Zoo dedicates electric vehicle charging stations – News – The Courier-Tribune

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ASHEBORO — The N.C. Zoo is the first major attraction in the state with electric vehicle charging stations. Monday morning those stations were officially dedicated with a ribbon cutting assisted by Michael Regan, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Regan commended the zoo staff for setting an example to the rest of the state in clean energy opportunities. Speaking to an audience at Solar Pointe, a large sheltered picnic area with solar panels on the roofs, Regan called the area “a great way to blend education, fun and saving the planet.”

Along with the solar energy, the zoo practices policies that, according to Regan, have reduced its energy consumption by 30 percent since 2002. Now the zoo, in a partnership with Randolph Electric Membership Corp. (REMC) and ChargePoint, offers drivers of electric vehicles the ability to charge their batteries while visiting the zoo. There are two charging stations at both Solar Pointe, at the south end of North America, and the Stedman Education Center parking lot at the entrance of North America. Each station is able to charge two vehicles at once.

As the only major attraction in the state with charging stations, Regan said, the zoo can “grow access to clean energy while encouraging the use of electric vehicles.” He said he was heartened that state agencies have “become global leaders in energy production and use.”

A goal of the state, Regan said, is that “all North Carolina have access to clean energy and reduce the use of dirty carbon fuels.” He said a thriving renewable energy program in the state will create jobs, reduce the state’s carbon footprint and encourage travelers to visit North Carolina attractions. He thanked the zoo for setting the example for others.

Zoo Director Pat Simmons hosted the event and greeted several dozen in attendance, including representatives of REMC, ChargePoint, the N.C. Zoological Society, state legislators and local elected officials. She said the zoo is not only the first major attraction with EV chargers but also the first in a rural area of the state.

The chargers at the zoo, she said, “assist in filling the gaps for travelers coming from within North Carolina and beyond. Within four to five hours, an electric vehicle will be fully charged, and this is about the same amount of time most people stay at the zoo for a visit.”

She noted that EV drivers use apps to find charger stations and the zoo will be on those apps.

Dale Lambert, CEO of REMC, called the zoo “a leader in sustainability, conservation and environmental stewardship and we’re proud to have partnered with them from the very beginning.”

He talked about ways REMC and the zoo have worked together over the years on improvements, including recent upgrades of the underground infrastructure.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with the N.C. Zoo and ChargePoint to make these charging stations available to the growing number of owners of electric vehicles that visit this great attraction,” said Lambert. “These EV chargers are among the first in a statewide network being developed by North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. Our goal is to support tourism by accommodating the charging needs of travelers, while also facilitating access to EV technologies in rural communities.”

Whitney Smith, ChargePoint sales director for North Carolina and Tennessee, said, “ChargePoint’s mission is to connect EV chargers everywhere. With a place like the N.C. Zoo being in a beautiful area, it’s an absolute pleasure. We’re grateful for the opportunity and proud to be part of the project.”

The EV chargers at the zoo are available and free to anyone with an electric vehicle.

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EDF Signs Solar Deal With SoCal Public Power Authority

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california

EDF Renewables North America has signed 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) for the energy and renewable attributes related to the 70 MW AC Desert Harvest II solar PV project in Riverside County, Calif.

The agreement was signed under a renewable energy credit plus index structure. The Desert Harvest II Solar Project is expected to begin delivery of clean electricity to SCPPA’s participating members – Anaheim, Burbank and Vernon – starting in 2020. In conjunction, EDF Renewables signed a long-term financial hedge for power with Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc.

Under the SCPPA PPA, EDF Renewables says it worked with California municipalities to create a structuring solution to address the specific challenges posed by California’s “duck curve.” EDF Renewables is able to provide SCPPA with a PPA structure that shelters the buyer from exposure to merchant prices through the use of a long-term hedge, coupled with an energy storage system.

The Desert Harvest II Solar Project is located on unincorporated land administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM designated this area as a Solar Energy Zone and Development Focus Area, land set aside for utility-scale renewable energy development. Desert Harvest II is also specially designed to generate clean energy while protecting wildlife habitat and public lands. The project will use horizontal single-axis tracking solar PV technology.

