Emerging Trends for 21st Energy Technologies

Prof. Sabrina Sartori

Section leader, Energy Systems at UiO

sabrina.sartori@its.uio.no
Emerging energy technologies

• Wind (high altitude)

• Sun
• Marine energy (wave, tidal)

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 Current largest, offshore
Vestas V164
Tower height: 133 m
Overall height: 220 m
Evolution of wind turbines bl: 80 m 2050
Output: 50 MW
bl = 80 m bl = 150 m

bl = 60 m

bl = 40 m
bl = 22 m
bl = 15.5 m

bl = 9.5 m

bl = blade length Source: Bloomberg new Energy Finance

• We would need: 15 million wind land turbines (each 3 MW), for wind power alone to
eliminate the need of fossil fuels (1 turbine every 10 km2 (if on land))
• Current global wind generated power, equivalent to ca. 145,000 turbines
• Offshore sector generates the most interest = bigger turbines, stronger and more
constant winds 4
Next-generation offshore technology

Shallow-water technology less than 30 m

• The only available commercial option,

with Europe leading research and
deployment

• “Marinized” version of conventional

architectures. More expensive than
land-based

• Principal difference is the sea

foundation, usually a monopile Current limit 50 m for fixed turbines

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Deep-water technology (more than 30 m deep)
• May be significant in the longer term

• Locating wind farms beyond the shoreline

view can win public acceptance

• Competing resource use (fishing,

recreation…) will remain challenging

• Technical challenges, in particular the sea-

foundation design approach: among others,
fixed bottom and floating platforms

• Various computational models and analysis

tools are in development internationally

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Technical potential offshore

• Technical potential estimated in Europe: 3030 TWh per year*

• Offshore help public acceptability

• Turbines can have a higher tip-speed (noise is not a problem), increasing the efficiency

• But: Costs offshore double those than onshore (additional transmission and installation costs)

* World Energy Council: Total world-land based technical potential = 20 000 TWh per year
(assuming only 4% of the land area with suitable wind speeds could be used) 7
Wind turbines in viaducts
Today: wind turbine farms account for
about 3% of the world́s energy
production. This number will increase
with new type of turbines

Innovative use of exiting structures: installing

small turbines under viaducts
In the Juncal case, the evaluated power
would be:
0,5 MW = 450-500 homes consumption
(emission avoided: 140 tons of CO2 per year)
José Antonio Peñas (Sinc), simulation for Juncal
Viaduct, in Gran Canaria

Ó. Soto Hernández, et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015; 48: 287
DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.03.097 8
High-altitude wind power (HAWP)
• Motivation: Why do we seek for high altitudes?

• Technologies: What are the challenges of HAWP?

• Geological Availability: Low–altitude scenario; High–altitude scenario

• Soft factors & Outlook

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Why do we seek for high altitudes?

Enormous amount of wind energy

at high altitudes

However: doubling the blade size wońt

result in the theoretical four times more
energy being captured (due to area A),
due to the weight of the components
involved and cost of materials, transport
and maintenance
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Issues and challenges of ordinary wind power

• Disadvantages of (ordinary) wind energy

– Geographical conditions, non continuous occurrence
– Noise disturbances, visual impact, interference with television/radio signals
– Threat to wildlife (birds, bats, vegetation,...), use of big areas of land

• Offshore wind farms

– High expenses
– Power lines

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Technologies of high-altitude wind power (HAWP)

• Lighter than air (LTA) aerostat-type wind systems

• Heavier than air (HTA) crosswind kites

- Jet streams can reach speeds of around 100 m/s. For

comparison, winds inside a hurricane blow at ca. 33 m/s
- Winds at high altitudes dońt have the damaging
fluctuations that could wreck delicate turbine components
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Lighter than air (LTA) aerostat-type wind systems

• 30 kW turbine fixed in
the middle of helium
inflated balloon
• 300 m, with constant
winds
• Supply electricity to 12
houses
• Tethered to a cable
that send the power to
the ground
• Larger versions for The world́s first floating wind turbine (Altaeroś Buoyant
larger communities? Airborne Turbine) launched over Alaska

