Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

QrizB · 4 May 2021 at 11:03AM

Cardew said:

Time to waste solar energy?
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/it-s-time-to-start-wasting-solar-energy?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

A good read, thank you. I like this para (and I always thought land was cheap in the US):

Solar panels have become so cheap that the true cost of electricity is shifting from solar arrays themselves to the steel and land needed to house them. Imagine if the most expensive part of a nuclear plant wasn’t the fuel or reactor, but just the land it sits on.

Martyn1981 · 4 May 2021 at 11:54AM

QrizB said:

Cardew said:

Time to waste solar energy?
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/it-s-time-to-start-wasting-solar-energy?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

A good read, thank you. I like this para (and I always thought land was cheap in the US):
Solar panels have become so cheap that the true cost of electricity is shifting from solar arrays themselves to the steel and land needed to house them. Imagine if the most expensive part of a nuclear plant wasn’t the fuel or reactor, but just the land it sits on.

TBH it's not new news. All of the assessments for reaching 100% RE leccy have always included waste/spill/curtailment, as that's the first, easiest and cheapest way to expand total generation. This is possible because as the article points out, energy from PV and wind is not only cheap, but has an almost zero marginal cost. So if you want more generation, to meet more demand, you first overproduce until the waste/spill/curtailment reaches a level high enough to make it worth capturing and storing - you wouldn't buy a battery for a home PV system because you are wasting 1 or 2kWhs pa. But at some point, the economics shift in favour of batts (intraday storage) and then when they become uneconomical, as the number of cycles would drop (if you had too mch battery capacity), less efficient but cheaper longer term and larger scale storage, such as CAES, LAES, H2 etc etc. starts to step in and make use of the low cost excess leccy.

I suppose it's something that off-gridders have been balancing for decades, do you increase wind/PV generation, or battery capacity to best meet your needs economically. Accepting that at lower demand times, perhaps the summer, that you will have excess capacity and 'waste' if you overbuild generation, rather than increase storage.

It's one of the most important factors for RE, as the generation is cheap so 'waste' is a viable, accepted and economical solution. Whereas of course with nuclear, you need to sell as much as possible, at the highest price possible, just to minimise the enormous economic losses (v's RE) as much as possible.

Tony Seba (the master of disruptive technology predictions) sets out the basics for the coming disruption of energy with RethinkX and the impact on energy generation and pricing of SWB (solar, wind and batteries) going forward.

We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century.

Rethinking Energy -- 100% Solar, Wind and Batteries Is Just The Beginning

Martyn1981 · 4 May 2021 at 4:23PM

I think it was back in 2012(ish) that I suggested that roof top solar may be more economically viable than a PV farm, due to the difference in value (wholesale / retail) of the 'product', but this recent finding in the states, having compared two options, adds another significant factor ..... jobs!

30 Times More Jobs From Rooftop Solar, Utility Filing Says

In late 2020, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission asked the state’s electric and gas utilities to discuss what infrastructure projects they had in queue that could be accelerated to support the COVID-battered economy. Tucked into a proposal from Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electric company, was a comparison of two proposed solar projects: one, a giant solar array on the site of a closing coal plant; the other, a small collection of rooftop solar projects to serve low-income residents. In a nondescript table was a bombshell revelation about the relative economic benefits of solar at small scale: for every million the utility proposed spending on rooftop solar, it would create 30 times more jobs than $1 million spent on utility-scale solar.

Utilities often and erroneously compare the costs of large and small solar to generate electricity, leaving out the delivery costs not including the cost of large projects (and that small projects don’t pay). Rather, large-scale solar competes with other large-scale power production, and small-scale with other sources that deliver right to the door (or meter) of our homes and businesses. Both types of solar are competitive. As Minnesota’s value of solar calculation shows, the value of locally-produced power is actually very similar to the retail electricity price. And as shown in a recent grid model from Vibrant Clean Energy, large-scale wind and solar are the most cost-effective new electricity sources compared to other big power generation just about anywhere.

