Solar ... In the news

2nd_time_buyer

Silly really, but over the last couple of weeks it has been nice to visit the site just to unload the inane.

michaels

2nd_time_buyer said:

Silly really, but over the last couple of weeks it has been nice to visit the site just to unload the inane.

The good old days when all we had to worry about was Brexit and a pandemic?!

Lot of wind and solar today

Drax Electric Insights

Martyn1981

Just a bit of nice news, though bear in mind these numbers relate to capacity being rolled out, not generation, which of course is lower for PV relative to capacity.


Solar and battery storage make up 60% of planned new US electric generation capacity

Power plant developers and operators are expected to add 51 gigawatts (GW) of new solar and battery storage projects to the US power grid from 2022 to 2023, which will make up 60% of new generating capacity, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Martyn1981

Good news for a solar farm linked directly to a Welsh hospital. It's performance so far has been greater than expected.

But take the article with a pinch of salt, especially the part about meeting the hospital's needs for 50hrs. I've looked at other articles and can't find any mention of storage, or a better explanation but there is mention of exporting excess. So perhaps it generated the equivalent of demand over a 50hr period, but still involved excess export, and shortfall import?

Perhaps a simpler explanation is that during a 50hr period, there were times when generation met 100% of demand, but I don't think that's how it reads. Regardless, it's doing better than expected.

Welsh solar farm exceeds expectations in powering Swansea hospital

The UK’s first solar farm owned by a health board and linked directly to a hospital has exceeded expectations by, at times, providing all the electricity needed to run the site, even during the winter months.

Health chiefs and Welsh government ministers had hoped the solar farm in south-west Wales would supply Morriston hospital in Swansea with a fifth of its energy consumption every year.

However, they were surprised and pleased that the Brynwhillach Farm, which is linked to Morriston by a two-mile cable, provided enough energy over one 50-hour period to meet 100% of the hospital’s demands.

It is estimated that the 10,000-panel farm, which was switched on in November, has already saved £120,000 in electricity bills, and the board has on occasions been able to sell power back to the energy grid.

Martyn1981

Nothing special about each of the parts here, but I thought it was a nice example of how RE (PV in this case), storage, and even car canopies can all come together nicely, and probably will do so, more and more in the future.

Solar canopies, rooftop PV and battery storage install underway for Portsmouth International Port

The installation of rooftop solar PV across several buildings, alongside battery storage and solar canopies, has begun at Portsmouth International Port as part of its bid to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2030.

Managed by Portsmouth City Council’s in-house energy services team, the project sees Portsmouth International Port be the first UK port to have solar canopies and a megawatt sized battery energy storage system (BESS) installed as part of a renewable installation. The BESS has a 1.5MWh capacity.

When completed, the 1.2MWp system will be the largest solar and battery storage installation to date across the council’s portfolio.

Martyn1981

Negative subsidy PV for Portugal.

New floating PV* in Portugal will actually pay €4/MWh for the first 15yrs.

[*Recently heard the term 'floatovoltaics' used, and thought it was brilliant.  ]

This isn't the first time that European subsidy free RE has made the news, it happened a while back for some offshore wind. But just to avoid any confusion, UK CfD bids tend to be higher than similar ones in other European countries, as the UK schemes also have to include the cost of the grid connection, and any necessary local upgrades, whereas many countries deal with that on a central basis. However, if UK costs fall, or don't rise too much with inflation, then there's a chance that schemes may start to go 'net subsidy free' where the amount of tops up they receive are outweighed by paybacks when prices are higher. This is being seen at the moment, even with the earlier and more expensive RE schemes, but of course that's against the background of extremely high average wholesale prices due to the current cost of gas. But hopefully all bodes well for the future as normal service is restored, and ever cheaper RE contracts arrive and older ones reach the end of their 15yr deals.

EDP wins project with negative bid in Portugal’s 263MW floating PV tender

Portuguese utility EDP has won the largest project in Portugal’s latest procurement exercise. It has agreed to pay –€4(–$4.39)/MWh for a 15-year contract, but with a 30-year grid connection for the floating array and other renewables projects.

EDPR, the renewables unit of EDP, won the biggest project, at 100MW. The floating PV plant will be built under a contract for difference (CfD) regime at a negative price of –€4/MWh over a period of 15 years. This means that EDP will pay the electrical system €4 for each megawatt-hour the floating solar plant generates over the course of 15 years.

Article from April 4yrs ago:

More ‘Subsidy-Free’ Offshore Wind Emerges in Europe

"Subsidy-free" offshore wind is getting a lot of attention after contracts in Germany and the Netherlands were signed without direct government incentives. However, experts say these zero-subsidy offshore wind farms won't become the norm anytime soon.

While further zero-subsidy bids are likely in Europe, they will be linked to a very special set of market conditions for now.

“What the Dutch tender results illustrate is that zero-subsidy bids in offshore wind tenders are possible for some developers in some markets,” said Andrew Canning, press and communications manager for WindEurope, the European wind industry association. “This is especially so where governments take on and manage a share of the project risk.”

This opens the "subsidy free" claim up to interpretation. In the case of Germany and the Netherlands, it means no government cash was used to directly support project financing.

In the case of the Hollandse Kust Zuid 1 and 2 projects, which will be developed through Vattenfall’s Nuon Energy subsidiary, the Dutch government will take care of providing a grid connection. This is “a significant factor,” said Canning.

QrizB

I'm not entirely sure this counts as "solar news" but it's the best guess I've got!

Looking at today's hourly electricity prices at Nordpool:

https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/en/Market-data1/#/n2ex/table

... I was struck by when the cheapest electricity is today.

No it's not overnight, it's the four hours between 1pm and 5pm, BST.

Is it a coincidence that the forecast is for a bright sunny day today, and that it's a Saturday when demand is generally lower?

Edit: here's an excerpt from the Nordpool table. LH column is time in BST, then time in CEST, then price per kWh.

gefnew

This is how not to save energy.
This plug socket tells you if your energy is green - BBC News

JKenH

New study reveals small-scale renewable energy sources could cause power failures

Mathematicians from the University of Nottingham used data from smart meters to track how grid composition changes over time and found resilience varies over the course of a day and that a high uptake of solar panels can leave the grid more susceptible to failure. Their findings have been published today in Science Advances. 

The researchers found that renewable energy stored in household batteries is used only to minimise household power costs and does little to minimise the risk of network failure.

They recommend that the supply of power from these batteries should be scheduled to also optimise for power grid resilience.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/new-study-reveals-small-scale-renewable-energy-sources-could-cause-power-failures

QrizB

JKenH said:

The researchers found that renewable energy stored in household batteries is used only to minimise household power costs and does little to minimise the risk of network failure.

They recommend that the supply of power from these batteries should be scheduled to also optimise for power grid resilience.

Powerwalls and Tesla Energy Plans for everyone, then!
Thanks for the links, the press release is concise but the full paper is going to take a bit of reading when I've got more time.