A study by ICM’s and UTM's researchers proposes a global alternative mix to fossil fuels based on renewable energy technologies.
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The research team from the ICM and UTM, Antonio García-Olivares, Joaquim Ballabrera-Poy, Emili García-Ladona and Antonio Turiel, published the results in Energy Policy Journal.
The mix consists of a combination of onshore and offshore wind turbines, concentrating solar power stations, hydroelectricity and wave power devices attached to the offshore turbines. Solar photovoltaic power could contribute to the mix if its dependence on scarce materials is solved.
The most adequate deployment areas for the power stations are studied, as well as the required space. Material requirements are studied for the generation, power transport and for some future transport systems. The order of magnitude of copper, aluminium, neodymium, lithium, nickel, zinc and platinum that may be required for the proposed solution is obtained and compared with available reserves.
Overall, the proposed global alternative to fossil fuels seems technically feasible. However, lithium, nickel and platinum could become limiting materials for future vehicles fleet if no global recycling systems were implemented and rechargeable zinc–air batteries would not be developed; 60% of the current copper reserves would have to be employed in the implementation of the proposed solution. Altogether, they may become a long-term physical constraint, preventing the continuation of the usual exponential growth of energy consumption.
"A global renewable mix with proven technologies and common materials."
Antonio García-Olivares, Joaquim Ballabrera-Poy, Emili García-Ladona, Antonio Turiel.
Energy Policy doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.018
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511008950
Figure: Annual average (July 1983–June 2005) of incident insolation on a horizontal surface in kWh/m2/day. Data downloaded from the NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy site (SSE, http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/, release 6.0). Grey and blue dots have twice the real areas occupied by the CSP stations to improve the readability of the figure (see text for details). White lines represent main distribution grid lines. The length scale corresponds to latitude 45°N. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
