Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 14 November 2023 – With abundant renewable energy potential and ambitious target to achieve 80 per cent of renewables share in the power generation by 2038, Honduras is already on the right path to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The Renewables Readiness Assessment: Contact online >>
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 14 November 2023 – With abundant renewable energy potential and ambitious target to achieve 80 per cent of renewables share in the power generation by 2038, Honduras is already on the right path to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The Renewables Readiness Assessment: Honduras by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) identifies the need to have current energy laws enforced with regulations and implementation mechanism to accelerate the country’s energy transition.
As one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change consequences in Latin America, Honduras faces the urgent need to reduce its CO2 emissions with increased use of renewables. Until recently, hydropower generation has been contributing the largest share to the renewable energy mix, but production faces more challenges due to alterations in climatic patterns. Honduras’ economy is also at risk as it relies on forestry, agriculture and fishing industries – all susceptible to adverse climate-related events.
Aimed at supporting the current government’s priority as laid out in the Energy Roadmap 2050 and National Plan 2010-2022, the report was developed in collaboration with the Honduran Energy Secretariat and the General Directorate of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. It highlights the role of renewable energy in reducing dependency on fossil fuels, enhancing access and efficiency, and promoting sustainable development.
IRENA Director-General, Francesco La Camera says, “Honduras has abundant natural resource reserves to achieve climate resilience and sustainable development. It has also shown ambitious commitment in renewable energy development. This Assessment identifies the gap between ambition and implementation, and makes recommendations to ensure that a successful transition benefits all in the communities.”
“We express our special thanks to IRENA and all the actors who have actively participated in the elaboration of this Assessment, which will undoubtedly serve as a reference to achieve the deployment of renewable energy in Honduras. We reaffirm the commitments of the Energy Secretariat – the governing body of the country’s energy sector responsible for creating policies for the adequate exploitation of natural resources and the generation of renewable energy in harmony with the environment,” says Erick Tejada Carbajal, PhD, Honduras’ Secretary of State in the Energy Office.
Launched in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in front of government officials and regional partners, the Assessment recommends a set of actions to address the challenges in these 6 key areas:
There are still challenges to bring access in Honduras’ remote areas and improve quality of services at affordable costs. Regulations that aim to attract increased investments in the deployment of variable renewable energy can improve energy access and meet the electricity needs.
The report finds that Honduras has high-quality solar potential for electricity production. The country has also large untapped biomass resources in the form of cane bagasse and palm oil waste. Comprehensive renewables projects could offer benefits to local communities, and add installed capacity in the electricity sector.
Read the Renewables Readiness Assessment: Honduras here.
Renewable energy plays a key role in the journey to net zero carbon emissions, helping to reduce the demand for fossil fuels by providing cleaner sources of energy.
But as the world derives an increasing amount of its electricity from these renewable energy sources, there''s a growing need for technologies that can capture and store it.
Renewable energy generation mainly relies on naturally-occurring factors – hydroelectric power is dependent on seasonal river flows, solar power on the amount of daylight, wind power on the consistency of the wind – meaning that the amounts being generated will be intermittent.
Similarly, the demand for energy isn''t constant either, as people generally tend to use different amounts of energy at different times of the day and the year.
So, when the amount of renewable energy being generated is greater than what''s needed, it makes sense to store that excess energy so it can be used at a time when the demand exceeds the generation.
Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy creates clean power without producing greenhouse gases (GHGs) as a waste product. By storing and using renewable energy, the system as a whole can rely less on energy sourced from the more greenhouse-gas emitting fuels like coal, natural gas or oil.
There are times when the amount of electricity being generated by renewables can exceed the amount that''s needed at the time. When this happens, some renewable generators may need to curtail their outputs in order to help the system remain ''balanced'' – i.e. whenelectricity supply meets demand – meaning that an opportunity to generate clean electricity has essentially gone to waste.
Energy storage allows these renewable energy resources to continue to generate electricity even if it''s not needed at that particular time, as it can be stored until a later time when it''s needed.
Energy storage technologies work by converting renewable energy to and from another form of energy.
These are some of the different technologies used to store electrical energy that''s produced from renewable sources:
Pumped hydroelectric energy storage, or pumped hydro, stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water. When demand is low, surplus electricity from the grid is used to pump water up into an elevated reservoir. When demand increases, the water is released to flow down through turbines to a lower reservoir, producing hydroelectric power for the grid as it does so.
Electrochemical batteries store energy by separating positive and negative charges in rechargeable cells. Different types of electrochemical battery storage technology include:
Lithium-ion battery storageGovernment and developers are investing substantially in the creation of huge lithium-ion batteries to store energy for times when supply outstrips demand. Lithium battery technologies are diverse to address custom needs for flexibility, modularity, and size, as well as being relatively inexpensive. However these batteries do degrade over time and present unique fire management challenges.The world''s largest battery energy storage system so far is Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California. The first 300-megawatt lithium-ion battery – comprising 4,500 stacked battery racks – became operational at the facility in January 2021.
Flow battery storageFlow batteries'' cells consist of two charged liquids separated by a membrane. Surplus electrical energy is used to ''reduce'' the liquid charge state of one and ''oxidise'' that of the other to efficiently store energy. The process is then reversed to recover electricity with low loss.This flowing reduction-oxidation operation – known as ''redox flow'' – allows the batteries to store large amounts of energy for long durations and be cycled many times without degradation. However, they do have a relatively large project footprint.
Read more about battery storage
While not limited to renewable energy, storing excess energy as heat for the longer term is a huge opportunity for industry, where most of the process heat that''s used in food and drink, textiles or pharmaceuticals comes from the burning of fossil fuels.
Liquifying rock or superheating sand and water mixtures can be used to store thermal energy. Thermal energy storage technologies include:
Liquid-to-air transition energy storageSurplus grid electricity is used to chill ambient air to the point that it liquifies. This ''liquid air'' is then turned back into gas by exposing it to ambient air or using waste heat to harvest electricity from the system. The expanding gas can then be used to power turbines, creating electricity as needed.
Thermal sand batteriesFinnish researchers have developed and installed the world''s first fully working ''sand battery'', which can store power for months at a time. Using low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or wind. The sand stores the heat at around 500°C, which can then warm homes in winter when energy is more expensive.
Different types of mechanical energy storage technology include:
Compressed air energy storageCompressed air energy storage has been around since the 1870s as an option to deliver energy to cities and industries on demand. The process involves using surplus electricity to compress air, which can then be decompressed and passed through a turbine to generate electricity when needed.This type of storage system can be used in conjunction with a wind farm, pulling in air and creating a high-pressure system in a series of enormous underground chambers. When wind speeds slow down or demand for electricity increases, the pressurised air is discharged to power turbines or generators.
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