TPT September 2016

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98 SEPTEMBER 2016
G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E
Norway, Europe’s biggest supplier of gas after Russia,
reached record production of 117.2bcm (billion cubic metres)
last year as European demand rose. The country will achieve
similar levels over the next few years, according to Statoil
ASA, the biggest Norwegian producer.
› The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), the
agency charged with regulating the state’s oil and gas
industry, said on 13 July that it was investigating a cluster of
earthquakes recorded near Blanchard, about 30 miles south
of Oklahoma City, including three of magnitude 3.0 or higher.
(According to the educational site UPSeis, 30,000 such
tremors, classified by seismologists as minor, are reported
every year in the US).
As a preventive measure the OCC in February issued a series
of directives asking the operators of nearly 250 injection
wells in northwestern Oklahoma to reduce the amount of
wastewater they inject underground by 40 per cent. But
the Blanchard area does not come under these directives.
As reported on the local , the US Geological
Survey had recorded at least eight tremors in the area over
the week preceding the OCC announcement.
Energy
Novel Welsh marine power project could
result in a “hallmark” UK global
expor t industry
As described by Jessica Shankleman of Bloomberg News
(8 July), the world’s first tidal lagoons would employ a rock
wall 7.15 miles long off the coast of southern Wales to enclose
an area in Swansea Bay where 16 turbines generate 320
megawatts of power from the ebb and flow of ocean tides.
The turbines would each have a diameter of slightly more than
23 feet, about as wide as the Channel Tunnel.
The turbines planned for Swansea are similar to those
deployed in thousands of river-based hydroelectric projects,
but have variable speeds and can operate with the tide flowing
in either direction, said Mike Unsworth, director of engineering
and construction for Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, the developer.
The company is based in Gloucestershire in southwest
England, close to the Welsh border.
In the context of expectations that more than a dozen coal-
fired plants in the UK will be shut down by 2025, Tidal Lagoon
Power is proposing a carbon-free power alternative that it
expects will also create thousands of jobs in a depressed
area. The $1.7bn project is currently under review by the
British Department of Energy and Climate Change, which
could take a decision as early as November. If subsidies are
provided, the five-year build-out could commence in 2017.
The Swansea lagoons are to be constructed by the Austrian
plant engineering group Andritz AG and General Electric
Co, of the US. According to Mark Elborne, CEO of General
Electric’s UK unit, their completion could mark the first step of
a “hallmark” global export industry for the UK.
› Ms Shankleman took note of earlier, similar projects in
the form of barrages: artificial obstructions run across
watercourses to force the current to flow past hydroelectric
turbines. Tidal barrages have been built in La Rance in
northern France and on Lake Sihwa in South Korea.
The lagoons under consideration for Swansea do not fully
obstruct water flow and would have less impact on the
environment. Bloomberg New Energy Finance confirmed
that they would also be cheaper to build than barrages. The
project will require about 92,000 metric tons of steel.
The truly smar t city will install wind turbines
alongside solar panels to harvest the most
renewable energy possible
ReadWrite, a website for entrepreneurs, focuses on the Internet
of Things (IoT) and the connected world. A contributor, David
Curry, recently considered “the IoT revolution” that is raising
productivity and saving time – and spotted a missing link. In
the rush into connected devices, he asserted, a corresponding
increase in energy consumption is being overlooked.
In Mr Curry’s view the omission is no minor matter. If smart-
city planners are unable to develop renewable systems that
provide energy with only minimal intrusion into daily life,
their efforts could have a net effect of increasing carbon
emissions. In an urban environment – where solar panels are
too little, wind turbines too much – a combination of the two
technologies could provide a solution. (“Will Wind Turbines
and Solar Panels be IoT Juice Of Choice?” 11 June)
As reported by Mr Curry, researchers at Georgia Institute of
Technology, in the US, and the National Center for Nanoscience
and Technology, in Beijing, China, have achieved just that: a
renewable system that utilises both wind and solar power and
can be installed on the roof of a city building.
The system is capable of harvesting 8 milliwatts (mW) of solar
power and 26mW of wind power, enough to power 3,400 LED
lights.
For low-power IoT devices, Mr Curry wrote on ,
“This is perfect as it doesn’t require a huge amount of space
and is fully renewable energy.”
In ACS Nano, the peer-reviewed scientific journal published
by the American Chemical Society, the team behind the
new hybrid system noted that, while solar energy is readily
harvested with existing technologies, the large volumes and
safety issues associated with conventional wind turbine
generators relegate them to remote areas. The considerable
wind energy in cities is wasted.
As solar panel sales soar, wind energy has taken a back seat
to solar in sustainable-energy circles. The dual setup from
the Georgia-Beijing team – yoking both technologies on a city
rooftop to individually and simultaneously scavenge sun and
wind – holds promise for restoring the parity.
Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)