New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Solar thermal – the world’s most misunderstood energy technology?
13/4/2022
8 min read
Feature
The Danes have much to teach the rest of the world about sustainable district heating incorporating solar thermal technology and heat storage. Even interseasonal heat storage is possible. Blaise Kelly* has visited a scheme in Vrå.
Back in the 1920s, car manufacturers were struggling to solve ‘engine knock’, an annoying and often terminal engine condition. Tetraethyl lead, or leaded petrol, is well known as the substance that solved this. But less well known is that the US chemist Thomas Midgley, credited with this invention, knew that ethyl alcohol was just as effective, but it was ignored as it couldn’t be patented and thus was far less profitable.
After decades of lead’s health effects being swept under the carpet and investigating scientists smeared, the danger of leaded petrol was finally recognised by governments in the 1970s. But it still took until well into the 1990s for bans to finally come into force. The emissions from leaded petrol are now regarded as one of the biggest public health and environmental disasters in recent history.
In a similar way, the push for decarbonisation and the scramble to divest from Russian gas is dominated by high tech solutions, from nuclear fusion and fuel cells to batteries and green hydrogen, attracting enormous investment pots. Yet all these solutions have one thing in common – they are all focused on electricity, which only accounts for around 20% of our total energy consumption.