Energy fields compensate for growing electricity demand

Solar and wind: intermediate steps towards less warming and more energy security

Although many efforts are being made to move away from fossil fuels and use renewable energy sources instead in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is still unclear how the rise in temperature can be limited. According to Roman Vilfand, head of the Russian Hydrometeorological Centre, global temperatures have reached record levels in nine consecutive months. In eight of those months the limits of the Paris Agreement were exceeded, with the norm surpassed by 1.5 degrees. Vilfand stressed that the only counterweight to this trend is below-average winter temperatures on the Russian continent.

In recent years we have experienced higher temperatures during the summer, which in some cases led to rivers becoming shallower and, above all on the African continent, to energy shortages (German). Last summer in France, too, nuclear power plants had to reduce their output because of low river levels and rising water temperatures in the cooling basins. In addition, many regions, especially in southern Europe, suffer from water shortages due to falling groundwater levels. Experts forecast that the coming summer of 2024 will be even warmer than 2023. That could lead to further problems.

The ideology of green energy promoters is based on the conviction that the rise in average annual temperature is a direct consequence of human activities and is linked in particular to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In March 2024 the journal Nature Climate Change also published research results from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA), which are said to prove that human-caused climate change is real.

The fact is, however, that despite legal restrictions and the global trend towards green technologies, large energy companies are reducing their investment in climate programmes. This is mainly due to problems with existing green technologies for harnessing solar and wind energy.

From a market-economy point of view, every company’s task is to generate profits for its owners. That is generally the main goal of entrepreneurship. Take the global corporation Shell as an example. It is pursuing a plan to invest more in oil and gas – that is, to put capital into fossil raw materials – rather than risk losses on investments in renewable energy.

Many countries and companies are already cutting programmes worth billions and slowing down progress in reducing emissions. This is hotly debated among politicians, environmental activists and parts of the public, but basically it reflects the reality of any profit-oriented business model.

For solar and wind energy undeniably have an objective weakness: their dependence on weather conditions. In addition, they involve increased servicing effort. Siemens Gamesa, for example, reports considerable failures in wind turbines (German). This highlights the industry’s great business challenges.

The unreliability of wind turbines is also evident in Norway, where at the Odal wind farm 15 of 34 wind turbines had to be taken out of service because of failures. These problems are more widespread than is publicly known, because rotating parts in wind turbines require constant maintenance and replacement, which has a negative effect on financial returns.

Solar and wind energy are only intermediate steps

In this context, it can be said that solar and wind energy are bridge piers on the way away from fossil fuels. As soon as technologies for generating electricity come onto the market that no longer have the drawbacks of existing technologies and are more efficient than wind turbines, solar collectors and fossil fuels, energy companies will be forced to invest in them. They will do so in order to remain competitive. Such a technology must, however, be universally applicable and independent of weather conditions. Moreover, it should not only be suitable for local, decentralised power generation, but also help develop autonomous mobility.

The electric cars of the future are fully autonomous electric cars that do not have to be charged at a socket.

Holger Thorsten Schubart

CEO Neutrino® Energy Group

The Neutrino® Energy Group is actively developing its graphene-based technology for generating electricity. The principle of this technology is based on graphene’s ability to convert energy from energy fields into usable electricity.

Energy fields are radiation in the spectrum invisible to us. Unlike radiation in the spectrum visible to us, these fields carry weaker energy, but they can be used continuously and independently everywhere. The company’s scientists have successfully managed to convert this weak energy into sufficient electric current.

To do this, they developed a semiconductor material made of graphene and doped silicon, in which layers of graphene lie between layers of doped silicon. A 200 × 300 mm metal foil made of this semiconductor nanomaterial, with numerous stacked layers of graphene and silicon, generates a current of 2 A at a voltage of 1.5 V.

This output is achieved under what are normal environmental conditions for us. The available output depends on temperature: at −25 degrees Celsius it falls by up to 40 per cent. But the pre-series devices of these fuel-free generators now in development, which will soon be tested in a field trial in Austria, have compact dimensions and are designed for installation indoors or in basements.

To illustrate the working principle of the technology, we could compare it with solar collectors that do not need direct sunlight and can also work in the dark. In its first stage, the control system is also similar to that of solar cells.

Another promising application of this technology is the development of electric vehicles with integrated power generation. According to Neutrino® Energy, a first prototype of such a concept is planned to be presented as early as 2026. The electric car’s power generation system will then be built into its bodywork, made of a composite material containing graphene. Initial tests with parts shaped like bodywork went promisingly and make us optimistic about the further development of a series-production autonomous electric vehicle.

The Neutrino® Energy Group is an international leader in the field of graphene-based power generation. The company’s ongoing work on applying the technology in various applications is crucial for a technological breakthrough in the world.

Translated from Russian – sostav.ru