Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

So the Gov's taskforce is looking for ways to increase the rollout of PV in the UK.

I assume that plan A (involving the combination of a DeLorean and 1.21GWs) to undo the policies from 2015(ish) is a bust, so let's hope they can make a difference.

At least the falling cost of PV panels (outside of price spikes and military invasions), combined with a steady increase in their power output (per area) will help. But I remember the 2014 Gov plan of having 20GWp of PV by 'early next decade', so I won't hold my breath for their new 70GWp plan by 2035 ..... but I will keep all my fingers and toes crossed.

UK Solar Taskforce raises the roof

Schools, warehouses and car parks could be at the forefront of a revolution in affordable solar power, under plans discussed at the first meeting of the UK government’s new Solar Taskforce.

London has a clear target to increase solar capacity by nearly five-fold to 70GW by 2035 as part of wider plans to power Britain with cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy sources. Even when this is met, the UK would be using only a very small proportion of its land mass for solar panels.

“Solar is the most popular form of power generation amongst the British public and consumer demand has never been higher, though the rate of rooftop installation must double to help hit 70GW by 2035. The number of solar farms will also have to increase significantly. I am delighted we now have industry leaders working directly with the government to resolve the stumbling blocks and maximise the benefits that solar energy offers to the nation.”

gefnew

Something like this should help.

IMAGE SOURCE,BENTLEY

Image caption,

The biggest car park solar array in the UK is at the Bentley factory in Crewe

There are some flagship examples already in place, though. The largest solar car park installed to date in the UK is the one at the Bentley car factory in Crewe, which has a peak capacity of 2.7MW.

cm4ever

Not sure if this has been posted previously, out of town shopping centres will be definitely adding to the mix, even if it's mainly to offset their own energy demand ..... MetroCentre, Gateshead


https://themetrocentre.co.uk/news/solar-project

gefnew

some news about old solar panels and recycling them for the contents.
Solar panels - an eco-disaster waiting to happen? - BBC News

JKenH

Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather

Rush to turn on air conditioning during heatwave causes spike in demand for electricity

The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand.

High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country.

“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.”

Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/

thevilla

JKenH said:

Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather

Rush to turn on air conditioning during heatwave causes spike in demand for electricity

The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand.

High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country.

“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.”

Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/

This doesn't really make sense to me.  Why wasn't gas used to fill the tiny supply which coal provided, and is still providing?  My solar output was down on Sunday due to cloud rather than heat imop, although I'm not representative of the whole nation necessarily.

It looks to me like an opportunistic poke at renewables making the evidence fit a narrative.  Wind output is down due to high pressure.  That's all that needs to be said really.

Exiled_Tyke

JKenH said:

Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather

Rush to turn on air conditioning during heatwave causes spike in demand for electricity

The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand.

High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country.

“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.”

Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/

I would have expected an intelligent person like yourself to see the flaws in this and ignore such an appalingly bad article.

Anybody who has done any research into this will know that solar is not the culprit here.

 Others may find more useful statistics but this is what I quickly put my hands on. For the last week wind has averaged over 22% of UK electricity producton. But yesterday this fell to 13%. However solar averaged 10% and the extreme weather made it fall to 8.5%.  Nuclear production is also below average at this time of year (which of course we would also expect).

Solar is only a small part of the mix. We are not dependent on it and it isn't responsible for this problem. Infact you could argue the oposite. May and June are our best months for solar so super high peak production days in these months could be seen as a bonus.   My system was down 17% yesterday compared to the same (cooler date) two years ago.   But yesterday's low figure is still better than what I'd get in early/mid April.   If we want the grid to be able to rely on solar in summer then we need huge over capacity, as has been discussed many times when it comes to wind production.  

There is actually no news in this article other than to say (which we all already know) if we are buring coal then we haven't built enough RE capacity and therefore we've got a long way to go to get the mix of renewables right and we still need new technologies and storage.

For me a can take a (very little) comfort knowing that in spite of lower PV production I still used no coal powered electricity and contribute a little zero-emission power to the grid.

scubajoe

JKenH said:

Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather

Rush to turn on air conditioning during heatwave causes spike in demand for electricity

The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand.

High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country.

“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.”

Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/

It's the Telegraph, nuff said.

EricMears

Exiled_Tyke said:

There is actually no news in this article other than to say (which we all already know) if we are buring coal then we haven't built enough RE capacity and therefore we've got a long way to go to get the mix of renewables right and we still need new technologies and storage.

Or of course we haven't got enough storage capacity to make use of all the RE we could have generated.

Martyn1981

Exiled_Tyke said:

JKenH said:

Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather

Rush to turn on air conditioning during heatwave causes spike in demand for electricity

The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand.

High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country.

“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.”

Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/

I would have expected an intelligent person like yourself to see the flaws in this and ignore such an appalingly bad article.

Anybody who has done any research into this will know that solar is not the culprit here.

 Others may find more useful statistics but this is what I quickly put my hands on. For the last week wind has averaged over 22% of UK electricity producton. But yesterday this fell to 13%. However solar averaged 10% and the extreme weather made it fall to 8.5%.  Nuclear production is also below average at this time of year (which of course we would also expect).

Solar is only a small part of the mix. We are not dependent on it and it isn't responsible for this problem. Infact you could argue the oposite. May and June are our best months for solar so super high peak production days in these months could be seen as a bonus.   My system was down 17% yesterday compared to the same (cooler date) two years ago.   But yesterday's low figure is still better than what I'd get in early/mid April.   If we want the grid to be able to rely on solar in summer then we need huge over capacity, as has been discussed many times when it comes to wind production.  

There is actually no news in this article other than to say (which we all already know) if we are buring coal then we haven't built enough RE capacity and therefore we've got a long way to go to get the mix of renewables right and we still need new technologies and storage.

For me a can take a (very little) comfort knowing that in spite of lower PV production I still used no coal powered electricity and contribute a little zero-emission power to the grid.

My bold - Yes and no. Both Torness and Heysham have a reactor down, the first for refueling and the other for the 2month+ 'MOT' process that's needed every 3yrs.

But they both also have their other reactor down too for 'unplanned' reasons.

So compared to last week, we've seen nuclear fall by ~2GW, but I'm not sure a headline saying coal is coming back on, because nuclear is down, would be as popular.

Perhaps the good news takeaway, is that RE, in just over a decade, has displaced about half of FF generation, with coal only providing a few percent each year now.