If you are a financier intending to fund a climate adaptation or
mitigation project, knowing that for every dollar spent the impact is doubled
or alternatively the cost halved relative to comparable projects, may be
critical to whether the project proceeds at all. Or to know that a disruptive technology
exists that may meet a demand previously unsolvable. Or, the return on your on-cost of capital is
materially greater than comparable solutions.
This may especially important in developing economies, for
which source of private funds are lower.
Also, if you are the person responsible for building out
energy mitigation projects in a developing economy, with plenty of sun but
limited funds, maybe plenty of financiers, and no technical skills, it is
difficult to know where to start.
Or maybe you are the person responsible to the owner/s of a
large multi-storey building in a city, (in which of the latter more than 50% of
the global population reside), how do you become more energy efficient and less reliant on an increasingly
unstable grid system. Without a complete
and costly retro fit or building your own farm and infrastructure, and energy
storage on vacant land.
Below we look at two technical breakthroughs, or disruptors,
reported to go live in 2017. However, a quick overview of the renewable sector.
Reading the recent report from the International EnergyAgency is
a good start at the global landscape, but limited as to renewables.
Electricity
production was up 0.9% 2016 yoy, with the geothermal solar and wind segment up
9.5%. Within the latter segment, Europe had the smallest increase, with Asia/Oceania
up 12.6%. However, US was a stand out
with solar up 45% yoy.
The vast majority of the solar power is photovoltaic (PV), a
technology first discovered by Becquerel nearly 200 years ago with the
conversion of light into electricity.
It involves either rooftop or utility scale solar capture to
produce energy to a single home / small business for the former or power into
an existing electrical grid, the latter.
The former including small installations in remote villages in India,
say, for a single light bulb or a larger off-grid home. The latter, is well documented.
Whatever the size, they all have the same problems of the
cost of infrastructure. Not only the
capture and conversion, but this must be combined with integration of delivery
on demand, which may require storage.
Surprisingly, the small technology that delivers a single light bulb at
night to a single household in a small remote village, may be the most
efficient in the market today for this synchronisation.
Two new innovations are to launch commercially in 2017 that
may transform the sector with unique features relative to the plethora of other
breakthroughs in solar.
City Challenge
Launching this year, is the see through, financially electric, electricity generating coating
for glass. SolarWindow is ground shifting technology. Taking
each of these in no apparent order. (Please note all of the following is public
information provided by the product supplier).
First, critical: Financial Returns
- · Payback in less than one year
- · Versus conventional of 5-11 years; by which they mean that may require urban land or vasty rooftop available
- · No costly retrofitting of existing abodes (large or small) required
Technology
- · What they refer to liquid electricity
- · Outperforms rooftop solar 50 fold (not a typo)
- · Operates in natural, shaded and indoor light versus conventional solar that requires direct sunlight
- · Meaning the product may be applied almost anywhere, including non sun-facing infrastructure
“SolarWindow™
modules are created by applying ultra-thin layers of liquid coatings on to
glass and flexible plastics. These liquid coatings produce ultra-small solar
cells and form groups called ‘arrays’. Because of the family of materials used
and the way in which we architect the design, the final product is generically
referred to as an ‘organic photovoltaic solar array’ (OPV). Importantly, the
liquid coatings are primarily made of hydrogen and carbon – two of the most
abundant materials found in nature.”
Applications
- · Windows on city tower blocks
- · Internal glass divides
- · There are many other applications contemplated on the website. However, these are more contemplative than actual at the time of writing.
Food Security Challenge
Across the Pacific, there is another unique solar technology
due for commercial production launch in 2017.
And similar to the ubiquitous challenge of CBD buildings, this connects
with the other half of the global population.
The non-urban dwellers.
Not to suggest that the two technologies aren’t transferable
between segments or indeed applications.
Whether you travel by train, bus or plane, Asia, Europe,
Africa or the Americas, it is the greenhouses that are ubiquitous. Commercial, rural, market gardens and
backyards. Greenhouses are on all
continents. Some recent examples
include:
Sundrops farms in Australia, Europe, and US seeks out locations
that are barren, desolate, remote, near seawater to build.
Saudi learned early to commence this technology:
Vietnam is upgrading
with Israeli technology:
A new Philippines project costed at US$50 million….
USA award winners in the greenhouse space:……
The global commercial greenhouse industry recently reported
to a CAGR of more than 8.8% using current technology, with revenue expected to reach
US$30 billion by 2020……and so it goes.
This is a breakthrough new technology, of a clear glass that harvests energy whilst letting most of the visible
light pass through. The research has
been part funded by Australian Research Council with
researcher Professor Kamal Alameh (Edith Cowan University) collaborating with ClearVue technologie.
First, critical: Financial Returns
·
world's first commercially
viable clear, solar glass where one square metre of the glass can produce up to
30 watts of power.
·
It gives daylight in which it lets the light
through, it gives solar control, thermal control, it's also safety glass and it
gives you power.
·
Meaning a financial benefit of no extra
infrastructure cost (wind solar)
·
Returns may also be measured in terms of
environment, social, resilience in adaptation
Technology (nano)
- · The Professor calls it energy-harvesting clear glass
- · The glass (as compared to nano technology using film) is embedded with nanoparticles and micro-structured elements that help absorb and re-distribute, internally, up to 90 per cent of the ultraviolet (UV) light energy
- · Also a good fraction of infrared rays’ energy from the sunlight
- · Then transfers this energy to solar cells embedded around the edges of the glass pane
"This
is a glass that can pass the visible light through for photosynthesis, while
blocking the UV and infrared components of the sunlight, and routing them to
the edge of the glass for conversion to electricity via solar cells placed
around the edges of the glass."
·
Not the first glass solar on the market, but the
only one with completely clear glass
Applications
- · The energy harvested could be used in many applications, with a strong potential identified in creating new smart greenhouses, which would power their own water filtration, irrigation, heating and cooling inside the greenhouse
- · The glass has already been used in a self-sustainable bus shelter in Melbourne, Australia
- · Is being developed commercially in collaboration with ClearVue technologies, in what Professor Alameh describes it as a “game changer” for the glass industry in buildings.
- · Brings food security to isolated communities in developing countries where the national energy infrastructure may not reach them for decades
Some
further readings on innovations – when does a trickle of innovation become a
torrent:
Solar cells that researchers at the
ANU surpassed silicon efficiency records ………http://reneweconomy.com.au/anu-breakthrough-butterfly-effect-boost-solar-cell-efficiency-14263/
This new material could lead to
smaller, faster, and more powerful electronics, as well as more efficient solar
cells….. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170505151620.htm
Global greenhouse market report
2017-2022…… https://journalismday.com/2017/05/global-greenhouse-horticulture-market/.....building out the landscape of the global market
http://www.climatefinancelandscape.org/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw0v_IBRCEzKHK0KiCrKMBEiQA3--1Nh5Q8ZFm7zZ85lOjDwE-kifz_E3H_PYvyZw1Uni6zWgaAjPl8P8HAQ
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/04/20/getting-ready-for-terawatts-of-solar-with-charts/
