National critical technologies report.

  • Office of Science and Technology Policy
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: National critical technologies report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the need for larger turbines (due to the lack of real estate), Europe could quickly gain more experience than the United States in this area. The trend in both Europe and the United States in wind turbine power generation equipment is toward variable-speed drives (using power electronics) and direct-drive generators. The variable-speed drive improves energy production and electrical power quality while reducing aerodynamic noise emissions. Direct-drive generators would eliminate the need for expensive, maintenance-prone gearboxes. While a U.S. firm has developed a sophisticated power electronics system, the Europeans are ahead in the quantity and variety of turbines using variable-speed drives. The Japanese have not yet deployed a commercial, variable-speed turbine. Europeans have deployed one commercial turbine using a direct-drive generator, and several others are near deployment. Two U.S. manufacturers are considering them and one component manufacturer has begun a government-funded development program. The United States leads the world in developing airfoils for wind turbines. These developments have dramatically increased energy production and fundamentally changed the way turbine blades are designed. Many European wind turbine research organizations are now developing wind turbine airfoils and it is likely that the United States will lose its edge as the technology becomes familiar to other countries. Europe is slightly ahead of the United States in biofuels. European firms are world leaders in the commercial application of biodiesel fuels, a promising low sulfur alternative to conventional diesel fuel. A number of European sites now produce over 32 million gallons of biodiesel annually and there are plans in place to produce more than 200 million gallons in a few years. However, the price of the biodiesel is much higher than for conventional diesel because high-cost conventional plant oils are being used in response to pressure from the agricultural sector, glycerol is not used effectively, and the conversion technology is new and applied at a small scale. Overall, the Europeans are positioned as the leaders in commercial application of biodiesel technology, albeit at a noncompetitive cost that requires government tax incentives. The Japanese are well positioned for large-scale cultivation of algae to provide low-cost biomass sources. Nevertheless, the United States leads in biotechnology R&D for enhancing yields of biodiesel from low-cost microalgal sources. A number of promising microalgae strains have been isolated for producing low- cost oil and genetic engineering techniques are being applied to enhance the oil content from the 5- to 10-percent levels that typically occur to over 60 percent. Because microalgae require carbon dioxide to support growth and can efficiently take up this important greenhouse gas, the Japanese are funding substantial programs directed at developing approaches to capture carbon dioxide released from power plants.