The buildings of tomorrow are powered by solar energy

Av Clara Good, stipendiat ved Institutt for byggekunst, historie og teknologi, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

In Norway, as well as in most countries, buildings account for about 40% of the energy use. By making buildings more energy efficient, we can significantly reduce the global energy demand. The European Union has set ambitious goals for its member countries. In the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), it is declared that “by 2020, all new buildings shall be nearly zero energy buildings” (European Parliament 2010).

Nearly zero energy buildings are very energy efficient buildings that generate most of the energy they need from renewable energy sources on the building itself or nearby. That is, a building that by 2020 all new buildings in the EU will be small-scale power plants.

So how can buildings generate energy? The most obvious answer is: by using solar energy. In fact, it is almost impossible to build a zero energy building without it. 

Making offshore wind more affordable

Ole-Erik Endrerud, PhD Student, NORCOWE, Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Material Science, University of Stavanger

 Offshore wind has been a popular source of renewable energy for some time now, but still, it’s too expensive to spur a large-scale industrial development. My project, which is a part of the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (NORCOWE), is trying to do something about the cost-problem.

 

Figure 1:Screenshot of the simulation model in action. This is from running a case with the offshore wind park Sheringham Shoal

Consequences of the Renewable Energy Directive on the Norwegian energy system

Project work from NorRen Summer School

The EU Renewable Energy Directive is now implemented in the EU Member States and also adopted by Norway. The Directive has defined an overall goal for the renewable energy share for Norway to 67.5 % by 2020, which gives implications both on the energy production and the energy use. As a part of a PhD summer school project in renewable energy we have played with different scenarios for the development of new energy production and changes in consumption patterns in order to estimate how and to what extent these scenarios would lead to the fulfillment of the EU targets or not. We stress the fact that this work should be seen as an educational and intellectual exercise rather than our scientific based guesses for the development towards the 2020 goals.

Arven etter Hywind

Av Marit Irene Kvittem, stipendiat ved Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures/NOWITECH, NTNU

Et norsk selskap var først ute med å bygge en fullskala prototype av en flytende vindturbin; Statoils Hywind, som ble satt ut ved Karmøy i 2009. Erfaringene fra Hywind er gode, men billig og miljøvennlig vannkraft og lønnsom olje demper noe av viljen til å gjøre noe ut av visjonene om en blomstrende havvindindustri her til lands.

Det bygges i Japan

Norge, Japan og USA blir ofte nevnt som markeder for parker med flytende vindturbiner. Dette fordi de har lang kystlinje, gode vindforhold, men få grunne områder som egner seg for å bygge noe som sitter fast i bunnen. Japan fikk fart på fornybarsatsinga etter tsunamien i 2011 og sammenbruddet av atomkraftverket Fukushima I. Der er de godt i gang med flere store demonstrasjonsprosjekter for flytendevindturbiner med opp til 7MW turbiner montert på forskjellige flytende fundamenter.  USA har også kommet etter og installert sine egne prototyper. Blant disse er én fullskala turbin (i Portugal) av det amerikanske selskapet Principle Power samt en rekke mindre testmodeller (se video).

En flytende vindturbin settes ut ved Fukushima. Les mer om prosjektet her.

Climate policies in Norway and the EU

By a group of PhD students who have attended the NorRen Summer School 2013.

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) have become a huge problem worldwide. The global temperature is expected to increase over the next century with potentially devastating consequences. As a part of the Climate and Energy Package the EU decided on the 20-20-20 goal by 2020 with the intention of limiting the global warming to two degrees Celsius by 2050. 20-20-20 refers to a 20 % reduction in GHG emissions, 20 % improvement in energy efficiency, and 20 % use of renewable energy in the EU. In order for this goal to be achieved, Norway set a national target of 67.5 % renewable energy [1]. Figure 1 shows how the GHG emissions are distributed within different sectors in EU and Norway. It is obvious that Norway is in a different situation than the rest of Europe, which will be reflected in the way the country plans to reduce its GHG emissions compared to in the EU.
Figure 1.  Emissions by sector in the EU and Norway in 2009. Adapted from [2,3].

The new combination of solar cells and super caps

Av Øyvind Sunde Sortland, Thomas Holm, Guillherme Gaspar, Denny Ehrler, Sandro Hommel and Peng Liu, NorRen Summer School 2013

Motivation

The share of electricity generation from solar cells is increasing rapidly and already has a high share in countries like Germany and Italy. A high share of photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation poses challenges for grid operators to provide stable electricity supply due to the highly intermittent solar radiation, varying over time scales of minutes as shown in Figure 1. The output power of PV systems can drop from maximum to a very low value and increase just as suddenly due to passages of clouds.

Intermittency of power production measured for a 2 kWp PV system during a day.

The minute scale fluctuations in PV power supply are particularly detrimental to grid stability because they are not predicted by weather forecasts. Grid operators would thus benefit from a smooth power supply profile, which provide an opportunity for integrating short-term storage in the PV systems. This post provides a preliminary assessment of the potential for supercapacitors (Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors, EDLC) to complement batteries for short-term load leveling before feeding the grid. Integrated household and neighborhood systems of renewable energy production and storage also have potential to provide local load-leveling.

Contributions from Smart Grids to a Sustainable Energy System

By Livingstone Senyonga et.al. NorRen Summer School 2013 

“In the coming decades, electricity’s share of total energy is expected to continue growing, and more intelligent processes will be introduced into this network […]. It is envisioned that the electric power grid will move from an electromechanically controlled system to an electronically controlled network in the next two decades.” Amin et al. (2005).