Energy future hinges on Renewable

Under the CCoE decision, renewable energy projects would be accepted only through competitive bidding for specific generation capacities. The new policy was now in final stages, had been supported by lending agencies and could not be held back to accommodate 2006 policy investors who could be considered separately and on examination of their cost-benefit analysis.

The provinces and other private stakeholders wanted the new policy to accommodate those past investors after having spent a lot of time and money in the new policy as had been the case in all the past power policies and petroleum policy to allow existing investors to adopt new regime with cost plus tariff formula subject to certain conditions.

It was assumed that provinces would be left with no option but to raise objections over the new policy when it was taken up for approval at the level of Council of Common Interests (CCI). A dispute at the ultimate forum under the constitution to adopt the policy could have negative repercussions unless the projects awarded by provincial governments under the independent power producer (IPP) mode were covered in the new policy to safeguard the interests of the provinces.

The new renewable energy policy had been developed in the light of present day situation when the technologies on one side were fast developing while on other side the cost was continuously going down. Country’s electricity basket is hugely tilted towards thermal imported fuels and emphasized that the new policy envisages increasing the share of renewable energy from around 4 per cent to 20pc by year 2025 and 30pc by year 2030.

Underscoring the importance of renewable resources and their optimal utilization for generation of electricity, he said that from the prospect of attaining energy security and decreasing the impact of current thermal generation on environment, Pakistan needed to develop and harness to the maximum level its indigenous renewable energy resources.

Danish firms invited to invest in renewable energy

The government of Pakistan is committed to provide sustainable energy solutions in the long-run. And the recent actions are the testament of their claims. Pakistan has a huge potential of energy reserves such as coal, oil, gold etc., which has been untapped for decades. Similarly, solar energy is also one of them which can generate thousands of mega-watts at a cheap price. Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan has invited Danish companies to invest in the manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines in Pakistan.

In a meeting with Denmark Ambassador Rolf Holmboe, the minister said Pakistan’s new renewable energy policy would bring opportunities for good returns due to government’s transparent policies. It is pertinent to mention here that the policy was unanimously approved by the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) where all provinces had representation at the highest level.

The minister also acknowledged the lead role Denmark was playing in clean and green energy at the global level. Therefore, Pakistan too had embarked on a drive to tap its huge renewable energy potential.

The renewable energy policy has set ambitious targets, which would soon be presented to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for final approval and implementation.

He said by the year 2025, the government is planning to enhance to 20% of the current renewable energy share from 4% in the overall energy mix, while by the year 2030 the share would be raised to 30%, or around 20,000 megawatts.

He said the government expected a gradual decrease in electricity prices as new projects with the lowest per unit cost would start power production.

With the reduction in electricity cost, businesses would take benefit, the minister apprised. In turn, overall economic activity would get a boost with creation of thousands of new jobs, he added.

The Danish ambassador also appreciated Pakistan government’s efforts in raising the share of renewable clean and green energy to 60%. He said the new policy was more transparent as it provided a level playing field for all.

He also showed interest in assisting Pakistan’s initiative for renewable and offered capacity building modules to Pakistani experts in renewable energy, adding that Denmark was getting renewable energy at a very low per unit price.

In this regard, Danish companies are closely following developments in Pakistan in the field of renewable energy and they were ready to take part in the competitive process.

Qatar to build new solar power plant

Qatar is also in the race of acquiring solar energy and therefore, has signed an agreement with French energy giant Total and Japan's Marubeni to build a solar power plant capable of generating 800 megawatts, a tenth of country's peak energy demand, according to the country's energy minister. 

The Al Kharsaah plant has an estimated cost of 1.7 billion riyals ($467m) and is expected to be complete by the year 2022 in an anticipation of the grand event FIFA World Cup. 

Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told a news briefing on Sunday, said:

"Today is the commencement of the project itself and we expected by the first quarter of 2021 to have half of the [plant's] capacity up and running."

It is assumed that the solar power plant will have the capacity to generate about eight times the size of the solar energy Qatar had pledged to build, helping the organisation of a carbon-neutral event," al-Kaabi continued, referring to the 2022 tournament.

Other companies such as Qatar's Siraj Energy, a joint venture owned by Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), hold a 60 percent stake in the solar plant. The remaining 40 percent will be owned by both Marubeni and Total. Marubeni will take 51 percent of the minority stake, while Total will have 49 percent.

Patrick Pouyanne, Total's chief executive, said the solar plant, once complete, will be the largest ever built by the French conglomerate. In the past, Gulf States, have heavily dependent on oil and gas, but now they are investing billions of dollars in clean energy projects, mainly in solar and nuclear.

