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Russell @ (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a Reuters columnist.)
LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 11 (Reuters) – One of humanity's most persistent weaknesses is to badume that the current situation will continue in the future and that current trends are inexorable.
This reflection is at the origin of the often repeated opinion that renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy can not replace the production of thermal electricity such as coal and natural gas.
At the present time, it is true that the main weakness of these renewable energies is that they are intermittent, which means that they do not generate a capacity close to their installed capacity and cause instability. in the electrical networks.
Although battery storage or pumped hydroelectricity is often presented as a solution to the drawbacks of wind and solar energy, there are other emerging technologies that can make renewables more efficient.
One of them is to harness artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of wind and solar energy by using machine learning programs to improve predictability. of production and network stability.
India is an example of a major country that should take advantage of the adoption of artificial intelligence to develop its renewable energy capacity.
The Indian government has very ambitious targets for renewable energy, aiming to have an installed capacity of 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030.
The second most populous country in the world and the third largest polluter has about 74 GW of renewable energy currently installed, according to a government report and comments made last month by Anand Kumar, secretary of the Ministry of Renewable Energy.
India's renewable energy, with the exception of hydropower, currently accounts for about 21 percent of its generation capacity, compared to nearly 55 percent for coal and 7.1 percent for natural gas, the report says. .
However, the share of renewable energy in real output in India is only about 9%, while thermal energy provides about 77%, which clearly shows that wind power and energy solar are not as efficient and reliable as coal and natural gas.
In order to make renewable energy production viable in India over the next decade, the country will have to make its electricity grid more responsive and integrated.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC-based think tank, said in a July 9 report that India needed to take action to use technology to improve the use of technology. renewable energies.
"One of the key aspects of the challenge lies in the fact that Indian power distribution companies and load managers sometimes restrict renewable energy because of timing and cost issues, Inefficiencies in transmission and lack of balancing and energy transfers between states, "the report says.
The Indian government plans to use AI to integrate and improve the efficiency of renewable energy, but the challenge will be effective implementation.
REPLACING THE BASIC CHARCOAL
The country's energy plan provides for a 32.1% reduction in total electricity capacity from coal, by 2029-2030, an increase of 16.8% for wind and 36%. , 1% for solar.
Although coal, and to a lesser extent nuclear, still provides basic electricity production in India, it is actually expected that renewables as well as storage will take up the lion 's share in electricity. supply of the economy, on a scale unmatched elsewhere in the world. world.
Artificial intelligence providers such as Google's DeepMind claim to be able to improve the efficiency of renewable energy, with DeepMind citing a 20% improvement through the use of predictive algorithms in wind farms.
Until now, the thermal coal industry has said it is convinced that its fuel would be needed in the distant future, mainly because it is inexpensive and reliable and as developing countries from Asia have few viable alternatives.
India has already challenged the view that coal is cheaper than renewables, with auctions having taken place in recent years, showing that solar energy can outperform established coal plants, and dominate new coal producers.
If renewable energy can really solve their reliability and intermittency problems, the coal's raison d'être could evaporate. (Edited by Richard Pullin)
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