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Study visit in the field of RENEWABLE ENERGY
2008-12-01 11:40:12
Report on the study tour to Sweden on ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES
I. INTRODUCTION
A Study Tour to Sweden in November 2008 was initiated by the Moldova Social Investment Fund. The main intention of this visit was to study the alternative energy production technologies. 2 representatives from the Moldova Social Investment Fund accompanied a group of 6 mayors from different towns of Moldova.
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Moldova Social Investment Fund (MSIF) is a Government of the Republic of Moldova project, created with the support of the World Bank aiming at contributing to Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy implementation by empowering poor communities and their institutions to manage their priority development needs.
In the context of development policies and strategies of Moldova, the Social Investment Fund is considered to be an efficient mechanism for changing of community population’s attitudes and behaviour, for social activism increase, for community’s solidarity spirit increase and for life quality increase in poor population and in vulnerable groups by increasing the access to improved social services.
The typology of the infrastructure rehabilitated by communities within the MSIF Project includes primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, gas and water supply pipelines and other small scale rural infrastructure. As may be seen from the actual portfolio, schools and kindergartens are most frequently met among other sub-projects submitted by communities within the Fund.
In case of school and kindergartens projects people usually ask for a new heating system that is, actually, a priority need in rural communities in Moldova. MSIF aims to consult and assist communities to go to new, modern energy production technologies and heating systems that are more sustainable, of higher efficiency rate and less impact on the environment.
Therefore MSIF considered a practical training obtained in a developed country, Sweden, as a meaningful program intervention in getting more practical experience on alternative technologies of heat production and heating buildings in rural communities.
Sweden has the highest proportion of renewable energy in relation to the final energy consumption across the EU and is among the four countries have increased their share most in the period 2000 to 2005. In 1990, was Sweden's share of renewable energy, 33.9 percent and has since risen to the year 2007 to be 43.9 percent.
Sweden's significantly higher share than other countries depends not only on the abundance of biomass and hydro power but also on a very active energy policy from the Swedish government. To achieve the target of 49 percent renewable energy by 2020 (EU commitment), further improvments need still to be made, also in Sweden.
III. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY TOUR
The main goal of the study tour is:
Learn and draw from lessons, experiences and good practices of the alternative energy production technologies.
Objectives of the study tour are to study:
Alternative energy production technologies and its application, in specially to get experience and attainments on bio-fuel production.
IV. METHODOLOGY
The participants were staying for 7 days in Sweden and visited during this time different objects according to the intentions of the goals and objectives above. See attached programme. Some lessons have already been drawn from previous study tours (Sept 2007, Feb 2008) and main focus was now to identify those technologies that could be applied in Moldova.
V. TECHNOLOGIES STUDIED DURING THE VISIT
During the week of the study tour the delegates have attended a program including visits to manufacturers, municipal district heating power stations, had meetings with experts on different alternative energy technologies and to different objects using alternative energy sources for heating. The different alternative energy sources explored were dry bio fuel (pellet, briquettes), wet bio fuel (chips), refuse material (sorted), biogas, Solar panels, wind power, geothermal heat pumps and air heat exchangers.
Dry Bio Fuel:
Lessons drawn from former study visits conclude that dry bio fuel is very interesting for Moldova, since it is convenient and do not require very big investments. It is economic to use even in very small power stations. But the dry bio fuel as it is made in Sweden has some important drawbacks;
The problem for Moldova would be to maintain the necessary in flow of pellet. It is not advisable for Moldova to become dependant on pellet producers in other countries. The most interesting for Moldova would be to start producing its own pellet from agricultural waste products. It could be stems from sunflower, corn or wheat as well as twigs from fruit trees or wine grapes. It is necessary to further look into possibilities of using local material and what kind of boilers that is optimal for that use. Similar boilers to pellet could probably be used if taken into consideration the lower melting point of the agriculture waste material, that cause lumps of silicon in the hearth of the ember. It is strongly recommended that MSIF go ahead with further inquires considering this.”
During this study tour a meeting was arranged with David Andersson, from EcoEra company. His company works with the making of bio fuel from waste products from the agricultural sector.
