WASHINGTON – From recreating the process that powers the sun to harnessing the searing temperatures deep beneath our feet, scientists, companies and venture capitalists are relying on high-tech ways to keep the planet energized without emitting greenhouse gases.
Such “moon-shot” technologies are likely to be a topic of conversation when delegates meet at the UN climate talks in Scotland starting Sunday to see how the fossil fuel transition can be accelerated.
While traditional clean energy sources such as solar and wind power are likely to play a leading role in helping countries meet short-term climate goals, higher-tech solutions may be needed to meet longer-term goals.
Deploying these technologies takes a lot of research, money, and a little bit of luck. Here are some of the technologies that are getting the most attention:
merger
Fusion is the process that fuels the sun. It could power your home after all.
It works when the nuclei of two atoms are exposed to extreme heat, which causes them to fuse into a new, larger atom, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.
The trick is that the usual fuel hydrogen has to be heated to 150 million degrees Celsius, which initially costs a lot of energy. So far, no facility has carried out a fusion reaction that releases more energy than it needs. The merger-free operation of a power plant presents additional hurdles, such as how to contain this heat economically.
Still, scientists at Oxford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and elsewhere say they are making progress. The UK government expects a prototype to be in place by 2040.
Fusion has advantages over fission – which is used in nuclear reactors today to break atoms – including the fact that the fuel is made from water, not radioactive uranium or plutonium. This means that the merger will not create the long-term radioactive waste that few politicians in their districts want.
Energy companies are excited about the merger. Both the Italian ENI https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/eni-completes-landmark-test-energy-fusion-project-2021-09-08 and the Norwegian Equinor https: //www.equinor. com / de / how-and-why / etv-news / equinor-invested-in-fusionsenergie.html have invested. The US company Chevron Corp has invested in the Seattle-based fusion startup Zap Energy Inc.
Advanced nuclear
Modern nuclear power plants would be smaller than today’s massive nuclear reactors. They could, in theory, be deployed in remote locations or supplement wind and solar power when the sun goes down or the wind dies down. And some versions could use nuclear waste as fuel.
But advanced nuclear reactors are also a challenge to build. Today’s large light water reactors offer economies of scale, while small ones can be expensive.
Critics say they also generate more concentrated waste and run on uranium, which is much enriched in today’s reactors than the fuel. That could make some advanced reactors and their supply chains attractive to militants looking for materials that could more easily be turned into a dirty bomb.
In the USA, Bill Gates wants to build a sodium reactor in Wyoming for around 1 billion US dollars and supply many of the power plants with electricity in the 2030s. China, Russia and Japan are also working on the technology.
Carbon capture, storage
Last month, Climeworks AG in Iceland partnered with carbon storage company Carbfix to open the world’s largest facility to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and pump it into the earth, where it eventually turns to rock, the companies said.
It is one of 15 Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems worldwide that collectively suck around 9,000 tons of CO2 out of the sky every year. Sounds impressive, but that’s only about the amount that comes out of the tailpipes of 2,000 cars.
High costs in the region of $ 600 per tonne of carbon dioxide captured could limit growth in the short term. But costs will come down as technology improves, proponents say. “This is where things get a lot more interesting,” says Noah Deich, president of the non-profit group Carbon 180. He believes that DAC will become more important after 2030.
Even low-tech carbon capture and storage (CCS), where CO2 is captured at an industrial site rather than from the air, has had a bumpy road. Several systems for extracting CO2 from coal-fired power plants for underground installation have failed or are on hold.
Tax breaks in US legislation would increase a loan on CCS to around $ 85 per tonne. However, critics, including environmental group Sierra Club, say offering large loans could encourage plants to continue burning fossil fuels.
hydrogen
Hydrogen has long been used as a rocket fuel and can be mixed with natural gas to make cleaner burning fuel or used in a fuel cell vehicle, releasing water vapor as exhaust gas. It can also be obtained from ammonia as fuel for ships.
The holy grail is what is known as clean hydrogen, which is produced using wind, solar or nuclear power, as today’s “gray hydrogen” is produced using fossil fuels. But that costs about four times as much.
Another option, blue hydrogen, is made using natural gas facilities that capture carbon, but some scientists say that the process can release methane, making hydrogen no cleaner than natural gas itself.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is planning a $ 5 billion facility to produce clean hydrogen in its futuristic city, NEOM.
Geothermal energy
Geothermal power plants tap heat up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit (370 C) well below the earth’s surface to create steam and turn turbines that produce electricity.
Countries like the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Kenya are leaders in geothermal power generation. But the technology still has to work hard to play a meaningful role in providing an alternative to fossil fuels.
The United States has the capacity to meet 10% of the country’s current electricity needs from geothermal energy, up from 0.4% today as high up-front costs hold back investment. Countries with few fossil fuel resources, including Japan and Singapore, are striving to expand geothermal energy.
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