The giant floating solar farms could extract CO2 from seawater, producing methanol

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According to Norwegian and Swiss researchers, millions of floating islands, which would combine carbon dioxide into methanol, could help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The team presented a proposal for "solar methanol islands" in a published article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

In this article, they agree that a massive reduction in the number of & nbsp;carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are needed to limit the magnitude of global warming. However, liquid carbon fuels will continue to be an important energy storage medium in the near future. & Nbsp; They offer a combination of widely available technologies to use solar energy to recycle the atmosphere & nbsp;carbon dioxide in a liquid fuel.

In the paper, researchers suggest floating islands similar to large floating fish farms. They would use photovoltaic cells that can convert solar energy into electricity. This would then feed the production of hydrogen and & nbsp;carbon dioxide extraction of seawater. The gases produced would then be reacted to form methanol that can be reused as fuel.

The author of the study, Andreas Borgschulte, told Newsweek One of the main problems of renewable energies is to make them competitive on a large scale with fossil fuels. Several concepts have been put forward to try to make renewable energies a realistic option, but nothing has yet succeeded. He added that the idea of ​​solar islands came when the government asked Norwegian researchers to push fish farms offshore. However, these networks needed their own energy. "Energy producing islands had been proposed some time ago," he said. "What was left was to include energy storage."

The facilities could be placed in areas that meet the physical conditions: where the wave height was less than 7 meters, where the probability of hurricanes and the depth of the water were less than 600 meters, so that the islands could be moored correctly. The coasts of South-East Asia, North Australia and the Persian Gulf are perfectly adapted. & Nbsp; The team indicates that 70 of these artificial islands would constitute a single facility covering an area of ​​about one kilometer & nbsp; square, or 0.4 square miles.

The team estimates that the production of 3.2 million floating islands would be greater than the total global emissions from fossil fuels. However, the production is not over yet and the team recognizes that the proposal is "ambitious." At the moment, they are working on the development of prototypes of floating islands.

"[The] The biggest challenge is the development of a large-scale device to extract CO2 from seawater, "Borgschulte said Newsweek. "This process is the only one of the total system [that] has not yet been fully developed. All others already exist on an industrial scale. "

Henry Snaith, & nbsp; professor of physics at Oxford University & nbsp ;, & nbsp; who did not participate in the research, said & nbsp;Forbes, "I do not think so idea is totally crazy, but I do not think it's the saving concept of the world that his candidacy is. "

The & nbsp; floating solar farms are not a new ideabut the challenge is to make this floating deployment as competitive as rigid deployments. & nbsp; At present – the cost of land still depends on the geographical location – the land cost is still only a small fraction of the total number of PV systems deployed (photovoltaic) & nbsp;Cost. Only this week, the & nbsp;Authority of electricity and water of Dubai & nbsp;announced that it & nbsp; was Think about developing floating renewable energy plants in the Persian Gulf and has started a search for consultants who can advise on this idea.

"Photovoltaics are cheap today, so the assertion that alternatives can not compete with fossil fuels is totally false," & nbsp;Snaith said.& nbsp; "In fact, now, more new production capacity [generators] will be [from] renewable energies – mainly wind and solar – than traditional thermal power stations.

"The other components necessary for idea, check out & nbsp; CO2 from seawater and turns it into fuel. This part would be very energy consuming and expensive. Working to create fuels from electricity – not directly from sunlight – is of paramount importance. This will eventually allow solar and wind energy to produce 100% of our energy needs and should be encouraged.

"I will simply insist that the production of electricity from photovoltaic systems is cheap and will be much cheaper over the next decade, so in addition to battery storage, we need now create technologies or industrial trends that can either use this energy when it is produced in excess to offset the demand when it is not, or convert that electricity into another useful fuel. We do not need float our & nbsp; solar farms. "

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According to Norwegian and Swiss researchers, millions of floating islands, which would combine carbon dioxide into methanol, could help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The team presented a proposal for "solar islands of methanol" in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

In this article, they agree that a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are needed to limit the magnitude of global warming. However, liquid carbon fuels will continue to be an important energy storage medium in the near future. They propose a combination of widely existing technologies to use solar energy to recycle air pollution. carbon dioxide in a liquid fuel.

In the paper, researchers suggest floating islands similar to large floating fish farms. They would use photovoltaic cells that can convert solar energy into electricity. This would then feed the production of hydrogen and carbon dioxide extraction of seawater. The gases produced would then be reacted to form methanol that can be reused as fuel.

The author of the study, Andreas Borgschulte, told Newsweek One of the main problems of renewable energies is to make them competitive on a large scale with fossil fuels. Several concepts have been put forward to try to make renewable energies a realistic option, but nothing has yet succeeded. He added that the idea of ​​solar islands came when the government asked Norwegian researchers to push fish farms offshore. However, these networks needed their own energy. "Energy producing islands have been proposed a long time ago," he said. "What was left was to include energy storage."

The facilities could be placed in areas satisfying physical conditions: wave height less than seven meters, low probability of hurricane and water depth less than 600 meters, so that the islands can be moored properly . Sites for installations have been found around the world, with the coasts of Southeast Asia, North Australia and the Persian Gulf being particularly well suited. The team stated that 70 of these artificial islands would constitute a single facility covering an area of ​​about one square kilometer, or 0.4 square kilometers.

The team estimates that the production of 3.2 million floating islands would be greater than the total global emissions from fossil fuels. However, the production is still far and the team recognizes that the proposal is "ambitious". At the moment, they are working on the development of prototypes of floating islands.

"[The] The biggest challenge is the development of a large-scale device to extract CO2 from seawater, "Borgschulte said. Newsweek. "This process is the only one of the total system [that] has not yet been fully developed. All others already exist on an industrial scale. "

Henry Snaith, professor of physics at Oxford University, who did not participate in the research, said Forbes"I do not think the idea is totally crazy, but I do not think it's the saving concept of the world. "

Floating solar parks are not a new idea, but the challenge is to make this floating deployment as competitive in terms of costs as rigid deployments. At the present time – the land cost still depends on the location – there remains only a small fraction of the total PV volume deployed (photovoltaic) Cost. Only this week, the The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has announced plans to develop floating renewable power plants in the Persian Gulf and has launched a search for consultants to advise on this idea.

"Photovoltaics are cheap today, so the assertion that alternatives can not compete with fossil fuels is totally wrong," he said. Snaith said. "In fact, now, more new production capacity [generators] will be [from] renewable energies – mainly wind and solar – than traditional thermal power stations.

"The other components necessary for idea, extract the CO2 from the seawater and then convert it into fuel. This part would be very energy consuming and expensive. Work on creating fuels from electricity – not directly from sunlight – is of paramount importance. This will eventually allow solar and wind energy to produce 100% of our energy needs and should be encouraged.

"I will simply point out that the production of electricity from photovoltaic systems is cheap and will be even more so in the next decade.In addition to battery storage, we now need to create technologies or industrial trends that can be used. this energy when it is produced in excess compensate the demand when it is not the case, or convert this electricity into other useful fuels. need to float our solar farms. "