Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 11, 2019
China eyes energy revolution with development of next generation ‘artificial sun’
Chinese scientists, who dreamed to “build a sun” as far back as 1985, when a group of 35 industrial nations and blocs including China, the European Union, India, Japan, and Russia agreed on building the world’s first fusion device.
Various of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, scientists working in lab
Chinese scientists are on the verge of a major new dawn in the construction of a next-generation ‘artificial sun’, as they bid to make a breakthrough in the development China’s largest Tokamak, a device which can produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Superconducting materials
There was no way a superconducting device could be built without the all-important superconducting material.
So Chinese scientists were left with no choice but to turn this disappointment into a driving force to up their game and develop their own superconducting material technology.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Nuclear fusion process of the real sun
As one of the major components of ITER, China officially started to build the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed the ‘artificial sun’, a controllable fusion reactor apparatus designed to generate energy by mimicking the nuclear fusion process of the real sun, in 1999.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Chinese scientists at work
Chinese scientists overcame a series of technical difficulties and developed high-quality superconducting materials that could not only satisfy China’s own needs, but also fulfill high export demands.
“Without our previous difficulties, and the painful research and development process, there’s no way we can achieve what you see today. We must grasp techniques in our own hands firmly, and it’s not feasible to ask or beg others for them,” Yuntao, deputy director, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Huge energy revolutiory
Designed to be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity, ITER is expected to bring a huge energy revolution once realized.
“If we succeed, one liter of seawater after nuclear fusion can produce energy equal to 300 liters of gasoline. If we can build a fusion power plant in the future successfully, we will be able to provide unlimited energy to the people,” Yuntao said.
(Photograph:Reuters)
China’s obstacles
As the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak project started, scientists encountered some real troubles.
Song Yuntao, deputy director, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “We’ve tackled a series of key technological issues to grasp core technology related to the construction of the fusion reactor in the future. For example, superconducting technology, superconducting joints, superconducting wiring, large power supply, divertor system and the large magnet system.”
“We are currently producing the world’s largest superconducting magnet for the European Union, while most superconducting materials in the world are from China,” Yuntao added.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Chain of nuclear fusion
In addition to superconducting materials, other key links on the industry chain of nuclear fusion have also made great leaps forward.
“At the early stage of the project, the United States agreed to provide superconducting materials for us. But then they refused to give that to us, how could we build the experimental advanced superconducting Tokamak without the superconducting material? We were all dumbfounded,” Yuntao added.
(Photograph:Reuters)
9 Comments on "China eyes energy revolution with development of next generation ‘artificial sun’"
Chrome Mags on Tue, 11th Jun 2019 7:13 pm
I’ve often thought regarding declining EROEI for oil, fusion is likely the best candidate to initiate another massive influx of net energy, but what is the timing? Does civilization fall into shades of collapse or get reinvigorated from the successful development of fusion?
Cloggie on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 1:07 am
Yet another offshore wind farm completed in Europe (385 MW):
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/arkona-385-mw-offshore-wind-farm-completed/
America so far has only 5 lousy offshore wind turbines (30 MW), build by Europeans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmhdFkrDyzs
Perhaps mobster has a point and it will take 133 years for the US to complete the transition.
Davy on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 4:07 am
Three countries are leading the renewable energy revolution
https://tinyurl.com/y68vpm9s world economic forum
“The top three Among the top three nations, China is the undisputed renewable growth leader, accounting for over 40% of the total global clean energy mix by 2022. This is due to meeting various capacity targets and addressing concerns about the country’s air pollution…China has also already surpassed its 2020 solar panel target, and the IEA says it expects the country to exceed its wind target in 2019. China is also the global market leader in hydropower, bioenergy for electricity and heat, and electric vehicles.”
“Perhaps surprisingly, the United States is the second-largest growth market for renewables. Despite President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, renewable projects in the US are expected to benefit from multi-year federal tax incentives and state-level policies for distributed solar panels in the coming years.”
“India overtakes the European Union In India, meanwhile, renewable capacity is expected to more than double by 2022. Solar and wind represent 90% of India’s capacity growth, which is the result of auctions for contracts to develop power-generation capacity that have yielded some of the world’s lowest prices for both technologies, the report says. It adds that India has also improved grid integration and addressed the financial issues of its utilities. Because of these factors, India’s growth between now and 2022 is, for the first time, expected to be higher than in the European Union (EU). Incidentally, renewables growth across the EU is 40% lower than between 2011 and 2016, with the market hampered by weaker electricity demand, overcapacity, and a lack of clarity on the capacity volumes that will be auctioned. What’s more, policy uncertainty within the bloc beyond 2020 remains high.”
Antius on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 5:22 am
“Yet another offshore wind farm completed in Europe (385 MW)”
I would recommend that renewable energy advocates read this piece of work from Gail Tverberg.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2016/08/31/intermittent-renewables-cant-favorably-transform-grid-electricity/
Integrating large quantities of intermittent renewable electricity into national grids is proving very difficult and expensive. Gail reaches the conclusion that the cost of providing extra transmission to access renewable sources (such as offshore wind) and the need for storage, curtailment and demand management to deal with intermittency; makes intermittent renewable electricity far more expensive in reality than typically indicated kWh costs of generation. Essentially, even if intermittent renewable energy were free, it would make no financial sense attempting to integrate it into grids at present, due to the very high system costs associated with dealing with the intermittency problem.
