From ISSUE 06 – 2022.
Photo voltaic panels could appear a juxtaposition within the midst of oilfields and atop offshore oil rigs. However due to its resilience and dependability, photo voltaic has discovered a house in a few of the world’s most distant and dangerous places, together with these dedicated to the extraction of fossil fuels.
“For distant vital energy functions, PV is as a rule the one answer,” says Mark Cerasuolo, a director at US-based photo voltaic controller firm Morningstar. And there’s no scarcity of distant vital energy functions. Cerasuolo places the worldwide community of oil and fuel pipelines at 3.2 million kilometers, that includes over 65,000 extraction and operation websites (9,000 of that are offshore). “But the rising affect and adoption of ‘Digital Oilfield’ applied sciences requires energy to run on practically each mile of pipeline and at each web site – from the Indian Ocean flooring to the Sahara Desert.”
And but, whereas diesel and fuel turbines require continuous refuelling, common upkeep and sometimes substitute (all extraordinarily costly duties in distant and dangerous places like mines or unmanned offshore platforms), a PV system requires little greater than sunshine. “They will run for years with out being touched,” added Cerasuolo, who pointed to photo voltaic arrays nonetheless in operation on satellites which have been in orbit for the reason that Sixties for example. “PV’s capex is quickly offset by its superior opex, and that interprets into bottom-line advantages in a short time.”
The digitization of oilfields not solely allows elevated productiveness and financial savings, however means operations are a complete lot safer. Nonetheless, these advantages all depend upon “PV being essentially the most cost-effective technique of reliably powering distant techniques and delivering ‘greener oilfield’ advantages.”
Picture: JCE
Taking an offshore oil platform for example, a PV system powers valve and motor management, sensor techniques, communications, lighting and navigation techniques and even bird-deterrence techniques. “The final is a part of life at sea,” continues Cerasuolo. “Fowl droppings are corrosive and might shortly have an effect on equipment on a platform if not managed correctly.” Furthermore, “offshore platforms usually have helidecks for transporting personnel” that are “outfitted with highly effective lighting techniques, and our photo voltaic controllers have the load administration capabilities these lighting techniques require.”
The time period “hazardous” doesn’t merely consult with a location’s remoteness or environmental risks – it’s exactly outlined. In North America, Underwriters Laboratories and the Canadian Requirements Affiliation use a Class/Division/Teams methodology, which means a hazardous location is outlined when gases, liquids and vapors (the Class) could also be current (the Division) and which embrace substances equivalent to hydrogen, gasoline, propane and others (the Group). Exterior North America, the Worldwide Electro-technical Fee and the European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization use a “Zone System.”
In comparison with options, PV techniques are significantly better suited to HazLoc requirements. Typically builders custom-design PV energy techniques in enclosures and skids for oil and fuel prospects, with some specializing in explosion-proof container techniques the place Morningstar’s cost controllers function for years in a small, sealed area. Cerasuolo famous the expertise’s fanless design reduces the potential of dangerous vapors and gases flowing over circuitry, as does encapsulating inner elements. “It’s fairly widespread for Morningstar to be the second alternative in such circumstances,” says Cerasuolo. “After the primary controllers put in have failed within the discipline.”
Picture: SunWize
Photo voltaic in battle zones
It’s mentioned that a military marches on its abdomen, however as Brooklyn-based photo voltaic material and construction developer Pvilion’s Julia Fowler advised pv journal, the US Military is already marching on its photo voltaic expertise. “We’ve got absolutely developed a turnkey photo voltaic powered built-in construction that gives shelter, energy, and local weather conditioning in distant and austere environments.”
Briefly, Pvilion developed a photo voltaic tent, a construction as simple to place up as it’s to pack away and “absolutely independently powered.” Whereas expertise has superior quickly in current many years, the tent doesn’t appear to have advanced a lot past the basic hutchie – a stick to a sheet draped over it. However Pvilion likes to consider its tents as “the Swiss Military knife of tents, as they’re designed to offer extra with much less.”
“Not solely do they supply shelter, however they supply energy, comfort, adaptability, heating and cooling, and safety from the weather… with the aim of maximizing mission-objective readiness.” In fact, these missions should not all the time of the fight selection. “Our buildings present options in many alternative settings and functions,” says Fowler. “To call a number of, catastrophe response, contingency response, emergency preparedness, hurricane reduction, humanitarian help, refugee facilities.”
A part of this variability is the photo voltaic tent’s place within the energy-water nexus demonstrated by “Mission Arcwater”, which sees the tent’s photo voltaic power technology used to reap water in an agile fight deployment state of affairs.
