Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Piddles

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I recall German auctions have shown a slight increase in prices lately and disappointing levels of interest. Something like €60/MWh I believe, so UK off-shore might get close, and the German prices exclude grid build out costs.

To be fair on them, if that's onshore, the wind map seems to indicate it's one of the most becalmed places in Europe. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5258031&page=126#2517

Martyn1981 wrote: »

12MW Halide

I think you're in love.

Martyn1981

Piddles wrote: »

I think you're in love.

Yep, totally thunderstruck, and I do have one of these t-shirt's -

Piddles

GreatApe wrote: »

Here is a video of a small reactor students play with. You can literally look down and see the reactor with your eyes it's just in water

https://youtu.be/5QcN3KDexcU

Not a lot of people know it, but there was one in London. I poked a stick at it during a nuclear engineering module. As far I can remember it was exactly where the Olympic Stadium in Stratford is now. I don't recall that being in the London 2012 Olympic Brochure.....

In fact there was two, the Navy had one in Greenwich.

Anyway, the government should just leave it alone: UK commits funding for Rolls-Royce small nuclear modular reactors. Rolls-Royce's pitch is that it has great export potential (they just know how to press the government's buttons...)

Piddles

Piddles wrote: »

I think you're in love.

Though Mart, that nascelle is butt ugly. To be loved onshore it would need a much prettier dress. Then I could imagine people wanting to a put a preservation order on it once its reached the end of its life and technology had moved on. Probably the same people who objected to it in the first place. Folk are funny......

Martyn1981

Piddles wrote: »

Anyway, the government should just leave it alone: UK commits funding for Rolls-Royce small nuclear modular reactors. Rolls-Royce's pitch is that it has great export potential (they just know how to press the government's buttons...)

RR's sales pitch is that with enough subsidy support, they could eventually (2030+) get down to as low as £65/MWh. At first the generation will cost even more than HPC.

So more nuclear subsidies to eventually, maybe, perhaps, get down to a price that PV, on-shore and off-shore wind are already beating.

RR also estimate the worldwide market for SMR's at around 65-85GW, so smaller than the generation the existing 500GWp of PV already supplies and will probably be deployed every 3yrs or so, going forward.

District heating from SMR's seems unlikely too, after all, it's 'just' thermal generation, like coal and gas, so bio-mass and bio-gas could do the same thing, and demand follow too in the summer. Obviously there are issues/concerns about transporting N. American bio-mass to the UK, but is it 'worse' than local nuclear, and it's pretty much unlimited*, can be stockpiled, and again, demand follow economically.

*US and Canadian forestry is actually growing, and when demand for wood or wood products increase, so does the value and therefore the effort and money spent on replanting and expansion.

Regarding export, yes, that's the sales pitch to HMG, but with tumbling RE costs and storage options, who exactly is going to buy these in 10+yrs time?

Martyn1981

‘Cheaper Than a Peaker’: NextEra Inks Massive Wind+Solar+Storage Deal in Oklahoma

The powerhouse renewables developer contracted this week with Oklahoma-based Western Farmers Electric Cooperative to build the largest proposed solar plus wind plus storage plant in the U.S. The Skeleton Creek facility, slated for completion by the close of 2023, will include:

• 250 megawatts of wind capacity, which will arrive first, before the end of 2019.
• 250 megawatts of solar power
• 200 megawatts and 800 megawatt-hours of battery storage

Martyn1981

The government digest of energy stats for 2018 is out. Here's an article on it:

Low-carbon energy makes majority of UK electricity for first time

Low-carbon energy was used to generate more than half of the electricity used in the UK for the first time last year, according to official data.

A rapid rise in renewable energy, combined with low-carbon electricity from nuclear reactors, made up almost 53% of generation in 2018, the government’s annual review of energy statistics revealed.

Nice to see RE rising whilst coal, gas and nuclear all declined.

If I recall correctly, we saw a double boost in 2018, as 2017 was a poor wind year, so despite an increase in capacity, it was roughly the same as 2016, whereas 2018 was a more normal wind year, and reflected the capacity growth from 2016-18, giving a big jump to the figures.

Piddles

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Low-carbon energy makes majority of UK electricity for first time

“To achieve its net zero ambitions, the new government needs to go further and faster - and the first steps should be removing the barriers to onshore wind which is our cheapest source of power, and building on our successes in innovative technologies like tidal energy and floating wind where the UK can be a world leader,” Pinchbeck said.

Floating wind could best bottom-fixed by 2026 in market ‘in flux’

So, fixed offshore might overtake onshore around 2030. Floating offshore might overtake fixed offshore around 2026. Oh dear, what to bet on? Considering the urgency, everything I guess. But then the best bet will lead to the lowest priced electricity that will displace fossil fuels the fastest. It's a really important bet....

pile-o-stone

Martyn1981 wrote: »

A/C ain't gonna cope at 105F/41C+.

I worked in Saudi and it was 105F at midnight in Summer. The hottest I saw was 120C/52C in August. The AC in the buildings and cars coped OK with those temperatures.

At home time I used to run out of the office to my car, start the engine (turning on the AC) then run back to the office and watch the car through the window for a few mins until the car had run enough and cooled down. I'd then run to the car and soak in the cool air.

I think the issues with rising temperatures will be worse in more temperate areas like the UK than areas that already have hot summers and will get hotter ones. They already have the infrastructure, AC and building styles to cope. We don't and will struggle.

ed110220

pile-o-stone wrote: »

I worked in Saudi and it was 105F at midnight in Summer. The hottest I saw was 120C/52C in August. The AC in the buildings and cars coped OK with those temperatures.

At home time I used to run out of the office to my car, start the engine (turning on the AC) then run back to the office and watch the car through the window for a few mins until the car had run enough and cooled down. I'd then run to the car and soak in the cool air.

I think the issues with rising temperatures will be worse in more temperate areas like the UK than areas that already have hot summers and will get hotter ones. They already have the infrastructure, AC and building styles to cope. We don't and will struggle.

Possibly, but I think there are other factors that will mean already hot countries are worst hit by the heating. First of all countries where large numbers of people work outside in agriculture etc, especially India, where the nature of the work and low incomes mean people are very vulnerable to heatwaves. Second, the weather in the tropics tends to be much more consistent from year to year. We might have one summer that is hot compared to recent summers and another that is cool. That doesn't tend to happen in the tropics, so the steadily increasing heat will take conditions outside anything the average person has experienced in their lifetime sooner in the tropics than at higher latitudes. Finally, it's expected that temperatures may start to run up against the limits of Han biological ability to survive in parts of the Persian Gulf and India as when wet bulb thermometer temperatures exceed 35 C it becomes impossible to lose enough heat from the body through the evaporation of sweat and even a healthy person in the shade will die within a few hours.