|
|
Ferrada, F., Babonneau, F., Homem-de-Mello, T., & Jalil-Vega, F. (2022). Energy planning policies for residential and commercial sectors under ambitious global and local emissions objectives: A Chilean case study. J. Clean. Prod., 350, 131299.
Abstract: Chile is currently engaged in an energy transition process to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reductions and improved air quality indices. In this paper, we apply a long-term energy planning model, with the objective of finding the set of technologies that meet strong reductions of CO2 emissions and of local PM2.5 concentrations. For this purpose, we use the existing ETEM-Chile (Energy-Technology-Environment-Model) model which considers a simplified version of the Chilean electricity sector that we extend to the residential and commercial sectors and to local concentration considerations. We propose an original approach to integrate in the same framework local and global emission constraints. Results show that to meet the goal of zero emissions by 2050, electrification of end-use demands increases up to 49.2% with a strong growth of the CO2 marginal cost. It should be noted that this electrification rate is much lower than government projections and those usually found in the literature, in certain geographic areas in southern Chile with a wide availability of firewood for residential heating. Regarding local PM2.5 concentrations, our analysis shows that even without a specific emission reduction target, acceptable PM2.5 concentrations are achieved by 2045, due to first the emergence of more efficient, cleaner and cost-effective end-use technologies, in particular, residential firewood heaters, and second the use of drier and therefore less contaminating firewood. Achieving acceptable air quality as early as 2030 is also possible but comes with a high marginal cost of PM2.5 concentration. Our results illustrate the need for implementing effective public policies to (i) regulate the firewood heating market to increase its production and improve its environmental quality and (ii) incentivize the installation of efficient firewood heaters in the residential sector.
|
|
|
|
Kumaresan, N., Alsalhi, M. S., Karuppasamy, P., Kumar, M. P., Pandian, M. S., Arulraj, A., et al. (2023). Nitrogen implanted carbon nanosheets derived from Acorus calamus as an efficient electrode for the supercapacitor application. Mol. Catal., 538, 112978.
Abstract: Modern society's biggest challenges are affordable, clean energy production and storage. Thus, recent research aims at the discovery of novel electrode materials for enhanced energy production and storage. Herein, nitrogen-implanted carbon particles were synthesized for the first time from the Acorus Calamus for the symmetric supercapacitor application. The KOH-activated carbon particles at 750 degrees C (C-750) under a nitrogen atmosphere revealed the better structural, textural, morphological, and electrochemical performance. The BET analysis confirmed that the C-750 carbon nanoparticles tremendously enhanced the surface area of about 3551.07 m(2)/g. Further, the pore size and pore volume were obtained from BJH analysis that showed 3.70 nm and 0.51 cc/g, respectively. The high surface area along with the mesoporous nature of the C-750 sample effectively enhanced the specific capacitance to 354.44 Fg(-1) at 1 Ag-1 using a 6 M KOH electrolytic solution. Further, the enhancement of energy and power density of the C-750 was observed at about 47.2 Whkg(-1) and 16,000 Wkg(-1), respectively.
|
|
|
|
Kumaresan, N., Karuppasamy, P., Kumar, M. P., Peera, S. G., AlSalhi, M. S., Devanesan, S., et al. (2023). Synthesis and characterization of metal-free nanosheets of carbo-catalysts for bifunctional electrocatalyst towards HER and OER application. Mol. Catal., 539, 113043.
Abstract: Production of “green hydrogen” through water electrolysis is attracting considerable attention in recent years, due to the high demand for green energy technologies. The efficiency of water electrolysis depends on the electrocatalytic activity of anodic and cathodic electrocatalysts. Currently, utilizing Pt and RuO2-based elec-trocatalysts is expensive in terms of commercial aspects. Therefore, growing research for inventing efficient and cheap electrocatalysts is undergoing rigorously. In this work, we have synthesized, biomass-derived electro-catalysts with intrinsically implanted heteroatoms as hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions in alkaline electrolytes. The biomass carbon catalyst is derived from the carbonation of the Acorus Calamus plant “root”. The derived carbon is activated by KOH treatment (C-750). The resultant carbon powder is characterized by various physiochemical and electrochemical characterization techniques. The C-750 catalyst is found to have excellent morphology, surface area (3488 m2/g), pore size (4.08 nm), pore volume (1.10 cc/g), and intrinsically doped N. The HRTEM analysis of C-750 reveals well-distributed microporous and graphitic surfaces. When used as an electrocatalyst for HER and OER analysis, the C-750 exhibited appreciable electrocatalytic activity with an overpotential of-0.330 V and 0.563 V vs. RHE, respectively at the current density of-10.0 mA/cm2. In addition, the C-750 catalyst also showed excellent stability with almost zero degradation in a chronoamperometric measurement carried out for 10 hrs.
|
|
|
|
Munoz, F. D., Suazo-Martinez, C., Pereira, E., & Moreno, R. (2021). Electricity market design for low-carbon and flexible systems: Room for improvement in Chile. Energy Policy, 148(B), 111997.
