The Combined Power Plant And Biogas In Germany  

Dave Roberts at Grist has an interesting post on a concept from the University of Kassel in Germany called the Combined Power Plant. This looks like the usual approach to normalising output from intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind - using stored energy (in this case, in the form of hydro and biogas) to make up for any additional demand that the intermittent sources cannot meet.

Via the The Sietch blog, some very, very cool stuff out of the University of Kassel in Germany -- the Combined Power Plant:

The secure and constant provision of power anywhere and at anytime by renewable energies is now made possible thanks to the Combined Power Plant. The Combined Power Plant links and controls 36 wind, solar, biomass and hydropower installations spread throughout Germany. It is just as reliable and powerful as a conventional large-scale power station.

The Combined Renewable Energy Power Plant shows how, through joint control of small and decentralised plants, it is possible to provide reliable electricity in accordance with needs. The Combined Power Plant optimally combines the advantages of various renewable energy sources. Wind turbines and solar modules help generate electricity in accordance with how much wind and sun is available. Biogas and hydropower are used to make up the difference: they are converted into electricity as needed in order to balance out short-term fluctuations, or are temporarily stored. Technically, there is nothing preventing us from 100 per cent provision with renewables.

Catch that last sentence? The scientists who developed this thing think it will be possibly to power Germany entirely with renewables -- no oil, coal, or nuclear -- by mid-century. Check out this kick-ass video:

Another interesting report out of Germany is this one from Biopact - " Report: biogas can replace all EU natural gas imports". Biogas is one of the more underrated renewable energy sources and I'm hoping to see big things in this area in the coming years. In some cases biogas is produced from landfills and agricultural wastes which is a great example of processing waste streams - though the video in the article also talks about producing biogas from farmed crops, which is a little more alarming - how much farmland would be required isn't clear.

Last year, the German Greens (Grüne) commissioned a report on the potential of biogas in Europe. The Öko-Instituts and the Institut für Energetik in Leipzig carried out the study and came to some startling conclusions: Germany alone can produce more biogas by 2020 than all of the EU's current natural gas imports from Russia. German TV channel ZDF made a reportage about the findings, which Biopact translated.

The biogas sector is booming in Germany and has become the continent's fastest renewable energy sector. Market leader Schmack Biogas just recently received a €130 million investment to expand its activities - one of last year's largest renewable energy deals. The company is involved in several new large scale projects.

The growing interest in the gaseous biofuel can be easily explained: it can be produced in a decentralised manner, it is highly efficient - yielding more than twice as much energy per hectare of energy crops than ethanol from similar crops - and it can be obtained in a straightforward way from a large variety of biomass resources (organic waste, manure, dedicated energy crops). What is more, the fuel has two highly efficient uses: as a gas for CNG-capable vehicles (taking you twice around the world on a hectare's worth of biogas) as well as a fuel that can be used for the cogeneration of power and heat. Meanwhile, advances in biogas technology, microbiology and crop engineering have made production even more efficient.

Now, producers in Germany want to go a step further. They want to start feeding upgraded biogas into the main natural gas grid and cover the entire EU. There is only one problem standing in their way: their purified biogas, also known as biomethane, is too good for the natural gas pipelines. That is, its heating value is too high. As the only country in Europe, Germany imposes an upper quality limit on gas. The German Greens and the country's environmentalists and farmers are therefor asking for a new law that allows producers to feed their superior, renewable and green gas into the national pipelines.

Biopact reported earlier on the biogas report, here. And meanwhile, the German government has taken first steps towards crafting a 'biogas feed-in law' that forces pipeline operators to open their network for biogas. The biofuel can ultimately break the monopoly of the current gas suppliers.