Use and Management of Energy Sources

Efficiently
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of
buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is
typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. Fossil fuels
contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
They range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to
liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like
anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with
oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. The theory that fossil fuels formed from the
fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust
over millions of years (see biogenic theory) was first introduced by Georg Agricola in
1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century.
Strictly speaking, fossil fuels are a renewable resource. They are continually being
formed via natural processes as plants and animals die and then decompose and
become trapped beneath sediment. However, fossil fuels are generally considered to
be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form, and known
viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made.
The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil
fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2)
per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that
amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon
dioxide per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7
tonnes of carbon dioxide). Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that
enhances radiative forcing and contributes to global warming, causing the average
surface temperature of the Earth to rise in response, which the vast majority of
climate scientists agree will cause major adverse effects. A global movement towards
the generation of renewable energy is therefore under way to help reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions.

Oil refinery

The oil refinery in Haifa, Israel is capable of processing about 9 million tons (66 million
barrels) of crude oil a year. Its two cooling towers are landmarks of the city's skyline.

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is
processed and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline,
diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas. Oil
refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping
running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing
units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, and can be thought
of, as types of chemical plants. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed
by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot (tank farm) at or near an oil
refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products.
Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications,
although "light, sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur) crude oil has been used directly as a
burner fuel to produce steam for the propulsion of seagoing vessels. The lighter
elements, however, form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and are therefore
hazardous, especially in warships. Instead, the hundreds of different hydrocarbon
molecules in crude oil are separated in a refinery into components which can be used
as fuels, lubricants, and as feedstocks in petrochemical processes that manufacture
such products as plastics, detergents, solvents, elastomers and fibers such as nylon
and polyesters.
Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to provide power for
ships, automobiles, aircraft engines, lawn mowers, chainsaws, and other machines.
Different boiling points allow the hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation. Since
the lighter liquid products are in great demand for use in internal combustion engines,
a modern refinery will convert heavy hydrocarbons and lighter gaseous elements into
these higher value products.
Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying
molecular masses, forms and lengths such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes (or
cycloalkanes), alkenes, dienes, and alkynes. While the molecules in crude oil include
different atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen, the hydrocarbons are the most common
form of molecules, which are molecules of varying lengths and complexity made of
hydrogen and carbon atoms, and a small number of oxygen atoms. The differences in
the structure of these molecules account for their varying physical and chemical
properties, and it is this variety that makes crude oil useful in a broad range of several
applications.
Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant
can be sold without further processing. Smaller molecules such as isobutane and
propylene or butylenes can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by
processes such as alkylation, or less commonly, dimerization. Octane grade of
gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming, which involves removing
hydrogen from hydrocarbons producing compounds with higher octane ratings such as
aromatics. Intermediate products such as gasoils can even be reprocessed to break a
heavy, long-chained oil into a lighter short-chained one, by various forms of cracking
such as fluid catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, and hydrocracking. The final step in
gasoline production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor
pressures, and other properties to meet product specifications.
Oil refineries are large scale plants, processing about a hundred thousand to several
hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the high capacity, many of
the units operate continuously, as opposed to processing in batches, at steady state

or nearly steady state for months to years. The high capacity also makes process
optimization and advanced process control very desirable.

Fossil-fuel power station

A fossil fuel power station burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum (oil)
to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large
scale for continuous operation. In many countries, such plants provide most of the
electrical energy used. Fossil-fuel power stations have rotating machinery to convert
the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an
electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in
small plants, a reciprocating internal combustion engine. All plants use the energy
extracted from expanding gas - steam or combustion gases. Very few MHD generators
have been built which directly convert the energy of moving hot gas into electricity.
Byproducts of thermal power plant operation must be considered in their design and
operation. Waste heat energy, which remains due to the finite efficiency of the Carnot,
Rankine, or Diesel power cycle, is released directly to the atmosphere, directly to river
or lake water, or indirectly to the atmosphere using a cooling tower with river or lake
water used as a cooling medium. The flue gas from combustion of the fossil fuels is
discharged to the air. This gas contains carbon dioxide and water vapor, as well as
other substances such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), mercury, traces
of other metals, and, for coal-fired plants, fly ash. Solid waste ash from coal-fired
boilers must also be removed. Some coal ash can be recycled for building materials.
Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of CO2, a greenhouse gas (GHG) which
according to a consensus opinion of scientific organisations is a contributor to global
warming as it has been observed over the last 100 years. Per unit of electric energy,
brown coal emits about 3 times as much CO2 as natural gas, and black coal emits
about twice as much CO2. Carbon capture and storage of emissions is not expected to
be available until technology is safe and deployable.
In a fossil fuel power plant the chemical energy stored in fossil fuels such as coal, fuel
oil, natural gas or oil shale and oxygen of the air is converted successively into
thermal energy, mechanical energy and, finally, electrical energy. Each fossil fuel
power plant is a complex, custom-designed system. Construction costs, as of 2004,
run to US$1,300 per kilowatt, or $650 million for a 500 MWe unit. Multiple generating
units may be built at a single site for more efficient use of land, natural resources and
labour. Most thermal power stations in the world use fossil fuel, outnumbering nuclear,
geothermal, biomass, or solar thermal plants.
Heat into mechanical energy
The second law of thermodynamics states that any closed-loop cycle can only convert
a fraction of the heat produced during combustion into mechanical work. The rest of
the heat, called waste heat, must be released into a cooler environment during the
return portion of the cycle. The fraction of heat released into a cooler medium must be
equal or larger than the ratio of absolute temperatures of the cooling system
(environment) and the heat source (combustion furnace). Raising the furnace
temperature improves the efficiency but complicates the design, primarily by the
selection of alloys used for construction, making the furnace more expensive. The
waste heat cannot be converted into mechanical energy without an even cooler
cooling system. However, it may be used in cogeneration plants to heat buildings,