By using the country’s own waste products from the agricultural sector Moldova could make its own pellets, and not become dependant of pellet import. The technique is possible in Moldova as long as the waste is dry enough, maximum 12 % moisture. If it is necessary to dry the waste, other solutions should be looked upon. It is possible to make smaller bio fuel factories.
Conclusions:
Bio fuel from the agricultural sector is very interesting for Moldova for heating especially in the rural areas. Further studies should be carried out finding out the quality of the waste material and if it is dry enough to make pellets from.
Wet Bio Fuel:
In Sweden wet bio fuel is often used in larger power stations and produce heating for big parts of cities in central heating systems. During the study visit such power stations were visited in Boras and Molndal.
Wet bio fuel, or chips, are generally made from finely chopped wood but many types of cellulose fiber based fuels can be used. The most common ones in Sweden are some kind of fuels with high moisture content, like forest or sawmill waste.
Wet bio fuel need less processing and is cheaper than pellet. In Sweden it is used in power stations from 2-3 MW to boilers used for district heating in big cities. The disadvantages with chips are that they are not economic in small sizes because of the required space to unload and store the chips. In installations where fuel that keep high moisture is burned and where the return water has a low temperature it is often profitable to install a flue gas condenser. The condenser takes the moistured water in the flue gases after the boiler and heat exchanger against incoming returnwater. In this way it is possible to extract between 15-25% of the total effect as extra effect from the flue gas condenser.
Conclusions: For Moldova chips could be interesting for power stations from 3 MW, for instance for smaller district heating systems. If local materials could be used and a number of houses could be conected into one system this is a very economical solution that should be further looked into by MSIF. The drawbacks are similar to those with dry bio fuel; the main focus should be on Moldova’s capacity of producing its own chips and not become dependant of other countries for import.
Waste incineration plant:
By using waste as heating material you solve two problems in one. Both the heating and the growing deposits with waste. During the study tour visits were made to Ryaverken in Boras where waste incineration plants are used for district heating and a waste sorting station in Molndal. In Boras the plant is so big that the city import waste materials from other municipalities to burn. During the visit to the Boras energy plant a meeting with the local politician Olle Engstrom was made. Olle is running a project in Indonesia about energy from waste material.
In Sweden it is very popular to burn waste materials from households. The fuel is even cheaper than bio fuel. In Sweden, as well as in many other European countries, the governmental policy is to minimise the deposing of waste materials and from this perspective it is good economy to use them for energy in heat plants. In general the plants need to be rather big, with big investments in purifications of the ashes, smoke and other leftovers from the process. It is very important that the waste material is sorted before burning so that the amount of harmful substances is diminished.
Conclusions: In Moldova today the waste material is buried in big deposits. It is therefore very interesting to learn more about how to use the waste from households for cheap energy, both from an ecological perspective (other European countries do not deposit their waste anymore) as well as from an economical perspective of using the resources that the country have for making energy. A lot of work is though to be made before it is possible to invest and build Moldova’s first waste incineration plant. First of all the government needs to form a waste product plan for the country, on how to handle the growing amount of waste. To be able to use the waste to produce energy the most important is the consumers starting to sort their waste. A general sorting strategy also needs to be initiated by the government along with logistics on how to collect and transport the waste etc. There are different ways to motivate consumers to sort their waste. Waste incineration plants are probably most feasible in the largest cities of Moldova with extensive central heating systems. The investment for a waste incineration plant is significant.
Solar Panels:
During the study tour visits were made to Ingenjörsfirman Leif Carlsson AB that produces solar flat panels.
A solar heating system is a fluid system that moves the heat from the collector to its point of usage. A pump or fan is used to circulate the liquid and a reservoir or tank for heat storage and subsequent use. The systems may be used to heat domestic hot water or for space heating. Solar water heating systems are the most popular form of solar energy used in Europe. There are two systems used today; Flat Plate Collectors and Evacuated Tubes.
Solar water heating panels in their simplest form are the flat plate collectors, made from a sheet of metal painted dark blue which absorbs the suns energy. Water is fed through the panel in pipes attached to the metal sheet and picks up the heat in the metal. In Sweden the pipe work contains non-toxic anti-freeze. The pipes are made of copper for better conduction. The metal sheet is embedded in an insulated box and covered with glass or clear plastic on the front. The system is usually installed on the roof.
