Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Interesting article, as we have a lifelong nuclear advocate claiming that the industry is not economically competitive.

Ex-IEA official: Nuclear power can’t compete with solar power

Nuclear power is "ridiculously expensive" compared with solar power and cannot compete from a financial standpoint, said the former head of the International Energy Agency.

During a lecture at a symposium in Tokyo on July 23, Nobuo Tanaka, former IEA executive director, said nuclear power is utterly "uncompetitive" with solar power generation in terms of costs for building or expanding nuclear plants.

“Building a new nuclear power plant is ridiculously expensive as it will cost more than 1 trillion yen ($8.98 billion) to install just one nuclear power reactor,” said Tanaka. “It’s utterly uncompetitive.”

Martyn1981

Didn't see this one coming. US off-shore wind at 6.5c/kWh* that's around £50/MWh, so cheaper than our latest auction (for 2023) at £57.50/MWh (2012 baseline) and £64/MWh today.

It might be that the US WT's are near shore, or perhaps the prices don't include infrastructure build out, or maybe costs are just getting lower and lower.

* "expect to provide power and renewable energy credits for 6.5 cents a kilowatt-hour" - I'm assuming that means 6.5c/kWh and not an after subsidy figure as I don't know quite what it means, nor the US subsidy scheme structure(s).

US offshore wind farm offers customers $1.4bn in savings


Edit - Bit more on the scheme and costs in this article, excellent news, and augurs well for the future and the UK hitting subsidy free off-shore wind prices, which could literally rewrite the energy rule book for us, as we have 10-100 times the potential generation that we'll ever need even if transport and space heating went over to leccy!

First Big US Offshore Wind Farm Scores Record-Low Price

Martyn1981

I'm always fearful of conspiracy theory rabbit holes, but I have to say that this sounds ....... dodgy?

Buried UK government report finds fracking increases air pollution

A UK government report concluding that shale gas extraction increases air pollution was left unpublished for three years and only released four days after ministers approved fracking in Lancashire, it has emerged.

The report, written by the government!!!8217;s Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG), was given to ministers in 2015, but was published quietly on 27 July [2018]. Fracking firm Cuadrilla was given the first permit under a new regulatory regime on 24 July, the final day of the parliamentary year.

Sometimes I wonder "what's the point?" Then I think, RE is winning, RE is cheaper, RE is a much better long term bet, and I stop banging my head against the wall.

Martyn1981

Maybe praying does work?

5,500 UK churches switch to renewable energy

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Maybe praying does work?

5,500 UK churches switch to renewable energy

Amen to that!

NigeWick

Martyn1981 wrote: »

RE is winning, RE is cheaper, RE is a much better long term bet,

I don't think RE is winning yet as HMGov are still pushing FF and Nuclear down our throats.

Martyn1981

NigeWick wrote: »

I don't think RE is winning yet as HMGov are still pushing FF and Nuclear down our throats.

Very good point. RE is winning the economic and public PR arguments, but one or two (or many more) politicians aren't ready to look and listen .... yet!

Martyn1981

I read the opening paragraph of this article, then went back as I suddenly realised how important that statement was:

More than 70% of Australians want the government to set a high renewable energy target to put downward pressure on power prices, according to a new poll.

'They' want RE, because it lowers prices ....... are we there yet?

Most Australians want more renewables to help lower power prices – poll

Martyn1981

Wind and PV installs around the world have now exceeded 1TW of capacity. Not sure that means a lot as I can't really picture it. But what I thought was far more interesting is that 2TW of capacity is expected to be reached by 2023 (just 4-5yrs) with the second TW costing 46% less than the first.

Are we there yet? I think we are close. Certainly well passed the point of failure or Genie's going back in bottles.

Also worth considering that a halving in costs doesn't mean a halving in subsidies, it'll be a lot, lot more than that, as the subsidy top ups are the first part of the price/cost to be negated by the falling prices. For instance UK off-shore wind prices have fallen from around £160/MWh to £65/MWh. With a guesstimate of wholesale prices at £50/MWh (2020-2030's) the subsidy will have fallen from around £110/MWh to £15/MWh (86% drop). Wow.

World now has 1 TW of wind and solar capacity, 2 TW expected in 2023

The 1,013 GW of currently installed capacity is almost equally divided between wind and solar, with 54% coming from wind parks and solar accounting for 46%. According to the market analyst’s data, the capital expenditure (capex) for constructing these plants totalled USD 2.3 trillion (EUR 1.99tr), while the next 1 TW of capacity will cost 46% less. Wind and solar deployment between 2018 and 2022 is expected to require only USD 1.23 trillion of capex.

Global wind and solar capacity smashes 1,000 gigawatt barrier

Mr Cheung also drew attention to the importance of storage as this growth continues.

“As we get into the second and third terrawatts, energy storage is going to become much more important,’’ Cheung said. ``That’s where we see a lot of investment and innovation right now.”

So far, investment in battery storage has helped the cost of lithium-ion batteries fall by 80 percent since 2010.

gefnew

Hi all
here`s good one.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45082416
regards