On 21 June in Cambridge, UK, IDTechEx will be hosting two half-day forums on the topic of Off Grid.
The morning session will be on: 'Off Grid Electricity Generation Needs, Systems and Markets'. Off grid electricity production continues to be carried out where there is no other option, for example on islands, ships and in remote regions and under-developed countries. The list extends to such things as disaster response and powering robot farming. Grids are becoming both more vulnerable and more expensive to extend. Indeed, the price of grid electricity often rises while the cost of off grid electricity drops, partly because off grid enjoys a stronger flow of new technologies and it is encumbered by little or no transmission. Off grid has fewer outages in some regions. We therefore have the new phenomenon of widespread "grid defection" from Las Vegas Casinos to houses in Australia. Often we are moving from increasingly unaffordable, anti-social and illegal diesel gensets as grid backup to a complete reversal of that with the grid being relegated to being a rarely used backup. The term for that is "fringe of grid" and will be covered in this session.
Image: Reverse osmosis desalination plant. Source: James Grellier, Wikicommons
'New Off Grid Energy Harvesting Technologies' will be the topic for the afternoon session. At first sight the technologies are the same between zero emission grid electricity production and off grid. Both are produced by photovoltaics and wind turbines in the main, with "blue energy" from water having a toe hold. That is misleading. It may need to be modular or part of a vehicle, even light enough to fly. Off grid photovoltaics is more likely to be in the form of structural electronics integrated into an aircraft wing or a house and have tolerance of shadowing and being at a poor angle to the sun. It may use more advanced chemistry such as GaAs. Quiet, low wind turbines near houses may best be H shape vertical Axis Wind Turbine (H-VAWT), not the familiar horizontal axis turbines. There may be little or no need for energy storage when the module makes clean water or hydrogen for example. Portability and replacing diesel gensets are challenges that on grid suppliers do not face. Off grid has a wider choice of new technologies coming along so it will become more and more different from the slower moving on grid industry. For instance, we believe that Airborne Wind Energy using tethered drones for lower cost, more continuous electricity from winds high above ground turbines is best suited to off grid use, partly because it is portable.
Airborne Wind Energy Kite
These sessions will take a close look at the successes, failures and issues with existing and future off grid technology. Learn the jargon and the options in detail and assess the IDTechEx take on future winners, losers and capabilities.
Register with a 30% discount: www.IDTechEx.com/Cambridge.
On 19 and 20 June IDTechEx will also host the following forums: Li-Ion Batteries: Raw Materials, Battery Materials, Gigafactories, & Emerging Markets; Batteries Beyond Li-ion & Supercapacitors: New Materials, New Applications; Electric Vehicles: Markets, Trends, Opportunities - Land, Sea & Air; and Electric Vehicles: New Material & Component Opportunities.
