Late Again?






Surely you have heard this phrase: “Mexico arrived late to the industrial revolution.” And it is that while in Great Britain its beginnings are traced to the end of the eighteenth century, in Mexico it arrived until the end of the nineteenth century, almost 100 years later. While in Europe the textile industry was being mechanized, roads were increasing; maritime transport and large extensions of railway lines were being installed, in Mexico we rested strongly on textile manufacturing; there was no strong connectivity between production and consumption centers and we fell behind, in contrast, particularly with the United States, where the northern states began to industrialize rapidly.

But it does not end there. Mexico arrived late to other revolutions: the technological revolution, the digital revolution, the computer revolution and even the revolution of industry 4.0. Already on a roll, it could also be debated that we arrived late to the democratic revolution, the revolution of human rights; economic and cultural rights and, of course, environmental rights. Faced with this panorama, I ask myself: will we arrive late this time to the renewable revolution?

If we could divide the world into two categories, those who generate technological innovation and those who adopt innovations, would we doubt that Mexico is in the second? Although, in its fair dimension, Mexico, in general, is a country that adopts technology in its early phases.

Late for renewable energy

At this moment it seems that the perfect storm is hitting us and we have closed not only the door to the development of renewable energy in our country; also the window of early adoption of the technologies that would allow us to be competitive on the international scene.

Today the trend is clear: countries, companies, investment funds; research centers and society in general are betting on renewable energies and their growth in the energy matrix. It is a window of opportunity that, as always, will be taken advantage of by those who work to seize it.

In such a way that, while in other countries there is talk of solar roofs, hydrogen airplanes, electric trains; thermal energy batteries, green or blue hydrogen and homes 100% free of fuels, in Mexico we continue discussing regarding the dispatch of coal plants and purchase plans from small producers, intermittency and regulatory capture.

Undoubtedly, we are losing valuable time that could be dedicated to promoting scientific and technological development to integrate renewable energies into the networks and to destroy once and for all the myth of intermittency, to create auctions that have greater benefits for users and CFE at the cost of the risk assumed by private parties or to expand the transmission and distribution networks to the most vulnerable and marginalized areas of the country.

Otherwise, this period will go down in the history of Mexico as the time when our country arrived late to the energy revolution that redefined the economic and social system at the international level. Let us hope that this time it is not 100 years late, because we have everything to make energy work for you, for me and for all of us.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: November 18, 2020
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/otra-vez-tarde-revolucion-energia-renovable-energia-circular-opinion/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210509043040/https://businessinsider.mx/otra-vez-tarde-revolucion-energia-renovable-energia-circular-opinion/ [Archived]

Gray, Blue and Green Hydrogen






You read here first, a few months ago, that the hydrogen fever would begin in the world. From then to date we have heard notes such as Airbus’s bet to develop a zero-carbon-emissions airplane powered by hydrogen; using natural gas transportation and distribution pipelines to distribute hydrogen to industries, businesses and homes in the United Kingdom and the development of cargo transportation schemes that use hydrogen as a primary source of energy. Even the promotion of a National Hydrogen Association.

Surely hydrogen will continue giving something to talk about in the future and surely this column will continue following up on it. On this occasion, given the interest it has awakened, I want to touch on the three hydrogen production processes. To make the distinction simpler we can talk about gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen and green hydrogen.

Gray Hydrogen

Gray hydrogen is that which is obtained from a process known as steam reforming using natural gas. Through a chemical reaction of methane with water, hydrogen and carbon monoxide are obtained.

Although it uses natural gas, given the greenhouse gas emissions, it is not considered in itself a clean technology. This is the dominant technology for hydrogen production in the world.

It is worth highlighting that when this process is used with coal it is considered brown hydrogen, but we will not analyze this for the moment.

Blue Hydrogen

For its part, blue hydrogen uses the same steam reforming process; however, it sequesters 90% of greenhouse gas emissions and stores them underground.

Since the production process is considered low in greenhouse gas emissions, it has been called low-carbon-emissions hydrogen. However, this process is costly, which has limited its adoption compared with gray or brown hydrogen.

