Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

silverwhistle

Pile_o_stone said:

t will be interesting to see what happens when demand starts to increase as people replace gas boilers with heat pumps and fossil fuel cars with electric ones. Hopefully the increase in demand will be more than met with an increase in renewable generation.

Perhaps a rough and ready method of telling would to keep an eye on the trend of Zarch's figures for the variable rate Octopus tariff?

If prices trend upwards then that would be an indicator.. Thoughts? :-)

Martyn1981

Article on using WSHP (water source heat pumps) to heat properties and hospitals.

West Midlands canals to help heat hospitals in renewable energy drive

The canals of the West Midlands may seem an unlikely source of warmth, but these waterways could soon be used to heat hospitals and tower blocks under a plan to harness Britain’s hidden heating sources.
The government has promised to spend more than £20m on nine schemes across the country to exploit cheap, renewable heat from canals, old mineshafts and in London tube lines.
It will spend another £70m to build some of Europe’s first plants to generate green hydrogen gas for homes and factories, including a project in Grimsby that will use the clean electricity generated by offshore wind turbines to make the low-carbon alternative gas from water.

Fully charged did an excellent episode on this idea about 2yrs ago - crucially they point out that most of the major UK cities are based on ports or major rivers:

Star Heat Pumps | Fully Charged

Pile_o_stone

Martyn1981 said:

Article on using WSHP (water source heat pumps) to heat properties and hospitals.

The canals of the West Midlands may seem an unlikely source of warmth, but these waterways could soon be used to heat hospitals and tower blocks under a plan to harness Britain’s hidden heating sources.
The government has promised to spend more than £20m on nine schemes across the country to exploit cheap, renewable heat from canals, old mineshafts and in London tube lines.
It will spend another £70m to build some of Europe’s first plants to generate green hydrogen gas for homes and factories, including a project in Grimsby that will use the clean electricity generated by offshore wind turbines to make the low-carbon alternative gas from water.

Fully charged did an excellent episode on this idea about 2yrs ago - crucially they point out that most of the major UK cities are based on ports or major rivers:

Would there not be a problem with using canals as the water in them is relatively static and so would get colder and colder as more heat is taken out, until they just freeze solid? Rivers are different as the water is constantly moving so the water you extract heat from moves along and is replaced.

Martyn1981

Pile_o_stone said:

Would there not be a problem with using canals as the water in them is relatively static and so would get colder and colder as more heat is taken out, until they just freeze solid? Rivers are different as the water is constantly moving so the water you extract heat from moves along and is replaced.

That's an interesting thought, and I have no idea to be honest. Water is a very dense substance, so I suppose it contains a large amount of energy, and it will be soaking up heat from the ground, air and solar gain all the time too, but I suppose, at least theoretically, there must be a point where demand could exceed supply, in terms of heat.

Something Star pumps mentioned is the use of WSHP to cool data centres, so ideally you want to be just downstream of one of them. ;-)

Hexane

Martyn1981 said:

Fully charged did an excellent episode on this idea about 2yrs ago - crucially they point out that most of the major UK cities are based on ports or major rivers

... not to mention the major UK towns currently based in major rivers, Hereford for example. I'm sure some are still sure it's nothing to do with climate change...

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

OFGEM to produce a report on how the UK grid can (or can't) cope with renewable leccy generation:

Ofgem reviews green potential of UK grid setup

Electricity regulator Ofgem is to publish a review of the UK's existing electrical system operation model in the Spring that will consider if the existing setup needs to change to facilitate renewables growth.
Under the terms of the current model the UK's electrical system operator, National Grid ESO, is a legally separate entity of multi-national utility company National Grid.
The Ofgem report will evaluate if this current system is suitable for the country as it gears up to hit its net-zero carbon emissions target in 2050.
Ofgem said wants the review to help deliver net zero at the lowest cost to consumers.

Hi

Isn't that just the latest iteration if the Ofgem summary report on the latest update of the regular FES report? .... if you see what I mean -  ie, nothing really new to see here!!

Pre FES2020, NG/ESO called for industry & stakeholder input, summary information available here ... http://fes.nationalgrid.com/media/1449/shaping-fes-2020-summary-of-feedback.pdf  

HTH

Z

Martyn1981

Conscious uncoupling it would seem for Google and Makani. In fact the news has been quite quiet here for years about this idea, though it was heavily 'promoted' as a much better solution to wind power generation by someone who has recently departed (under their other account). Maybe it's viable, maybe it's not, but looks like we won't know soon.

