Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

joefizz

For those who havent seen it, National Grid just put out a possible alert for the coming week regarding electricity output margins.
If you have a home battery system with backup capability or an EV its probably worth topping up in the next day or two.

Martyn1981

Bad news - the awarding of the next off-shore wind contracts has been pushed back to early 2022, but the good news is that it's still an enormous 7GW round. I'm already getting excited to see the contract pricing, I wonder if it'll be in the £40's/MWh again.

Crown Estate delays Round 4 awards

The Crown Estate has pushed back the award of Round 4 offshore wind leases to spring 2022, following delays this year to the bidding process.

The seabed landlord said a second stage evaluation of projects, originally expected last month, will not now kick off until November with a multi-cycle bidding process delayed to "early 2021".

CE had initially planned to award agreements for lease after these steps in 2021 following a nine to 12-month plan-level Habitats Regulations Assessment. 

However, the agency said it "now expect(s) that this could take place in spring 2022, subject to the outcome of the HRA".

NigeWick

Exiled_Tyke said:

I'm wondering if we need a Green and Ethical Food thread as we seem to be going off track here.  (Although I accept that Food is Energy so not entirely irrelevant!) 

Good idea.

silverwhistle

joefizz said:

For those who havent seen it, National Grid just put out a possible alert for the coming week regarding electricity output margins.
If you have a home battery system with backup capability or an EV its probably worth topping up in the next day or two.

Yes, thanks, and as pointed out in The Guardian article NG previously had problems with excesses of wind too. But I wonder how much the increase in time of day tariffs will improve matters for both circumstances? I'm not sure how many customers Octopus have with their Agile tariff, for example, but when it gets to hundreds of thousands deferring car charging or kicking off the washing machine it will have a significant impact. I'll do my part but more interested in the negative rates.:-)

silverwhistle

Martyn1981 said:

I wonder if I could survive on an all chocolate diet?

It would have to be dark chocolate..

Martyn1981

Waste plastic turned into H2 and carbon nanotubes, now that sounds interesting. And large increases in wind generation in Texas, hopefully RE generation will continue to accelerate now that costs have fallen so much.

New Process Turns Plastic Waste Into Hydrogen And Carbon Nanotubes

“Here we report a straightforward rapid method for the catalytic deconstruction of various plastic feedstocks into hydrogen and high-value carbons. We use microwaves together with abundant and inexpensive iron-based catalysts as microwave susceptors to initiate the catalytic deconstruction process. The one-step process typically takes 30–90 seconds to transform a sample of mechanically pulverized commercial plastic into hydrogen and (predominantly) multiwalled carbon nanotubes. A high hydrogen yield of 55.6 mmol g−1plastic is achieved, with over 97% of the theoretical mass of hydrogen being extracted from the deconstructed plastic. The approach is demonstrated on widely used, real-world plastic waste. This proof-of-concept advance highlights the potential of plastic waste itself as a valuable energy feedstock for the production of hydrogen and high-value carbon materials.”

Texas Wind Power Growth 2010–2019 — 6% to 18% of Texas Electricity

In 2019, wind-powered generation contributed 84.4 thousand gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in Texas, an 11% increase from the 75.7 thousand GWh generated in 2018. Substantial growth in wind capacity in the state was the primary reason for this increase. Texas wind capacity rose almost 17% in 2019, from 24.1 gigawatts (GW) in 2018 to 28.1 GW in 2019. Wind power accounted for 18% of the electricity generated in Texas in 2019, compared with 6% in 2010.

NigeWick

silverwhistle said:

Martyn1981 said:

I wonder if I could survive on an all chocolate diet?

It would have to be dark chocolate..

Needs to be 75% cocoa solid as that is the optimum according to a Swedish researcher. Above that, the body just voids it and below that it doesn't do as much good. We eat the 70% offering from Aldi.

Coastalwatch

At last!

It will be a year behind schedule, but better late than never perhaps. I just hope global warming's patience isn't exhausted by the time it's all delivered. Assuming it fulfils all the requirements for averting it, that is?

UK government to release comprehensive Net Zero Strategy

To help drive decarbonisation in the UK, the government has committed to publishing a Net Zero Strategy.

In its response to the Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) Progress Report from June, the government yesterday (15 October) announced its plan to publish the decarbonisation strategy ahead of next year's COP26 event.

“The strategy will set out the government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy, making the most of new growth and employment opportunities across the UK. These will raise ambition as we outline our path to hit our 2050 target,” wrote energy secretary Alok Sharma energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng in their foreword to the response.

This included the reintroduction of Pot One Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions, which will see solar as well as onshore wind able to compete for the subsidy for the first time since 2015.

The allocation will help accelerate the deployment of onshore wind and solar, “both of which will be key to delivering net zero at low cost,” the report notes. The next allocation round will open in late 2021, with a target to support doubling the capacity of renewable electricity compared to that secured in the 2019 allocation round.

“What we need to see in that strategy is the same level of ambition for solar and battery storage as there has been for wind. Britain needs to triple its solar capacity in the next decade in order to get on track for net zero.”

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/uk_government_to_release_comprehensive_net_zero_strategy

Coastalwatch

Perhaps better known for it's Zappi domestic EV charger this UK company appears to be heading in the right direction! They've successfully developed their product for the Smart charging of EV's, I  wonder if they'll now get around to developing it further by sending the energy in reverse  providing us with an efficient and cost effective V2H product which many of us seek and so ease pressures on the grid at times of peak demand!

Myenergi to open new eco office space as company continues to expand

Renewables manufacturer myenergi has unveiled plans to open a new product development, manufacturing and eco office space in North Lincolnshire.

The expansion will allow the company to double its exiting workforce by the end of 2021, with new roles across engineering, product development, marketing and sales.

It comes on the back of an increase of 2,250% in profitability for 2020 that has already allowed the company to increase its number of employees to 90, creating 68 new roles over the past year.

Myenergi is setting its sights on becoming a leading global manufacturer of green smart home tech, with the new premises focused on technologies that bridge the gap between electric vehicles and renewable energy such as solar.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/myenergi_to_open_new_eco_office_space_as_company_continues_to_expand

EVandPV

Coastalwatch said:

Perhaps better known for it's Zappi domestic EV charger this UK company appears to be heading in the right direction! They've successfully developed their product for the Smart charging of EV's, I  wonder if they'll now get around to developing it further by sending the energy in reverse  providing us with an efficient and cost effective V2H product which many of us seek and so ease pressures on the grid at times of peak demand!

There was actually talk of it on the Myenergi forum but they were keeping their cards close to their chest. They're in the middle of migrating to new servers and finalizing Octopus Agile integration at the moment but I wouldn't rule V2H out.