produce hot water, or to heat materials on an industrial scale, such as in some oil
refineries, plants, and chemical synthesis plants.
Coal as fuel
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel on the planet. It is a relatively cheap fuel, with
some of the largest deposits in regions that are relatively stable politically, such as
China, India and the United States. This contrasts with natural gas and petroleum, the
largest deposits of which are located in the politically volatile Persian Gulf. Solid coal
cannot directly replace natural gas or petroleum in most applications, petroleum is
mostly used for transportation and the natural gas not used for electricity generation
is used for space, water and industrial heating. Coal can be converted to gas or liquid
fuel, but the efficiencies and economics of such processes can make them unfeasible.
Vehicles or heaters may require modification to use coal-derived fuels. Coal can
produce more pollution than petroleum or natural gas.
As of 2009 the largest coal-fired power station is Taichung Power Plant in Taiwan. The
world's most energy-efficient coal-fired power plant is the Avedre Power Station in
Denmark.

Taichung coal-fired power plant in Taiwan, the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter
Gas turbine plants

Currant Creek Power Plant near Mona, Utah is a natural gas fired electrical plant.
One type of fossil fuel power plant uses a gas turbine in conjunction with a heat
recovery steam generator (HRSG). It is referred to as a combined cycle power plant
because it combines the Brayton cycle of the gas turbine with the Rankine cycle of the
HRSG. The thermal efficiency of these plants has reached a record heat rate of 5690
Btu/(kWh), or just under 60%, at a facility in Baglan Bay, Wales.
The turbines are fueled either with natural gas, syngas or fuel oil. While more efficient
and faster to construct (a 1,000 MW plant may be completed in as little as 18 months

from start of construction), the economics of such plants is heavily influenced by the
volatile cost of fuel, normally natural gas. The combined cycle plants are designed in a
variety of configurations composed of the number of gas turbines followed by the
steam turbine. For example, a 3-1 combined cycle facility has three gas turbines tied
to one steam turbine. The configurations range from (1-1), (2-1), (3-1), (4-1), (5-1), to
(6-1)
Simple-cycle or open cycle gas turbine plants, without a steam cycle, are sometimes
installed as emergency or peaking capacity; their thermal efficiency is much lower.
The high running cost per hour is offset by the low capital cost and the intention to
run such units only a few hundred hours per year. Other gas turbine plants are
installed in stages, with an open cycle gas turbine the first stage and additional
turbines or conversion to a closed cycle part of future project plans.

Greening of fossil fuel power plants

Several methods exist to improve the efficiency of fossil fuel power plants. A
frequently used and cost-efficient method is to convert a plant to run on a different
fuel. This includes conversions for biomass and waste. Conversions to waste-fired
power plants have the benefit of reducing landfilling. In addition, waste-fired power
plants can be equipped with material recovery, which is also beneficial to the
environment.
Regardless of the conversion, a truly green fossil fuel power plant implements carbon
capture and storage (CCS). CCS means that the exhaust CO2 is not released into the
environment and the fossil fuel power plant becomes an emissionless power plant. A
2006 example of a CCS fossil fuel power plant is the pilot Elsam power station near
Esbjerg, Denmark.
Low NOx Burners
A common retrofit in fossil fueled power stations is the replacement of original burners
with Low NOx burners. Careful consideration of fluid dynamics and flame
thermodynamics has enabled substantial reduction in flame temperature, leading to
reduced formation of Nitrous Oxides.
Clean coal
"Clean coal" is the name attributed to a process whereby coal is chemically washed of
minerals and impurities, sometimes gasified, burned and the resulting flue gases
treated with steam, with the purpose of removing sulfur dioxide, and reburned so as
to make the carbon dioxide in the flue gas economically recoverable. The coal
industry uses the term "clean coal" to describe technologies designed to enhance
both the efficiency and the environmental acceptability of coal extraction, preparation
and use, but has provided no specific quantitative limits on any emissions, particularly
carbon dioxide. Whereas contaminants like sulfur or mercury can be removed from
coal, carbon cannot be effectively removed while still leaving a usable fuel, and clean
coal plants without carbon sequestration and storage do not significantly reduce
carbon dioxide emissions. James Hansen in an open letter to U.S. President Barack
Obama has advocated a "moratorium and phase-out of coal plants that do not capture
and store CO2". In his book Storms of My Grandchildren, similarly, Hansen discusses
his Declaration of Stewardship the first principle of which requires "a moratorium on
coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester carbon dioxide".

