A number of models to plot fully renewable energy systems have been developed, such as Fraunhofer ISEs work on Germany and the University of New South Wales on Australia. Researchers from three Finnish institutions, in an international consortium, have turned their attention to Northeast Asia, finding that a comprehensive renewable system can be developed in China, Korea and Japan.
China and Japan represented key solar markets in 2014 and are set to do so again in 2015, in analysis from BNEF released last week.
The Finnish research findings were delivered at the recent World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion in Kyoto, where the resultant paper picked up the Best Paper award. The research was carried out by an international team lead by Lappeenranta University of Technology, VTT Technical Research Centre and the Finland Futures Research Centre. It was funded by the Finnish innovation agency Tekes as part of larger project granted 5 million (US$5.88 million) in funding.
The project created a large-scale simulation to plot a 100% renewable system across the Northeast Asian region.
Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy production available to them there. All of the other options are more expensive, said Professor of solar economy Christian Breyer, from the Lappeenranta University. It is a new insight, he concluded. Breyer made his remarks to Finlands public broadcaster.
Solars rapidly falling costs was one of the key factors in the conclusions the research team reached.
Turning its attention to Finlands energy system, the researchers said that power-to-gas would be a viable option for supplying the country during its long, cold winter.
The solar power can be stored in the existing natural gas infrastructure, said lead researcher on the project Pasi Vainikka, from VTT. We dont actually have this infrastructure yet, but it is coming with the launch of the new LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals that have been agreed upon. They will provide significant amounts of chemical energy that can be used in the winter time.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.