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LTA rotating cylinders

Faster windspeed,
lower pressure

Magnus force, pushing up

the cylinder

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LTA systems: advantages vs. disadvantages

• Advantages
– You can fly them in clusters, building wind farms
– No sophisticated steering mechanism needed
– Rapidly deployable since you can inflate or deflate them
– Very inexpensive compared to conventional wind energy
• Disadvantages
– Strong winds will lead to drifting
– You have to deal with leakage (of helium)
– Maximum altitude is limited by the buoyancy force
– Generator/Moving parts are airborne (maintenance will become a problem)

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Heavier than air (HTA) crosswind kites

Kite Power Systems (KPS)

pioneering company

Inexpensive, easy maintenance

Two 16 m kites: 500 kW (South of
Scotland) – comparison with a wind
turbine of 54 m diameter
Lift bodies in figure of 8 motion, at 160 km/h
The motion is converted into power by a generator on ground
stations. The tether support the loading. The ground need to
be heavy enough to avoid the kites lifting off the ground
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M.L. LOYD. "Crosswind kite power (for large-scale wind power production)" Journal of Energy, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1980), pp.
106-111. https://doi.org/10.2514/3.48021
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Heavier than air (HTA) crosswind kites

Leading manufacturer: German SkySails: vast parachute kites the size of a football field.
Next step: sea-based system 200-800 m up in the sky
http://euanmearns.com/high-altitude-wind-power-reviewed 18
http://www.engineering.com
HTA kites: advantages vs. disadvantages

• Advantages
– Maximum altitude is in principle only limited by the length of the tether
– The complex parts, e.g. moving parts in the generator are ground–based
– Rapidly deployable: you can easily take them down and move them
– Very inexpensive compared to conventional wind energy
• Disadvantages
– These systems are hard to control
– Need for automatic systems for long–time usage
– Need quite a lot space, both horizontally and vertically

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Other kite-based systems

1000 feet = 300 m

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Availability: low- and mid-altitude scenario

Average power density in kW/m2

21
http://www.jobyenergy.com
Wind speeds: low- and mid-altitude scenario

Conventional at 100 m At 250 m

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Ref: Makani Wind Power
 Very-high altitude scenario
Ideally: make use of jet-streams
• The strongest: the polar jets 9–12 km
above sea level (160 km/h)
• The higher altitude and somewhat
weaker subtropical jets at 10–16 km

NCEP/DOE: Wind power density (kW/m2) that was exceeded With jet streams: 100 times more
50%, 68%, and 95% of the time during 1979-2006 power than with current turbines 23
Flying Electric Generator” (FEG)

Helicopter turbine
powered by jet
stream, 10 km up in
the air

Its four rotors not only

produce power but
also act as helicopter
rotors to keep it
airborne

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Soft factors: environmental impact

Potential environmental impact of high altitude wind

• Enormous material savings (ca. 20 t per 3 MW instead of 417 t steel + 902 t concrete
for ordinary installations)
• Predicted extraction power of 18 TW
(Satisfaction of world power demand)
Jet streams

One disadvantage of ordinary

wind power remains:

risk to birds

http://www.windsystemsmag.com/article/detail/187 25
Soft factors: political and public acceptance
– Many problems for the public can be solved by operating at high
altitudes (noise, visual impact...)

• Some challenges
– Influencing/Crossing of flight routes
– Safety considerations (e.g. bad weather conditions, technical
defects, hacking attacks…)
• Possible solution
– Flight prohibition zones for planes and/or airborne wind turbines

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A hurricane of ideas drive wind power
Today
ØThe world́s largest wind turbine has a capacity of 8 MW. Wind accounts for ca. 3%
world energy production
ØWind turbine manufacturers are working to build a wind t. with a capacity of 10 MW

2035
ØThe latest wind turbines all now have a capacity of 10 MW. Wind accounts for 15%
of world energy production
ØNew types of wind turbines are developed