“Desert Harvest II represents the company’s second collaboration with SCPPA, and we look forward to working with them to make the project a success, providing a boost to the Riverside County economy in parallel through the creation of new jobs,” comments Ryan Pfaff, executive vice president of grid-scale power at EDF Renewables.

SCPPA’s executive director, Mike Webster, adds, “EDF Renewable’s Desert Harvest II solar project will help to allow our participating member utilities to be on track to achieve their renewable production goals of 40 percent by the end of 2024.”

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Improving On Solar Collectors | Science Trends

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Energy consumption has been multiplying at one of the fastest rates in the world due to population growth and economic development. Thus, the role of energy becomes considerably important to sustain modern societies’ fast economic and industrial growth worldwide.

The brisk exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves has compelled an urgent need for alternative sources of energy. Further, in view of environmental threats, the development of renewable energy sources has received attention. From many alternatives like solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, etc., the first stands out as the brightest long-term resource for meeting the ever-increasing demand for energy. There has always been a close connection between sustainable development and renewable energy.

While solar energy is available abundantly in almost every part of the earth, it is much cheaper than many alternatives and can be mainly harnessed in two different ways. First is a thermal system for thermal energy conversion, and another is through photovoltaic systems for electricity production. Both systems can be combined into one system, known as Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) system, which can be simultaneously used for both functions. The present study deals with the solar thermal systems which operate by making use of a solar collector.

Solar energy collectors are basically heat exchangers which convert solar radiation energy to thermal energy and transport it to the working medium. The major constituent of any solar device is the solar collector. The collector absorbs the falling solar radiation, transforms it into heat, and passes this heat to a fluid (typically air or water) which flows through the collector. The solar energy collected is thus carried away by the circulating fluid either directly to the hot water or space conditioning equipment or to a thermal energy storage tank from where it can be used for various applications.

The solar collectors have been invented a while ago, but both their efficiency is still an issue. Similarly, the efficiency of photovoltaic systems is even lower, around 5-25{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974}. While the renewable systems are still in development phase, a lot of research is being carried out in this field. Among this, the artificial rib roughness method is a prominent way of enhancing the thermal efficiency of a collector. The present study elucidates the methodology of rib roughness method by visualizing the in-depth fluid flow pattern involved in the duct.

The visualization helps in better understanding the phenomena of heat transfer and fluid dynamics inside the solar air heater. It is a step toward focusing the special parts near the rib, which can be understood and targeted for optimization. The effect of various geometrical and flow parameters on the performance of solar air heater has been summed up in the present investigation. The article is a mini-review dealing with solar air heater and could present a reference in the field. The economic aspects are also discussed in contrast to other enhancement methods. Further, a conclusive discussion is presented on combined enhancement techniques for future developments in solar air heaters.

These findings are described in the article entitled A review of artificial roughness geometries employed in solar air heaters, recently published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. This work was conducted by Inderjeet Singh and Sukhmeet Singh from the Punjab Agricultural University.

Opinions expressed are solely the authors and do not express the views or opinions of Science Trends nor the author’s institution.

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Perovskite Solar Cells: A Photovoltaic Technology With Outstanding Light-Harvesting Capabilities Under Indoor Illumination

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Perovskite solar cells represent an emerging photovoltaic technology being researched and developed by academic and industrial laboratories worldwide because it is able to bring together at the same time low-cost manufacturing (materials/processes) together with high power conversion efficiencies of the end product.

The vast majority of R&D has focused on the technology operating at standard test conditions (i.e. bright sunlight).

Figure schematizing the demonstration of perovskite solar cell technology with outstanding power outputs under indoor lighting for powering electronics in smart buildings, the internet of things, and wireless sensors.

The Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE), Department of Electronic Engineering University of Rome – Tor Vergata, in collaboration with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London, have developed device architectures with new solution-processed composite electron transport layers that work exceptionally well under artificial indoor lighting (i.e. white LED lamps). Indoor illumination delivers a different spectrum (concentrated in the visible range) and incident power (i.e. 2 to 3 orders of magnitude smaller) compared to that of the sun at standard test conditions. By inserting a thin MgO overlayer over a more conventional SnO2 transport layer, between the perovskite semiconductor film and the bottom transparent electrode, detrimental charge recombination was reduced.

