Globally, the push for renewable energy is accelerating. Unlike fossil fuels, which necessitate drilling and mining finite resources, renewables, including solar, wind, and hydropower, do not. They also don’t emit greenhouse gases that drive climate change, but inherent challenges have prevented renewables from fully displacing coal and natural gas. Nevertheless, the experts at Commonwealth say that innovations in technology are making renewable systems cheaper and more efficient at large-scale power generation.
Advancing Wind Power Generation
Wind energy captures the wind’s motion to spin turbines for converting mechanical rotation into electricity, but wind speeds fluctuate, producing inconsistent power output. New blade shapes and smarter turbine spacing in wind farms aim to increase capacity factors closer to the consistency of fossil fuel plants. Other innovations include taller wind tower heights to access faster wind speeds and offshore floating wind platforms able to be sited further out in the ocean.
Boosting Solar Energy Capture
Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels convert photons from sunlight directly into electricity via solar cells made of silicon and other materials. Historically, solar struggled to compete with the scale of conventional power plants, but the costs for solar panels, inverters and batteries continued to drop dramatically in the last decade while efficiency increased.
Solar tracking mounts allow panels to follow optimal angles capturing the most sun. Software models guide how to lay out vast solar fields for maximum productivity based on shade and weather data. Grid regulators are updating interconnection rules and pricing structures, so distributed solar adoption aids reliability rather than harms incumbent utilities. If these supportive technologies cross cost thresholds, solar energy could transform into a primary generation source capable of powering entire cities.
Storing Renewable Energy
A lingering obstacle preventing consistent renewable power generation is the intermittent availability; the sun sets in the evening and wind speeds vary hour to hour. So engineers devised ways to store surplus energy when conditions are favorable so it can be discharged when needed later.
Batteries, like the growing global markets for lithium-ion technology, offer compact energy storage and release capacities ideal for individual buildings and supportive smaller grid uses. Alternatives like pumped hydropower facilities pump water uphill into reservoirs when electricity is abundant so it can flow back down to regenerate power on demand. Renewable energy storage bridges power needs making wind and solar reliable enough to phase out fossil fuel backups.
Smarter Renewable Electricity Routing
Getting renewable power from source to end use requires updating transmission infrastructure designed for fossil fuel power plant centralization near cities. Rural wind turbines and desert solar plants operate best in remote locations far from people. High voltage direct current (HVDC) lines now carry electricity over vast distances more efficiently thanks to advanced materials and software modeling.
These extra-high-capacity HVDC lines form critical inter-connectors across grids. Excess renewable power generated from gusty winds or midday sun in one region can be transmitted to satisfy low renewable power conditions elsewhere via interregional exchanges. Aggregating wide geographical coverage allows renewables to make up larger portions of electricity demand through better network coordination.
Conclusion
Technology unlocks renewable energy’s immense potential because key limitations relate to inconsistent output and infrastructure mismatches, not finite resources. Whether boosting solar cell efficiency fractions of a percentage at a time or doubling wind turbine blade lengths inch by inch, scientists incrementally tackle areas once considered disadvantages compared to fossil fuels. Like the sudden rise of cell phones and internet networks, renewable technology costs may cross thresholds leading to rapid mass adoption once the right precursors align. That coveted inflection point where fossil fuels plateau and renewables accelerate appears closer each year as innovations mount.