2050
ØOffshore wind farms have become huge, with 50 MW turbines several hundreds
meters tall being now the norm
ØExperimental tethered wind turbines now hang in the sky, floating around far above
the Earth́s surface where the wind blows constantly and at high speeds
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PV on large urban façades
Tales replace with 7,244 photovoltaic
panels generating 390 kW of energy
– equivalent to the energy needed to
full power 55 homes for a year

The PV produce 10% of the

buildinǵs total energy consumption
Historical CIS Tower
In future: buildings feeding the grid Manchester
with their façades PV (built 1959-1962)

Began feeding electricity

to the National Grid in
November 2005
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Future thin and transparent solar cells

Clearview Power: a transparent film, less than

https://www.power- 0.001 mm. Molecules from organic salts trap light
technology.com/features/see-solar-yet/ and convert it into electricity. Now: 1% efficiency

Flexible, lightweight, transparent solar cell developed at MIT, organic materials and graphene
electrodes: http://news.mit.edu/2017/mit-researchers-develop-graphene-based-transparent-
flexible-solar-cells-0728, alternative to Indium tin oxide
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Roof tiles with solar cells

Street angle of solar roof tiles birds eye view

Tesla (with Panasonic) claims its solar tiles

retain about 98% of the efficiency of regular
solar cells in solar panels
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 Solar Impulse 2

The solar cells collects 340 kWh, enough

energy to keep the plane in the air for 24 h

4 x 260 Wh/kg (energy density of the battery) 2016, round trip by Swiss inventors and pilots
Record: five days of uninterrupted flight! Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg
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Solar Cars and solar roads Generation, University of Michigan

The world's first solar highway: Wattway Road

Normandy, France (2016)

Crippling cost: 1km, €5 million

Solar panels 7 mm thick fixed over existing
roads, protected by transparent safety glass.
Plans for 1,000 km of solar road Aurum, University of Michigan

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Solar energy in the years ahead

Today
ØSolar cells assembled in large solar power plants supply nearby cities with power

2035
ØSmall solar-charging electronic devices (i.e. mobile phones) are on sale
ØThin solar cells in roads and pavements generate power
ØIncreases in solar energy storage meet needs day and night

2050
ØMass-produced cars and trains that run on pure solar energy are now widespread
ØSolar cells are integrated into all old building, while new buildings use energy from
their own built-in solar panels

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Marine Energy emerging technologies
is t e ncy and
• Wave energy v a n tage: c ons
- A d
t y par able to
bi li co m
• Tidal predicta l wave power:
o t e n t ia a l h y d r opower
-P r, or tot
• Tidal/ocean currents t al n u c le a
l c ha lle nges
t o a
T : t e c h nologic
• Ocean thermal energy conversion BU

Hydropower today: about 17% of the total electricity consumption and is the most
widely used form of renewable energy in the world

The use of energy from underwater currents and tidal power is still in its technological
adolescence

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 Wave energy - converters s
ber B ernoullí
Remem
• What is the source of wave energy?
1
!= %&'( a = wave amplitude
2

Wave energy converter from PowerBuoy (USA):

Produced 1,000 kWh in 4 months;
A wind turbine (capacity 1MW) generates 1,000 Temperate latitudes (40 and 60 north and south) are well
kWh in a day suited for the strongest winds
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Wave energy converters

They can be classified in terms of their location: fixed to the seabed, generally in
shallow water; floating offshore in deep water; tethered in intermediate depths
Submerged devices

• Able to survive despite rough sea conditions

on the surface, because submerged. No
visual impact. 50% efficiency

• They exploit the change in pressure below

the surface when waves pass overhead: the
pressure is increased for a wave crest but is
decreased in the case of a wave trough
Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS)
• AWS is 9.5 m in diameter and 33 m in length.
It oscillates in the vertical direction due to the
action of the waves

• Pilot project in Portugal (with 3 AWS)

produces 8 MW. Estimated global potential
for AWS = 300 GW
Floating devices I

Small-scale trial: Salter duck

• The device floated on water and rocked back and forth with the incident waves

• The shape carefully chosen to follow the circular (orbital) trajectories of water particles

