The Hidden Infrastructure Challenge Behind Renewable Energy Growth
The Middle East crisis has spurred more interest in alternative energy supply, but the evolution of transition technology has made transporting things like turbine blades and batteries problematic, DHL’s chief executive has warned.
“Large wind turbines now have blades of astonishing dimensions,” Tobias Meyer told the media, as quoted by Bloomberg. “These large cargoes create high wind loads for vessels, require stacking and specialized rigs to transport, as they are also quite vulnerable.”
Wind turbine equipment has been steadily getting larger in order to boost the generation capacity of the installations. Bloomberg noted in its report a Chinese company that has developed a 26-MW turbine whose blades measure 153 meters and another company that has built a 50-MW turbine that requires even longer blades.
Batteries, on the other hand, constitute a fire risk, which has made transporting them a challenge in terms of insurance and, therefore, costs. Some shipping companies have even refused to transport EVs and batteries due to that risk. Last year, a fire broke out on a ship transporting 3,000 cars, among them 800 electric vehicles, and the ship had to be abandoned in the Pacific.
Battery demand is on a strong rise as transition tech adopters seek to make wind and solar electricity supply more reliable and available on demand rather than only when the weather allows. According to BloombergNEF, demand for batteries, including for storage, is set to rise 17 times between 2025 and 2050, to reach 3.8 terawatts.
DHL is addressing the battery problem by building a special transport hub for battery products in its native Netherlands, and using special containers with thermal insulation to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion and fires on board ships. Another DHL executive noted that the challenging nature of transporting transition tech would require the development of specialized infrastructure because many wind and solar installations are built in areas that are far from established trade routes, Bloomberg also reported.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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