Today, new technologies are emerging that use electricity to produce low-carbon ammonia — a versatile commodity that can be sold locally as fertilizer, traded as an export good or used to temporarily store electricity when supply exceeds demand.  

It’s an enticing idea for energy producers, who often sell their excess electricity to neighbouring markets at a significant loss. But do the numbers add up? To find out, WISE researcher XiaoYu Wu and his colleagues carried out…

As the number of offshore wind farms around the world grows, so do efforts to make them more cost-effective and efficient. One way to do that is to avoid oversizing the power electronic convertors that transform the variable-frequency electricity produced by the turbines into a fixed frequency suitable for the grid. 

In series-connected, single-string DC transmission systems — the most efficient way to transmit the electricity from distant turbines — operation of each convertor is influenced…

Energy storage systems like batteries, supercapacitors and flywheels play an important role in the world of renewables. When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, these devices ensure customers have reliable power.

This has sparked interest in privately owned energy storage hubs that could sell power to customers as they need it. To find out how this might play out in the marketplace, WISE researcher Magdy Salama and his colleagues applied game theory, a method that models…

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) facilities offer an attractive way for bulk power systems to buffer the intermittent nature of renewable energy, storing excess energy when it’s not needed and retrieving it during peak demand. But few studies have examined their operation in electricity markets.

For WISE researchers Claudio Cañizares, Kankar Bhattacharya and Matheus Zambroni de Souza, the question was how to maximize daily profits for these facilities. To find out, they developed two…

Wind farms contribute an ever-growing share of the energy flowing through the world’s electricity grids. Because those grids have to be stable and reliable, wind farms are required to stay connected even if a short circuit causes the voltage to drop. This prevents a short circuit from knocking out other generators and causing widespread outages.

However, current approaches to doing that can significantly affect the operation of relay devices that protect the transmission lines connecting the…

When you burn fossil fuels, the by-products are greenhouse gases and particulates. When you burn hydrogen, the by-product is water.

This versatile gas can serve as fuel for transportation and heating, as a way to store energy, and as a feedstock for many products such as ammonia and methanol. It’s easy to transport via pipelines, trucks or tankers, and if you generate hydrogen using renewable energy, it can even be net-zero.

But how do you shift from fossil fuels to this greener alternative? WISE…

 

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs) take advantage of heat deep beneath the Earth’s surface, forcing water through an engineered set of fractures at high pressure. The resulting steam can then be used to generate electricity or to heat buildings. However, this complex process is vulnerable to short-circuiting— a positive feedback loop in which the thermal contraction of cooled regions of the reservoir leads to increased fluid flow through these regions and diversion of fluid away from…

Exploiting geothermal power is easy in volcanic regions like Iceland, where geology brings heat from the Earth’s core close to the surface. In other places, however, accessing this source of renewable energy requires enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). 

These systems use a network of channels created by hydraulic fracturing. Water pumped down one borehole extracts heat from rocks a kilometre or more underground as it travels through those channels and then brings it to the surface via a second…

Shifting electricity generation from diesel to greener options like wind or solar power would cut greenhouse gas emissions in off-grid communities. But not all technologies are compatible with local land use and community values, so how do the people who live there feel about renewables?

To find out, the NunatuKavut Community Council’s Director of Research, Amy Hudson, invited WISE researchers Nicholas Mercer and Paul Parker and Inuk researcher Debbie Martin to southeast Labrador, where their…