The evacuated tube system is a series of glass heat tubes grouped together. The tubes are highly insulated, due to a vacuum inside the glass. This system is more vulnerable than the above mentioned. It is slightly more efficient but also more costly.
Conclusions: Moldova has a lot of sun hours, all year around. The use of solar energy is probably the most interesting and obvious alternative to heat water in schools and other public buildings in the near future in Moldova. The production flat panels could take place in Moldova. The system is not very complicated and the transfer of knowledge could probably take place in Moldova under the supervision of skilled consultants. The investment costs would probably be profitable within a few years. It is strongly recommended that MSIF go ahead with further inquires considering this.
Passive House technology:
The group visited Passive House Centre in Alingsas and visited a few sites with passive house buildings within the area.
A Passive House is a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Energy losses are minimized. Any remaining heat demand is provided by an extremely small source. Avoidance of heat gain through shading and window orientation also helps to limit any cooling load, which is similarly minimized. An energy recovery ventilator provides a constant, balanced fresh air supply. The result is an impressive system that saves up to 90% of space heating costs.
A Passive House is a comprehensive system. "Passive" describes well this system's underlying receptivity and retention capacity. Working with natural resources, free solar energy is captured and applied efficiently, instead of relying predominantly on ‘active’ systems to bring a building to ‘zero’ energy. High performance triple-glazed windows, super-insulation, an airtight building shell, limitation of thermal bridging and balanced energy recovery ventilation make possible extraordinary reductions in energy use and carbon emission.
It is very popular in Sweden to build with passive house techniques and many municipalities have put up goals as to build a certain percentage of all new buildings within the municipality as passive houses.
Conclusions:
Passive house technology could be interesting for Moldova. It is perhaps not possible to build the type of constructions that are used in Sweden, with wood and extremely tight plastic. Since Moldova is in an area that is exposed to earth movements the plastic might move and crack. This would be fatal for the airtight construction. In other places of the world, passive houses are built without the plastic and with using materials more common for Moldova, like concrete. It could be a problem to import all the necessary components. They need all to be very well insulated with very low u-values and it is not likely that such components exist on the local market in Moldova today.
Wind Power:
A visit to Varberg and a number of wind power stations was made.
Wind power captures kinetic energy from the wind and converts it into electricity. The wind is a renewable energy source that is driven by the temperature and pressure variations that occur by the sun energy radiation. Wind energy produces clean energy that do not require emissions or polluting transportation of fuel. The sound from the rotor can be seen as disruptive and the rotor can sometimes give rotating shadows. There for it is important that there is a sufficient distance from the power plants to settlements in order to minimize these problems.
The development of wind-power generation has gone very quickly, since the mid-80s, the wind farms doubled in size approximately every four years. The biggest effect on operating in India today has 80 m high tower, 90 m rotor diameter, 3 MW power and produces around 8000 MWh of electricity per year.
Wind power produces energy when the wind blows from around 4-25 m / s.
Sweden has little wind power in comparison to the large wind countries. In Germany there are over 20 000 plants that provide about 30 TWh and Denmark produces about 20% of all its electricity from wind. It is not because Sweden has fewer opportunities for wind, rather the contrary, Sweden has a long coastline and windy mountains. The problem has rather been the political will and the terms and conditions of wind power in Sweden. The government aims to increase the production of wind power in Sweden.
Conclusions:
Wind power is perhaps not the most optimal solution for Moldova since the country lacks both coast line and high mountains. Still wind power might be a good choice in some parts of the country where the strength of the wind rises above 4 m/s. This should be further looked into because even if the investment is considerable the source of energy is totally free and never ending.
VI. CONSULTANT’S REPORT
This report is completed, after the study tour to Sweden 15-21 of November 2008 made by 2 representatives from the MSIF and 6 mayors from different small towns of Moldova, by the Swedish Company Semrén & Månsson Arkitektkontor AB and the consultant for the assignment, Mrs. Maria Broman.
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