Efficiency 90%
Floating devices II
Pelamis

• Semi-submerged serpentine consisting of series of cylindrical segments pointed towards

the incident waves
• A three-segment version is 130 m long and 3.5 m in diameter and generates 750 kW
• The segments rock back and forth and the relative motion between adjacent segments
pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors and drive electrical generators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziLtIbwFXB8&list=PLBBDDAE56A3AB184B
Tidal and waves
Tidal

Because water is more

dense than air, the
water turbines are
smaller than wind
turbines
The tide creates energy
What is the origin of tidal energy?
Rotational and gravitational forces Earth-Sun-Moon

concrete wall

Swansea Bay in West Wales (UK): tides 22 m

Planned: artificial lagoon, 16 channels in the
concrete wall. Each channel will have a
turbine producing 20 MW of power Tidal behavior is regular, predictable, location specific
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 Watermill parks under the sea for ocean current
12 m wing

Tidal turbine for open-ocean currents

(depth 18 – 36.6 m).
Currents more than 2.2– 2.7 m/s.
Deployed on the ocean floor, off the tip
of Scotland.
Plans to set up 640 MW tidal turbines Underwater kites
by 2022 A single kite can generate 500 kW
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Source: MeyGen Source: Deep Green (Minesto)
Ocean thermal energy conversion

Source: solar energy

For commercial-scale
power plant based on
OTEC, a minimum
temperature difference
of 20 C is required

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Marine Energy drawbacks

• High cost
• Long-term influence on marine life
• Reduction of recreational areas
• Exposure to sea storms

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Water power from rivers and the sea

Today
Ø17% of total global energy consumption is provided by hydropower technologies
ØNew technologies are on the drawing board

2035
Ø“Wind farms” at the bottom of the sea use tidal currents to produce electricity
ØUnderwater turbines capture energy from tidal shifts between high and low tide

2050
ØThe amount of electricity produced by hydropower has doubled since 2017, up to
2,000 GW

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The look of future climate-friendly cities?

How Masdar City (Abu Dhabi) is looking like

Construction began in 2008. Expected to home 40,000 inhabitants

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Powering the city
Daytime: high tech solar collectors
will act as umbrellas to provide
shade, keeping the temperature
15-20 oC below the one outside.
The panels convert sunlight into
heat for later use

Evening: the collector will

flap together. They will
release the daýs stored
heat and keep the night
comfortable.

Solar panels and solar collectors

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 Driverless
cars, guided
by magnetic
sensors
buried
underground

Wind cones will create a breeze, and cool indoor spaces. The glass exterior will block the
Suńs rays without changing glass transparency, to provide natural light.
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Nano-generators power the future
Creating light from noise

”Soundscrapers”: Tiny hairs with nano-generators

(piezoelectric) that flex when hit by sound waves
creating electricity. 150 MW?
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http://www.evolo.us/soundscraper-captures-sound-kinetic-energy-while-reducing-noise-pollution/
Space-based solar farming
Unaffected by weather or day/night
Mirrors
By the 2030s solar energy could be transferred
from Space to Earth via conversion into
microwaves (1m to 1mm – here, not intended
as micrometer range). Solar-collecting
satellites, flying in geosynchronous orbit
36 000 km above their receiving stations

• Distance is the biggest challenge. JAXA Solar panels

(Japanese Space Agency) tested the Microwaves
energy transfer over 55 m for a 1.8 kW.
Power range need to be improved!
• Full operation by 2030 (1 GW)
• Size of the mirrors needed: a km diameter Receiving
• Scheduled an antenna 3-km wide antenna
on Earth
NASA Suntower concept
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https://ijeee.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/IJEEE-24-30.pdf
Lunar Ring
A 400 km-wide belt
of solar cells around
the Moońs equator
(11,000 km long),
by 2035!

Energy sent to
Earth as
microwaves
to huge receivers
(20 km in diameter)

Solar panels on the Moon, Shimizu concept, Japan

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The future of emerging technologies

Progress shows that technical obstacles will be overcome

Support these renewable technologies and especially
emerging renewable technologies by:

– Creating awareness
– Helping in overcoming the technological barriers
– Subsidized and tax-fee policies by local governments
– Mandating the use of environment-friendly energy sources

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