Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

For anyone interested in generation, take a look at Gridwatch today from around 9am onwards.

PV was good, wind was excellent, so demand was low creating a mid day dip, and gas generation dropped dramatically.

Mart.

Martyn1981

UK will miss its 2020 renewable energy targets, warn MPs

The UK will fail to meet its targets on renewable energy generation, with take-up of clean fuels for heating and transport falling badly behind aims, MPs have warned.

The findings of the influential energy and climate change committee (ECC) show that ministers have little clear plan for meeting the 2020 target to meet 15% of energy needs from renewable sources.

This includes a target to generate 30% of electricity from wind, solar and other low-carbon sources by the end of the decade, and to generate 12% of heating energy and 10% of transport fuels from clean sources by the same date.

It's not all bad news, leccy generation is doing well, there are concerns that this could slide, but current RE generation is 25%, and off-shore wind should add another 5% by 2020.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Martyn1981 wrote: »

For anyone interested in generation, take a look at Gridwatch today from around 9am onwards.

PV was good, wind was excellent, so demand was low creating a mid day dip, and gas generation dropped dramatically.

Mart.

Found some more info on yesterday, I've stolen some comments from another forum, just to show that yesterday's RE generation was actually quite special:

Ok, we've got a bit more data to go on now.

The best estimate for peak output yesterday was 13.0 GW, for period 27 (13.00-13.30). 6.4GW of PV, 2.0 GW of embedded wind, and 4.6 GW of metered wind.

I can only find two previous days when it's topped 13.0 GW. On 11 April 2015 there was one period when output was 13.3 GW. And On 31 March 2015 there were four periods, when it ranged from 13.1 to 13.6 GW, and that latter number is the highest in my records to date.

Mart.

zeupater

Martyn1981 wrote: »

UK will miss its 2020 renewable energy targets, warn MPs



It's not all bad news, leccy generation is doing well, there are concerns that this could slide, but current RE generation is 25%, and off-shore wind should add another 5% by 2020.

Mart.

Hi

... as was probably always the case ... ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/47871/25-nat-ren-energy-action-plan.pdf#page=5 ) ... considering that some really dumb politicians (no names mentioned, but one's Scottish and really unpopular and pure mention of the other seems to be akin to praising certain early C20th central European dictators!) didn't have the gumption to realise that attaining reductions of 15% of energy and 15% of electricity are completely different and that the heating energy source profile for the UK was (/is) heavily weighted towards gas which seriously restricts the UK's ability to meet the target ... something which was so ridiculous that it was identified, discussed and debated at the time, not that anyone in Westminster took any notice though ...

HTH
Z

Cardew

Martyn1981 wrote: »

[Edit - Apologies if I sound like some ranting extreme green (I haven't quite reached that point yet), QUOTE]

It could get worse??

Martyn1981

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

... as was probably always the case ... ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/47871/25-nat-ren-energy-action-plan.pdf#page=5 ) ... considering that some really dumb politicians (no names mentioned, but one's Scottish and really unpopular and pure mention of the other seems to be akin to praising certain early C20th central European dictators!) didn't have the gumption to realise that attaining reductions of 15% of energy and 15% of electricity are completely different and that the heating energy source profile for the UK was (/is) heavily weighted towards gas which seriously restricts the UK's ability to meet the target ... something which was so ridiculous that it was identified, discussed and debated at the time, not that anyone in Westminster took any notice though ...

HTH
Z

Morning Z.

Hopefully there will be a shift to EV's and heat pumps, this will reduce FF use in the domestic and transport sectors, and the shift to more leccy will allow for more RE in generation.

The benefit of that will be that it shores up the need for gas generation (reducing the need for storage), and keeping the cost of intermittents down. So we make the most use of existing gas generation, but it will become a smaller percentage as leccy gen grows.

I shall keep my fingers crossed that you are right, but this current parliament does scare me.

[Edit: Another thought is that the government could/should re-introduce a large scale scheme for home insulation. A large block of flats where I walk the dog has just had EWI fitted. The block is 3 properties high, and about 10 properties long, and being a simple rectangular shape was probably very cost efficient. M.]

Mart.

michaels

Interesting report on ccs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37306766

Sounds on the surface like a cheap(ish) way to deal with climate change but as the bbc piece points out it is only worth making the investment if you plan on using it a lot - ie by burning lots of gas but this doesn't fit with a model where gas is only a top up for renewables.

Martyn1981

michaels wrote: »

Interesting report on ccs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37306766

Sounds on the surface like a cheap(ish) way to deal with climate change but as the bbc piece points out it is only worth making the investment if you plan on using it a lot - ie by burning lots of gas but this doesn't fit with a model where gas is only a top up for renewables.

Unfortunately this is another thing the government cut last year, cancelling the CCS programme.

Burning gas might not be a problem for a few decades. It's currently holding firm at 30% of generation, whilst RE grows and coal gets pushed off the grid. Then the output could stay the same, whilst total UK generation grows (gas percentage reducing), to allow leccy to supply EV's and home heating. This will shift FF's off transport and heating.

Also, having a source of 'high grade' CO2 is crucial to power-to-gas (P2G), which is probably our easiest form of storage (though efficiencies are low). P2G works well as producing hydrogen from spare excess RE generation is simple, than it can be used to produce bio-methane. This then gets stored in the existing UK gas storage, transported by existing UK gas network, and burnt in (yes you've guessed it) the existing UK gas generation plants.

[It's also possible to skip the methane stage and just inject hydrogen into the gas grid, at around 2-5%, or turn the hydrogen back into leccy via fuel cells as and when needed.]

Mart.

Martyn1981

michaels wrote: »

Interesting report on ccs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37306766

Sounds on the surface like a cheap(ish) way to deal with climate change but as the bbc piece points out it is only worth making the investment if you plan on using it a lot - ie by burning lots of gas but this doesn't fit with a model where gas is only a top up for renewables.

Hiya michaels, more on it here:

UK must move now on carbon capture to save consumers billions, says report

Mart.

Martyn1981

More news on tidal power:

Atlantis readies MeyGen starters
Four 1.5MW turbines will be deployed by GeoSea jack-up Neptune

Tidal power developer Atlantis Resources has officially unveiled the 6MW MeyGen Phase 1A project today at the Nigg Energy Park in Scotland.

The project consists of four 1.5MW turbines – three built by Andritz and one AR1500 Atlantis unit – weighing almost 200 tonnes each.

The company said it remains on track to deliver first power to the grid from MeyGen Phase 1A later this year.

Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius said: “This is the day the tidal power industry announced itself as the most exciting new asset class of renewable, sustainable generation in the UK’s future energy mix.

“This is an industry that is creating jobs and is contributing to making Britain great again and Scotland is the undisputed world leader of this high growth sector.

Mart.