Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

EVandPV

'Green hydrogen hub' proposed for the Highlands

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-56279164

Solarchaser

EVandPV said:

'Green hydrogen hub' proposed for the Highlands

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-56279164

Good to see some movement this way when we have so much wind available 👍

Martyn1981

Article on low energy homes being built in the UK. Tried to find some paragraphs to give the gist, but it's a good read covering different properties and buildings / builders.

Eco-homes become hot property in UK's zero-carbon ‘paradigm shift’

Smart, low-carbon homes were once the preserve of one-off grand designs – now there are up to 30,000 projects in the pipeline

Martyn1981

I've been so impressed with what Germany has achieved, regarding RE leccy, but it always gets overshadowed by the amount of coal they burn, so nice to see a +5% for RE and -5% for coal (coal and lignite) last year. Obviously Covid will have 'helped', but the numbers keep moving in one direction.

Renewables deliver 47% of Germany power in 2020

Renewable energy's share of electricity generation in Germany rose to 47% last year, from just over 42% in 2019, according to preliminary data from the country's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

Coal's share was down to 24.8% from 29.8% previously.

Whilst on this subject, I thought it would be interesting to see how things have changed over the last decade, so I've attached this link (note 2020 numbers are marked preliminary). I think it's useful to look at chart 4 and see how each source has changed over a decade. To my surprise, gas hasn't risen, though it was lower for most of the decade - pure speculation, but the graph suggests to me that gas would have risen if it hadn't been for Covid. And whilst coal has been dropping steadily, it's taken longer to deal with lignite, which is only now starting to fall (fast).

And chart 1 kinda gives the V's to arguments that pit RE against the economy.

Germany’s energy consumption and power mix in charts

A wealth of numbers and statistics describe the energy generation and consumption of nation states. This factsheet provides a range of charts (and data links) about the status of Germany’s energy mix, as well as developments in energy and power production and usage since 1990. [UPDATES with preliminary 2020 data]

Coastalwatch

Great to see a clean technology company doing well in developing countries by helping them leapfrog the temptation of FF industries.

Mini-grid company Husk Power doubled revenues in 2020

Bihar-based Husk Power Systems—which operates more than 100 mini-grids in India and Africa—recorded a 90% year-on-year growth in revenues and quadrupled business customers to 5000+. It expects the growth momentum to continue in 2021, with a 125% rise in revenues.

Husk Power operates more than 100 mini-grids in India, Nigeria, and Tanzania, and is gearing for a ten-fold jump in its assets base to 1000.

https://www.pv-magazine-india.com/2021/03/08/minigrid-company-husk-power-doubled-revenues-in-2020/?utm_source=pv+magazine+USA&utm_campaign=0525490cc4-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_80e0d17bb8-0525490cc4-159341337

Norman_Castle

https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/tesco-to-launch-uk-s-biggest-network-of-recycling-points-for-soft-plastic/

Really pleased about this. I always binned plastic because there was nowhere nearby to recycle it. A few years ago I started saving plastic bread bags to store wet paint rollers then realised how many bags I was gathering. Recently I've started saving all soft plastic with the intention of finding somewhere for it. Thanks Tesco.

Coastalwatch

Not before time I guess as we're certainly going to need it in vast amounts if we're going to rely on renewables and storage only in future. Just taking the whole of last week into account renewables accounted for only 16.8% of demand so some serious storage would have been required to cover that shortfall! Even if renewables are trebled by then they would still only cover around half of the demand required.

It certainly focuses the mind on the scale of what is required and that the time for prevarication has long passed.

REA calls for creation of new market mechanism for longer-duration energy storage

A new market mechanism for longer-duration storage should be created according to the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA).

In a new report, the trade association looked into the need for longer-duration storage and the current challenges facing the technology, with a focus on storage with a duration of up to 24 hours. Technologies included within that include flow batteries, gravity batteries, pumped hydro, liquid air energy storage and compressed air energy storage.

Currently, the government is launching a £68 million competition for longer-duration energy storage, with this highlighted in both the energy white paper and in the Budget.

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

Coastalwatch

Great hopes for this "simple" cost effective energy storage solution. I wonder how many existing mineshafts might prove compatible without too much adjustment. Considering how it was Coal that created the original Industrial Revolution then then how comforting to learn that it could still play a not insignificant part in this, the fourth, without contributing to any CO2  emissions in doing so. 