Picture: US Division of Defence/Spangdahlem Air Base
In March 2022, Senior Grasp Sgt. Brent Kenney of the 52nd Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, obtained the 2022 Spark Tank trophy on the Air Power Affiliation’s Warfare Symposium for “Mission Arcwater”. In Kenney’s estimation, a three-day 30-person mission that will usually value $40,000 would, with the assistance of the photo voltaic tent and its powering of different tech such because the water harvester, value below $600 whereas offering the identical fight functionality.
That 98% value discount is put all the way down to utilizing 83% much less gasoline, much less cargo area, not paying for water, and all with a bundle that’s faster and lighter. The water harvester alone negates the necessity for a brand new pallet of water each six days, representing a $9 million saving yearly throughout the US Air Power.
Moreover, the photo voltaic buildings include ready-to-use battery kits additional decreasing dependency on diesel. “The kits present modular 4 kWh battery kits, and are sometimes utilized in multiples of six, for a complete of 24 kWh of available energy,” says Fowler.
Excessive-altitude installations
The Indian authorities’s Supposed Nationally Decided Contributions (INDCs) goals for the nation to achieve 40% cumulative put in electrical capability from non-fossil fuel-based energies by 2030. However as one of the densely populated international locations on the planet, India should make the most of its high-altitude areas to achieve its bold photo voltaic targets.
Nonetheless, Saurabh Nirgudkar, a venture engineer at Evergy Engineering India who contributed to the World Financial institution’s “Stay Wire” collection on “Putting in Photo voltaic Energy Vegetation in Snowbound Areas: Classes from Himachal Pradesh, India,” advised pv journal that there isn’t a scarcity of hazards and obstacles in the case of snowbound and high-altitude photo voltaic initiatives.
The initiatives themselves are inclined to excessive winds able to taking the module off the racking techniques and even compromising the steadiness of the mounting techniques themselves. Furthermore, the modules must be rated as much as 4,000 m altitude whereas additionally being able to working at extraordinarily low temperatures and withstanding a minimal of 5,400 Pascal of stress from wind and snowloads.
Nirgudkar pointed to quite a few methods to beat these challenges, such because the addition of again rails to mounting buildings and the usage of gravity weights as an alternative of deep drilling in fragile snowbound soil strata. Furthermore, because of the excessive UV penetration, rain and snow, cabling ought to be put in inside the mounting construction and below the PV modules. Any uncovered cabling ought to sport further plastic piping.
This notion was seconded by Olivier Haldi, head of enterprise improvement for Stäubli Electrical Connectors, an organization which has been on the forefront of options for PV in hazardous places from initiatives in Antarctica, to initiatives 2,500 meters above sea stage on the Muttsee dam in Switzerland and whilst excessive as 5,000 meters above sea stage in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Haldi advised pv journal that, “Typically talking, in case your product (connector) is already at or near the restrict below ‘regular’ circumstances, it’s not designed for and received’t handle harsh environments. So that you want a sure margin in your product design, expertise and materials.”
Combiner containers, transformers and inverters (ideally string) additionally require shelter below panels and additional safety in case of publicity. What’s extra, these usually distant and precarious places additionally pose a spread of logistical challenges, not just for set up but additionally offtake. Such challenges necessitate rigorous planning and web site choice standards.
Whereas engineers have labored out strategies to beat the challenges of high-altitude, there stays the begging query of why high-altitude areas are appropriate for PV within the first place?
For anybody who has frolicked at altitude the reply is simple. Not solely do PV techniques favor cooler temperatures, however the clear open skies above the cloud line together with increased ranges of irradiance guarantee better yields. Take the main target space of the World Financial institution examine, the Spiti Valley, which “receives virtually 300 days of clear sunshine yearly” and contemplating “the land at such excessive altitudes is predominantly barren and slopy terrain of low worth, this cuts down on land value considerably.”
Nirgudkar believes “there’s a brilliant future for such initiatives. Big steps are already being taken on this path with Minister of Energy India and the Ministry of New and Renewable Power (MNRE) taking a look at the opportunity of establishing a ten GW renewable power venture in Leh, Ladakh, which is at an altitude of greater than 3,500 m. A battery power storage system of 12 GWh can be proposed to be put in.”
“The area people additionally advantages from these initiatives,” continued Nirgudkar. Advantages embrace employment alternatives and financial boosts, to not point out an opportunity to alleviate a dependency on costly diesel gasoline which has come on account of “erratic electrical energy provide.” 
