Green Services Direct

Climate change has become the world’s most serious global issue as can be witnessed by the calibre of international delegates who attend the COP conferences. The overarching theme of these conferences is the drive for renewable energy in an attempt to limit the projected rise in the earth’s temperature.

A large percentage of the greenhouse gases that are emitted into the earth’s atmosphere and trap the sun’s heat are generated through energy production, by burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and heat. It has become clear that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, these emissions need to be reduced by almost half by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.

Somewhere in the region of 80% of the world’s population live in countries which are nett importers of fossil fuels for use in the generation of electricity and heat. This makes them susceptible to global market price swings and to geopolitical crises such as we experienced in 2022. However, access to renewable energy sources such as solar or wind are universally available. It is estimated that 90 percent of the world’s electricity could come from renewable sources by 2050, which would allow the majority of countries freedom from oil and gas market forces and as well as massively reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. That surely begs the questions, where would his renewable low carbon energy come from and why are we not using it?

 The fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas that we have traditionally used to generate power are non-renewable resources that take hundreds of millions of years to form. When they are burned to produce energy, they emit harmful greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere. Being non-renewable, they also have a limited lifespan and will eventually run out, at which stage we would have no choice but to look to other fuels.

Renewable sources of energy on the other hand, do not expire. The sun will continue to shine, although in many countries not every day, water will continue to flow, although again not in all countries of the world and the wind will blow to a greater or lesser degree, the world over. In many parts of the developed world, where energy usage is at its greatest, there is much less direct sunlight, especially in the winter, than there is in many other parts of the world and in many third world countries, where sunshine is plentiful, water is not. This means that developing hydro power from flowing water requires a substantial civil construction project, which would have a major effect on the surrounding environment as it might mean building a dam across a river to form a reservoir and this potentially in an area where water may be in short supply.

Winter is the season when our electricity usage is highest as daylight hours are shorter and weather tends to be colder, meaning that we use more lighting and heating during the winter months. Sadly, as our winter usage increases the hours of sunshine decrease, reducing our capacity to generate energy from solar installations, although photovoltaic solar panels are capable of generating electricity even in cloudy weather. This means that a significant contribution to the energy mix from direct solar energy is possible in all countries. The cost of solar panels has also dropped substantially in the past decade making solar a very affordable option.

Assuming that sun, wind and water are our main sources of renewable energy, wind appears to be the most stable generation medium across all countries and climates. The wind blows summer and winter, day and night, across the globe, and for many years has been used as a source of power. For generations, ships sailed the world propelled only by the wind in their sails and windmills were used for many years to grind crops into flour. Advances in the design of wind turbines have seen a growth in both onshore and offshore installations with taller turbines and larger rotor diameters maximising electricity generation.

The early days of wind energy in the UK saw small numbers of wind turbines being erected in remote moorlands and highland glens but these were difficult, not to say expensive, to connect to the national grid because of their remote locations. The emphasis has now shifted to constructing larger offshore wind farms. These are sited in many cases, 50 to 100 miles off the North Sea coast making them invisible to the naked eye. The largest of these is the combined Hornsea1&2 projects which jointly consist of 339 turbines generating 2.5 gigawatts of electricity which could potentially power 2.4 million homes. Dogger Bank, off the coast of Newcastle will, when complete, generate up to 3.6 gigawatts from 277 turbines which is equivalent to 5% of UK electricity demand. By comparison, Hinkley Point C the new nuclear power station which is being built in Somerset will be capable of generating 3.26 gigawatts

The vast majority of offshore wind turbines are sited in relatively shallow water, (Dogger Bank will be sited in water depths ranging from 18m to 63m) allowing them to be fixed to the seabed as this is the simplest and least expensive method of siting them. The other option is one widely used by the oil & gas industry, which is to use a floating structure. This, however, is more a complex and expensive solution as it involves sub-sea structures and anchors, but it does allow turbines to be employed in deeper water locations.

World’s largest floating wind farm, consisting of 11 turbines has just started producing power in Equinor’s Hywind Tampen project off Norway and is now generating clean electricity which curiously, will be used to power an offshore oil and gas production facility.

In global terms, China is perhaps not surprisingly the world’s largest overall wind power generator, followed by USA and Germany with the UK coming fifth. Interestingly, in terms of installed capacity, China has around 10 times that of the UK, but when we look at the figures per capita, the UK far exceeds that of China and matches that of the US. It is also worth noting that China is also the world’s biggest coal user, exceeding that of the UK by a factor of 40.

 China reportedly added 16.9 gigawatts of offshore capacity in 2021 while the Biden administration has set a goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore capacity in American waters by 2030. These figures along with Germany’s drive to increase its wind power capacity and the above mentioned UK offshore developments would suggest that wind power is not tomorrow’s preferred method of power generation, it is the solution for today’s demands. Backed up by solar and nuclear, wind power can and is, helping us toward a more carbon neutral world and by doing so will go a long way to creating a planet our future generations will be able to live in.