Abisu: Smart Grids Help Clean Energy Applications

As an important partner of China in the field of energy, the United States has seen strong momentum in clean energy development in recent years. Recently, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released a report that the global clean energy investment once again showed a strong growth trend in the second quarter of this year. Among them, the United States has the most prominent rebounding momentum. The total investment in the second quarter was 10.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 195%. Ab Bisu, director of the Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, believes that in the face of the global trend of clean energy, it is of strategic significance to seize the opportunity of smart grid construction.

Government and Enterprises Join Forces to Reduce Investment Risks "Living News": President Obama has always been committed to the development of clean energy, promoting the development of smart grids, and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, and urged Congress to pass legislation on carbon total control and transactions. Please tell us about the development of the United States in the field of renewable energy in the past period of time?

Abisu: In the past decade, the United States has made tremendous efforts to develop renewable energy. Up to now, we have increased wind output by 15 times and now we have 3,900 MW of wind power output.

In terms of solar energy, the output of solar power in 2000 was only 20 megawatts, and it has now been increased to 600 megawatts, and all installed capacity is fully connected to the US grid. Although this process was rather slow, we did achieve this.

In addition, biofuels have become a huge industry and there are 3,100 biofuel stations that have been commercially certified. Most importantly, we have significantly reduced the production costs of clean energy, and a new generation of science and technology plays a vital role in it, as well as in the field of construction and energy transmission.

"Liang Bao": The United States Secretary of Energy Zhu Yuwen once said that "the United States wants to become the global leader in the green energy industry, and it is now in full swing." In order to achieve this magnificent goal, what great changes will the United States make?

Abisu: In order to become the global leader in green energy, the United States will aggressively promote clean energy production in the next few years. For example, the United States will double its renewable energy production, and other non-oil energy production will triple. In addition, by 2015, the United States will add more than 100,000 hybrid vehicles. Of course, these goals need to be approved by the U.S. Congress.

In this development process, it is very important to let the market really play a role, strive to find a reasonable business model, and reduce the investment risk of clean energy.

All the time, our laboratory, as the research institution of the U.S. government, has maintained close cooperation with the industry and has become a good partner with various energy companies. There were more than 100 partners in the past year. It also formed more than one hundred new partners. We believe that only the companies in the industry can work together to assist manufacturers and help them to seek more development opportunities and help them reduce their investment risks in the clean energy field so as to jointly lead the reform of the energy market. Especially for private companies, reducing the risk of investment is even more important.

In addition, we must find a new way to combine traditional investment methods with new clean technologies, encourage more funds to invest in clean energy, and promote its rapid development.

Liang Liang: In your opinion, what substantive work should the U.S. government make in promoting clean energy development?

Abisu: I think that all the factors of technology, market, and policy need to be combined to reduce the risk of our investment. Of course, the government must act, but the premise is not to use administrative orders, but to relax market access policies, make good use of the market's invisible hand, or by the government to improve some technologies so that these technologies can enter the market.

I expect that in the next few years, the clean energy industry will welcome a large amount of investment under the encouragement of policies. In this regard, the U.S. government and enterprises are all in action. Recently, the world's largest thin-film solar cell manufacturer - the United States First Solar Company, its founder Mike Ahern invested 300 million US dollars to set up a VC company dedicated to supporting the reuse of energy, fresh water, agriculture and waste Such as the development of clean energy companies.

Capital trends optimistic about energy-saving construction

"Liangbao": Your country's Ministry of Energy Energy Lab is looking at the key technologies in the field of clean energy research and development and promotion?

Abisu: What we urgently seek now is how to develop new energy technologies that are more cost-effective.

In the development of bioenergy, we are trying to study a new generation of easy-to-use biomass energy, and the raw material of this biomass energy is not grain. In the next few years, whether in terms of power generation or transportation, we hope that the car can use this high-efficiency biomass energy to replace the traditional status of gasoline. In biomass power generation, the neomycin enzyme we produce reduces the cost of producing ethanol.

In the field of wind power, the laboratory has developed new technologies, such as small wind turbine blades that produce only a few hundred watts of power at a time, and aerodynamic technologies.

In the field of solar power, thin-film solar power generation technology has been developed. The use of this technology by a company in the United States has reduced the cost of electricity generation to six cents per kilowatt-hour and has now become the world's largest solar energy producer.

In addition, we are also exploring the possibility of implementing light-powered automotive applications. In these areas, we all have considerable room for technological improvement.

Liangbao: Has your lab developed some very low-carbon technologies that are very practical? Is it currently widely used in the United States?

Abisu: From the experiments conducted in the past, we have come to a very important conclusion - the future of green buildings has a very broad space for development. This prompted us to build more energy-efficient buildings in the future.

At present, our laboratory has built a huge energy-saving building. This year, we will repair the third building and we will be equipped with solar photovoltaic power generation equipment on top of this building. We will also have an energy storage system on the ground floor of the building. Install soundproofed windows and a very efficient information center.

According to our experiments, there is a good energy offset every day in this building. According to calculations, people who work in this building, each person consumes less than 300 watts of energy per day. We require everyone to change their work habits and not allow the use of energy devices that do not enter the control system.

Ultimately, the effect that the building produces as much energy per year as it consumes energy is equal to the energy consumed by the building is zero. We can indeed do this, and we have not used any sophisticated technology. We use all existing technologies. Therefore, we will invest more funds to build energy-saving buildings in the future.

Grab the opportunity to build a smart grid

“Living News”: Many countries are now joining the global clean energy market and have surpassed the United States in some key areas. What are the challenges facing the United States and what areas will be followed?

A Bisu: It is true. In fact, the system we use today is not very efficient, but all technologies related to clean energy require a more efficient infrastructure. Therefore, we need to pay more attention to the energy efficiency of energy. This is the direction we will continue to study in the future. All government departments need not only consider technology research and development, but also consider how to verify the feasibility of these technologies and how to promote and apply the technology.

Therefore, I think the biggest challenge at present is to introduce a new generation of green power grids to seize the opportunity of smart grid construction.

In terms of clean energy production and applications, smart grids face very good opportunities for development. Wind power plants on the sea, solar power generation, solar thermal power generating units, and so on, the resulting energy needs to be converted into electricity, plug-in hybrid vehicles, whether they can always get power supplements, which need to rely on smart grid to achieve.

In addition, there is more use of smart grids in end-user use. We need to optimize the load of electricity to develop and use flexible pricing mechanisms that can fully integrate smart grids with various clean energy technologies.

At present, the United States is making improvements to smart grid technologies. For example, we have invested billions of dollars in building infrastructure and distribution systems. This will not only improve the reliability of power supply, but also reduce the risk of power outages, so that people can enjoy sufficient at any time. electricity.

"Lingbao": In the future, will your laboratory cooperate with China and look forward to cooperation in which areas?

Abisu: In fact, the development of a low-carbon economy around the world is the driving force behind our constant efforts to innovate. All we have done is not only to develop domestic low-carbon industries, but also to provide clean energy for the world.

We understand that the Chinese government also encourages the development of clean energy. At the same time, China also has the most advanced smart grid research and development technology. The company is full of vigor and innovation.

Therefore, I also hope that in the future, we can have more in-depth cooperation opportunities with the Chinese government and enterprises in the R&D and promotion of clean energy and smart grid.

Look forward to that day will not be very far away.