Hydropower

The 22,500 MW Three Gorges Dam in the People's Republic of China, the largest
hydroelectric power station in the world.
Hydro-power or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water and
running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times,
hydro-power has been used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical
devices, such as watermills, sawmills, textile mills, dock cranes, domestic lifts, power
houses and paint making.
Since the early 20th century, the term has been used almost exclusively in
conjunction with the modern development of hydro-electric power, which allowed use
of distant energy sources. Another method used to transmit energy is by using a
trompe, which produces compressed air from falling water. Compressed air could then
be piped to power other machinery at a distance from the waterfall. Hydro power is a
renewable energy source.
Water's power is manifested in hydrology, by the forces of water on the riverbed and
banks of a river. When a river is in flood, it is at its most powerful, and moves the
greatest amount of sediment. This higher force results in the removal of sediment and
other material from the riverbed and banks of the river, locally causing erosion,
transport and, with lower flow, sedimentation downstream.

Generating methods
Hydropower is used primarily to generate electricity. Broad categories include:
Conventional (dams)

Turbine row at Los Nihuiles Power Station in Mendoza, Argentina

Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a
water turbine and generator. The power extracted from the water depends on the
volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow.
This height difference is called the head. The amount of potential energy in water is
proportional to the head. A large pipe (the "penstock") delivers water to the turbine.
Pumped-storage
This method produces electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water
between reservoirs at different elevations. At times of low electrical demand, excess
generation capacity is used to pump water into the higher reservoir. When there is
higher demand, water is released back into the lower reservoir through a turbine.
Pumped-storage schemes currently provide the most commercially important means
of large-scale grid energy storage and improve the daily capacity factor of the
generation system. Pumped storage is not an energy source, and appears as a
negative number in listings.
Run of the river
Run of the river hydroelectric stations are those with small or no reservoir capacity, so
that the water coming from upstream must be used for generation at that moment, or
must be allowed to bypass the dam. In the United States, run of the river hydropower
could potentially provide 60,000 MW (about 13.7% of total use in 2011 if continuously
available).
Tide
A tidal power plant makes use of the daily rise and fall of ocean water due to tides;
such sources are highly predictable, and if conditions permit construction of
reservoirs, can also be dispatchable to generate power during high demand periods.
Less common types of hydro schemes use water's kinetic energy or undammed
sources such as undershot waterwheels. Tidal power is viable in a relatively small
number of locations around the world. In Great Britain, there are eight sites that could
be developed, which have the potential to generate 20% of the electricity used in
2012.

The world's first commercial-scale and grid-connected tidal stream generator

SeaGen in Strangford Lough. The strong wake shows the power in the tidal current.
Underground
An underground power station makes use of a large natural height difference between
two waterways, such as a waterfall or mountain lake. An underground tunnel is
constructed to take water from the high reservoir to the generating hall built in an

underground cavern near the lowest point of the water tunnel and a horizontal tailrace
taking water away to the lower outlet waterway.

Geothermal energy

Steam rising from the Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station in Iceland.

Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal
energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal
energy of the Earth's crust originates from the original formation of the planet (20%)
and from radioactive decay of minerals (80%). The geothermal gradient, which is the
difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a
continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the
surface.
Earth's internal heat is thermal energy generated from radioactive decay and
continual heat loss from Earth's formation. Temperatures at the coremantle boundary
may reach over 4000 C (7,200 F). The high temperature and pressure in Earth's
interior cause some rock to melt and solid mantle to behave plastically, resulting in
portions of mantle convecting upward since it is lighter than the surrounding rock.
Rock and water is heated in the crust, sometimes up to 370 C (700 F).
From hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times
and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for
electricity generation. Worldwide, 11,400 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power is
online in 24 countries in 2012. An additional 28 gigawatts of direct geothermal
heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial
processes, desalination and agricultural applications in 2010.
Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly,
but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Recent
technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable
resources, especially for applications such as home heating, opening a potential for
widespread exploitation. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep
within the earth, but these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those of
fossil fuels. As a result, geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global
warming if widely deployed in place of fossil fuels.
The Earth's geothermal resources are theoretically more than adequate to supply
humanity's energy needs, but only a very small fraction may be profitably exploited.
Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive. Forecasts for the future

of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices,

subsidies, and interest rates. But as a result of government assisted research and
industry experience, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25%
over the past two decades. In 2001, geothermal energy cost between two and ten US
cents per kWh.

