Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Following the recent and successful off-shore wind auctions, here is the start of the next round, looking at the leases/sites.

Oil giants hover as UK starts offshore wind lease round

The UK on Monday launched the first step of its 7GW-plus Round 4 offshore wind leasing process, which is expected to see more of the world’s oil and gas giants seek a slice of future development rights for turbines off Britain's coast.

Seabed landlord the Crown Estate issued the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) designed to gauge developers’ financial and technical ability to deliver the massive projects the round hopes to spur off England and Wales into the late 2020s.

ASavvyBuyer

A team of university scientists have developed fully autonomous robots which are able to inspect wind farms for damage.

pile-o-stone

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables-generate-more-electricity-than-fossil-fuels-for-first-time

"In the third quarter of 2019, the UK’s windfarms, solar panels, biomass and hydro plants generated more electricity than the combined output from power stations fired by coal, oil and gas, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.

During the three months of July, August and September, renewables generated an estimated total of 29.5 terawatt hours (TWh), compared with just 29.1TWh from fossil fuels, the analysis shows.

This is the first-ever quarter where renewables outpaced fossil fuels since the UK’s first public electricity generating station opened in 1882. It is another symbolic milestone in the stunning transformation of the UK’s electricity system over the past decade.

Nevertheless, a lack of progress in other parts of the economy means the UK remains far off track against its upcoming legally-binding carbon targets, let alone the recently adopted goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

New capacity
Over the past year, the most significant reason for rising renewable generation has been an increase in capacity as new offshore windfarms have opened. The 1,200 megawatt (MW) Hornsea One project was completed in October, becoming the world’s largest offshore windfarm. The 588MW Beatrice offshore windfarm was completed in Q2 of this year.

These schemes add to the more than 2,100MW of offshore capacity that started operating during 2018. Further capacity is already being built, including the 714MW East Anglia One project that started generating electricity this year and will be completed in 2020.

In total, government contracts for offshore wind will take capacity from nearly 8,500MW today to around 20,000MW by the mid-2020s. The government and industry are jointly aiming for at least 30,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, with two further contract auctions already expected.

In September, the latest auction round produced record-low deals for offshore windfarms that will generate electricity more cheaply than expected market prices – and potentially below the cost of running existing gas plants."

pile-o-stone

https://www.carbonbrief.org/solar-now-cheaper-than-grid-electricity-in-every-chinese-city-study-finds

"Solar power has become cheaper than grid electricity across China, a development that could boost the prospects of industrial and commercial solar, according to a new study.

Projects in every city analysed by the researchers could be built today without subsidy, at lower prices than those supplied by the grid, and around a fifth could also compete with the nation’s coal electricity prices.

They say grid parity – the “tipping point” at which solar generation costs the same as electricity from the grid – represents a key stage in the expansion of renewable energy sources.

While previous studies of nations such as Germany and the US have concluded that solar could achieve grid parity by 2020 in most developed countries, some have suggested China would have to wait decades.

However, the new paper published in Nature Energy concludes a combination of technological advances, cost declines and government support has helped make grid parity a reality in China today."

ASavvyBuyer

Not sure if a link to this site has been posted before, but it has some interesting info/graphs/maps.

https://www.mygridgb.co.uk/historicaldata/

https://www.mygridgb.co.uk/map/

GreatApe

pile-o-stone wrote: »

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables-generate-more-electricity-than-fossil-fuels-for-first-time

"In the third quarter of 2019, the UK’s windfarms, solar panels, biomass and hydro plants generated more electricity than the combined output from power stations fired by coal, oil and gas, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.

During the three months of July, August and September, renewables generated an estimated total of 29.5 terawatt hours (TWh), compared with just 29.1TWh from fossil fuels, the analysis shows.

This is the first-ever quarter where renewables outpaced fossil fuels since the UK’s first public electricity generating station opened in 1882. It is another symbolic milestone in the stunning transformation of the UK’s electricity system over the past decade.

Nevertheless, a lack of progress in other parts of the economy means the UK remains far off track against its upcoming legally-binding carbon targets, let alone the recently adopted goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."