The resulting improvement in the capability of extracting useful electrons by the photovoltaic cell is especially critical at the low illumination levels typically found indoors and has considerable influence on device performance. In fact, the power conversion efficiency improved by 20{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974} and the maximum power density was 20.2 µW/cm2 at 200 lx and 41.6 µW/cm2 at 400 lx (corresponding to a power conversion of 27{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974}) under white LED illumination. To date, these represent the highest output power densities reported for any photovoltaic technology under these typical illumination ranges found in home and office environments.

Ambient indoor conditions represent a milder environment compared to stringent outdoor conditions and are much less demanding on device lifetimes. This, together with their exceptional efficiency under artificial lighting, suggests an initial market for this new photovoltaic technology which is still seeking long-term stability outdoors. Furthermore, all layers of the cells, except for the two electrodes, were solution-processed at low temperatures, making the technology easy to integrate with other printed electronic components on the same substrate, and compatible with low-cost manufacturing. Low-temperature processing means that this technology can be fabricated not only on glass but even on flexible plastic substrate films and thus more-easily integrated with a variety of surfaces and objects.

Figure: perovskite solar cells on glass (left) and plastic film (right)

There are many objects and low-power devices that need energy to operate, including portable electronics, devices that make buildings/homes “smart,” and the fast-rising markets of autonomous indoor wireless sensor networks and the internet of things. Having a power source able to efficiently convert energy from indoor lighting, as well as outdoor sunlight, into electrical energy would enable many of these to do without batteries that require periodic replacing and connections to wires. The unparalleled performance demonstrated by these new solar cell architectures can pave the way for perovskite photovoltaics to contribute strongly to energy harvesting and the powering of indoor electronics of the future.

These findings are described in the article entitled Highly efficient perovskite solar cells for light harvesting under indoor illumination via solution processed SnO2/MgO composite electron transport layers, recently published in the journal Nano Energy. This work was conducted by Janardan Dagar, Sergio Castro-Hermosa, Giulia Lucarelli and Thomas M. Brown from the Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE), Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, and Franco Cacialli from The London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London.

Opinions expressed are solely the authors and do not express the views or opinions of Science Trends nor the author’s institution.

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Wisconsin utility’s solar investment begins transition away from coal

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Signaling the early stages of a historic transition, WEC Energy Group, the parent company of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, last month announced its first large investment in solar power.

Once the darlings only of the green-energy crowd, solar and wind projects now have become the least expensive way for utilities to add new power generation. As a result, they’re changing how utilities plan to operate in the coming decade.

“The technology keeps getting better and better —and, the most important thing, cheaper,” said Gary Radloff, who retired this year as director of energy policy analysis for the Midwest at the Wisconsin Energy Institute, a research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin Public Service, the subsidiary of WEC Energy Group that operates in northeastern Wisconsin, and Madison Gas and Electric plan to invest a total of $390 million to buy 300 megawatts of generating capacity — enough electricity for more than 70,000 residential customers — in two solar power projects. We Energies is expected eventually to buy the remaining 150 megawatts in one of the two projects.

The investments are part of WEC’s long-term plan for electricity from the sun, wind and natural gas to make up a larger share of its generating capacity in the next decade. Natural gas, now in abundant supply, will be an important part of that mix: Natural gas power plants can be built for a fraction of the cost of coal-fired plants and are less costly to operate and maintain.

But solar power, which is better suited overall for Wisconsin than wind power owing to weather patterns and other factors, is certain to make up a growing share of the state’s power generation in the coming decades. The cost is roughly half of what it was four years ago, said Dan Krueger, senior vice president of wholesale energy and fuels for WEC Energy.

More: WEC Energy bets on solar, wind and natural gas. So, what about coal?

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Sanjeev Gupta: Coal power is no longer cheaper – and we’ll prove it | Environment

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The British billionaire who rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration and is spending more than $2bn on clean energy and green steel developments in regional South Australia says most Australians are yet to grasp that solar power is now a cheaper option than new coal-fired electricity.

Sanjeev Gupta, an industrialist whose family-owned GFG Alliance group of companies has been credited with resurrecting Britain’s steel industry, says he considered investing in coal generation in the state’s Upper Spencer Gulf after buying Arrium’s steel mill last year but found solar backed by “firming” storage technologies made better economic sense.

“It’s still everybody’s perception that it is cheaper to make power from coal than it is from renewables, and it is no longer the case,” he told Guardian Australia. “It was the case not long ago, but it’s no longer the case, and we will prove it.”

His comments come as the federal government considers additional support for coal power alongside its proposed national energy guarantee policy. Some Coalition MPs have called for the taxpayers to underwrite or subsidise coal–fired generation.

Gupta’s position is consistent with the Australian energy market operator, which last week released a forecast that found renewable electricity backed by storage and gas would be the lowest cost replacement for the existing coal fleet. The market operator also found it was important to avoid early departures from the electricity grid to ensure an orderly transition.

GFG Alliance’s investment is central to an industrial transformation under way around Port Augusta and Whyalla. Developments proposed for the regional cities include 13 clean energy projects, several of them promising to use unique solar or energy storage technology.

Gupta is making a series of investments as part of his bid to create Australia’s only fully integrated steel business. He bought the Whyalla mill in 2017 when then-owner Arrium was more than $4bn in debt and he is spending at least $1bn doubling its annual output to 2m tonnes. He plans to expand it further using his green steel model – an increased emphasis on recycling scrap steel and heavy investment in clean energy projects close to the plant.

He said the $700m electricity plan he announced last year was likely to end up expanding to about $1.5bn as new projects were included.

Confirmed elements include: two farms of solar photovoltaic panels totalling more than 400MW to both run the steel plant and feed into the national grid; a co-generation plant of about 80MW that would capture the waste gases from steel production and convert them into electricity; up to three pumped hydro plants totalling up to 400MW in disused mining pits in the Middlebank Ranges; a lithium-ion battery larger than that built by Tesla and French company Neoen following a state government tender last year.

Additionally Gupta recently bought the Tahmoor metallurgical coal mine in New South Wales – as an essential ingredient in iron and steel-making, metallurgical coal is expected to have a better long-term economic outlook than thermal coal used in electricity generation – and took a majority share in solar and battery firm Zen Energy, chaired by economist Ross Garnaut.

Gupta said while he believed the long-term future was renewable energy, that alone would not have been enough to persuade him to invest in it.

“If it was cheaper to make new coal plants, I would argue you should invest in that technology… these HELE (high efficiency, low emissions coal) plants are incredibly efficient these days and their emissions are really quite impressive,” he said. “But it should just turn on what’s more competitive. If you can make power from the sort of things that we’re doing and it can compete against a new coal plant, then why would you not do that, right? It’s obvious.”

He said Australia remained well behind other countries in the transition to a cleaner economy, and that its high electricity prices were crippling for industrial players. “There hasn’t been enough investment in new generation [energy] while some older generation has gone away,” he said. “It’s mathematics – there is no rocket science in that.”

Asked why the message that solar with storage could be cheaper was not more broadly understood in Australia, he said: “It’s very new.”

He said until recently solar had been subsidised across the globe but that was no longer the case in many parts of the world, citing India and the Middle East as examples.

Thermal coal would remain a major part of the global energy mix for years to come, he said, taking at least a generation to be phased out, and that managing a transition from fossil fuels was important. But new investments should be forward-looking. “The future is definitely renewable,” he said.

Gupta’s expansion plans are not limited to Australia. He has outlined plans for up to $5bn investment in the US and Canadian steel industries, including re-starting a South Carolina steelworks last month that had been dormant for three years.

Reflecting on why he was investing in a way other businesses had not, Gupta said Australia did not have enough entrepreneurial companies and that large public corporations focused too much on short-term thinking because shareholders expected immediate returns and boards were designed to meet their needs. “It’s not possible to have a three-to-five-year return on solar power,” he said.

Embed

Beyond his existing commitments, Gupta is planning an electric car plant in South Australia or Victoria to produce 30,000 vehicles a year – “It’s 100{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974} proceeding but the exact location is still being debated” – and said a proposed copper smelter and refinery for South Australia was at feasibility stage. His Australian steel assets picked up in the Arrium sale also include smaller works in Sydney and Melbourne and a planned new mill in Brisbane. He said all three would produce only recycled steel.

He said the Upper Spencer Gulf was the ideal place to invest as it had access to minerals, one of the best solar load factors in the world, existing electricity transmission infrastructure, a port that could potentially be expanded, what could become an international airport and room for its regional cities to grow. “It’s all there already, waiting to be exploited,” he said.

Pressed on the state of energy policy and debate in Canberra, Gupta said he did not like to participate in political debate. “Whatever can be done to help with this transition I would welcome with open arms, but even if nothing is done we will still make investments. We may make less investments, we may do it slower, but we will still do it anyway because it’s doable,” he said.

“Of course, if you have the right tailwind and don’t have a headwind then of course you can do more and you can go faster, and you can do grander and bigger, which is what we would like to do, but it’s not a real issue for us. We will do it anyway.”

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Solar energy system proposed in small town

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An international renewable energy company has applied to install a large-scale solar energy system in a small western Massachusetts town, and not everyone is happy.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that CVE North America Inc. wants to install 17,280 solar modules across two 10-acre parcels in Westhampton that would produce nearly five megawatts of power.

Eversource has entered into an agreement with CVE for the power, according to the special permit application.

The application was submitted to the town in June and a public hearing with the Planning Board is scheduled for Tuesday night. The project also needs approval from the state.

Westhampton has about 1,600 residents.

Conservation Commissioner Elvira Loncto called it “a huge project in a small town,” and added “There are those for it and those against.”



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Capitalism Will Solve the Climate Problem

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Together, science and capitalism built the modern world. But across the political spectrum, both are under attack. If we are to solve our greatest challenges, including climate change, we have to deploy the power of these twin engines of civilization.

The best available research confirms the existence of human-driven climate change, including the rapid pace of global warming. Leading scientists’ predictions of temperature rise have been largely accurate. In the three decades since NASA climate scientist James Hansen first warned…

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IEA: World Is Not Spending Enough On Energy

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Global energy investment fell by 2 percent in 2017, the third consecutive year of a decline, according to the International Energy Agency, which sounded the alarm this week, warning that the world is not spending enough on energy.

“The overall trend of energy investment remains insufficient for meeting energy security, climate and air quality goals, and is not spurring an acceleration in technologies needed for the clean energy transition,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement. Global spending stood at USD$1.8 trillion in 2017, down 2 percent from a year earlier.

Much of the decline occurred in the electricity sector, and the IEA declared 2018 “the year of electricity” to raise awareness about the problem. The ongoing electrification of the global economy puts extra emphasis on the need for more generation capacity. The declining investment in coal, hydro and nuclear power more than offset the increased spending on solar.

Fossil fuel spending edged up but still remains at just two-thirds of 2014 levels. The IEA credits the oil and gas industry with keeping costs in check, and because of “cost discipline by operators and excess capacity in the services industry,” the rise in oil prices since 2016 has not led to a corresponding increase in costs. However, the IEA then pointed out that the U.S. shale sector, which has attracted so much attention and investment, did see cost inflation on the order of 10 percent in 2017. More drilling has put a strain on the supply chain, pushing the cost of everything from sand, to drilling services, to labor and equipment. Another 10 percent increase in costs are slated for 2018.

Globally, upstream oil and gas spending rose by 4 percent to $450 billion, and will edge up another 5 percent this year. Beneath that headline figure, U.S. shale spending will grow by 20 percent while conventional oil and gas spending remains flat. Within the conventional segment, most spending is now focusing on brownfield development, a sign of the industry’s cautious approach to development, while spending on new greenfield projects “is expected to plunge to about one-third [of total upstream investment] in 2018 – the lowest level for several years.” Related: The Permian Rush Is Creating A Frac Sand Shortage

Geographically speaking, China attracted the lion’s share of energy investment. And unlike in years past, China’s energy campaign is increasingly focused on clean energy. “China’s energy investment is increasingly driven by low-carbon electricity supply and networks, and energy efficiency. Investment in new coal-fired plants there dropped by 55{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974} in 2017,” the IEA said.

An even more eye-opening conclusion came from India, often positioned as the pivotal country that will decide the pace of de-carbonization over the coming decades because it represents the largest source of growth in both oil and coal consumption. “In India, investment in renewable power topped that for fossil fuel-based power generation for the first time in 2017,” the IEA concluded. Perhaps the energy transition is occurring faster than everyone thinks.

