Posts Tagged by Anil
Shale Natural Gas vs. Renewable Energy — Continued — Guest Blogger Anil
| March 17, 2010 | Posted by Anil under Renewables - Business |
Here’s more about shale natural gas:
Pundits in the US natural gas industry have revised supply estimates in last few years. In effect, some companies claim to be able to increase sustainable production over the long term.
Exxon is a big player in energy by any standards and the company’s halo effect is likely to bring about the positive change for the market participants including natural gas explorers, producers and transporters. The deal has overnight changed the sentiments for shale natural gas. In a recent deal, Carrizo Oil & Gas sold some of its stake in a Texas shale project to Sumitomo Corporation for US$15.7 million.
Onshore produced shale gas with lower transportation costs is likely to be used in electricity generating plants (replacing coal), heating and cooling our homes and power automobiles. However, it would be wrong to conclude that natural gas is the sure shot remedy to all our energy issues. ExxonMobil has some synergies to justify a 25 percent premium on XTO Energy. Besides being an oil giant, ExxonMobil has a chemical business and thus can use the feedstock in any of its chemical facilities.
In the US, shale gas resources are very large and relatively evenly distributed over several states unlike oil. Some analysts claim that the shale gas could contribute up to half of the US total gas production by 2020. Such a scenario would be highly satisfying for US with reduced dependence on not just foreign oil, but also from greener sources which are highly dependent on specific countries for key components (Read rare earth metals in China and lithium supplies in Bolivia).
A recent run-up in the stock prices of shale gas companies warrants for a caution. Like other times, it appears that Wall Street has underestimated the real cost of shale gas, and overestimated how fast its production can be expanded. Some studies point towards the overestimation of shale gas supplies by some companies. Also, there are some concerns regarding the long term viability of shale gas extraction in a lucrative manner.
Empirical data tells us that the production in shale formations drops off rapidly after two to three years of high production. However, it will be too early to write off this option only on the basis of high price, that also when a lot of other energy sources are getting federal grants for relatively expensive technologies. The competitive landscape is expected to become clear in next two to five years after the production of shale gas starts on a mass scale. In due course of time, we’ll come to know if all this hype is real or just fizz.
Shale Natural Gas vs. Renewable Energy — Guest Blogger Anil
| March 15, 2010 | Posted by Anil under Renewables - Business |
Whether it is head scratching politicians in Copenhagen or industry analysts predicting that peak oil has already happened in one of the past decades, the pointers aim towards a fundamental shift – the process of doing away with carbon-based fuels and looking for renewable sources of energy. The changes are partly triggered by environment concerns and largely by fear of all industrial progress achieved so far coming to a grinding halt.
Needless to say, renewables aren’t trouble-free. Two of the major renewable sources, wind and solar both cost more than gas or coal. Prices are coming down with advances in technology, but intermittent nature of the energy production from renewable sources adds another dimension to the problem and puts the total cost of generating one unit of energy way compared with the fossil fuels. Wind speed becomes optimum for operating turbines at the height of around 800 meters, but creating a tower that high isn’t feasible. Furthermore, current wind turbine installations require around ten times concrete and steel that is required for generating the same amount of nuclear power.
Similarly, solar energy isn’t always available and the solar energy to electricity conversion ratio is just around 25 percent in most efficient crystalline silicon technology. Thus, instead of just focusing on renewables, options including a blend of fossil fuels with renewable sources or less polluting fossil fuels are being considered.
And good-old fossils aren’t letting us down. Although considered most benign of the pack, natural gas only emits around half as much as coal. On a grid level, probably it makes more sense to promote natural gas instead of counting on renewable as instruments to knock coal. Natural gas turbines can accommodate round the clock electricity generation unlike renewable thus helping in bridging the supply and demand gaps.
Last year witnessed a rare confluence of triggers resulting in a year with one of the lowest economic activity since Second World War. Quite predictably (in the hindsight), manufacturers ran high inventory levels with significantly less demand. As it turned out, Solar panel prices nosedived and so did the prices of natural gas. Natural gas prices are still depressed with futures currently trading at around 60 percent below last year’s high in US.
However, looks like the sector is in for a makeover. Apparently, ExxonMobil is betting big on natural gas. The oil giant has made a US$31 billion bid to acquire US natural gas player XTO Energy in an all stock deal. In addition, the company will assume debts amounting to US$10 billion. XTO Energy is an unconventional natural gas play. XTO has rights to large reserves of natural gas in shale, coal bed methane and tightly compressed sands. Shale gas is natural gas contained in shales, a type of sedimentary rock with low porosities and permeability.
But the extraction of gas is both difficult and costly. The extraction process includes drilling of several thousand feet and horizontally drilling through the shale. The process also involves large quantities of water up to 2 -4 million gallon along with sand and chemicals to break open the rock and release the gas.
