2011-03-08 100% Energy From Wind

This presentation was given to a meeting of the South Essex Area of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Southend on 8th March 2011.

The presentation includes:

  • the Peaking of the depletable fuels Oil, Gas and Coal, based on work at the University of Uppsala,
  • the importance of investing a significant share of the remaining depletable energy in assets for harnessing renewable energy, in order to effect a smooth transition to sustainability, based on the Ph.D thesis of Henk Mulder at the University of Groningen,
  • the opportunity to synthesise Renewable Power Methane to fuel existing gas-fired power plants for balancing systems with up to 100% electricity from wind turbines, based on the Ph.D. thesis of Michael Sterner at the University of Kassel,
  • the opportunity to synthesise renewable liquid fuels, such as Methanol, Gasoline (Petrol), Kerosene and Diesel, to enable 100% energy (electricity, transport fuels and heat) from wind, based on the work of Dr Michael Specht at ZSW, Stuttgart.
  • The heat demand could be met by harnessing the reject heat from the existing gas-fired power plants and the plants for synthesising Renewable Power Methene and renewable liquid fuels. Such district heating has been practised for about a century in Denmark and is being deployed ever more widely in more than 1000 cities in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
  • According to a study by Lu, McElroy and Kiviluoma at Harvard University, the world wind resource available to existing wind turbines, both onshore and offshore, is about 96 TW. This is about ten times that required to meet 100% of energy from wind.
  • The world wind resource could be increased with floating wind turbines, which could be located in water depths of 120 to 700 m. The world's first full-scale floating wind turbine is being demonstrated by Statoil, Siemens and Techquip in the HyWind project.
  • The synthesis of Renewable Power Methane is being demonstrated by the Pilot Plant designed and built by ZSW for Solar-Fuel, Stuttgart.
2011-03-08 100% Energy From Wind
This presentation was given to a meeting of the South Essex Area of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Southend on 8th March 2011.