EuroWire July 2020

Transatlantic cable

Dr Wu continued, “It could help identify problems with the gearbox at an early stage, which would trigger emergency management before a catastrophic failure [causes the] loss of the whole turbine.” The project will also examine ways of using fibre optic cables to detect marine mammal activity, and to monitor the boreholes of underground natural gas storage reservoirs. Boreholes, used to inject and withdraw gas from vast underground storage reservoirs, will degrade and corrode over time. Dr Wu believes that the scientific challenges for both the offshore wind and natural gas projects are optimising the technology design and sensitivity, and developing real-time edge computing technologies. He added, “In addition to using commercial systems, our team is developing new fibre interrogators that will allow us to not only get to the original raw data, but also play with the physics to better design a system that can give us the most sensitive signal we want. “In addition, we will be developing machine-learning-based edge computing methods to turn raw data [quickly] into actionable intelligence.” Looking for the positive: could the economic turmoil sparked by the pandemic prove to be an opportunity to upscale cleaner technologies? Economist Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), believes governmental support could drive rapid growth in battery and hydrogen technology to help the world to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels: “I believe there is an opportunity – and I call it an historic opportunity. The big time is about to come, but they need a push.” He added that the economic stimulus packages being delivered worldwide offer “an ideal vehicle for change”. After weeks of unprecedented turmoil in oil markets, the IEA has emerged as a leading advocate of “green recoveries” from the pandemic. Dr Birol wants governments to broaden their support for well-established paths to reducing carbon emissions – paths such as greater energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy to create jobs and serve climate goals – but he also wants governments to offer subsidy and policy support to developing technologies. Two such technologies, specifically identified by Dr Birol, are lithium-ion batteries and the use of electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water. “Nobody has a problem, as far as I see, to push the clean energy technologies,” Dr Birol said. “But they want to be convinced that those policies accelerating clean energy transitions would also help economic recovery.” Climate scientists say that, in addition to the expansion of cleaner technologies, the world must reverse plans to expand oil, gas and coal production for a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. In 2019, climate scientists, campaigners and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (comprising pension funds and insurers managing over $32.6 trillion in assets) wrote to the IEA to ask for more ambitious decarbonisation pathways to boost climate-friendly investment. Dr Birol confirmed that when the IEA publishes its next annual World Energy Outlook, it will detail its green job creation policy options. Sustainable power generation

27

www.read-eurowire.com

July 2020