NEW WIND TURBINE TECHNOLOGY


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Hydrogen refuelling station at Colruyt (Halle, Belgium), directly connected to a windfarm


- A NEW MARKET FOR WIND POWER Energy systems across the globe are undergoing a fundamental transformation to decrease


RENEWABLE HYDROGEN greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), increase air quality and decrease dependency on oil, coal and gas


These objectives were confirmed with the adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit it even further to 1.5 degrees. To reach these objectives, governments around the globe have developed strategies to decarbonise their respective power, gas, transport and industry sectors.


DECARBONISING POWER To decarbonise power generation, most governments rely on a combination of renewables, mainly wind and solar power, which have demonstrated a significant and fast cost reduction. While wind and solar are the cheapest sources of clean power, integrating them into the power grid is challenging as their supply is not consistent. Therefore, the need for grid flexibility (demand side management and backup power) and energy storage solutions are rapidly growing.


DECARBONISING GAS To decarbonise the gas sector, several strategies are being followed based on the reduction of gas consumption and the substitution of natural gas with green gases. The first priority is usually


64 www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


put on energy efficiency: decreasing the energy needs for heating and cooling (i.e. better insulation of buildings). There is also a clear trend to electrify the heating sector (i.e. heat pumps) and to use biomass to generate heat (i.e. pellets), decreasing the need for gas. For all other instances of gas consumption, governments are promoting the use of green gases such as biomethane (from biogas), synthetic natural gas and hydrogen.


DECARBONISING TRANSPORT Transport applications are numerous – road (cars, vans, trucks, buses and coaches), rail (passenger and freight), maritime (ferries, barges, ships) and air (airplanes) – and require adequate decarbonisation strategies. Most policies have focused on biofuels (biodiesel and bioethanol), however the environmental performance and sustainability of these fuels has been heavily criticised over the past years.


As air quality has become a major challenge in suburban cities and densely populated areas, transportation has been pointed out as the main contributor to GHGs. Major cities are establishing zero or low emission zones


and have announced a ban on the use of diesel cars in the next decade. Under these circumstances, it is clear that a significant part of transport applications will need to be electrified through hydrogen and battery electric vehicles.


DECARBONISING INDUSTRY The sources of GHG in industry are abundant but typically linked with the need for power, heat and industry feedstock. The main challenge is to decarbonise industrial feedstock, which generally relies on fossils fuels to produce chemicals containing mostly carbon, oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Industry is looking at ways to capture carbon directly from the air, through biological sources or via carbon capture technologies in industrial processes, as well as ways to produce hydrogen other than from natural gas (emitting on average 10 tons of CO2


for each ton of hydrogen produced).


MASSIVE ELECTRIFICATION Driven by the falling prices of wind and solar power, electrification appears repeatedly in all government strategies to decarbonise power, gas, transport and industry. Massive electrification


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