With the economic and industrial boom, innovation does not wait, much less in the energy sector, which also seeks to advance in terms of sustainability. Today, companies are wondering how to achieve this and, especially in Colombia, they are wondering about the conditions offered by the territory's soils.
In our last "Connecting with Experts", a space in which external experts share their knowledge, Carolina Cardona Gómez and Pedro Alejandro Eusse Bernal of EPM's Management and Innovation unit, told us how the idea of ??renewable energies came to his company, the evolution of this concept and the latest innovation project they are developing: "The Floating Solar Park of Guatapé".
Start of Renewable Energies
In 1990, carbon emissions had increased by 20% in the world. The companies were already asking about the diversification of the energy basket and in 1999 they would start to research on renewable energies.
EPM began in 2002 the planning of the first wind energy production project, which became operational on April 19, 2004; seven years later, he joined forces with the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) to advance studies on photovoltaic solar energy.
Start up
After a broad period of research, EPM began the modeling of a new business for the inclusion of renewable energy not conventional in the Colombian market and look for the best way to conceive a competitive product.
After several tests and advances, EPM was able to confirm in situ, the problem that exists with the operating temperature of the modules, whose effect is quite noticeable, leading them to lose power significantly. Since its inception, the main bottleneck of photovoltaic solar generation has been this variable, greatly conditioning the generation of electric power. .
Why floating photovoltaic modules?
In the search to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic systems, specialized institutes worldwide and companies in the sector, they have begun a race to find a solution to that loss of efficiency caused by solar radiation and operating temperature.
Currently, there are many facilities in static water bodies, most of them located in Asia, countries such as China, Japan and some of Southeast Asia are pioneers in this type of facilities.
The functional principle can be summarized as follows: solar radiation has three components (direct, diffuse and reflected) of which the third is the least energetic; water plays an important role here, because its properties have the ability to reflect more solar radiation equivalent to this last component, increasing by 15% the efficiency of the system, compared with modules installed on land. Based on these characteristics, EPM began the search for a strategic site for the installation and commissioning of a pilot system of these characteristics, where the temperature will not affect the operation and efficiency of the technology.
Guatapé enters the equation
In order to carry out this project, EPM needed a place that was close to a control center, with a large hydrographic area, a safe place, with low population of fauna, good exposure to radiation, low temperatures and easy transportation access.
The Guatapé dam complied with all the characteristics, in addition to its total capacity (of 107,021,000 m³) that allows the use of 10% of its extension for the implementation of the project. According to the information provided by EPM, its reservoirs represent 800 to 1000 MW of energy production for the department of Antioquia.
The big challenge
Find ways to implement these systems and integrate them into the energy matrix of the department and of Colombia, taking into consideration the technical characteristics necessary for their optimal functioning, safeguarding the nature of the ecosystem and taking advantage of underutilized surfaces.