As Thermal energy

Ground source heating and cooling

Lower temperature sources produce the energy equivalent of 100M BBL per year.
Sources with temperatures from 30-150 C are used without conversion to electricity
for as district heating, greenhouses, fisheries, mineral recovery, industrial process
heating and bathing in 75 countries. Heat pumps extract energy from shallow sources
at 10-20 C in 43 countries for use in space heating and cooling. Home heating is the
fastest-growing means of exploiting geothermal energy, with global annual growth
rate of 30% in 2005 and 20% in 2012.
Approximately 270 petajoules (PJ) of geothermal heating was used in 2004. More than
half went for space heating, and another third for heated pools. The remainder
supported industrial and agricultural applications. Global installed capacity was 28
GW, but capacity factors tend to be low (30% on average) since heat is mostly needed
in winter. Some 88 PJ for space heating was extracted by an estimated 1.3 million
geothermal heat pumps with a total capacity of 15 GW.
Heat for these purposes may also be extracted from co-generation at a geothermal
electrical plant.
Heating is cost-effective at many more sites than electricity generation. At natural hot
springs or geysers, water can be piped directly into radiators. In hot, dry ground, earth
tubes or downhole heat exchangers can collect the heat. However, even in areas
where the ground is colder than room temperature, heat can often be extracted with a
geothermal heat pump more cost-effectively and cleanly than by conventional
furnaces. These devices draw on much shallower and colder resources than traditional
geothermal techniques. They frequently combine functions, including air conditioning,
seasonal thermal energy storage, solar energy collection, and electric heating. Heat
pumps can be used for space heating essentially anywhere.

Iceland is the world leader in direct applications. Some 92.5% of its homes are heated
with geothermal energy, saving Iceland over $100 million annually in avoided oil
imports. Reykjavk, Iceland has the world's biggest district heating system. Once
known as the most polluted city in the world, it is now one of the cleanest.

As Electrical energy
Geothermal electricity is electricity generated from geothermal energy. Technologies
in use include dry steam power plants, flash steam power plants and binary cycle
power plants. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 24 countries,
while geothermal heating is in use in 70 countries.
Estimates of the electricity generating potential of geothermal energy vary from 35 to
2,000 GW. Current worldwide installed capacity is 10,715 megawatts (MW), with the
largest capacity in the United States (3,086 MW). El Salvador, Kenya, the Philippines,
Iceland and Costa Rica generate more than 15 percent of their electricity from
geothermal sources.
Geothermal power is considered to be sustainable because the heat extraction is
small compared with the Earth's heat content. The life cycle greenhouse gas
emissions of geothermal electric plants are on average 45 grams of CO2 per kilowatthour of electricity, or less than 5 percent of that of conventional coal-fired plants.
Geothermal power stations are similar to other steam turbine thermal power stations
heat from a fuel source (in geothermal's case, the earth's core) is used to heat water
or another working fluid. The working fluid is then used to turn a turbine of a
generator, thereby producing electricity. The fluid is then cooled and returned to the
heat source.
Dry steam power plants
Dry steam plants are the simplest and oldest design. They directly use geothermal
steam of 150C or greater to turn turbines.
Flash steam power plants
Flash steam plants pull deep, high-pressure hot water into lower-pressure tanks and
use the resulting flashed steam to drive turbines. They require fluid temperatures of
at least 180C, usually more. This is the most common type of plant in operation
today.
Binary cycle power plants
Binary cycle power plants are the most recent development, and can accept fluid
temperatures as low as 57C. The moderately hot geothermal water is passed by a
secondary fluid with a much lower boiling point than water. This causes the secondary
fluid to flash vaporize, which then drives the turbines. This is the most common type
of geothermal electricity plant being constructed today. Both Organic Rankine and
Kalina cycles are used. The thermal efficiency of this type plant is typically about 10
13%.