The new interconntors under construction will reduce gas burn in the UK grid considerably

2 X 1GW links to France almost finished one is due in January I think and the other later in 2020

Just those two will likely import enough net energy to cover the annual energy consumption of 4 million homes which is all of the homes in London and then some


Heating needs to be addressed
Maybe deploy heat pumps and or resistance heaters (depending on demand for a given type of property) on all council properties

That is almost 5 million properties that should create a market and the skills to then deploy it on the other 25 million or so private homes

pile-o-stone

https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/how-uk-transformed-electricity-supply-decade/

This is a great history lesson of how the UK has transformed its energy supply over the last decade. It was interesting to see the energy companies saying a decade ago that we had to build new coal-fired power stations "or the lights would go out" and then see how they were discredited.

GreatApe

pile-o-stone wrote: »

https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/how-uk-transformed-electricity-supply-decade/

This is a great history lesson of how the UK has transformed its energy supply over the last decade. It was interesting to see the energy companies saying a decade ago that we had to build new coal-fired power stations "or the lights would go out" and then see how they were discredited.

Makes me smile
The UK didn't do much to transform it's electricity industry
What happened was mostly random factors and I'll try to post them in order of importance

Efficiency especially of light bulbs reduced peak demand from roughly 65GW to 50GW
The UK nukes got life extensions
New CCGTs were built
Shale gas reduced global natural gas prices and LNG trade allowed gas to be more secure than in the past

These factors allowed the UK to implement a carbon tax which made coal unprofitable and the coal fleet could be closed because of the factors above.

Wind and PV played a small part
Going from about 5.5 TWh to 70.0 TWh
That Means the UK over the decade added wind and solar at s rate of about 2% per year of its grid
And remember we use more for heating and transport than we do electricity generation.

The hard work was done mostly by efficiency
Things like 65% efficient boilers replaced by 90% efficient ones
Houses insulated.
35% efficient coal stations replaced by 61% efficient CCGTs
Not to mention a recession and globalisation kicking down our bulk manufacturing capacity
I think the last of the UK aluminium smelters was closed not long ago not to mention steel capacity closure

So yes UK fossil fuel consumption is down a lot over the decade but wind and solar are only a small side story but who wants to hear about efficiency or aluminium and steel plants closing down.....

Martyn1981

Other the years I think we've talked about the return of sails to ships (and the use of large kites by many, to reduce fuel consumption), but here's a new article/update:

Wind Power Returns To Oceangoing Cargo Ships, Finally

Martyn1981

Tories also appear to be considering a revision to the 2040 date for the end of ICE sales, cool! And if we see a 'green war' erupting between the major parties, then we could all benefit from the collateral damage!

UK plans to accelerate decarbonisation of transport sector

The UK government has vowed to accelerate its climate action for transport sector by drafting new plans to end emissions from trains, planes and cars by 2050.

Ministers promised to begin the groundwork on the government’s first detailed plan to decarbonise the transport sector immediately, and unveil the plan in full next year.

The climate action roadmap will be one of many new government climate proposals expected in 2020 to help meet the UK’s legally binding target to build a carbon neutral economy by 2050.

The plans follow a damning rebuke from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) earlier this year, in which John Gummer, the committee chair, likened the government’s climate efforts to the TV comedy Dad’s Army.

The transport climate roadmap is expected to bring forward a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 after Shapps told the Conservative party conference this month that the government would “thoroughly explore the case” for a 2035 deadline.

And there's more:

The government also hopes to unleash a large-scale battery boom by cutting red tape in the planning system for energy storage projects larger than 50MW. This should help energy companies build bigger batteries faster, and at lower costs, to make help use more of the UK’s renewable electricity projects.

Under separate plans the government has proposed setting out tougher minimum energy efficiency standards for rented workplaces which could put British businesses in line for savings of around £1bn a year on energy bills.

But even more would be even better:

The campaign group Transport and Environment said the plan to accelerate the transport sector’s climate agenda does not go far enough. The group said ministers should have announced a 2030 ban on the sale of new combustion engine vehicles, an end to the fuel duty freeze and new taxes on aviation.

Chris Stark, the chief executive of the CCC, said: “When it comes to preparing for the effects of climate change, the government’s approach continues to rest on the need for further research and guidance, instead of action. Meanwhile, the country remains unprepared for even a 2C rise in global temperature.