It’s great when our projects at RED bring us into contact with people who are making it their life’s work to make a positive difference in the world.
In the energy sector, we’re all aware of the huge efforts being made across the globe in terms of clean energy growth and the desire (read necessity!) for power companies to increase the percentage of the energy they generate from renewable sources.
However, the main problem is that because of the particular nature of clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, they simply can’t be added to the grid in large volumes.
These sources of electricity generation are ‘intermittent’ (solar fluctuates with weather and the daily cycle, wind fluctuates with the wind) so there has to be some other means of continuing to provide electricity when they are not working.
Solving the problem
As polluting coal plants are being gradually retired and there is a general desire to move away from nuclear energy, solving this problem has ironically involved more fossil fuels. In this case, fast-ramping natural gas plants, which can fill in quickly whenever renewable generation slips.
RED’s work with Yanmar usually involves content generation for the marine sector. This has seen us filming luxury catamarans, sensational single-hull yachts and even high-powered jet tenders in action on the water – the common factor being one of reliable Yanmar marine propulsion technology.
Bringing the dream to life
However, a recent assignment (before the corona crisis) took us to Germany in search of the wonders of ‘combined heat and power’ generation (see the video here).
Then it was on to Italy to see how Yanmar-sponsored university research into virtual power plants could soon see countries develop a completely new way of providing their energy needs, at a local, sustainable level.
There are many academics involved and it was great to see Yanmar teams working hard to find solutions to the vital energy questions. Thanks to Paul who made the long journey from Yanmar in Japan to accompany RED on this project.
Watch how Yanmar engineers and products are playing a significant part in powering up this cleaner energy dream here.
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