Abstract: Chile was the first country that privatized all generation, transmission, and distribution services, and introduced competition in the generation segment. Nearly four decades after its creation, many features of the original electricity market design remain unchanged. In this paper, we provide a brief history of the Chilean electricity market and explain its main limitations going forward. Some of these include the use of a cost-based mechanism for spot transactions based on a merit-order curve, low temporal granularity of spot prices, missing forward markets to settle deviations from day-ahead commitments, inefficient pricing of greenhouse gas emissions due to administrative rules, and a capacity mechanism that does not reflect a clear resource adequacy target. Many of these limitations are also present in other electricity markets in Latin America that, when privatized, mirrored many features of the electricity market design in Chile. Failing to address these limitations will provide distorted incentives for the efficient entry and operation of resources that could impart flexibility to the system, increasing the cost of decarbonizing the power sector.
|
|
|
|
Nasirov, S., O'Ryan, R., & Osorio, H. (2020). Decarbonization Tradeoffs: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Modeling Analysis for the Chilean Power Sector. Sustainability, 12(19), 19 pp.
Abstract: Medium size developing countries like Chile that commit to decarbonization goals need to carefully assess the trade-offs associated to their intensity and timing, since most of the technologies required will be absorbed, not produced, by these countries. A rapid expansion of renewables in the Chilean energy matrix, mostly thanks to exceptional solar and wind resources, combined with a rapid decrease in the cost of renewable energy technologies, intensified current policy debates to reduce the role of coal, which is the largest source of CO2 emissions in the generation mix. Recently, the main generation companies in Chile made a voluntary commitment to not invest in new coal projects that do not include carbon capture and storage systems. In addition, the Chilean government announced its plans to phase out coal plants completely by 2040. In this context, the aim of this research is to study the economy-wide and emission reduction impacts of different decarbonization paths in the Chilean power sector. For this purpose, we consider dynamic simulations using a new energy-oriented version of the Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE)- General Equilibrium Model for the Chilean Economy (ECOGEM)-Chile which is soft linked to the bottom-up engineering energy model. The results show the major impacts under both the business as usual (BAU) scenario and the coal phase-out scenario. Additionally, the study discusses to what extent the ambitious decarbonization goals of the Chilean government are coherent with the current technological limitations.
|
|
|
|
Vargas-Ferrer, P., Alvarez-Miranda, E., Tenreiro, C., & Jalil-Vega, F. (2022). Assessing flexibility for integrating renewable energies into carbon neutral multi-regional systems: The case of the Chilean power system. Energy Sustain. Dev., 70, 442–455.
Abstract: Reducing emissions from power systems requires enhancing the penetration of non-conventional renewable energy sources (NCRE) in the generation mix. However, such penetration requires high levels of operational flexibility in order to ensure an adequate balance between generation and demand. Concentrating solar power plants with thermal storage (CSP-TES) and battery energy storage systems (BESS) have shown to possess technical characteristics compatible with such high flexibility requirements. However, due to the high capital costs of these technologies, decision-makers must seek for cost-effective configurations and operation modes. This study presents the development of a methodological framework for designing the long-term transition of a multi-regional energy system towards a low carbon emission system. The sought system is characterized by a high penetration of NCRE, and the use of CSP-TES, BESS and electricity transmission settings for providing effective levels of operational flexibility. For this, the transformation of the Chilean electricity system between the years 2018-2050 is studied, using a tailored modification of the well-known OSeMOSYS optimization tool for energy systems planning. The main results indicate that by 2050, and considering a baseline scenario defined for 2016, for most of the scenarios studied the renewable electricity generation would be at least a 90 % and CO2 emissions would be 75 % lower. Furthermore, it is shown that providing operational flexibility to the system requires a mixed generation from hydroelectric reservoirs, CSP-TES plants, BESS, pumped-storage hydropower and natural gas generators. The obtained results allow planning the capacity and operation of CSP and BESS plants, which are adapted to the future flexibility requirements of the Chilean electric power system. Incentive policies like stimuli to growth BESS, would favor primarily the photovoltaic growth of the system at the expense of CSP-TES capacity, while CSP-TES growth incentives would maintain photovoltaic generation levels, but would decrease Wind and natural gas generation.
|
|
|
|
Verastegui, F., Lorca, A., Olivares, D., & Negrete-Pincetic, M. (2021). Optimization-Based Analysis of Decarbonization Pathways and Flexibility Requirements in Highly Renewable Power Systems. Energy, 234, 121242.
Abstract: Several countries are adopting plans to reduce the contaminant emissions from the energy sector through renewable energy integration and restrictions on fossil fuel generation. This process poses important computational and methodological challenges on expansion planning modeling due to the operational details needed for a proper analysis. In this context, this paper develops a planning model including an effective representation of the operational aspects of the system to understand the key role of flexible resources under strong decarbonization processes in highly renewable power systems. A case study is developed for the Chilean power system, which is currently undergoing an ambitious coal phase-out process, including the analysis of a scenario that leads to a completely renewable generation mix. The results show that highly renewable generation mixes are feasible, but rely on an effective balance of the key flexibility attributes of the system including ramping, storage, and transmission capacities. Further, such balance allows for faster decarbonization goals to remain in a similar cost range, through the deployment of flexible capacity in earlier stages of the planning horizon.
|
|
