Easy, efficient options that may assist reduce the affect of local weather change exist already. A few of them nonetheless have to be applied, although, whereas others have to be improved.
That’s in line with 2023 IEEE President Saifur Rahman, who was among the many audio system from engineering organizations on the COP27 occasion held in Egypt in November. The IEEE Life Fellow spoke throughout a session addressing the position of expertise in delivering an equitable, sustainable, and low-carbon resilient world.
Rahman, an influence knowledgeable and professor {of electrical} and pc engineering at Virginia Tech, is the previous chair of the IEEE advert hoc committee on local weather change. The committee was fashioned final yr to coordinate the group’s response to the worldwide disaster.
About one-third of emissions globally are produced by electrical energy era, and Rahman stated his mission is to assist cut back that quantity by engineering options.
At COP27, he stated that regardless that the primary legally binding worldwide treaty on local weather change, referred to as the Paris Settlement, was adopted almost a decade in the past, international locations have but to come back to a consensus on the right way to cease burning fossil fuels, amongst different points. Some proceed to burn coal, for instance, as a result of there aren’t any different economically possible decisions for them.
“We as technologists from IEEE say, ‘For those who preserve to your positions, you’ll by no means get an settlement,’” he stated. “We’ve got come to supply this six-point portfolio of options that everyone can dwell with. We need to be an answer associate so we are able to have events on the desk to assist resolve this downside of excessive carbon emissions globally.”
The options Rahman outlined had been the usage of confirmed strategies that cut back electrical energy utilization, making coal vegetation extra environment friendly, utilizing hydrogen and different storage options, selling extra renewables, putting in new varieties of nuclear reactors, and inspiring cross-border energy transfers.
Power-saving ideas
One motion is to make use of much less electrical energy, Rahman stated, noting that dimming lights by 20 % in properties, workplace buildings, resorts, and faculties may save 10 % of electrical energy. Most individuals wouldn’t even discover the distinction in brightness, he stated.
One other is switching to LEDs, which use a minimum of 75 % much less vitality than incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs price about 5 occasions extra, however they last more, he stated. He referred to as on developed international locations to supply monetary help to creating nations to assist them substitute all their incandescent bulbs with LEDs.
One other energy-saving measure is to lift the temperature of air conditioners by 2 °C. This might save 10 % of electrical energy as properly, Rahman.
By higher controlling lighting, heating, and cooling, 20 % of vitality might be saved with out inflicting anybody to undergo, he stated.
Environment friendly coal-burning vegetation
Shutting down coal energy vegetation utterly is unlikely to occur anytime quickly, he predicted, particularly since many international locations are constructing new ones which have 40-year life spans. Nations that proceed to burn coal ought to achieve this in high-efficiency energy vegetation, he stated.
One sort is the ultrasupercritical coal-fired steam energy plant. Typical coal-fired vegetation, which make water boil to generate steam that prompts a turbine, have an effectivity of about 38 %. Ultrasupercritical vegetation function at temperatures and pressures at which the liquid and gasoline phases of water coexist in equilibrium. It ends in greater efficiencies: about 46 %. Rahman cited the Eemshaven ultrasupercritical plant, in Groningen, Netherlands—which was in-built 2014.
One other environment friendly possibility he identified is the mixed cycle energy plant. In its first stage, pure gasoline is burned in a turbine to make electrical energy. The warmth from the turbine’s exhaust is used to provide steam to show a turbine within the second stage. The ensuing two-stage energy plant is a minimum of 25 % extra environment friendly than a single-stage plant.
“IEEE needs to be an answer associate, not a complaining associate, so we are able to have each events on the desk to assist resolve this downside of excessive carbon emissions globally.”
One other technique to make coal-fired energy vegetation extra environmentally pleasant is to seize the exhausted carbon dioxide and retailer it within the floor, Rahman stated. Such carbon-capture methods are being utilized in some places, however he acknowledges that the carbon sequestration course of is simply too costly for some international locations.
Integrating and storing grid and off-grid vitality
To correctly stability electrical energy provide and demand on the facility grid, renewables needs to be built-in into vitality era, transmission, and distribution methods from the very begin, Rahman stated. He added that the vitality from wind, photo voltaic, and hydroelectric vegetation needs to be saved in batteries so the electrical energy generated from them throughout off-peak hours isn’t wasted however built-in into vitality grids.
He additionally stated low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen gasoline needs to be thought-about as a part of the renewable vitality combine. The gasoline can be utilized to energy automobiles, provide electrical energy, and warmth properties, all with zero carbon emissions.
“Hydrogen would assist rising economies meet their local weather objectives, decrease their prices, and make their vitality grid extra resilient,” he stated.
Smaller nuclear energy vegetation
Rahman conceded there’s a stigma that surrounds nuclear energy vegetation due to accidents at Chernobyl, Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and elsewhere. However, he stated, with out nuclear energy, the idea of changing into carbon impartial by 2050 isn’t lifelike.
“It’s not attainable within the subsequent 25 years besides with nuclear energy,” he stated. “We don’t have sufficient photo voltaic vitality and wind vitality.”
Small modular reactors may substitute conventional nuclear energy vegetation. SMRs are simpler and cheaper to construct, they usually’re safer than right this moment’s massive nuclear vegetation, Rahman stated.
Although small, SMRs are highly effective. They’ve an output of as much as 300 megawatts of electrical energy, or a few quarter of the scale of right this moment’s typical nuclear plant.
The modular reactors are assembled in factories and shipped to their final location, as an alternative of being constructed onsite. And in contrast to conventional nuclear amenities, SMRs don’t have to be positioned close to massive our bodies of water to deal with the waste warmth discharge.
SMRs haven’t taken off, Rahman says, due to licensing and technical points.
Electrical energy switch throughout nationwide borders
Rahman emphasised the necessity for extra cross-border energy transfers, as few international locations have sufficient electrical energy to produce to all their residents. Many international locations already achieve this.
“The US buys energy from Canada. France sells vitality to Italy, Spain, and Switzerland,” Rahman stated. “The entire world is one grid. You can’t transition from coal to photo voltaic and vice versa until you switch energy backwards and forwards.”
Free analysis on local weather change
Through the convention session, Rahman stated an IEEE assortment of seven,000 papers associated to local weather change is accessible from the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. IEEE additionally launched a web site that homes further sources.
Not one of the options IEEE proposed are new or untested, Rahman stated, however his aim is to “present a portfolio of options acceptable to and deployable in each the rising economies and the developed international locations—which can enable them to take a seat on the desk collectively and see how a lot carbon emission may be saved by inventive software of already out there applied sciences in order that each events win on the finish of the day.”
