A state of the clean-energy art : how is R&D doing ?

The energy market is the fastest-moving and fastest-growing ones in the world.  And concurring predictions indicate that, with the water market, it is where the 21^st century's history will take place. 

The water market is rather easy to analyze, calculate and predict, as the variables involved are few and known (human water consumption, cattle water consumption and farming/industrial water consumption). But energy consumption is harder to assess, as it relies not only on the increase in world population, but in the economic developments which will open access to basic energy-munching equipment for people. But, without knowing the specifics of what the future holds, the world is strained already in its energy consumption, and is trying to find new and cleaner ways to produce it.

Siemens and tidal power

Siemens has made quite an entry in the maritime energy world, by purchasing shares in Marine Current Turbines Ltd. In the race for clean and renewable energies, Siemens is putting its money on tidal power.  Grounds for such a move are several. Tidal energy is just as clean and renewable as wind energy, but it holds a considerable advantage over it : it is perfectly predictable. Tides answer to the moon, which follows a regular cycle, unlike wind, which is hectic in its evolution.  The storage of power being tricky, tidal power has an edge.  And the weight of water is the second competitive advantage : 1 knot of water stream provides 800 times more energy than the equivalent stream of wind.  Currently, marine turbines around the world supply only 3 or 4 % of its power needs. But the energy production mode is picking up, as with the demonstration (though commercially profitable) SeaGen project in Northern Ireland. The 1 500 houses of the Strangford Lough area have been supplied in power with only two turbines, which can put up 1,2 MW/h.  Siemens has considerably invested in ecotech, and can now brag on its website that, with the 30-billion worth of sales last year, it has avoided the equivalent CO² pollution of Berlin, Delhi, Hong-Kong, Istanbul, New York, London, Singapore, and Tokyo.  Combined.

CNIM : from waste recovery to solar and biomass energy

The sun also provides clean and renewable energy, but in ways which, for a long time, were very low on profitability. CNIM, a French engineering firm defining itself as technologically bold, is changing that. For years the company is one of the world leaders in waste recovery into clean energy, converting every metric ton of household waste into the equivalent of 200 liters of oil!

With its engineering experience CNIM has brought recently the solar technology to a new level, by investing in Fresnel mirror.  Instead of simply receiving an amount of energy equivalent to its surface, mirrors concentrate the sunlight and reflect it back onto the panel, which then converts the rays into steam or electrical power. In 2010, CNIM inaugurated an 800-square meter pilot plant in the South of France, to demonstrate the capacities it achieved in solar power production.

The company is also engaged in the upgrading of biomass power production. These plants produce clean energy for cities and burn their organic refuse, but they can also emit an unpleasant smell to the urban areas they are necessarily close to. CNIM, through its LAB S.A. branch, has invested in smoke treatment technology based on its experience in waste burning.  It is now able to « cleanse » the smoke before releasing it, thus making biomass the cleanest, most reliable and least troublesome power-production method for urban areas.

Alstom and wind energy

Alstom has taken the lead on harnessing wind energy. This market is the one that is the most poorly exploited so far, at about 2.5% of its 50 000 TW/h potential (about 1/3 of the current world consumption).  Despite occasional local opposition to wind turbines, the arguments in favor of this renewable energy tapping are numerous. And in a gamble that the production mode would rise dramatically in coming years and decades,  Alstom has developed the most advanced wind-power solutions. The three main Achille's heels of wind turbines are robustness, maintenance and efficiency.  With a hefty initial investment, the last thing a client wants is for the device to collapse or break down (on land or, even worse, at sea). Alstom has designed its towers in such a way as to separate energies, between wanted and unwanted. The wanted energy is funneled to the turbine and rotor, whereas the unwanted stresses are directed to the slim tower, thereby reducing general pressure on the general frame. Second, the youth of wind-power-technology gives little feedback to engineers, who need to calculate as accurately as possible the angles so as to avoid energy loss. Alstom has re-engineered its rotor blades to harness 40% more than the average offshore turbine. And finally, the engineering firm has kept from falling into the over-complexity trap, aware that more moving parts equal more maintenance and more breakdown chances ; so it's kept its machine simple, which clients will surely appreciate.

What comes out of the general overview of renewable energy innovation is that governments and political groups are merely those who make the most noise about renewable energies.  But the ones who actually drive innovation in the field of clean energy are private companies, not governments or political groups. The distance run in the past decade by engineering companies suggests there will be many outstanding shifts in the way the world produces its energy in the years to come.