Energy storage and renewables: climate panacea or fool’s errand?
Details
THIS IS A ZOOM MEETING EVENT - PLEASE VISIT HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM LINK:
https://events.theiet.org/energy-storage-plus-renewables-lecture/
Event Description
Energy production/consumption accounts for nearly 3/4 of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on an annual basis and most of it due to electricity, heat, and transportation. Finding a way to feed this energy appetite with ‘clean’ sources could be the single most important step to achieving the IPCC target of holding the global average temperature rise to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
A notable milestone in the models is the limiting of total GHGs to 25Gt by 2030. Ten years is a short runway, and it hints at the impossible when viewed through the lens of the last century of non-linear increases. Many people consider renewable energy technologies (wind and solar) to be immature and costly. Further, the variability in resource availability is often viewed as a fundamental barrier to its widespread deployment and reliable displacement of conventional fossil-fuel sources. Electrification of the transportation sector is another area that shows promise but suffers from a similar resistance to adoption.
Dramatic reductions in the cost of solar panels and the emergence of battery energy storage systems at scale (driven in part by the electric vehicle industry) are upsetting that paradigm rather quickly. Renewable energy generation paired with large scale energy storage offers a compelling solution to one of today's biggest challenges
About the Speaker
Bart Geleynse is an Electronics Engineering Technologist and a jack-of-a-few-trades. After attending Algonquin College in Ottawa, he spent 8 formative years at RBR Ltd where he developed a love for instrumentation and remote monitoring. Motivated by an interest in business and a corresponding lack of knowledge, he decided to pursue an MBA from Athabasca University. Bart is currently responsible for utility-scale solar and energy storage construction business development at RES (the world’s largest independent renewable energy company) where he focuses on the US and Canadian market. Prior to joining RES 9 years ago, Bart spent 3 years at Prowind developing wind farms across Canada.
A native of the Ottawa region, he lives with his wife, six children and the odd horse or two near Kemptville ON.
THIS IS A ZOOM MEETING EVENT - PLEASE VISIT HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM LINK:
https://events.theiet.org/energy-storage-plus-renewables-lecture/