However, technological advancements such as formation fracturing and horizontal drilling have made it possible to extract gas in an economic manner. The market’s first brush with new technology came in 2004 when natural gas giant Range Resources drilled the first modern well in the Marcellus Shale, spread across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Energy Storage for Power Grids – by Guest Blogger Anil – Continued
| February 10, 2010 | Posted by Anil under Energy Storage |
As promised, here is a description of various technologies and will they be able to support the objective.
Compressed Air
Compressed air is an old technology which consumes off peak energy from a power plant or renewable energy to run air compressors. The air compressor pumps-in air into an underground container where it is stored under pressure. In order to generate electricity, the air is released and it powers a turbine. The advantage of underground compressed air storage is that it can be cheaper than batteries and can store many hours worth of energy.
Whether this option would be able to provide full fledged support for energy remains a question. There are only limited compressed air energy storage projects in the world, including one in Alabama and Germany. This alone clarifies that this way of energy storage is not efficient enough or cannot work for a large project.
Even though it is one of the lowest cost and simplest way to energy storage, there are certain concerns about this technology, as pumping compressed air into underground container has certain environmental and safety concerns due to which not many companies are showing interest in this form of energy storage.
Pumped Water
It is the one of the most common energy storage technology used worldwide. This technology makes use of the potential energy of water to spin a turbine to generate electricity. There are about 90 GW of pumped storages in operation, which contribute about 3 percent of worldwide power generation capacity.
If designed efficiently, they are cost effective in long run and hence widespread especially at high altitude geographies such as hills or plateaus. Moreover, it is a way of power generation and storage with the convenience to generate electricity as and when required. This can be compared with modern hydro power plants.
Its use is limited by geography and other availability of adequate amount of water. When people are having less water to drink, use of recycled water for such projects could be a good option.
Ultra Capacitors
Capacitors have been used to store and produce quick energy, rather than for continued existence, the designers need to be overcome the low discharge times of capacitors. There had been some of the new ultra-capacitors which are getting better in the area of storage but it will take some time before this technology becomes main stream of energy storage.
Flywheels
Flywheels are large discs that function on the principle of inertia. They spin in a vacuum and are used as backup power for an uninterrupted power supply (UPS). Flywheels have to face some bottlenecks in reaching mainstream commercialization including technology development, difficulty finding the right market and competition with batteries and other modes of energy storage. Still, flywheels are getting more attention because they are a non-polluting replacement to the natural-gas plants now used to smooth out short-term fluctuations in grid frequency.
Sodium Sulfur (NAS) Batteries
Sodium Sulfur or “NAS” batteries use simple ingredients — liquid sulfur and salt — and have been used in Japan’s power grid for years. There are over 190 sites and 270 MW of stored energy from NAS batteries in Japan. The technology has found a champion in GE which has over 30 patents in this field. The company plans to manufacture sodium based batteries at its plant. However, usage of sulfur in these batteries has raised a concern as the sulfur stored in the battery explodes when it comes in contact with water.
Flow Batteries
Flow batteries are an old technology that helps to convert chemical energy into electricity. Major advantage of a flow battery is the fast recharge time. The technology is an old one but some entrepreneurs see it as an opportunity. Deeya Energy is an example of a new flow battery startup that recently received funding from DOE.
Fuel cells are the best examples of Flow batteries. Though we are yet unable to take the maximum advantage of Fuel cells, they may become good option for energy storage provided designers and engineers are able to overcome its limitations.
Lead Acid Batteries
Lead acid batteries are a mature form of batteries for energy storage. The technology is relatively cheap and widely available. But the chemistry has its barriers, including lower energy density and heavier weight and often high maintenance.
Lithium ion Batteries
It is one of the most advanced forms of batteries. In comparison with the prevalent lead acid technology, lithium allows for faster charging, lighter weight, and higher energy density and is considered to be the moneymaker of the world battery materials market for years to come. But low comparative availability of lithium and expected rising demands due to use in electric cars have forced manufacturers to look for other options like hydrogen cells and recycling of older lithium ion cells to procure lithium.
According to some reports, utilities will need to generate about 40 GW of energy by 2030. In order to provide power to customers, a total investment of as much as US$2 trillion into transmission and distribution networks will be required. This is just the additional power. There will be even more investment in the software, hardware, and wireless networks to facilitate the power grid to manage all the additional capacity.
Generally speaking, energy storage is economical when the marginal cost of electricity generation becomes more than the costs of storing and retrieving the energy plus the price of energy lost in the process. The designers and manufacturers will have to keep in mind how to get the economies of scale with their way of storage of electricity.
It is important to see under the envelope of smart grid projects. The government is distributing the billions in stimulus funds for the project but the entire issue has over-shadowed the need of a smart grid. Do we really need a smart grid?
Is the current grid which has been operating for more than 100 years so dumb to be replaced without being given a fair chance of survival? Let’s think about it!
