Alternative Energy Sources

Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, geothermal, biomass, water.

The top countries for investment in this field are China, Germany, Spain, the United States, Italy, and Brazil. In 2014 China invested more in renewable energy than the whole Europe.

The European Community has drawn a Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) that has as a major concern to stimulate the renewable energy growth, by imposing on member countries certain levels of alternative energy use ^[13]. For example, Italy has to reach the 17% of the total energy production by 2020.

The New Energy for America ^[14] plan calls for a federal investment of 150 billion to rise renewable energy supplies to 25% of the total amount of energy. Financial incentives are available in many states. For example the cost of a domestic photovoltaic panel system can be decreased by half with federal and tax credits.

Can Synthetic Biology and iGEM help?

Several laboratories across the world are trying to make an impact in the production of energy by using engineered bacteria. We decided to take a look at the contribution of iGEM in the Energy field.

In 2009, when tracks were introduced, energy was included in the track “Food and Energy” and in 2014, “Energy” was included as a separate track. Since 2006, when the competition was born, 65 groups competed in this track. We looked closely at these projects and discovered that biofuels is the preferred topic. Only 8% of the teams worked on MFC like us. Only two times a project of the Energy track reached the three finalist: Bielfied 2013 (Ecoelectricity)^[15] and TU Darmstadt 2014 (The Grätzel Cell)^[16] both in the overgraduate section.

Do you know how much energy is needed to light up a house?

Different devices need different power Energy needed to power up small household devices compared with electricity produced by bacteria in a typical iGEM MFC which produces between 200-500 μW (data based on Bielfield 2013 and Trento 2015 results).

To understand the gap that there is between the energy needs of a house and the energy that a bacteria can make today we looked at the energy consumption of few household devices. We used as a representative example of a bacteria producing energy in the MFC built by Bielfield in 2013 versus our solarpMFC. In both cases the amount of energy produced is in the range of 200-500 μW.

Qualitative representation of household energy consumption Today’s energy usage is way too high and cannot be supplied by synthetic biology. In the future this consumption will be halved while synthetic biology research, that is constantly evolving, will be able to satisfy the future’s demand.

Obviously the gap between the energy needs and our current ability to use bacteria to produce energy needs to be decreased. We have a hope for a future where synthetic biology will develop higher energy producing systems, but all this can make a difference only if energy consumption will one day be significantly cut.

We interviewed Michele Del Fabro, a civil engineer from Verona that works on the development of solutions for energy resources.

Talking about alternative energy, which are the most exploited in Italy?

The most used alternative sources of energy are solar panels and hydropower. In Italy, however, we are not well placed in the field of alternative sources, especially if we consider the technologies available. The social will is there, but unfortunately there is a lack of knowledge about opportunities of alternative sources such as the wind.

Can alternative energy solutions be reached by small consumers or only by large consumers?

Yes and no. The most sophisticated applications are expensive. There is a middle class of alternative sources. Fundings for alternative energy sources are available, but they are not advantageous. In Italy there are state taxes for producing electricity on your own (i.e. with solar panel). This discourages the consumer to produce energy independently. In other places, such as Denmark, they granted to private citizens big incentives if they produce energy with wind turbines.

From our analysis it seemed that Europe focuses on the redevelopment of buildings, while other countries aim only on new buildings, why? What is your opinion?

In Italy there is the myth of the “eternal home”: houses are never redone but they are rather refurbished. It is ok to preserve some ancient building that stand as a historical memory, but when a house is too old and inefficient there is no reason why it should be kept. In fact, the houses were quickly built after the World War Two, without caring about thermal aspects and leading to a high-energy consumer structure. In other countries money is invested for the realization of new houses, promoting the industrial potential. It may not look like it, but rebuild a house in many cases is cheaper than just keeping an old one for many years.

From our analysis we saw that the domestic energy consumption comes primarily from heating and cooling systems. In an ideal world we should reach a situation where the heating and cooling energy should decrease and gets close to zero. Do you think it is possible?

This is totally impossible! We must overturn the way we think, especially here in Italy. The only almost zero-energy houses that I can think of are the ones from the ancient Roman Empire.

What can be done to upgrade a house from an energy point of view?

You should definitely think about the construction of the house, especially the coating, taking into consideration walls, roof and windows. Citizens should be educated better on the subject. Another idea could be taxing luxury goods (i.e. cars, gasoline). People are often left unprotected, without any kind of help from the government. What anyone of us can do so far is follow some basic tips to save energy and money (i.e. turn off the TV when you are not home, etc.)

Can a solar panel truly reduce prices?

Absolutely not, this sector is heavily penalized.The photovoltaic has very low yields, requires high maintenance and the electrical system has to be extremely efficient. The efficiency of the produced current is very low, at about 5-6%. The energy cost is insane and the problem of disposing the panel when they are exhausted is remarkable.

Leaving out technical difficulties, which hostility can you see about placing on market our project?

You need to impress and amaze people when looking at you product. Esthetic and design play a fundamental role: people want to see the beauty in everything. It has to be clear and easy to understand. How could you like something if you don’t know what it does? Last but not least is has to be sustainable, economically and ethically.

Interview with Michele Del FabroWe had the chance to talk about what is the Italin situation on alternative energy sources.