Green Hydrogen

Lastly, green hydrogen is that which is obtained through the electrolysis process; it consists of using electricity to separate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Although this can be done with any source of electricity —from the grid, combined cycle or nuclear—, green hydrogen is considered to be that process that uses renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar and wind as the exclusive energy source for the electrolysis process.

Technological developments at the moment do not discriminate among the ways of producing gray, blue or green hydrogen, and concentrate on its usefulness to replace fossil sources of energy in industrial, commercial and residential processes; however, it is expected that in the future green hydrogen will be developed with greater intensity, particularly in places with intensive processes of renewable energy generation such as the coasts of the United Kingdom.

Implementing hydrogen in Mexico is a process that will require much evaluation and investments. Although we are closer to the development of gray hydrogen due to the abundant natural gas from the United States, the country has great potential to develop green hydrogen; skipping the phase of blue hydrogen and preparing for a future where it does not depend on energy inputs from abroad. That would be a decisive step for the country to consolidate its energy security.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: November 4, 2020
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/hidrogeno-gris-azul-verde-opinion-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240413040223/https://businessinsider.mx/hidrogeno-gris-azul-verde-opinion-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [Archived]

What Happened to Nuclear?






“The next energy miracle is nuclear energy”

– Bill Gates

Back in the 1950s, nuclear energy was the promise of a bright future based on cheap and non-polluting energy. But the dream was cut short, mainly because of the bad press derived from catastrophic events such as Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979 and Chernobyl, in Soviet Ukraine in 1986.

Despite this, nuclear plants maintain the lowest rate of deaths and greenhouse gas emissions per energy generated among thermal technologies. That is to say that generation with coal, oil, natural gas and even hydroelectric plants have caused more accidents and deaths per unit of energy generated.

The nuclear boom occurred between the 1950s and 1980s and practically stopped in 1988 only to decrease in the 2010s. In comparison, while the costs of renewable energies have decreased at dramatic speeds, more proven technologies such as combined cycle turbines or internal combustion engines have also improved their costs and efficiencies. The above mainly because innovation and technological development, as well as strong competition, have not stopped.

However, for nuclear power plants it has been 30 years and the leveled costs have remained practically at the same levels because the memory of nuclear accidents is there. And as the years passed, the technological development of nuclear plants stagnated.

Now then, it is worth pointing out that when we talk about nuclear plants, in general, there are two ways to generate electricity: atomic fission and atomic fusion. The first is the only one that has been developed commercially and it is of which we have been talking up to this point. The second, for its part, remains in development in the international community and represents the possibility of a second wind for nuclear power plants.

Nuclear fission is the generation of a massive amount of energy due to the division of an atom. The most common nuclear fuels are the isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239. In a nuclear plant, the kinetic energy released by these materials is converted into heat that heats a fluid, normally water, which becomes heat and moves a turbine that produces the energy.

Nuclear fusion, for its part, is the inverse process. A great amount of energy is generated by the union of two or more atomic nuclei to form a different atomic nucleus or other subatomic particles. Fusion reactions have much greater energy density than fission reactions and with this they can produce electricity with the same principle as fission.

Atomic fusion has advantages over nuclear fission, particularly in that it can generate greater energy and emit less toxic waste, lower radioactivity and the risks of an accident of similar magnitude to those of Chernobyl or Fukushima are lower, which is why the scientific community seeks to achieve an advance to produce clean and cheap energy through nuclear fusion.

But there is always a “but.” What stops the progress of nuclear fusion? As I pointed out at the beginning, since the scientific and technological development of nuclear energy stopped for almost 30 years, the budget has been insufficient and companies and governments have decided to focus on other areas such as renewables, storage and hydrogen. This makes it very unlikely that, in the future, we will see a commercially viable nuclear fusion power plant because time does not forgive and the promise of a nuclear future will remain only in those movies of the 1960s.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: October 14, 2020
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/que-paso-energia-nuclear-plantas-nucleares-opinion-paul-alejandro-sanchez-energia-circular/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240723112519/https://businessinsider.mx/que-paso-energia-nuclear-plantas-nucleares-opinion-paul-alejandro-sanchez-energia-circular/ [Archived]