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Superconducting cables: powering tomorrow's grids
CategoriesSustainable News

Superconducting cables: powering tomorrow’s grids

By Zarkon Group,
Superconducting cables: powering tomorrow's grids

Spotted: As electrification of power grids continues around the world, ageing infrastructure is slowing down the global transition to green energy. In the EU, analysts warn that the region’s annual investment in the grid is around €15 billion short of what it needs to be to meet carbon emission reduction goals, highlighting the need for physical modernisation and digitalisation to expand grid capacity. 

Subra A/S, a spin-off from the Technical University of Denmark, may be able to provide the equipment needed to meet those growth goals – with its superconducting Subracables. 

Older grids largely rely on copper cabling, a material that heats up during the transmission of power, resulting in a loss of up to 13 per cent of the total energy. Superconductors, by contrast, transmit electricity with no resistance when cooled. Currently, most high-temperature superconducting cables are flat tapes that have both capacity and strength limitations, and can only be used across relatively short distances. 

Subra’s solution is to bundle high-temperature superconductors together for huge gains in strength, efficiency, and scalability. The company’s cables could be used across distances of 100 kilometres or more and reduce energy loss during transmission by 90 per cent. Subra says that this energy saving is the equivalent of the energy produced by 45 nuclear power plants.  

Subracables take up less space, making it easier for governments to expand infrastructure. A huge problem faced by some of the oldest electric grids is that they cannot connect to new sources of power, but Subracables are designed explicitly for use with renewable energy. 

A €3.5 million funding package from the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Accelerator programme awarded in 2023 is helping Subra take its technology from prototype to production.  

Distributed networks such as low-voltage connections and an all-in-one solar power generator and water purifier are innovations featured in Springwise’s library that showcase the ways in which innovators are bringing power and electricity to remote areas with smaller, more portable, and often modular structures.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Powering direct air capture with geothermal energy 
CategoriesSustainable News

Powering direct air capture with geothermal energy 

By Zarkon Group,
Powering direct air capture with geothermal energy 

Spotted: As the United Nations (UN) highlights, on the whole, commitments made by governments to cut emissions haven’t been fulfilled, meaning we are falling short of net-zero goals for 2050. And, energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions are only set to rise with the growing global population. Changes to existing energy-heavy practices are unlikely to be enough to stop or significantly slow climate change, which is where carbon capture comes in. However, direct air capture (DAC) technologies – where CO2 is extracted from the ambient air – often rely on energy sources like fossil fuels to work, making them unsustainable long term. Enter Fervo Energy.

The US-based company is already a leader in the next generation of geothermal power, and earlier this year announced plans for a fully integrated geothermal and DAC facility with financial support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).

In DAC facilities, large fans are used to blow ambient air over carbon-dioxide-capturing materials. The sequestered CO2 is then heated, refined, and generally stored deep underground using a pump. In Fervo’s proposed designs, all of these processes would be fueled by geothermal power, in which heat from the Earth’s core is used to produce clean and renewable electricity. This makes it possible to clean our atmosphere of carbon without emitting any further pollution. As well as being a renewable source that is available 24/7, the company also emphasises that the use of geothermal power would allow DAC technologies to be operated at lower costs.

The recent grant from CZI will help make Fervo’s designs a reality, allowing the company to explore local geothermal reservoirs for underground carbon sequestration projects. Fervo aims to have a pilot facility up and running in three to five years, according to reports in the Washington Post.

Other innovations in the geothermal industry spotted by Springwise include a new ultra-deep drilling technique, and heating and cooling system designed for use by homeowners.

Written By: Keely Khoury and Matilda Cox

Reference

Powering Indonesia with rice straw
CategoriesSustainable News

Powering Indonesia with rice straw

By Zarkon Group,
Powering Indonesia with rice straw

Spotted: Recognised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizational (FAO) for its agri-food system resiliency, Indonesia’s rice production systems are around 90 per cent self-sufficient. The country imports rice only for industrial purposes, as it grows enough edible rice to fulfill national demand, but producing such volumes of the foodstuff also entails agricultural waste. The country produces 100 million tonnes of rice straw annually, most of which is incinerated. 

If that burnt waste was instead converted into electricity, the country would produce enough energy to power every household 10 times over. Researchers at the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute of Birmingham’s Aston University, led by Dr Jude Onwudili, are working on a commercial-scale project to make use of such abundant fuel.  

The new process uses a combustion engine and pyrolysis to heat rice straw to around 500 degrees Celsius in order to break the agricultural waste down into vapours and oil, both of which can be converted to electricity. The efficiency rate of the new conversion process is nearly 70 per cent, double the current rate of 35 per cent.  

Local fuel production would reduce costs for nearby communities, create new jobs, and reduce carbon emissions as take-up of the energy source grows. Additionally, communities that produce more electricity than they can use will be able to sell the power to others, thereby further enriching the local economy.  

Springwise has spotted a number of other biofuel innovations making the most of local agriculture, including turning waste bananas into carbon-neutral hydrogen fuel, and sawmill and cassava waste that’s turned into high energy density fuel.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference