LATIN AMERICA IS SET TO BECOME A LEADER IN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
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| Latin America's Renewable Energy Revolution |
Latin America already leads
the world in clean energy. For almost seven months in 2016, Costa Rica was
powered entirely by renewable power, and Uruguay came close to achieving that
goal. In 2014, according to the International Energy Agency, Latin America
produced 53 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
For centuries Latin
America’s natural resources have helped move the world economy. From the silver
galleons that financed the Spanish Empire to the iron and copper exports that
are rebuilding China, Latin America’s natural resources have long been sold
around the globe. But now the growth of renewable energy across the region is
creating a new economic phenomenon – exploiting those natural resources for
domestic growth.
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| Chile is home to Latin America's largest solar power plant |
Beside the
Pan-American Highway, almost 600km (375 miles) north of Santiago, Chile’s
capital, lies El Romero, the largest solar-energy plant in Latin America and
among the dozen biggest in the world. Its 775,000 grey solar panels spread out
across the undulating plateau of the Atacama Desert as if they were sheets of
water. Built at a cost of $343m by Acciona Energy, a Spanish company, last month
El Romero started to be hooked up to the national grid. By April it should
reach full strength, generating 196MW of electricity—enough to power a city of
a million people. A third of its output will be bought directly by Google’s
Chilean subsidiary, and the rest fed into the grid.
In recent years
Latin America has made huge strides in exploiting its incredible wind, solar,
geothermal and biofuel energy resources. It is now on the cusp of an energy
revolution that will reshape the region and create a host of business
opportunities. To investigate the changes taking place Canning House helped to organize
the recent Green Finance Summit in London and commissioned a Canning Paper from
Latin News.
OIL ADDICTION
Now Latin America is
still very dependent on another one of its natural resources – oil. According
to the BP’s Statistical Review, Latin America accounts for more than 20% of the
world’s oil reserves, making it the second-most important oil region in the
world, which, is probably why it relies so heavily on the stuff. Oil accounted
for 46% of the region’s total primary energy supply (TPES) in 2013, well above
the global average of 31%.
When it comes to
transport, oil-based fuel is likely to keep its pole position for some time to
come. Electric cars and hybrids have been slow to make an impact globally, and
in Latin America they are barely present. Brazil has made impressive strides
with ethanol alternatives, but oil and its derivatives remain the number one
choice. Moreover, Latin America’s outdated transport fleet, which is heavily
made up of cast offs from the US or older models produced locally, is going to
remain behind the curve on any transition to electric vehicles for at least the
medium term.
POWERING UP
But Latin America’s
electricity sector has already begun to wean itself off its oil dependence.
According to the Inter-American Bank, Latin America is expected to almost
double its electricity output between 2015 and 2040 and will need an extra 1,500-terawatt
hours (TWh) of power. That’s a huge amount – enough to power the entire UK’s
electricity grid for five years. Practically none of Latin America’s new
large-scale power plants will be oil-fueled, which opens up the field for
different technologies.
Countries in Central
American and the Caribbean, whom traditionally imported oil, were the first to
move away from oil-based power plants, after suffering a decade of high and
volatile prices at the start of the century. In some cases, such as the
Dominican Republic, that meant a switch to coal, which represents 5% of Latin
America and the Caribbean’s TPES. However, growing environmental objections
mean that new coal plants are unlikely to be adopted by many Latin American
countries in the future.
WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER
There are lot of wave
energy converter method now in the world.
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| Wave picture |
The method of wave
energy conversion is currently being used by a device called the Pelamis Wave
Energy Converter developed by the “Pelamis Wave Power” company. One advantage
of the Pelamis design is that several offshore devices can be connected.
Another one is the Seaweed
wave energy converter generates electricity by floating on the surface of the
ocean and riding over the rising and falling motion of waves and has the power
capacity of 750 kW.
Each Seaweed unit
consists of four modules that are connected by truss structures.
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| SeaWEED wave energy converter |
The four-module
array includes a non-energy producing nose module in the front, followed by two
energy producing modules, with another non-energy producing module at the rear.
The producing
sections are 8 m wide, 5 m high, and 16 m long. The maximal overall length of
the structure is 150 m. The movement of the modules rising and falling over
passing ocean waves drives 4 on-board double acting hydraulic rams that feed
electrical generators, which in-turn generate clean renewable energy that is
then transmitted to industry standard subsea hubs.
The Seaweed is
anchored to the seafloor by a mooring design which includes a three-point
catenary slack mooring system at the front of the device and a single leg slack
mooring system at the rear.
This mooring design
can be deployed by any anchor hauling vessel.
The Seaweed can be
deployed in locations with water depths of greater than 50 m.
Grey Island Energy
is Canadian wave energy developer that aims to develop a proprietary wave
energy device (Seaweed) into a commercialized, patented full scale system.
Take a look at the
animated video of Grey Island Energy’s Seaweed wave energy converter producing
power from the waves.
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