Google parent withdraws support for kite power outfit

Kite power company Makani has lost the support of Google parent Alphabet which previously funded the company via an internal programme known as ‘Other Bets’.
The company leaves the Google fold after seven years in which the Makani team advanced its technology from a 20kW demonstrator kite to a utility-scale unit capable of generating 600kW.
“Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization is longer and riskier than hoped, so from today Makani’s time at Alphabet is coming to an end,” Makani chief executive Fort Felker wrote in the company’s blog on Tuesday.

Martyn1981

Scotland likes RE, always seems (to me) that they are leading the UK in both RE and RE positivity.

Scottish ministers sold on green energy prospects

A survey of Members of the Scottish Parliament has revealed the nation's politicians believe renewables have a higher growth potential than any other industry.
Independent research firm PA Advocacy found four in 10 (39%) MSPs think the renewables industry has the best growth prospects over the next five years – ahead of financial services (38%), food & drink (23%) and tourism (21%).

Martyn1981

Ever higher capacity factors for the newer (and ever higher!) UK off-shore wind farms. [Note - whilst this article is about January (Winter) generation, that is when we will rely on wind the most.]

UK offshore wind load factors hit five-year high

Average offshore wind load factors in January were at their highest since 2015 according to data from energy consultancy Cornwall Insight.
The consultancy said the good performance of the offshore fleet was driven by the performance of projects installed since 2016 which managed averages of 55% - the best monthly performance seen since late 2015.
Offshore wind sites installed before 2016 had average load factors of 52% for the month, still well above the long term average of 38.5% energy department BEIS has calculated for all offshore wind installations.
“There is a clear trend for higher load factors from newer sites which is likely down to the utilisation of larger turbines,” explained Cornwall Insight analyst Lucy Dolton.
“In fact, further research by Cornwall Insight shows some of the newest offshore and onshore sites saw monthly average load factors close to, or above, 70% for the month of January, and on some days approached 100 percent,” she added.

Martyn1981

Bad news, but with a good news twist!

Turns out that emissions from extraction and distribution of FF's are much worse than originally thought, mostly due to fugitive methane, but the counter argument is that tightening up on practices and procedures, and shifting to RE will have a greater than expected impact too.

Oil and gas firms 'have had far worse climate impact than thought'

Some extracts, but well worth reading in full:

The oil and gas industry has had a far worse impact on the climate than previously believed, according to a study indicating that human emissions of fossil methane have been underestimated by up to 40%.
Although the research will add to pressure on fossil fuel companies, scientists said there was cause for hope because it showed a big extra benefit could come from tighter regulation of the industry and a faster shift towards renewable energy.

For a more accurate comparison, a team at the University of Rochester in the US examined levels of methane in the pre-industrial era about 300 years ago. This was achieved by analysing air from that period trapped in glaciers in Greenland. The sample – made up of about a tonne of ice – was extracted with a Blue Ice Drill, capable of producing the world’s biggest ice cores.
The findings, published in Nature, suggest the share of naturally released fossil methane has been overestimated by “an order of magnitude”, which means that human activities are 25-40% more responsible for fossil methane in the atmosphere than thought.
This strengthens suspicions that fossil fuel companies are not fully accounting for their impact on the climate, particularly with regard to methane – a colourless, odourless gas that many plants routinely vent into the atmosphere.

Fracking also appears to have worsened the problem. Atmospheric methane had started to flatten off at the turn of the century, but rose again after a surge in fracking activity in the US and elsewhere. The industry, however, continues to claim that the energy source can be used as a “bridge fuel” because it has lower carbon emissions than oil or coal, but this fails to account for leaks and flares of methane and other gases during extraction.

“We knew fossil fuel extraction – including fracking – was a major part of global methane emissions, but this impressive study suggests it is a far bigger culprit in human-induced climate change than we had ever thought,” he said.
“If correct, gas, coal and oil extraction and distribution around the world are responsible for almost half of all human-induced methane emissions. Add to that all the carbon dioxide that is then emitted when the fossil fuels are burned, and you need look no further for the seat of the climate emergency fire.”