None of this should take anyone by surprise. Demand management often means shutting down activities that would otherwise take place. This implies additional costs due to poorer utilisation of labour and capital equipment and likely failure of any just-in-time manufacturing model. Energy storage is expensive as we are essentially building another power plant (pumped storage, CAES, etc.) that stores rather than generates electricity and always involves energy losses. The greater the storage capacity, the greater the capital cost and embodied energy. The extra cost of transmission infrastructure is probably the smallest of these three big additional costs.
There is no easy solution to these problems. The best combination of options would be some combination of low-cost storage (undersea CAES, pumped storage and end-use thermal energy storage), demand management (probably with changes to labour laws to allow work shifts to vary according to energy supply) and better transmission, connecting a large variety of renewable energy sources to consumers across as large an area as possible. To avoid huge additional costs, storage has limited applicability in terms of generating capacity and time. The bottom line is much more expensive energy; less flexible energy and ultimately the need to adapt society to a different energy paradigm in which we work when energy is available and stop working when it is not. All in all, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that living on intermittent renewable energy will mean poorer living standards.
Now would be a good time to get serious about developing advanced nuclear technologies (both fission and fusion) and accepting the fact that the Earth may not be the best long-term home for humanity.
Cloggie on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 9:00 am
New energy age, new accidents. Hydrogen tank station exploded in Norway:
https://m.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/norwegen-wasserstofftankstelle-explodiert-toyota-reagiert-a-1271980.html
Cloggie on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 2:42 pm
Integrating large quantities of intermittent renewable electricity into national grids is proving very difficult and expensive. Gail reaches the conclusion that the cost of providing extra transmission to access renewable sources (such as offshore wind) and the need for storage, curtailment and demand management to deal with intermittency; makes intermittent renewable electricity far more expensive in reality than typically indicated kWh costs of generation.
The price of solar cells came down with a factor of several tens of thousands over the past half a century, making solar (and wind) the cheapest way to produce (intermittent) energy.
The price of storage doesn’t need to come down that much to become competitive. Currently an endless array of possibilities are being investigated all over the world, as it is generally recognized that storage is the last remaining hurdle to secure the final victory of renewable energy ON PRICE, not to mention climate change, geopolitics (European energy independence) or depletion of conventional sources.
I myself have no doubt that in the foreseeable future, electricity can be stored “in a box”, as it were, to be taken out when needed, just like you can store petrol in a jerrycan and use it years later.
For the short term we have pumped hydro storage and CAES. That’s easy and is already largely developed.
Seasonal storage is the real challenge and can only be chemical.
Candidates: hydrogen and its many derivatives (CH4, NH3, NaBH4, formic acid, etc.), metal powders. Flow batteries on the scale of a lake.
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/nabh4-the-vice-admiral-has-a-message-for-dutch-parliament/
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2019/02/17/bus-driving-on-formic-acid-in-eindhoven-the-netherlands/
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/iron-powder-as-a-fuel/
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/ammonia-as-storage-medium/
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/energy-island-in-zeeland/
Something will come out of it: a fuel that can be used as a storage medium for intermittent renewable electricity and handled like conventional fossil fuel.
Cloggie on Wed, 12th Jun 2019 3:43 pm
The Norwegian state fund is the largest in the world and fed by oil and gas income only, resulting in more than 1 trillion $. Norway btw has merely 5 million people. These Norwegians are richer than the Chinese or Arabs! In America, corporate oligarchs are rich, in “socialist” Norway, the population is rich. These billions however are increasingly being used for green purposes:
https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/norwegen-staatsfonds-investiert-mehr-in-gruene-technologien-a-1271972.html
The Norwegians are now divesting from coal and other fossil fuel enterprises and pumping 18 billion into renewable energy. This money will push more lucrative North Sea wind farms into existence.
P.S. Norway has a CO2 tax since the nineties.
pointer on Thu, 13th Jun 2019 12:58 pm
Chrome Mags asked: “…what is the timing? Does civilization fall into shades of collapse or get reinvigorated from the successful development of fusion?
Good questions, CM. None of this is clear, aside from the near term end of business as usual as we have known it for the last 70 years.
Antius on Thu, 13th Jun 2019 5:23 pm
A potentially promising approach to magnetic confinement fusion: the field reversed configuration. The magnetic field is produced by induced current within the plasma itself within a spherical vacuum tank. This allows for higher plasma pressure and greater power density.
https://www.space.com/fusion-powered-spacecraft-could-launch-2028.html
In this case, the plan is to use it as a high performance spacecraft engine. If it could be made to work, it would not only revolutionize power production here on Earth; it would also make possible the large scale colonisation of the solar system. It would be one of those inventions, like the steam engine, that literally changes everything about the human world in just a few decades. We can but hope.