SOURCE: Sustainability x Technology Weekly Update

CO2 Power?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the biggest contributors to global warming and climate change, as well as ocean acidification when it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid. It’s nasty. Energy Dome, an Italian startup, has developed a way to use carbon dioxide for energy generation and storage, putting some of it to positive use in a system that is completely sealed and doesn’t use any rare metals – only CO2, steel, and water.

The CO2 is stored in a dome and then compressed into a liquid, which generates heat in the process. The heat is stored and then used to turn the CO2 back into a gas, which powers a turbine connected to the electricity grid and sends the gas back into the dome.

The system was tested at a small scale on the island of Sardinia, in Italy, and now the company has received funding to enter the market in the USA, where the first systems are expected to be operational in 2024.

[Source: Electrek and Bloomberg]

Rooftop Opportunities

The state of New South Wales in Australia is running a pilot programme that uses the solar-generation potential of the roofs of schools. Ultimately up to 2200 schools could be involved, which could mean as much as eight million square metres of space. So far 24 schools have participated in the first stage, which has resulted in an average reduction in electricity emissions of 30% and saved thousands of dollars each month. Another 29 schools are about to participate in the second stage.

The state government has now announced an expression-of-interest process for the pilot’s third stage, which will allow companies to pitch tender proposals to install and operate the systems at the remaining schools.

In another bit of encouraging news out of Australia, the state of Western Australia set a new record for instantaneous renewable energy share on 12 November 2022 just after noon in its isolated grid, which isn’t connected to other networks. The peak hit 81%, most of which came from rooftop solar generation, and beat the previous record of 79% that was set in September 2021. The average percentage of electricity generated by renewables during the week was nearly 40%.

[Source: RenewEconomy]

Quick Energy News From The USA

A solar farm is being built near the Pittsburgh International Airport in the USA that will supply all of its electricity to the University Of Pittsburgh. The project is expected to come online in 2023 and will comprise about 55 000 panels, generating about 18% of the university’s annual power requirements. [Source: University Of Pittsburg]

An Oregon State University professor of chemistry has been awarded $3 million by the US Department Of Energy to work on a new high-energy-density battery that doesn’t require rare metals and is therefore more sustainable. The researcher, Professor Xiulei “David” Ji, will be leading a team comprising researchers from a group of universities. [Source: Oregon State University]

Stanford University researchers have published a study that indicates that variable charging of individual lithium-ion battery cells in an electronic vehicle battery pack via active management of the flow of the electrical current, rather than a uniform charge to the entire system, reduces wear and tear and deterioration. This means the battery lifespan will improve and will experience less degradation over time from fast charging. The study was published in IEEE Transactions On Control Systems Technology on 5 November 2022. [Source: Stanford University]

Storing Heat In Sand

At the Vatajankoski power plant in Kankaanp??, Finland, the company Polar Night Energy has constructed a thickly insulated, 7m high, steel container filled with low-grade (meaning unusable) builder’s sand that functions as a battery. Electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels powers a resistance heater that heats the air between the sand particles to 600oC. The air is circulated and the insulation keeps the temperature steady. Then, when needed, the system discharges 200 kW of power through heat-exchange pipes.

Finland uses a variable-energy-price model, in which prices go up during peak-demand times, so the closed system, which is very efficient as almost no heat is lost, is used when electricity prices are higher to provide heating and hot water for around 100 homes and a nearby municipal swimming pool.

Since it’s a battery that holds thermal energy rather than electricity it’s an innovative solution for a very specific set of conditions – polar countries that have long periods of darkness and a high demand for heat in winter – but it’s indicative of what young entrepreneurs and engineers are able to achieve when they are able to experiment out of the box.

formula D_ is all too aware of the power of young minds and so it jumped at the chance to work on a project in Saudi Arabia that is designed to teach young visitors at the Mishkat Interactive Center For Atomic And Renewable Energy about renewable energy. We built a high-tech interactive game that uses a wall-sized projection space and physical props to teach the basics of sun, wind, and geothermal energy and reinforce the renewable-energy message that the centre teaches in its exhibits.

The game features animated landscapes that show a darkened house that needs to be powered. When young people place the physical props, which represent the various forms of renewable energy, in the right places on the floor, which is monitored by tracking cameras, sections of the house begin to light up and its appliances begin to work. When the entire house is powered by renewables the players have won the game.

Polar Night Energy in Finland was formed by four childhood friends who reconnected in young adulthood to test out the experimental idea behind the sand battery. It’s these sparks of innovative thinking that we hope our interactive game at Mishkat is fostering in the young people who play with it.

[Source: BBC]