Future Tech - Part 3 - Renewable Energy Advancement

(Photo Courtsy of  Multitech.com)

It is widely understood that here in the middle east we are still yet to embrace anything other than fossil fuels in a serious program. Such a waste of the sun. And the wind. And the clean air.

Solar Energy:

(Photo Courtsy of Extreme Tech)

• SolaRoad; a Solar road for cyclists in Netherlands
• Covering water canals with solar panels in Guajarat, India to reduce unwanted water evaporation in the canals besides generating some power. Project Fruit: up to 2,200 MWatt per year, saving up to 20 billion litres of water. Entities involved with the project: Sun Edison, Guajarat State Electricity Corporation (GSEC)

Wind Energy:

 (Photo Courtsy of Wikipedia)

High Altitude Wind ( 600-1,000 meters high ) are far more steady, strong than wind close to Earth surface. Significant efforts have been going to put that fact to use.

But still, with the designs available today, wind farms coexist with produce farms. The able, willing nations like Germany are satisfying a considerable percentage of their electricity needs out of thin air ( covering 9% of total usage in case of Germany)

Kitegen: Research has been based in Italy for years now, the idea is to have automatically-controlled kites placed at heights of 600-800 meters capture and transfer the mechanical energy of the wind to a wind turbine (with a vertical axis) to generate electricity. Such design eliminates the need for towering wind mills, and even allows easier construction of such power generating stations offshore (on the water surface).

The main concerns being worked on are aviation traffic and cost, but many reports point that this is a very promising, cheap & clean method to generate electricity. An example case study to this is Alcoa Aluminum Smelter (factory) in Sardinia, Italy that is interested in completely migrating to power that is generated using Kitegen systems, with a business case proposing the recovery of the initial investment completely within 2 years. Foot note: Alcoa smelter is the biggest electricity consumer in Italy.

Small Scale Generation (Microgeneration): house holds would install small wind mills to generate some power that might be enough for lighting (and maybe heating) loads, and reducing loads in peak hours. In some cases if you're generating more power than you're using, your two-way power meter will let you know and you will be paid for your contribution. Communities in the UK are embracing the concept, and are getting rewarded.

Adoption Challenges for The Middle East Region:

• Energy Subsidization; nothing is going to go anywhere with this in place.
• No will, no funding on official levels; with the exception of the visionary government leaders in the United Arab Emirates.
• Schemes of adopting research into projects are unheard of in this region; not for the lack of funds in case of GCC countries, but for the lack of direction. Still, the UAE government stands out as the only country trying to create a different future. 

Hopefully, after the turmoil in the region settles (relatively) and as the world recovers from the recession and financial cliffs, things will move forward. I just hope that it won't be too little too late. M Youssef

Read also:

• Future Tech Part 1 - Nostalgic Intro
• Future Tech Part 2 - Marvels of 3D Printing