But critics say many such projects are slow to get off the drawing board.

On the other hand, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said last week its first nuclear power plant would start operating within months after repeated delays to meet safety and regulatory conditions. It is pertinent to mention here that UAE will have the first operational nuclear reactor in the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude oil exporter, has said it plans to build up to 16 nuclear reactors, but the projects have yet to be materialised.

Critics say the addiction to oil is hard to kick, particularly when supplies remain abundant and the high costs of investment in infrastructure needed to switch to renewable.

Solar - the Untapped Potential in Pakistan

In the last few decades, energy demand has surged as a function of industrialisation, population growth, inhabitant density amplification, commercial activity intensification, enhanced space mobility, de-forestation, etc.

Member states working on renewable energy around the world are allotted year-on-year Green House Gas (GHG) emission mitigation targets for reducing the impact of global warming. These communal gatherings for emission consensus are a result of 0.2-degree Celsius projected rise in temperature per decade globally due to emissions in the next two decades.

Even so, if the concentrations of GHGs were not to change, rise in sea level and anthropogenic warming would occur for centuries.

Whereas Pakistan is concerned, it’s current energy mix includes fossil fuels (furnace oil, natural gas and coal) and renewables (hydroelectric power, wind and solar) across its geographical vertices. The country stands at 169th place in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) out of the 180 countries included in the study, and this is quite alarming.

With several policies being passed, frameworks introduced and consultancies being sought over the last 10+ years, we as a nation have not been able to fully maximise this energy source as a value addition to the national grid.

Although, past and present governments consistently claim supply-demand parity, what remained unanswered is the lack of:

·        Rural electrification due to a low transmission/distribution network spread or grid proximity (70% of Pakistan is rural and overall grid connectivity stands at 42% to date)

·        High cost of well-to-consumer for a multitude of reasons (dilapidated development infrastructure, shortage of investment, lack of intrinsic resources, security, etc)

·        Rising fuel import bill

·        Under-utilisation of existing power plant capacities

·        Shortage of fuel transport civil linkages

All of these sources of energy generation are dirty, especially coal, and except solar.

Solar is one such clean energy resource that has made strong headway in recent years. For a country like Pakistan, solar energy is particularly suitable due to its optimal geographical location. In comparison with many European countries, most cities in Pakistan receive about 1,500-2,500 hours of sun annually, which is twice more than that of Europe. Baluchistan is particularly rich in solar energy with annual mean sunshine duration of 8-8.5 hours per day and these values are one of the highest in the world.

Unfortunately, with the technology being clean, cheap and abundant and climate platform ideal, it is a surprise that solar adoption to this day remains low in Pakistan. It is pertinent to mention here that solar energy is by far the most popular renewable energy resource relative to its peers due to its low operational/maintenance cost, ease of installation/use and zero GHG emissions.

One of the main challenges comes not from government regulations, theft or mismanagement, but from the technology itself. Solar has the good fortune and a bad omen of being relatively easy to set up, compared to other renewables (such as biogas, hydro, wind, etc).

From street vendors in Rawalpindi to SMEs all are equally to blame for the muddle in the solar energy price control, incomplete installations, workforce misuse, misappropriation of public wealth, indecisive policymaking and unaccountable billing. The Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park is one prime example of such public-private partnership conundrum, which was hailed as a symbolic beacon of clean energy in the country.

Related Article:

https://www.reonenergy.com/changing-dynamics-give-birth-to-it-tower-business/

Utilities Must Commit to Renewable Energy or Industrial Clients May Turn to Alternative Power Sources

Recently, Black & Veatch, a sustainable engineering and construction solutions company, released a report that examines the shared challenges among critical infrastructure providers and their commercial and industrial customers as they each push for resilience, reliability, and sustainability. The purpose of the report is highlight the benefits of renewable energy for industrial clients who are facing serious challenges related to global warming.

“2020 Strategic Directions: Megatrends”, a report by Black & Veatch marks the company’s inaugural mining of its cross-sector data to gain deeper insights into the future of the world’s most important resources. The authors analyzed two years of survey data collected from water, power, telecommunications, and commercial and industrial respondents. The high-altitude look at the data explores:

• Renewable energy: Today’s electric utilities, those historic keepers of a reliable and resilient grid, are tested in their ability to align with growing clean energy and de-carbonization mandates. The report cautions that without significant utility commitments to green energy, power-hungry industrial clients with growing sustainability goals may turn to renewables or distributed generation resources of their own.

