The inherent intermittency of renewable energy means that for technologies such as wind, solar and wave to be adopted at scale, they must (ironically) be supported by flexible fossil fuel power, at least in the medium-term, to cope with demand.
Take Germany, for example, its Energiewende has given rise to major renewables reliance; producing at their peak, up to 60% of Germany’s electricity. That’s great news on the surface, but the intermittency issue plays havoc with European power grids. For example, at periods of low generation and high demand, Germany is forced to rely upon French nuclear power plants, as well as using coal-generated power from neighbouring countries such as Poland to meet the demand.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose last year as coal-fired power plants became cheaper to operate than gas; an issue the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to tackle by limiting emissions from new coal plants to 500kg per MWh, and from gas plants, to 450kg per MWh. However, despite rising legislation, market forces dictate that the prevalence of fossil fuels, combined with their ability to flexibly manage power surges, will prolong their use as a crutch for renewables.
Carbon capture technologies are already established which can manage the rapid dynamic transition that’s needed between renewable and fossil fuel generated power, whilst limiting the release of CO2. Here at the CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), the only large-scale gas-fired test centre, our amine carbon capture unit can scale the CO2 capture rate from zero to 90% CO2 removal (3.2 tonnes of CO2 per hour) in less than two hours – mimicking a power surge scenario of the grid going from full renewables reliance to reliance on fossil fuels.
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