Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

NigeWick

gefnew wrote: »

Yes but people said that pv wind batts would not work

Which people, nuclear and fossil fuel advocates?

Onshore wind is now the cheapest form of generation here with solar in sunnier climes. Admittedly, battery storage is a bit costly at present, but that is coming down rapidly.

If I can afford solar and battery, I am sure many others can too.

Martyn1981

Rugeley coal plant to be transformed into a sustainable village

An old coal power station is set to be transformed into a “sustainable village” of 2,000 homes powered by solar panels, in the biggest redevelopment yet of a former UK power plant.

French firm Engie said it had decided against selling off the Rugeley site in Staffordshire and would instead build super efficient houses on the 139-hectare site as part of its bid to “move beyond energy”.

Half of the energy required by the new homes will come from green sources, predominantly solar, which will be fitted on rooftops, in a field and even floating on a lake.

The company is planning for 10 megawatts of solar capacity in total, equivalent to one of the UK’s smaller solar farms.

Batteries will be used across the site, both in homes and at a communal power storage facility, to balance out electricity supply and demand.

The firm is also claiming the homes will be so efficient they will use nearly a third less energy than average new builds. Heating will come not from gas boilers but electric devices such as heat pumps.

Around 30% of the Rugeley project will be classified affordable homes, though it is not clear how much the green energy measures and high building standards will add to the upfront cost of the properties.

Consultation on the scheme starts this month, with construction due to start next year and demolition of the former coal plant – including the cooling towers – due to finish in 2020, with plans for the first people to move in the year after.

michaels

Hmm - first cold night of autumn and we have had 2 brown-outs. Perhaps batteries rather than thermal plants would be better for maintaining grid frequency....

Martyn1981

Most chat (and my posts) on here relate to leccy generation. But transportation is a major issue too, especially shipping and aircraft which will be harder to electrify, so this is an interesting story:

Dead fish to power cruise ships

Norwegian company to fuel liners with biogas made from leftovers of fish processing

Hurtigruten operates a fleet of 17 ships, and by 2021 aims to have converted at least six of its vessels to use biogas, liquefied natural gas – a fossil fuel, but cleaner than many alternatives – and large battery packs, capable of storing energy produced from renewable sources.

Fingers crossed they will use more biogas and less LNG as time goes on.

Dave_Fowler

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Most chat (and my posts) on here relate to leccy generation. But transportation is a major issue too, especially shipping and aircraft which will be harder to electrify, so this is an interesting story:

Dead fish to power cruise ships





Fingers crossed they will use more biogas and less LNG as time goes on.

Shouldn't that be fishfingers crossed?:):rotfl::)
DF

Martyn1981

Remember the bad old days when PV and on-shore wind were close to viability, so the government pulled all subsidy support just in time to knock the industries backwards?

Well, guess what they might do to off-shore wind .....

UK Government Sets Aside £60 Million For Offshore Wind, Industry Upset

The news, coming in the middle of the UK’s Offshore Wind Week, caught many by surprise and left many more angered at the lower-than-expected commitment. Specifically, it is a confusingly small amount compared to the total government support announced earlier this year for the coming few years. In July, the UK’s Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy announced that the next CfD auction would take place in May 2019, and every 2 years afterwards, with government support of up to £557 million.

£60m will buy about 90MW of off-shore wind based on the last and cheapest auction price.

Martyn1981

Update - according to this article, the government is hoping to get 2-3GW of capacity out of the auction due to lower bids and higher wholesale prices thereby reducing the subsidy element:

UK offshore capped at €63/MWh for next auction

Maximum bids have been set at £56/MWh (€63/MWh) for offshore wind farms coming online in 2023/24 and at £53/MWh (€59.6/MWh) for those following in 2024/25, according to a draft notice published by the UK government’s department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS).

A budget of £60 million could buy between 1.9GW and 3.2GW of offshore wind capacity, according to consultancy Cornwall Insight.

Contracts will be allocated to the cheapest eligible projects first and BEIS has set an overall capacity cap of 6GW for the auction.

BEIS forecasted day-ahead hourly prices of £48.62/MWh for ‘intermittent technologies’ — which would include offshore wind farms and wind projects on remote islands — online in 2023/24, and £51.32/MWh in 2024/25.

Developers would receive the difference between this reference price and the strike price — the price they bid in the tender.

I apologise to anyone who thinks I'm 'nuclear bashing' but I simply have to point to the comparison that the government hopes to get between 67%-100% of the capacity of HPC, or 33%-50% of the generation of HPC, but for £60m v's £45bn in subsidies, and the wind generation would be commissioned years before HPC.

If this auction provides a significant amount of off-shore wind capacity, then I'd suggest the economics of new UK nuclear will be dead.

NigeWick

I see on the news that Scotland got 98% of its electricity from wind generation last month.

Why is the rest of the UK so far behind?

EricMears

NigeWick wrote: »

I see on the news that Scotland got 98% of its electricity from wind generation last month.

Why is the rest of the UK so far behind?

Possibly because Scotland has huge areas of high ground with very few inhabitants. To erect a wind farm in England, you have to find a suitably exposed area then contend with huge local opposition.

Martyn1981

EricMears wrote: »

Possibly because Scotland has huge areas of high ground with very few inhabitants. To erect a wind farm in England, you have to find a suitably exposed area then contend with huge local opposition.

TBF there doesn't have to be huge local opposition, the government changed the planning laws to make it much harder to install WT's if there is any opposition - they did this at the same time they changed the laws to prevent locals and LA's from blocking fracking.

But the main reason Scotland has so much wind generation is that they are pretty much guaranteed to have a vast market willing to buy it (England). Wales has the same potential ...... but we don't seem to have grasped it the way the canny Scots have, good on em.