Wind power

Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm, at the entrance to the River Mersey in northwest
England.
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as
using wind turbines to produce electrical power, windmills for mechanical power,
windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.
Large wind farms consist of hundreds of individual wind turbines which are connected
to the electric power transmission network. For new constructions, onshore wind is an
inexpensive source of electricity, competitive with or in many places cheaper than
fossil fuel plants. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore
farms have less visual impact, but construction and maintenance costs are
considerably higher. Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or
provide electricity to isolated off-grid locations.
Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed,
clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little land.
The effects on the environment are generally less problematic than those from other
power sources. As of 2011, Denmark is generating more than a quarter of its
electricity from wind and 83 countries around the world are using wind power to
supply the electricity grid. In 2010 wind energy production was over 2.5% of total
worldwide electricity usage, and growing rapidly at more than 25% per annum.
Wind power is very consistent from year to year but has significant variation over
shorter time scales. As the proportion of windpower in a region increases, a need to
upgrade the grid, and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur.
Power management techniques such as having excess capacity storage,
geographically distributed turbines, dispatchable backing sources, storage such as
pumped-storage hydroelectricity, exporting and importing power to neighboring areas
or reducing demand when wind production is low, can greatly mitigate these
problems. In addition, weather forecasting permits the electricity network to be
readied for the predictable variations in production that occur. Wind power can be
considered a topic in applied eolics.

Wind farms
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used for production of
electricity. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines

distributed over an extended area, but the land between the turbines may be used for
agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm may also be located offshore.
Almost all large wind turbines have the same design a horizontal axis wind turbine
having an upwind rotor with three blades, attached to a nacelle on top of a tall tubular
tower.
In a wind farm, individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage (often
34.5 kV), power collection system and communications network. At a substation, this
medium-voltage electric current is increased in voltage with a transformer for
connection to the high voltage electric power transmission system.
Feeding into grid
Induction generators, often used for wind power, require reactive power for excitation
so substations used in wind-power collection systems include substantial capacitor
banks for power factor correction. Different types of wind turbine generators behave
differently during transmission grid disturbances, so extensive modelling of the
dynamic electromechanical characteristics of a new wind farm is required by
transmission system operators to ensure predictable stable behaviour during system
faults (see: Low voltage ride through). In particular, induction generators cannot
support the system voltage during faults, unlike steam or hydro turbine-driven
synchronous generators. Doubly fed machines generally have more desirable
properties for grid interconnection. Transmission systems operators will supply a wind
farm developer with a grid code to specify the requirements for interconnection to the
transmission grid. This will include power factor, constancy of frequency and dynamic
behavior of the wind farm turbines during a system fault.
Offshore wind power
Offshore wind power refers to the construction of wind farms in large bodies of water
to generate electricity. These installations can utilise the more frequent and powerful
winds that are available in these locations and have less aesthetic impact on the
landscape than land based projects. However, the construction and the maintenance
costs are considerably higher.
Siemens and Vestas are the leading turbine suppliers for offshore wind power. DONG
Energy, Vattenfall and E.ON are the leading offshore operators. As of October 2010,
3.16 GW of offshore wind power capacity was operational, mainly in Northern Europe.
According to BTM Consult, more than 16 GW of additional capacity will be installed
before the end of 2014 and the UK and Germany will become the two leading markets.
Offshore wind power capacity is expected to reach a total of 75 GW worldwide by
2020, with significant contributions from China and the US.
At the end of 2012, 1,662 turbines at 55 offshore wind farms in 10 European countries
are generating 18 TWh, which can power almost five million households. As of August
2013 the London Array in the United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the
world at 630 MW. This is followed by the Greater Gabbard Wind Farm (504 MW), also in
the UK. The Gwynt y Mr wind farm (576 MW) is the largest project currently under
construction.

Biomass

Biomass is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms. It most
often refers to plants or plant-based materials which are specifically called
lignocellulosic biomass. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly via
combustion to produce heat, or indirectly after converting it to various forms of
biofuel. Conversion of biomass to biofuel can be achieved by different methods which
are broadly classified into: thermal, chemical, and biochemical methods.
Wood remains the largest biomass energy source to date; examples include forest
residues (such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps), yard clippings, wood chips
and even municipal solid waste. In the second sense, biomass includes plant or animal
matter that can be converted into fibers or other industrial chemicals, including
biofuels. Industrial biomass can be grown from numerous types of plants, including
miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sorghum, sugarcane, bamboo,
and a variety of tree species, ranging from eucalyptus to oil palm (palm oil).
Plant energy is produced by crops specifically grown for use as fuel that offer high
biomass output per hectare with low input energy. Some examples of these plants are
wheat, which typically yield 7.58 tonnes of grain per hectare, and straw, which
typically yield 3.55 tonnes per hectare in the UK. The grain can be used for liquid
transportation fuels while the straw can be burned to produce heat or electricity. Plant
biomass can also be degraded from cellulose to glucose through a series of chemical
treatments, and the resulting sugar can then be used as a first generation biofuel.
Biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or
transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Rotting garbage, and agricultural and
human waste, all release methane gasalso called "landfill gas" or "biogas." Crops,
such as corn and sugar cane, can be fermented to produce the transportation fuel,
ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food
products like vegetable oils and animal fats. Also, biomass to liquids (BTLs) and
cellulosic ethanol are still under research.
The biomass used for electricity generation varies by region. Forest by-products, such
as wood residues, are common in the United States. Agricultural waste is common in
Mauritius (sugar cane residue) and Southeast Asia (rice husks). Animal husbandry
residues, such as poultry litter, are common in the UK.

