-renewable or renewable energy sources. Think of the good-old diesel generator. That’s the prototype of distributed power generation. You produce electricity where and when you need it.
However, the true strength of distributed power production is that it plays to the strength of renewable energy sources.
Let’s see how we can use renewable energy sources two solve two problems in one go:
Problem 1 Solved: Increase The Use of Renewables
Because power is still produced largely centrally using fossil and nuclear fuels, most large energy consumers such as industry and communities haven’t thought about renewable energy much more than placing solar panels on the roofs of their buildings. While this is a good start and a way to produce power where you need it (for example in my nearly self-sufficient home), it won’t suffice to produce enough electricity e.g. for a factory or an entire village.
If we start to think about deploying large-scale solar and wind farms close to large electricity consumers, we can increase the share of renewable energy, especially for industrial consumers. When combining different technologies such as wind and solar power, we can also mitigate some of the variability that comes from renewable power production.
Besides the typical large wind turbines seen in centralized on- and offshore wind parks, products geared at powering entire factories or villages are entering the market right now, for example, this one:
领英推荐
Put it next to your factory, combine it with solar panels on the roof of the factory, and you will be able to cover a large part of your energy needs from distributed renewable power generation.
Problem 2 Solved: Decrease Grid Dependency
The largest problem with renewable energy sources is that their availability varies with the weather, the daytime, and the seasons. That’s not what you need when you need to heat a furnace round the clock, have an assembly line move 24/7, or cook dinner for some 200,000 residents in a city roughly around the same time.
That’s where the grid comes in. It makes sure you can cook your dinner even if the sun is already down. It keeps your assembly line moving even when there is no wind. And it sucks up the excess electricity your solar panels produce on a sunny afternoon.
A grid is a very complex piece of engineering. Electricity produced needs to balance electricity consumed at any moment in time. That means, when renewable power generation varies (e.g. because there is a cloud in front of your solar panels, or a gust of wind powers up your wind turbine), some other source of power generation needs to be turned up or down instantaneously. Quite often, this is done with gas and coal power stations, as they are easier to regulate up and down than for example a nuclear power station.
If we now start to think of a micro-grid, e.g. for a village, that is powered by a large wind turbine in combination with a large solar installation, the dependency on the overall grid can be reduced, thereby reducing the need for control energy from gas and coal power station. Furthermore, transmission losses to transmit energy over large distances can be avoided.
And last but not least, should your micro-grid fail, only your village is affected, and not entire regions or metropolitan areas.
Remaining Challenges
Reducing grid dependency is technically feasible today. However, as so often in life, administration and legislation are the innovators’ largest enemies.
In Switzerland, where I live, it’s illegal for villages to build their own power stations, unless they have a concession for it. And guess what, the big power generation companies have no interest in giving a power station concession to every village.
So there go your dreams of a microgrid powered by a large wind turbine.
If we want to beat fossil and nuclear power generation and drive back autocrats with gas and oil reserves, we’d better change our legislation. Quick.
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