systems

By Kegan Sewall-Lau

Updated: 4 hours ago Published: 8 hours ago

Raindrops cover a solar panel at the Houston Solar Farm, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, in Houston. The 8.5-megawatt project, Alaska’s largest solar farm, will provide more than 1,400 homes with kilowatt-hours of electricity, lowering Matanuska Electric Association’s current costs for natural gas-fired electricity. (Lauren Holmes / ADN)

Alaska’s natural gas shortage has politicians confused. An issue that may have seemed trivial years ago is reaching a tipping point, as natural gas prices are expected to rise significantly from current levels if Alaska must rely on imports. One of the biggest victims of this shortfall will be the school system, and with the Anchorage School District (ASD) already facing a potential budget shortfall of $98 million, time is running out to discuss solutions; action must be taken – and soon. The number of classes is expected to increase; it is expected that personnel will be reduced. With no obvious solution in sight, it’s time to turn to an answer that seemed impossible years ago: solar energy.

It is true that this plan could not be implemented 5-10 years ago. However, solar prices are falling, and with the Federal Solar Tax Credit, solar power is becoming more and more compelling in Alaska. Now when you pay for solar energy, you get a 30% rebate from the government. For projects worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, this tax credit is a huge savings.

However, when it comes to solar power in Alaska, there is an elephant in the room: winter. Alaska’s long winters and little daylight cause most people to overlook the benefits of solar power. What many people don’t realize is that longer daylight hours in our summer can save thousands of dollars. Even in winter, sunlight reflected from snow can help increase energy production.

Alaska already has two large solar farms: the Willow and Houston facilities. The Houston project alone, an 8.5-megawatt farm, is expected to power about 1,400 homes. Solar power is already being used by counties outside of Anchorage.

Going solar will reduce ASD’s energy costs by about $18 million a year, especially during the summer, when schools like South Anchorage High School spend about $15,000 a month to keep the building running. Alaska Solar estimates that implementing about 170 solar panels at South High School could save thousands of dollars a year and save 27,000 pounds of coal a year.

This goal can be accomplished by leveraging existing grants from agencies such as the Alaska Energy Administration, which provides millions of dollars in funding for solar projects such as the Willow Solar Project. When replicated throughout the ASD, schools will be able to achieve much-needed savings by helping to retain teachers, reduce class sizes and reduce dependence on natural gas.

Kegan Sewall-Lau is a senior at South Anchorage High School. He is working with his teachers and principal to implement a solar installation at the school.

The views expressed here are those of the writer and are not endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a wide range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for review, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions of less than 200 words to [email protected] or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and comments here.

Video: Solar pastures combine sheep farming and solar power for dual land use The Dallas Morning News

Google has agreed to make an equity investment in New Green Power (NGP), a Taiwan-headquartered solar power producer that was fully acquired by BlackRock in August 2022.

The investment, whose exact size was not disclosed, is part of a deal reached by Google and BlackRock’s climate infrastructure business, which also includes NGP offering Google the right to purchase up to 300 megawatts of solar power from a pipeline of solar assets in Taiwan.

A July 1 press release said the potential for clean energy could also extend to Google’s suppliers in the region.

A BlackRock spokesperson told FinanceAsia that Taiwan is “one of the world’s most attractive energy transition markets” and authorities are targeting 20 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2025 and 80 gigawatts by 2050.

The spokesperson added that strong fundamentals remain in energy transition investments in Taiwan, driven by growing energy demand and a tight supply margin; strong regulatory support for renewables; and from planned stage coal.

“Over the coming year, we continue to see the best investment opportunities in solar, battery storage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.

The need for advanced digital infrastructure, the press release emphasized, has increased the importance of renewable and efficient energy solutions.

Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google, said the Google team is aiming to reach net zero in its operations and value chain, which must be supported by carbon-free energy sources 24/7.

“The path to achieving these goals is challenging and will require both commercial efforts and broader energy systems transformation,” he said.

According to BlackRock’s The New Infrastructure Blueprint, demand for more powerful infrastructure such as data centers is increasing globally due to the rise of remote work, video streaming and artificial intelligence (AI).

Global annual spending on data center construction is expected to reach $49 billion by 2030, while the International Energy Agency predicts that power from data centers, artificial intelligence and other technologies will more than double to 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026, which is approximately equal. Japan’s electricity consumption today.

“Technology companies and other corporations are looking for ways to secure long-term access to green electricity and are therefore entering into power purchase agreements and strategic partnerships with renewable energy producers in key markets,” explained a BlackRock spokesperson.

BlackRock’s head of global climate infrastructure, David Giordano, commented in a press release: “As we witness growing demand for digital services powered by artificial intelligence and data-centric technologies, it’s important to invest in the infrastructure, not just the one that supports it. growth is also in line with our strategy to invest in clean energy.

According to BlackRock Investment Institute’s Transition Scenario, average annual investment in the global energy system is projected to increase from about $2 trillion today to $4.5 trillion annually by 2040.

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ERIE COUNTY, Ohio – A family farming operation in Erie County is working to reduce its carbon footprint. A local farm chef’s garden has received $2.5 million from the state to support its energy-sufficient projects.

Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Development announced grants to six organizations in Cuyahoga, Erie, Franklin and Hamilton counties. The grants will be used for energy efficiency projects designed to reduce costs, improve the environment and improve the lives of people in Ohio communities.

“Each of these organizations plays a critical role in their communities, and these grants ensure they have the resources they need to continue their important work,” said Development Department Director Lidiya Mihalik. “By reducing energy costs, we provide the financial breathing room they need to innovate and enhance the vital services they provide to residents,” said Lidiya Mihalik, director of development.