A cogeneration plant in Metz, France. The station uses waste wood biomass as an
energy source, and provides electricity and heat for 30,000 dwellings.

Biomass conversion process to useful energy

Thermal conversion
Thermal conversion processes use heat as the dominant mechanism to convert
biomass into another chemical form. The basic alternatives of combustion
(torrefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification) are separated principally by the extent to
which the chemical reactions involved are allowed to proceed (mainly controlled by
the availability of oxygen and conversion temperature).
Energy created by burning biomass (fuel wood) is particularly suited for countries
where the fuel wood grows more rapidly, e.g. tropical countries. There are a number of
other less common, more experimental or proprietary thermal processes that may
offer benefits such as hydrothermal upgrading (HTU) and hydroprocessing. Some have
been developed for use on high moisture content biomass, including aqueous slurries,
and allow them to be converted into more convenient forms. Some of the applications
of thermal conversion are combined heat and power (CHP) and co-firing. In a typical
dedicated biomass power plant, efficiencies range from 727% (HHV basis). Biomass
cofiring with coal, by contrast, typically occurs at efficiencies near those of the coal
combustor (3040%, HHV basis).
Chemical conversion
A range of chemical processes may be used to convert biomass into other forms, such
as to produce a fuel that is more conveniently used, transported or stored, or to
exploit some property of the process itself. Many of these processes are based in large
part on similar coal-based processes, such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, methanol
production, olefins (ethylene and propylene), and similar chemical or fuel feedstocks.
In most cases, the first step involves gasification, which step generally is the most
expensive and involves the greatest technical risk. Biomass is more difficult to feed
into a pressure vessel than coal or any liquid. Therefore, biomass gasification is
frequently done at atmospheric pressure and causes combustion of biomass to
produce a combustible gas consisting of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and traces of
methane. This gas mixture, called a producer gas, can provide fuel for various vital
processes, such as internal combustion engines, as well as substitute for furnace oil in
direct heat applications. Because any biomass material can undergo gasification, this
process is far more attractive than ethanol or biomass production, where only
particular biomass materials can be used to produce a fuel. In addition, biomass
gasification is a desirable process due to the ease at which it can convert solid waste
(such as wastes available on a farm) into producer gas, which is a very usable fuel.
Conversion of biomass to biofuel can also be achieved via selective conversion of
individual components of biomass. For example cellulose can be converted to
intermediate platform chemical such a sorbitol, glucose, hydroxymethylfurfural etc.
These chemical are then further reacted to produce hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuels.
Biomass also has the potential to be converted to multiple commodity chemicals.
Halomethanes have successfully been by produced using a combination of A.
fermentans and engineered S. cerevisiae. This method converts NaX salts and
unprocessed biomass such as switchgrass, sugar cane, corn stover, or poplar into
halomethanes. S-adenosylmethionine which is naturally occurring in S. cerevisiae
allows a methyl group to be transferred. Production levels of 150 mg L-1H-1
iodomethane were achieved. At these levels roughly 173000L of capacity would need
to be operated just to replace the United States need for iodomethane. However, an
advantage of this method is that it uses NaI rather than I2; NaI is significantly less
hazardous than I2. This method may be applied to produce ethylene in the future.

Biochemical conversion
As biomass is a natural material, many highly efficient biochemical processes have
developed in nature to break down the molecules of which biomass is composed, and
many of these biochemical conversion processes can be harnessed.
Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other
microorganisms to break down biomass. In most cases, microorganisms are used to
perform the conversion process: anaerobic digestion, fermentation, and composting.

Solar energy

Part of the 354 MW SEGS solar complex in northern San Bernardino County, California,
USA
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun harnessed using a range of everevolving technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal
electricity, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.
Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar
depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar
techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to
harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun,
selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and
designing spaces that naturally circulate air.
In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable,
inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits.
It will increase countries energy security through reliance on an indigenous,
inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce
pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices
lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the
incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must
be wisely spent and need to be widely shared".

Solar thermal
Solar thermal technologies can be used for water heating, space heating, space
cooling and process heat generation.