As for the U.S., the increase in investment in 2017 mostly came from upstream oil and gas spending, as well as on gas-fired power plants.

However, there is still a lot of trouble on the horizon. The IEA warned that globally there “was a pause in the shift of investments towards cleaner sources of energy supply.” The share of total energy investment made up by fossil fuels actually increased slightly to 59 percent.

Total investment in renewables declined by 7 percent in 2017, although renewables still accounted for two-thirds of total power generation spending at $300 billion. Also, part of the decline is due to the fact that renewable energy is getting cheaper. Related: Has The Movement For CO2 Controls Peaked?

Unit costs for solar PV fell by 15 percent in 2017 and solar investment rose to record levels, the IEA said. And economies of scare also helping. “Technology improvements and government tendering schemes are facilitating economies of scale of new projects in some markets: in emerging economies outside of [China] the average size of awarded solar PV projects rose by 4.5 times over the five years through 2017, while that of onshore wind rose by half,” the IEA noted.

But the decline of nuclear power will put more onus on renewable energy to carry the slack into a low-carbon future. “Robust investment in renewable power is even more important for boosting low-carbon power generation in light of a sharp fall in investment in new nuclear power, which declined to its lowest level in five years,” the IEA said. “Construction starts for new nuclear plants remain muted, while in some regions, retirements of existing plants are reducing the impact of the growth in renewables.”

The agency says that although Europe has historically led in renewable deployment, the retirements of nuclear plants have offset over 40 percent of the growth in solar and wind.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



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Hong Kong is an ideal candidate for homes and businesses to sell renewable power to the grid, says energy trading start-up Electrify

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Electricity consumers can have the freedom to choose how the unused power in their homes and factories should be resold if regulators liberalise markets and approve a new blockchain based trading platform, according to the Singapore founders of solutions provider Electrify.

Julius Tan Chie-how, 29, co-founder and chief executive of the one-year-old start-up, the city state’s first digital peer-to-peer marketplace for retail electricity trading, is in talks to enter the mainland market and will explore potential opportunities in Hong Kong.

“We are definitely open to exploring the Hong Kong and China market … the southern China market is partially deregulated, so there is an opportunity for us,” Tan said.

The company has been in early discussions with mainland industrial estate developers on providing them with Electrify’s P2P trading platform, he said.

Tan is the former senior manager of Sunseap Energy – Singapore’s largest solar energy solutions provider.

Electrify is not the only company seeking to profit from opportunities to facilitate liberalisation of the mainland’s energy market, where state-owned distribution monopolies are in the process of being gradually dismantled, allowing participation by private sector companies.

Natural gas distributors ENN Energy Holdings and China Resources Gas Group have been working with mainland industrial estates to help build self-sufficient energy supply systems so that they do not have to rely on local power grids.

Digital technology allow greater transparency and predictability of demand and supply, enabling energy to be traded to various counterparties.

As the installation of rooftop solar panels gain popularity in the mainland, factories and even some households become both power consumers and generators.

The so-called distributed energy systems in industrial estates typically supply electricity by generating energy locally with cleaner-burning natural gas.

This is often supplemented by rooftop solar and wind power to reduce harmful emissions, as electricity shortfalls would be made up by power from coal-fired plants.

By eliminating the need to send power over long distances and recycling energy from the power generation process, such systems are more efficient due to their higher overall energy utilisation rates.

Since it launched a year ago in Singapore, Electrify has recorded around 60 giga-watt-hour of trades worth some S$10 million (US$7.33 million) – accounting for 0.13 per cent of the market, Tan said.

Most of the city’s seven power generators, the sole grid operator and around 30 retailers in the city state have joined its trading platform, which residential users can join in the year’s fourth quarter when the city’s power market become fully liberalised.

Electrify is in discussions to expand into Japan and Australia, where the electricity markets have been fully liberalised. End users in these countries will be able choose from an array of traders to buy and sell power, if the trading platform receives approval.

To enhance data security blockchain technology – currently under trial – will be adopted into the platform, Tan said.

In Hong Kong, although end users with rooftop solar panels or wind generators will be able to sell their output to the city’s only two electricity suppliers at prices several times higher than current retail prices, peer-to-peer trading is not possible as the market remains regulated.



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