Farmer Bob Jones and his family have been growing vegetables in Erie County for over 40 years. The farm grows 600 varieties of vegetables and ships them to restaurants and home consumers in all 50 states.

“This grant will allow us to expand our sustainable agriculture programs on the farm,” Jones said.

The money will be used to upgrade lighting and install a solar photovoltaic system.

“We capture solar energy from the sun and through photosynthesis we put that energy into the soil for the next crop. This soil here is going to be fall spinach, but we’re building energy in the soil,” Jones said.

According to Ohio State University, as energy prices rise, these costs take up a larger share of farm budgets. Many businesses are now considering new ways to manage energy use.

Jones said this project will allow them to generate 70% of their electricity needs on the farm.

“At a conservative estimate, that would save us 50% of our total electricity costs in a given year. It just gives us money to spend on other projects and its workers in processing or factories,” he said.

To help keep the farm viable and profitable for future generations.

“The concept behind it is really a paradigm shift in realizing that we didn’t inherit this land from our grandparents. We’re borrowing it from our grandchildren, and we have to leave it in a better condition than we found it,” Jones said.

Storage tank failure has plagued the oil and gas industry for a long time. However, fluids there are not kept at high temperatures by daily heating and cooling cycles, as is the storage of concentrated solar thermal energy.

One of the failure mechanisms in the steel used in the thermal energy storage tanks of the CST and CSP plants has been isolated, and a steel formulation from Finnish stainless steel firm Outokumpo has now been successfully tested by the Colorado School of Mines.

Today’s commercial CSP technology depends on storing the thermal energy of an extremely high-temperature fluid in a giant open tank. These tanks can hold thousands of tons of molten salt, an extremely hot liquid at high pressure that varies between 300°C and 600°C every morning and evening as it is heated daily and cooled.

The industry standard metal for these tanks has been grade 347H austenitic stainless steel. However, failures in some high-profile storage tanks have been attributed in part to this choice of steel.

How the steel and weld behaves under the heat cycles as it goes through the welding process is where it fails. The welding process changes metallurgy. Under a certain stress and temperature, some alloy components migrate to the grain boundaries, causing the material to become brittle and crack at the boundaries. This phenomenon is known as Stress Relaxation cracking.

“Diagnosing stress relief cracking in real project storage tank failures is extremely difficult,” said Kurt Drewes, technical director at Australian solar firm Vast Energy.

Although it is impossible to conduct failure tests in giant tanks containing molten salts, the Colorado School of Mines conducted laboratory tests on this 347H steel to understand the causes. They showed that welds fail due to stress relaxation cracking (SRC) in the steel.

Post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) can reduce some of this tendency, but is almost impossible to achieve on the scale of a typical storage tank built by industry.

Alternative stainless steel formulation; Therma 4910

When the entire industry experience is built around one material, it’s very hard to say that you need to go back and find a more robust alternative. But now Vast, Outokumpu and the Colorado School of Mines have found and demonstrated an alternative. Stronger steel for tanks.

An old formula from the Finnish high-temperature stainless steel company Outokumpu has now been successful in preventing heat storage tank failure in weld joints.

“The logical answer is to try and find a material that you don’t need to PWHT to achieve structural integrity. And tests of this new steel formulation have shown it; that it’s possible,” Drewes said.

Led by the Colorado School of Mines, Vast tested the Therma 4910, now known as the 316 LNB. It is an alternative steel formulation supplied by the Finnish company Outokumpo, one of the world’s largest stainless steel producers.

“Of course, some other steels are not prone to stress relaxation cracking, but they have lower creep and fatigue strength. 316LNB has similar or better creep fatigue properties than 347H and is less prone to stress-relief cracking,” added Bruce Leslie, head of product development at Vast.

This alternative steel formulation is slightly more expensive than the traditional one. However, Vast is sounding the alarm that a thermal storage tank failure will cost the entire industry its reputation for reliability. Therefore, they feel an urgency to inform the industry about a new option in material selection.

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“This formula is not really a newly developed new material,” Leslie noted.

“It was developed for coal-fired power plants in the 80s and 90s. There was a big push to move to very high temperatures and pressures in coal-fired plants. So 316LNB was used quite a lot, but then cheaper stainless steels were made that worked for industrial needs. But there is a lot of test data and information about it. So, this is a tried-and-tested material.”

The transition to this “new old” storage tank material has become even more urgent today, given that a new solar sector generating heat for industrial processes and solar fuels is just starting up: CSP may be required to generate only solar energy. Up to 600°C, these new processes should guarantee continuous heat production around the clock and at higher temperatures up to 1500°C.

It is now being tested at the Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines now performed the same tests they did on the old steel formula, the new 316LNB steel.

“We were aware of the previous tests and thought it appropriate to repeat the same tests on the new material,” Drewes said.

“It’s a structural test of the structural failure of materials and what happens during welding. We simulate the effect of welding on materials in those tests. What they show is that the 316LNB has solved these issues. It has low levels of carbon and increased nitrogen and boron, which give it these properties. And we argue that it is the more preferred material for the CSP industry.

Testing has shown that this formulation is resistant to this failure mechanism. They will present their results at the SolarPACES Conference in Rome later this year. Vast and Outokumpo co-funded the trials with Vast, along with construction partners CyD.

Drewes noted that Vast is interested in having reliable thermal storage tanks and that Outokumpo, which offers special materials for this application, is interested in promoting the use of its high-temperature steel capabilities. He said that they can meet these requirements and believe that thermal energy storage will be the future as a necessary component of the New Energy Transition.

In previous work, Vast focused on strengthening the floor of these giant tanks to prevent buckling, which is just one aspect of improving the stability of thermal storage tanks. The firm is working on other tank improvements for its projects with the DOE, but Drewes and Leslie see the solution as important information for the industry as a whole.

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