Water heating
Solar hot water systems use sunlight to heat water. In low geographical latitudes
(below 40 degrees) from 60 to 70% of the domestic hot water use with temperatures
up to 60 C can be provided by solar heating systems. The most common types of
solar water heaters are evacuated tube collectors (44%) and glazed flat plate
collectors (34%) generally used for domestic hot water; and unglazed plastic
collectors (21%) used mainly to heat swimming pools.
As of 2007, the total installed capacity of solar hot water systems is approximately
154 GW. China is the world leader in their deployment with 70 GW installed as of 2006
and a long term goal of 210 GW by 2020. Israel and Cyprus are the per capita leaders
in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them. In the
United States, Canada and Australia heating swimming pools is the dominant
application of solar hot water with an installed capacity of 18 GW as of 2005.

Solar water heaters facing the Sun to maximize gain.

Heating, cooling and ventilation
In the United States, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account
for 30% (4.65 EJ) of the energy used in commercial buildings and nearly 50% (10.1 EJ)
of the energy used in residential buildings. Solar heating, cooling and ventilation
technologies can be used to offset a portion of this energy.
Thermal mass is any material that can be used to store heatheat from the Sun in the
case of solar energy. Common thermal mass materials include stone, cement and
water. Historically they have been used in arid climates or warm temperate regions to
keep buildings cool by absorbing solar energy during the day and radiating stored
heat to the cooler atmosphere at night. However they can be used in cold temperate
areas to maintain warmth as well. The size and placement of thermal mass depend on
several factors such as climate, daylighting and shading conditions. When properly
incorporated, thermal mass maintains space temperatures in a comfortable range and
reduces the need for auxiliary heating and cooling equipment.
A solar chimney (or thermal chimney, in this context) is a passive solar ventilation
system composed of a vertical shaft connecting the interior and exterior of a building.
As the chimney warms, the air inside is heated causing an updraft that pulls air
through the building. Performance can be improved by using glazing and thermal
mass materials in a way that mimics greenhouses.
Deciduous trees and plants have been promoted as a means of controlling solar
heating and cooling. When planted on the southern side of a building in the northern
hemisphere or the northern side in the southern hemisphere, their leaves provide
shade during the summer, while the bare limbs allow light to pass during the winter.

Since bare, leafless trees shade 1/3 to 1/2 of incident solar radiation, there is a
balance between the benefits of summer shading and the corresponding loss of winter
heating. In climates with significant heating loads, deciduous trees should not be
planted on the Equator facing side of a building because they will interfere with winter
solar availability. They can, however, be used on the east and west sides to provide a
degree of summer shading without appreciably affecting winter solar gain.
Water treatment
Solar distillation can be used to make saline or brackish water potable. The first
recorded instance of this was by 16th-century Arab alchemists. A large-scale solar
distillation project was first constructed in 1872 in the Chilean mining town of Las
Salinas. The plant, which had solar collection area of 4,700 m2, could produce up to
22,700 L per day and operated for 40 years. Individual still designs include singleslope, double-slope (or greenhouse type), vertical, conical, inverted absorber, multiwick, and multiple effect. These stills can operate in passive, active, or hybrid modes.
Double-slope stills are the most economical for decentralized domestic purposes,
while active multiple effect units are more suitable for large-scale applications.
Solar water disinfection (SODIS) involves exposing water-filled plastic polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) bottles to sunlight for several hours. Exposure times vary
depending on weather and climate from a minimum of six hours to two days during
fully overcast conditions. It is recommended by the World Health Organization as a
viable method for household water treatment and safe storage. Over two million
people in developing countries use this method for their daily drinking water.
Solar energy may be used in a water stabilisation pond to treat waste water without
chemicals or electricity. A further environmental advantage is that algae grow in such
ponds and consume carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, although algae may produce
toxic chemicals that make the water unusable.

Solar water disinfection in Indonesia

Process heat
Solar concentrating technologies such as parabolic dish, trough and Scheffler
reflectors can provide process heat for commercial and industrial applications. The
first commercial system was the Solar Total Energy Project (STEP) in Shenandoah,
Georgia, USA where a field of 114 parabolic dishes provided 50% of the process
heating, air conditioning and electrical requirements for a clothing factory. This gridconnected cogeneration system provided 400 kW of electricity plus thermal energy in
the form of 401 kW steam and 468 kW chilled water, and had a one hour peak load
thermal storage.

