Lectures 1-2 or Renewable Energy lecture course. Delivered by Prof. Neil Greenham at Cambridge, 1st Dec 2014

1. Renewable Energy
Neil Greenham
ncg11@cam.ac.uk

2. Aims
•
To develop the skills to be quantitative about energy generation, storage and use
•
Order of magnitude estimates from simple physics
•
To understand the physics/chemistry/materials science behind some (non- PV) renewable energy technologies, for example
•
Hydrogen
•
Batteries
•
Biofuels

3. Absent Friends
•
Prof. David MacKay
•
Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Energy and Climate Change (2009-2014)
•
Regius Professor of Engineering
The book:
•
Available at all good bookshops
•
Free online at http://www.withouthotair.com/

4. Water-Powered Car Might Be Available by 2009
“Forget cars fuelled by alcohol and vegetable oil. Before long, you might be able to run your car with nothing more than water in its fuel tank. It would be the ultimate zero-emissions vehicle.
While water is not at first sight an obvious power source, it has a key virtue: it is an abundant source of hydrogen, the element widely touted as the green fuel of the future.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125621.200-a-fuel-tank-full-of- water.html?full=true

5. Nuclear versus Wind
“If we’re going to cut greenhouse gases by 60%, there’s no other possible way of doing that except through renewables”
“Anybody who is relying on renewables to fill the energy gap is living in an utter dream world and is, in my view, an enemy of the people
“We have a huge amount of wave and wind”
“Nuclear is a money pit”
Anne Leslie, Journalist
Sir Bernard Ingham, former press secretary to Margaret Thatcher
Michael Meacher, former environment minister
We need numbers, not adjectives!

6. What is in the course?
Lectures 1-2
Lectures 5-6
•
Estimates
•
Energy use
•
Wind
•
Cars
•
Hydrogen
•
Storage
•
Batteries
•
Heating and cooling
•
Exergy
•
Solar thermal
Lectures 3-4
•
Energy and charge transfer
•
Photosynthesis
•
Biofuels
Lectures 7-8

7. Rate of energy use of average UK person?
kW
kW h day-1

8. Some answers
NB. Electricity use
~16 kWh/d/person
106

9. Possible UK renewable energy sources

10. Some answers
NB. Electricity use
~16 kWh/d/person
103
Realistic renewables?

11. 53 TWh/year = 2.3 kWh/person/day
Digest of United Kingdom energy statistics (DUKES)
Current renewables (2013)
Hydro
Landfill
Bio
PV
Onshore wind
Offshore wind

12. How many wind turbines does it take to run a car?
Average family car, 33 m.p.g
= 12 km per litre
Distance travelled per day: 50 km
Wind turbine diameter: 25 m
Average wind speed: 6 m s-1

13. Wind
David Cameron’s chimney

14. Microwind
An Ampair '600 W' micro-turbine.
The average power generated by this micro-turbine in Leamington Spa is 0.037 kWh per day (1.5 W)

15. Real data – 27 m turbines, Norfolk (‘225 kW’)
Photo by Andrew Dunn
Average output (1 turbine): 42 kW

16. Refinements?
Betz’s law
328vdPower πρ=
?
Best power when vafter = vbefore/3
328590vdPower πρ.max=
In practice, more like 0.5
⇒ 35 kW

17. Wind power per person in UK?
Spacing ~ 5 times diameter
•
Cover 10% of UK
•
Population 60m
•
Area 244 000 km2

18. Cars
Where does the energy go?
Why does a car do 33 m.p.g.?

19. Air resistance?

20. Acceleration and braking

21. Efficient transport
•
Have small frontal area per person
•
Have small weight per person
•
Convert energy efficiently
•
Go slowly
•
Go steadily

22. Solar power per person in UK?
10% of land area

23. Other people’s sun?

24. 600 km × 600 km, 15 W/m2 ⇒ 1 billion people at 125 kWh/d
145 km × 145 km, 15 W/m2 ⇒ UK population at 125 kWh/d

25. Just electricity?
Each blob 1500 km2
Half filled at 15 W/m2
⇒ 10 GW average per blob
65 blobs ⇒ 1 bn people at 16 kWh/d each

26. HVDC transmission
2 GW
3.1 GW, 1360 km
1.9 GW, 1420 km
0.7 GW,
580 km

27. HVDC cables
Finland – Estonia
350 MW in 2 cables
Photos: ABB