Solar and Wind Power Reinvented: Latest News From IDTechEx

Virtually all of the new grid capacity being added in the world is now renewable or nuclear. Solar and wind met 10% of electricity demand in March 2017 in the USA. Hydro electricity from a wet spring season on the West Coast, which alone provided more than 10% of the nation's electricity, as well as biomass and geothermal power, all renewable energy sources combined met 24% of electric demand in March and if we add in the 20% we get from nuclear power, 44% of electricity demand in the USA was met with non-fossil fuel electrons. Norway and New Zealand have been almost entirely on renewable for some time.

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Excitingly, both solar and wind are being reinvented and the new forms are typically pitched as replacements by unimaginative developers but they actually expand the market. They are complementary so existing proponents should not fear them - they should grab them. For example, Airborne Wind Energy is the flying of kites and increasingly tethered drones that tap the winds above conventional wind turbines. These winds have four times the power and are much more consistent so the main potential is to go where conventional wind turbines cannot go - up to four times the potential number of sites and potential land area. The drone versions can even rise through zero wind at ground level to tap the strong stuff. See the new IDTechEx report, Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) 2017-2027.

Solar roads can dynamically charge vehicles off grid and feed local communities off-grid - much more sensible than thinking of them as power station or solar farm replacements. Dynamic charging of vehicles is now advancing rapidly thanks the Qualcomm work in France, KAIST in Korea, TDK in Japan and others.

Growth of large-scale solar power plants that are located far from cities has slowed as the transmission infrastructure to move that electricity must be further developed. As such installations atop factories, malls and airports are likely to surge sixfold to almost 40 gigawatts by the end of 2020 and 125 gigawatts by 2040.

Also consider infrared harvesting from under a vehicle and solar windows in vehicles as we progress to more energy independent electric vehicles (EIV).

Find out more at http://www.IDTechEx.com/research/eh and http://www.EnergyHarvestingJournal.com.

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Alison Lewis
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SOURCE IDTechEx