Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

silverwhistle wrote: »

66p per kWh! He can't make money at that rate and complains about being forced to sell. Cake and eat it springs to mind. Presumably there must be covenants on the properties that prevent the installation of solar panels as at that unit rate a PV/battery solution would make sense.

Flippin eck. Just read that article and can't believe it. I'm sure I've seen a figure of around $0.30/kWh for island nations running off diesel. If they can't cut their price to 52p then something must be wrong.

I was going to say this as a joke, but actually I'm now being serious - someone needs to tweet Elon Musk!

He rose to the challenge of S. Australia's need for a monster batt, and Tesla have provided emergency PV and batts to loads of hospitals in Puerto Rico to get them operational again.

Hawaii are getting PV and batts at about $0.13/kWh, and Sark whilst not as southerly as Hawaii, is still well located for PV gen, and I assume(?) being an island has relatively good wind generation too.

PV + wind + Powerpacks + diesel/gas generator for emergency, got to be a fraction of the 52p price and a great advert/proving ground for a quick and easy RE case (given the relatively small population of 500).

silverwhistle

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I assume(?) being an island has relatively good wind generation too..

Yep. I've sailed in those waters and there's normally wind. Mind you, round there the tidal resource is even better if not scary as you watch a rock pinnacle slide past your hull rapidly only 20 feet away!

Martyn1981

This is an example of funny irony, but of course a sad story overall.

US oil firm's bid to drill for oil in Arctic hits snag: a lack of sea ice

Plans to establish the first oil drilling operation in US Arctic waters have hit an ironic snag – a lack of sea ice caused by rapid warming in the region.

Martyn1981

UK's backup power subsidies are illegal, European court rules

The UK’s scheme for ensuring power supplies during the winter months has been suspended after a ruling by the European court of justice that it constitutes illegal state aid.

Payments to energy firms under the £1bn capacity market scheme will be halted until the government can win permission from the European commission to restart it.

The scheme subsidises owners of coal, gas and other power stations so the plants are ready to ensure that electricity for businesses and homes is available at peak times in winter.

The company believes that the capacity market favours fossil fuel generation at the expense of alternative ways of securing electricity supplies, such as “demand side reduction”, where companies reduce electricity demand at times of need.

Richard Black, director of the ECIU thinktank, said the ruling should be seen as an opportunity for the government to reshape market away from fossil fuels and towards battery storage and cleaner technologies.

Martyn1981

Wales approves a whopper PV and storage deployment:

Welsh government approves near 50MW solar and storage park


And BNEF expects storage costs to half over the next 12yrs:

Energy storage economics being ‘transformed’ with 52% drop in costs up to 2030 - BNEF

The global energy storage market will grow to a cumulative 942GW/2,857GWh capacity by 2040, attracting US$1.2 trillion in investment, caused by sharply decreasing battery costs, according to a Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) report.

BNEF’s latest ‘Long-Term Energy Storage Outlook’ projected that battery costs would drop by another 52% by 2030. Importantly, the firm claimed that this would “transform the economic case for batteries in both the vehicle and the electricity sector”.

Martyn1981

I thought the 2.3MW WT near me was big, but the Aussie's are going big, big, bigger:

Vestas To Install First 4.2 Megawatt Wind Turbines In Australia


I assume there are issues over transportation of blades etc for giant on-shore WT's, but 4.2MW WT makes me giggle when I think of the oldest farms now being decommissioned with 20kW turbines.

gefnew

How 'miniature suns' could provide cheap, clean energy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46219656
Seems that it could help in the mix for the future.
gefnew

EricMears

The same article could have been written 60 (yes sixty) years ago when ISTR that "ZETA" was within ten years of providing limitless power generation. Alas, the project's timeline has slipped a little

NigeWick

gefnew wrote: »

How 'miniature suns' could provide cheap, clean energy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46219656
Seems that it could help in the mix for the future.
gefnew

We've got cheap clean energy with wind and solar generation. Add that to batteries and we can go FF & Nuclear free within a decade if the politicians stopped taking money from and subsidising FF & Nuclear generators.

Miniature suns may be good for space travel though.

gefnew

Yes but people said that pv wind batts would not work,
the cost was to high but tech moves quickly.
cheers