Storage start-up Gravitricity’s £1m demonstrator takes shape ahead of testing

The Leith based energy storage start-up is building a £1 million 250kW demonstration project at Forth Port’s Prince Albert Dock, Edinburgh, Scotland, made up of the tower, two 25-tonnes weights suspended by steel cables, plus two fully grid-connected generator units.

"We calculate we can go from zero to full power in less than a second – which can be extremely valuable in the frequency response and back-up power markets,” explained Frances Tierney, engineering project manager.

The upcoming two month test programme " will confirm our modelling and give us valuable data for our first full-scale 4-8 MW project which will commence later this year,” added Tierney.

The company said analysts have calculated that the system can store energy at half the lifetime cost of lithium-ion batteries.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/storage_start_up_gravitricitys_1m_demonstrator_takes_shape_ahead_of_testing

EVandPV

Coastalwatch said:

Great hopes for this "simple" cost effective energy storage solution. I wonder how many existing mineshafts might prove compatible without too much adjustment. Considering how it was Coal that created the original Industrial Revolution then then how comforting to learn that it could still play a not insignificant part in this, the fourth, without contributing to any CO2  emissions in doing so. 

Storage start-up Gravitricity’s £1m demonstrator takes shape ahead of testing

The Leith based energy storage start-up is building a £1 million 250kW demonstration project at Forth Port’s Prince Albert Dock, Edinburgh, Scotland, made up of the tower, two 25-tonnes weights suspended by steel cables, plus two fully grid-connected generator units.

"We calculate we can go from zero to full power in less than a second – which can be extremely valuable in the frequency response and back-up power markets,” explained Frances Tierney, engineering project manager.

The upcoming two month test programme " will confirm our modelling and give us valuable data for our first full-scale 4-8 MW project which will commence later this year,” added Tierney.

The company said analysts have calculated that the system can store energy at half the lifetime cost of lithium-ion batteries.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/storage_start_up_gravitricitys_1m_demonstrator_takes_shape_ahead_of_testing

Great stuff ! 👍
Only 10 miles from here but hadn't heard about this.

Martyn1981

I thought I'd post this on here, rather than any specific heat pump thread, as it's more about discussing the idea and the potential going forward to reduce energy consumption, so perhaps 'news' rather than specific advice.

Even In Frigid Temperatures In Alaska, Air-Source Heat Pumps Keep Homes Warm

The air-source heat pump that Tom Marsik installed in his house eight years ago was rare for Alaska. Air-source heat pumps take heat from the outside air, run it through a refrigeration cycle to step up the temperature (just like your fridge, but in reverse), and deliver it to a building. Because they rely on “heat” from the outside air, they were not very common in subarctic climates. Yet, for five years, Marsik’s heat pump kept his family warm even on the chilliest days of the year. Thanks to what researchers have learned from systems like this one, heat pumps are taking off in Alaska and other cold places as an alternative to more traditional heating systems like oil and natural gas.

“It’s exciting because they are operating at lower temperatures than they historically have, which means they have the potential to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in cold climates,” Marsik said. “Helping to push the boundaries of clean energy and develop a sustainable future was important to me, especially in my own house, where we were raising our daughter.”

Understanding the operating limits of heat pumps will shed light on how they can be expanded nationally. There is a much larger market for air-source heat pumps in the Lower 48, where cold-climate residents are also looking for affordable, cleaner ways to heat their homes. One benefit of heat pumps in less extreme climates is that they can provide both heating and cooling, with the simple switch of a valve. NREL researcher Jon Winkler is leading research to see how to get heat pumps into more of these homes.

The subset of housing he focuses on are those with central, forced-air heating—or roughly 35 million U.S. homes. These homes could switch to a heat pump fairly easily because they already have ductwork. The heat pump simply ties into these existing ducts, like a central air conditioner, to provide conditioned air throughout the home. In places with ductwork and high energy costs, heat pumps are especially attractive—like the Pacific Northwest, for example.

“They already have the ductwork, but they’re using electric resistance heaters, which get the lowest possible heating efficiency. Installing a heat pump in these homes makes a lot of sense financially,” Winkler said.