New 100% solar energy solution
Is there any possibility to design and make anything really new in solar energy today?
All science and industry usually goes in incremental progress with some sudden steps in development, and with all new technologies or products being launched and expanded on the market they all appear in different levels of sizes and capacities over time. The industrial learning curve can be a good reference for innovations, but at the same time we define an innovation to large extent by its revenue generation or adaptation by the masses.
In solar energy we must also include the fact that no matter how good performance or other "greatness" in technology achieved, ether will always be limiting factors present in solar energy products if they are to replace any high share of the energy market (I mean of all energy used on the planet). Other factors as the cost of that solar energy is an intermittent energy source and the capacity factor in covering our energy needed all day, month or year is limited by the sun hours shining on our lands.
In order to manage these limitations we can apply short term energy storage as batteries or thermal storages, to smoothen out the daily power peaks to evenly distributed power day and nigh during 1-7 days or more, and combine this with long term energy storage, as chemical conversion making hydrogen or flow batteries or other.
I have worked with solar energy since the 1980's and have interacted and worked with many technicians, engineers, Phd's, professors and manufacturing experts globally, within the energy industry, designed many solar collectors and other system parts, systems layouts and solar plants erected in many countries, certified and 100% working systems, for customers both domestic private and industrial corporations. I have seen many examples when reality was far more than we anticipated many times, and was working in solar energy many years before it became a global industry, that is today the lowest cost energy, with the highest expansion rate of all energy on the planet.
But to go for the real goal as expressed by International Energy Agency IRENA to set the target of 100% solar energy replacing all fossil energy 172 000TWh/year and all electric power etc, is a challenge I never expected to work on before. This entails a very large land area even if its >1% of earth land mass, its millions of hectares, and almost unimaginable amounts of glass, aluminium, copper, silver, steel, polymers etc. More materials than we produce today, it seemed if I tried to solve this with using traditional solar panels as solar photovoltaics (PV, PVT, CPVT) or concentrating solar power (CSP) etc. Utilizing 65-85 tons/MW of power is requiring very large tonnage of materials for the 100% target. Using 1 hectare of land for each MW of peak power (at 12:00 daytime) and having zero power nighttime, didn't make it feasible either.
We needed a better approach to this task.
But at first we didn't have any components or system parts that could make that possible, not at our company nor at any know project for Universities or Corporations that we could find. Using traditional solar thermal panels or photovoltaics panels gave us a 4-6% solar field efficiency at a higher cost than solar today, and that wasn't profitable, it had a very high energy cost, or leveled cost of energy (LCOE).
So we went into a 15 year long research and development project, trying everything we could imagine in solar technology to figure out a solar energy based system with a process route that didn't have to much conversion losses, and can be manufactured easily with no dependency of certain countries or very novel materials from certain manufacturers etc.
I realized after many different tests of various routes and processes, that the combination of solar generated steam with thermal heat storage, and a steam turbine generators, with steam assisted electrolysis and hydrogenation to methanol, gives us a system with a very promising system combination. We minimize the parasitic energy used in the system, and if designed and manufactured correctly we may achieve surprisingly low costs and high efficiencies simultaneously. We made the proof of concept of Sunthetics process in the years 2010-2015 and received an award from an expert panel at EIT Innoenergy programme in Germany (https://innoenergy.com/). And we also did work at the Royal Institute in Stockholm and received a Due Diligence report by Vattenfall group confirming the Sunthetics process could work as intended.
Now that we had confirmations internally and externally we went on working out thousands of details to enable the design of prototypes that was tested in lab and full scale system parts to be used in EU-projects, and we participated as observers of new materials and parts development with our suppliers, we designed and made the setup manufacturing of solar collectors, nighttime power generators, thermal heat storage systems, power electronics, computer systems for solar field control, energy trading aggregator functionality, grid power flexibility control, and certifications projects of system parts, eventually in 2020 after several million euros of investments, we decided to initiate the first pilot power plants, and a series of full scale power plants.
What was the achievements?
We could improve the solar field efficiency far above any typical solar power plant that has no seasonal energy storage today, and approximately >10 times higher that using the typical ways to make solar fuels elsewhere. We also achieved a cost level far below most other solutions. Even below most other energy sources in use today. This enable high net revenues in solar energy that is 100% dispatchable energy that can be used when needed throughout the whole year.
So the answer is; Yes it's possible to make new in solar energy today!
And I think we must try this technology to see how far we can go with this solution, and do it in the Open Source Energy pathway, doing it together, one more good thing contributing for a better world.
Copy of Press release by Sunthetics
The Sunthetics open source energy solution that enable 100% renewables 100% of time, all year round.
Through our solar-based CHP2X plants, methanol, electricity and heat are produced with high efficiency and without the need for hazardous gas compressors.
For investors, this means a scalable, secure and profitable model with clear revenue streams. And this solar energy plants that stores its energy in solar fuel, is a real world asset based product and operations generate value for up to 50 years of its service life.
For users of our solar fuel combined heat and power generator units (CHP gensets), this means access to reliable, flexible and cost-effective energy - around the clock, all year round. With Sunthetics, sustainability and profitability are combined in one and the same solution.
Added values are Sunthetics carbon capture and production of clean water, and possibility to grow food beneath the solar fields. These are essential commodities produced in the solar fields and in the Sunthetics system arranged by utilizing new technology to grow crops with high yields.
See more about the new solution at www.sunthetics.se
bruksgatan 7 solgården
Sunthetics is a open source energy company developing solar power projects with 100% capacity factor solar fuel and carbon capture.
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