How clean energy is worsening climate change
Priya Wadhwa
10x Industry
Published:

How clean energy is worsening climate change

The negative impact of clean energy the worst greenhouse gas in the air

The world talks about clean energy and celebrates the establishment of wind and solar energy plants. But the light of all that positive often hides the dark secret that is warming our environment 23,500 times more than carbon dioxide.

Electricity is seen as clean energy. However, in order to safeguard electric plants from short circuits and accidents, sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6 — the worst greenhouse gas is used. Moreover, the emissions of this gas have been rising rapidly in the past two decades according to researchers at the University of Bristol, UK.

The reasons behind the use of this gas are multi-fold. The most common reasons are its cost effectiveness, as the gas is cheap, its high effectiveness, which has been proven over the years, as well as its low maintenance costs.

This gas is most often used in wind turbines that use more switchgears, which in turn uses more SF6.

The issue lies particularly in the leakage of this gas from the power plants into the atmosphere. Its colourless and odourless nature makes these leaks even harder to detect. The way they are handled, captured, and recycled also makes a huge difference, which makes the whole process a lot more complicated and expensive.

The industry has been looking at solutions to combat these problems. Advancement in technology has seen equipment available that does not use SF6. Moreover, there are new gears that have lower leak rates.

So the question is whether these new technologies are being adopted fast enough. On the other hand, switching equipment in power plants is extremely expensive and difficult, and decision makers want to see proof of these new technologies working before adopting them.

It boils down to very few feasible options being available to the energy sector it relation to using SF6. The lack of proven alternatives is the biggest hurdle.

Funding is required to support innovations and trials of new equipment, which needs to come from governments as well as the private sector.

While a ban in unlikely in the near future, the matter of SF6 use is under review in the European Union, which may lead to regulations on usage,

"This includes funding innovation trials and rewarding companies to research and find alternatives, setting emissions targets, rewarding companies that beat those targets, and penalising those that miss them."

"There is no real alternative that is proven,

The world talks about clean energy and celebrates the establishment of wind and solar energy plants. But the light of all that positive often hides the dark secret that is warming our environment 23,500 times more than carbon dioxide.

Electricity is seen as clean energy. However, in order to safeguard electric plants from short circuits and accidents, sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6 — the worst greenhouse gas is used. Moreover, the emissions of this gas have been rising rapidly in the past two decades according to researchers at the University of Bristol, UK

The reasons behind the use of this gas are multi-fold. The most common reasons are its cost effectiveness, as the gas is cheap, its high effectiveness, which has been proven over the years, as well as its low maintenance costs.

This gas is most often used in wind turbines that use more switchgears, which in turn uses more SF6.

The issue lies particularly in the leakage of this gas from the power plants into the atmosphere. Its colourless and odourless nature makes these leaks even harder to detect. The way they are handled, captured, and recycled also makes a huge difference, which makes the whole process a lot more complicated and expensive.

The industry has been looking at solutions to combat these problems. Advancement in technology has seen equipment available that does not use SF6. Moreover, there are new gears that have lower leak rates.

So the question is whether these new technologies are being adopted fast enough. On the other hand, switching equipment in power plants is extremely expensive and difficult, and decision makers want to see proof of these new technologies working before adopting them.

It boils down to very few feasible options being available to the energy sector it relation to using SF6. The lack of proven alternatives is the biggest hurdle.

While a ban in unlikely in the near future, the matter of SF6 use is under review in the European Union, which may lead to regulations on usage, along with a potential ban.

This might take a few more years. Industry experts are expecting changes in regulation to be introduced around 2025, after which it will further take a few more years for them to be adopted in other countries around the world.

Funding is required to support innovations and trials of new equipment, which needs to come from governments as well as the private sector. Having said that, the governments need to push forth with this agenda through rewards and benefits to hasten the change around the world.