• Sustainability: Concern over climate change is a big issue in the current era where industries are in the quest of finding sustainable energy that could handle global warming caused by industrial pollutions. They are setting off alarms about the future of our water and power supplies, and fueling new scrutiny of the mechanics, cost, and ROI of sustainability solutions.

• From many, one: As questions about the reliability of traditional utility services, the rollout of projects to enhance resilience and improve operational efficiency continues. Advances in information technology, operational technology and artificial intelligence blur the lines between traditional organization silos. Yet, survey data shows that integrated planning is far from a high priority, signaling potential trouble for utilities in areas that are prone to nature’s worst.

• Data’s risk-reward: The proliferation of smart devices that measure everything from consumption habits to asset management and system health are gaining traction and continue to create new opportunities to collect and embrace actionable data. But, it also pose a challenge. With every new remote sensor, drone, iPad, or other IoT tool deployed on our systems, the more vulnerable we become to hackers and network intrusion.

Related Topic:

https://www.reonenergy.com/commercial-industrial-c-i-segment/

The World’s Most Promising Renewables Market Has Taken a Turn for the Worst

The Economic Times quoted that growth in India’s renewable energy output has plunged to 5.7 percent over the seven months to October 2019, from 28.5 percent a year earlier, the country’s Central Electricity Authority said. Reasons cited by authority is the energy output curtailment by different states as well as a slump in energy demand.

Last month, a number of coal-fired and nuclear power plants were shut down temporarily due to lackluster energy demand. Some of these, according to the data, had been idle for months.

India has set ambitious goals regarding their renewable power programs in the world, with plans to have wind and solar account for 55 percent of the total energy mix by 2030. In terms of capacity, the government plans to have 200 GW installed by 2022. That would up from the current 87 GW. There is 31 GW in renewable energy capacity under construction currently and another 35 GW at the bidding stage.

Last month, the government minister said, “So this becomes 140,000-145,000 MW. In hydro, we have installed capacity of around 45,000 MW and under installation capacity is about 13,000 MW. Which makes it around 60,000 MW. So we will cross 200,000 MW capacity of renewable energy by 2022”.

Over the last five years, growth in renewable energy generation in India has never fallen below 20 percent, not least because of government efforts in this area. However, in addition to lukewarm energy demand growth, the industry has had to contend with the weak financial performance of state power distribution companies.

Such condition has affected the financing of new renewable power projects and the reason in the reduction of production from existing installations, “as they do not want to submit bank guarantees or letters of credit in favor of such plants,” The Economic Times reported.

For More:

https://www.reonenergy.com/our-projects/
https://solar-energy-in-pakistan.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-role-of-black-silicon-solar-cells.html

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/giant-solar-park-in-the-desert-jump-starts-egypt-s-renewables-push

An Overview to Solar Panel Mounting Structures

Mounting structures are made of steel or aluminum, support PV modules on the ground or roof and allow modules to be mounted at a precise tilt angle to receive maximum sunlight.  Hence, choosing the right material for the structure is one of the most critical steps when installing a Solar PV system. Beneath, let’s look at the structures that are durable, cost-effective and adaptable to most terrains.

Hot-dip Galvanized Steel Structures

Hot-dip galvanized steel structures are made with fabricated steel sheets that are coated in zinc to keep them corrosion free. While regular steel is composed of iron which rusts to the point of disintegration on prolonged exposure to moisture, galvanized steel structures ensure structural durability by creating a physical barrier that prevents water from reacting with iron.

This method of galvanization is two to three times more expensive than pre-galvanized mounting structures. However, while pre-galvanized structures may be fairly popular among Solar Plant Installers due to their cost advantage, they are not sustainable in the longer run and could rust, corrode and crumble when exposed to rain, humidity, etc in access.

Anodized Aluminum Structures

Anodized aluminum is extruded through designed molds to develop durable finish. Anodizing is an electrochemical process where the metal is immersed, for an acid electrolyte bath, in a tank that passes an electric current through it causing an anodic layer to grow from aluminum itself.

Standard aluminum is a durable material, and once anodized the surface becomes three times tougher and more versatile than standard aluminum. Furthermore, anodized aluminum does not rust, peel, flake or chip and is 60% lighter than copper and stainless steel. All told, anodized aluminum is a fairly expensive mounting option.

Typically, Solar mounting structures require minimum maintenance unless they come along with solar trackers. Mounting structures could be galvanized steel or aluminum; however, it’s difficult to say which one is better. It is better to choose the mounting structures, for factors such as weight or durability, based on the type of roof or land space.

The article was originally published on Reon Energy - An Overview to Solar Panel Mounting Structures