Welcome to the April 2024 issue of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Energy. Immediately prior to writing this editorial, I was investigating the details of a record-breaking weekend for the GB Energy System (7 April 2024). The weekend highlighted many features and challenges of our electricity network as we move towards Net Zero. We saw an abundance of renewable electricity generation which in turn caused long periods of negative pricing for electricity (ELEXON, 2024), highlighted problems with constrained boundaries in the system and challenges to how the current electricity market deals with this relatively new situation. The steps forward in renewable power generation and the attendant problems serve to demonstrate that this is an exciting time to be active in the energy industry as we address a huge global challenge. The size of the infrastructural challenge and the costs involved are increasingly apparent, with the costs of curtailing renewable generation in response to grid constraints in 2023 estimated at £1 billion per annum (Energy Live News, 2024).
This issue presents research into some low carbon technologies that perhaps receive less attention than the increasingly familiar electricity production from solar and wind energy, but which might contribute to a diverse mix of technologies that can help to address problems with wind energy not being available when and where we want it.
Two papers on focus on tidal power generation, highlighting the importance of modelling to understand both the economic case (Vandercruyssen et al., 2024) and the technical potential (Kim and Jo, 2024) for tidal power. Vandercruyssen et al. build on prior work reported in this journal (Vandercruyssen et al., 2023), using the model developed in that work to make a compelling argument that tidal range generation in two case study areas (Morecambe Bay and North Wales) appear to be commercially viable and warrant further investigation. In our current situation, this is encouraging as no stone should be left unturned when investigating technologies to replace fossil fuel generation. Investigating the technical potential for a tidal scheme in Taedong bay (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), using computational fluid dynamics to evaluate the effect of flow rate and mean upstream water levels on the projected power output, finding that models that assume a constant discharge coefficient through sluices when evaluating proposed schemes tend to overestimate power generation. This work could contribute to more accurate evaluation of schemes prior to commencing such large infrastructure project builds.
Continuing the water based theme da Silva Corrêa et al. (2024) investigate the potential for recovering energy from the water distribution network. Investigation of novel ways to recover energy, especially in ways that can aid provision of flexible demand on the grid, is essential if we are to fully explore the range of options available to help us on the journey to Net Zero. In this review paper the authors cite a range of case studies alongside modelling work, and find that using pumps as turbines in the water distribution system has potential to improve overall efficiency by energy recovery while performing the role of downstream pressure regulation. Such win-win strategies appear worthy of investigation and trials.
Finally, Qiu et al. (2024) present results showing the benefits of efficient catalysis for pyrolysis in terms of both yield and quality of Syngas production. Syngas from biomass may be a valuable contributor to future energy systems as a lower carbon alternative to fossil fuels in applications where the flexibility of such fuels is required, from carbon intensive production processes to direct combustion for power generation via turbines. Their detailed work to investigate the benefits of Cobalt-supported activated biochar catalysts finds it to be a promising candidate to improve both yield and quality of Syngas production.
I hope that you will enjoy the papers in this issue, please don't forget that you can get electronic access to papers ahead of print issues by visiting https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/toc/jener/0/0. There you can find the latest research as we accelerate the transition to Net Zero.