Evaporation ponds are shallow pools that concentrate dissolved solids through
evaporation. The use of evaporation ponds to obtain salt from sea water is one of the
oldest applications of solar energy. Modern uses include concentrating brine solutions
used in leach mining and removing dissolved solids from waste streams.
Clothes lines, clotheshorses, and clothes racks dry clothes through evaporation by
wind and sunlight without consuming electricity or gas. In some states of the United
States legislation protects the "right to dry" clothes.
Unglazed transpired collectors (UTC) are perforated sun-facing walls used for
preheating ventilation air. UTCs can raise the incoming air temperature up to 22 C
and deliver outlet temperatures of 4560 C. The short payback period of transpired
collectors (3 to 12 years) makes them a more cost-effective alternative than glazed
collection systems. As of 2003, over 80 systems with a combined collector area of
35,000 m2 had been installed worldwide, including an 860 m2 collector in Costa Rica
used for drying coffee beans and a 1,300 m2 collector in Coimbatore, India used for
drying marigolds.
Cooking
Solar cookers use sunlight for cooking, drying and pasteurization. They can be
grouped into three broad categories: box cookers, panel cookers and reflector cookers.
The simplest solar cooker is the box cooker first built by Horace de Saussure in 1767.
A basic box cooker consists of an insulated container with a transparent lid. It can be
used effectively with partially overcast skies and will typically reach temperatures of
90150 C. Panel cookers use a reflective panel to direct sunlight onto an insulated
container and reach temperatures comparable to box cookers. Reflector cookers use
various concentrating geometries (dish, trough, Fresnel mirrors) to focus light on a
cooking container. These cookers reach temperatures of 315 C and above but require
direct light to function properly and must be repositioned to track the Sun.

The Solar Bowl in Auroville, India, concentrates sunlight on a movable receiver to

produce steam for cooking.

Electricity production
Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using
photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP systems
use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a
small beam. PV converts light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.
Commercial CSP plants were first developed in the 1980s. Since 1985 the eventually
354 MW SEGS CSP installation, in the Mojave Desert of California, is the largest solar
power plant in the world. Other large CSP plants include the 150 MW Solnova Solar

Power Station and the 100 MW Andasol solar power station, both in Spain. The 250
MW Agua Caliente Solar Project, in the United States, and the 221 MW Charanka Solar
Park in India, are the worlds largest photovoltaic plants. Solar projects exceeding 1
GW are being developed, but most of the deployed photovoltaics are in small rooftop
arrays of less than 5 kW, which are grid connected using net metering and/or a feed-in
tariff.
Concentrated solar power
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems
to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated heat is then
used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating
technologies exists; the most developed are the parabolic trough, the concentrating
linear fresnel reflector, the Stirling dish and the solar power tower. Various techniques
are used to track the Sun and focus light. In all of these systems a working fluid is
heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy
storage.
Photovoltaics
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a device that converts light into electric
current using the photoelectric effect. The first solar cell was constructed by Charles
Fritts in the 1880s. In 1931 a German engineer, Dr Bruno Lange, developed a photo
cell using silver selenide in place of copper oxide. Although the prototype selenium
cells converted less than 1% of incident light into electricity, both Ernst Werner von
Siemens and James Clerk Maxwell recognized the importance of this discovery.
Following the work of Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson, Calvin
Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the silicon solar cell in 1954. These early solar cells
cost 286 USD/watt and reached efficiencies of 4.56%. By 2012 available efficiencies
exceed 20% and the maximum efficiency of research photovoltaics is over 40%.

Fuel production
Solar chemical processes use solar energy to drive chemical reactions. These
processes offset energy that would otherwise come from a fossil fuel source and can
also convert solar energy into storable and transportable fuels. Solar induced
chemical reactions can be divided into thermochemical or photochemical. A variety of
fuels can be produced by artificial photosynthesis. The multielectron catalytic
chemistry involved in making carbon-based fuels (such as methanol) from reduction of
carbon dioxide is challenging; a feasible alternative is hydrogen production from
protons, though use of water as the source of electrons (as plants do) requires
mastering the multielectron oxidation of two water molecules to molecular oxygen.
Some have envisaged working solar fuel plants in coastal metropolitan areas by 2050the splitting of sea water providing hydrogen to be run through adjacent fuel-cell
electric power plants and the pure water by-product going directly into the municipal
water system. Another vision involves all human structures covering the earth's
surface (i.e., roads, vehicles and buildings) doing photosynthesis more efficiently than
plants.
Hydrogen production technologies been a significant area of solar chemical research
since the 1970s. Aside from electrolysis driven by photovoltaic or photochemical cells,
several thermochemical processes have also been explored. One such route uses
concentrators to split water into oxygen and hydrogen at high temperatures (23002600 C). Another approach uses the heat from solar concentrators to drive the steam

reformation of natural gas thereby increasing the overall hydrogen yield compared to
conventional reforming methods. Thermochemical cycles characterized by the
decomposition and regeneration of reactants present another avenue for hydrogen
production. The Solzinc process under development at the Weizmann Institute uses a
1 MW solar furnace to decompose zinc oxide (ZnO) at temperatures above 1200 C.
This initial reaction produces pure zinc, which can subsequently be reacted with water
to produce hydrogen.