If it’s not the price that matters in choosing large or small, then the economic impacts matter much more. This tidbit suggests that the more money we invest in small-scale solar, the much larger economic multipliers we’ll see across the economy. It squares with the 30 Million Solar Homes campaign that ILSR co-leads, which has (preliminarily) found that an investment in solar for 1 in 4 American households could great $30 billion per year in energy bill savings, create over 1.7 million jobs, and shift more than 5 percent of total electricity use to the sun.

Worth bearing in mind that whilst the values here compete nicely against each (horses for courses), US roof top solar is still ridiculously expensive v's UK prices, around twice as expensive. And in Australia, solar is so cheap, that when the higher generation per kWp is taken into account, that it generates at a lower cost than grid leccy costs to distribute, meaning that even if leccy could be generated for free, it would still cost more, when delivered, than domestic PV generation. Ouch!

michaels · 4 May 2021 at 5:34PM

I understand that solar spill is easy but wind spill is problematic?
Rooftop solar obviously also has major distribution advantages, especially in situations where it can be used where it is generated perhaps for AC, heating hot water for evening showers and car charging.

Martyn1981 · 4 May 2021 at 10:08PM

I don't understand that, I thought large scale wind generation was the go to now for curtailment by grid managers as it can respond (on or off) very quickly by furling blades and or yawing the nacelle out of optimal direction?
Some of the anti-RE silly people and press (like the DM) used to make a lot of fuss about curtailment payments for wind, seemingly oblivious to the fact that curtailment and curtailment payments are not new, but when wind gets some ....... oh, start the presses boys!

Martyn1981 · 4 May 2021 at 10:16PM

Speaking of wind, another new record:

Blustery bank holiday helps windfarms set new clean energy record

Great Britain’s windfarms set a new clean energy record on Monday after the blowy bank holiday weather helped onshore and offshore wind turbines make up almost half of the electricity system.

The blustery bank holiday produced a new wind power record as turbines generated just over 17.6GW of electricity for the first time in the middle of Monday afternoon, enough to run more than 3.5m kettles.

Windfarms generated 48.5% of the electricity grid in England, Scotland and Wales, which was more than the contribution made by gas plants, nuclear reactors and biomass burners combined. Gas plants powered 21.7% of the electricity grid yesterday afternoon, while nuclear reactors generated 12% and biomass power units contributed 6.1%.

Silly comment, but a lovely looking youngish tree in the park across from us was snapped yesterday. The trunk is almost a foot thick, but broke at the 3ft mark, presumably because the tree was almost in full leaf.
I couldn't help thinking that the two mature giant trees in the park, whose leaves are only just starting to sprout, might know from experience just what they are doing. Or, being a different type it's just the way they work ...... but I prefer my idea.

michaels · 4 May 2021 at 11:14PM

Martyn1981 said:

I don't understand that, I thought large scale wind generation was the go to now for curtailment by grid managers as it can respond (on or off) very quickly by furling blades and or yawing the nacelle out of optimal direction?
Some of the anti-RE silly people and press (like the DM) used to make a lot of fuss about curtailment payments for wind, seemingly oblivious to the fact that curtailment and curtailment payments are not new, but when wind gets some ....... oh, start the presses boys!

My bad, I think I had read about curtailment being an issue but I think it was for individual off grid installations, it appears for large scale wind farms the technology exists to vary output as required.

Martyn1981 · 6 May 2021 at 3:29PM

Why fight, when it's better to sing and celebrate!

Germany’s coalition government has been surprisingly upbeat about the constitutional court’s announcement last Thursday. Key ministers from both parties have welcomed a ruling that effectively criticises them for jeopardising young people’s freedom by postponing inevitable cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Germany to bring forward climate goals after constitutional court ruling

Germany’s government is to revise its emission reduction targets after the country’s constitutional court declared the current climate protection measures insufficient, aiming to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 rather than 2050.

The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, and the environment minister, Svenja Schulze laid out a legislative proposal on Wednesday to cut emissions by 65% from 1990 levels by 2030. An 88% reduction of carbon emissions is to be reached by 2040.

Germany’s emission levels are currently 40% lower than they were in 1990, meaning it would require a reduction of a further 25 percentage points over the next nine years to meet its next target.