Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

I suppose if enough bodies keep chipping away at those in control then something representing an action plan might materialise eventually!

Climate Change Committee calls for ‘long-term ambition’ for solar and renewables

Two progress reports were released by the CCC today, assessing the UK’s success in cutting emissions and adapting to climate risks. Within the first of these 'Progress in reducing emissions - 2021 Report to Parliament' the Committee outlines the relative success of the electricity grid, but calls on government to “act quickly – be bold and decisive” and bring in further policy to support the transition to net zero.

It recommends renewables growing to meet 70% of the UK’s electrical demand by 2035, a significant jump from the 29% they accounted for in 2020.

This growth could be aided by the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, but “clarity is needed on the auction schedule and pathway of volumes to be procured to 2030,” the report states, echoing a recent call from Solar Energy UK.

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

michaels

Coastalwatch said:

That will be some battery. Although I do wonder what means they will employ to remove a million tonnes of rock from within the mountain! Wouldn't it be great if they could utilise renewable energy and ease the need for further curtailage of supply during the construction phase even before it gets hooked up to the grid.

Drax to expand pumped storage hydro station Hollow Mountain

Drax has announced plans for a new underground pumped hydro storage power station, and will seek planning permission to expand its Cruachan site in Scotland to 1.04GW.

The 600MW power station will be built inside Argyll’s highest mountain Ben Cruachan, alongside the company's existing 440MW pumped storage hydro station dubbed the Hollow Mountain. The two will share the existing upper reservoir, as it has enough capacity for both at 2.4 billion gallons of water.

A new, hollowed-out cavern will be constructed, with more than a million tones of rock excavated to create the space within the mountain.

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

Interesting that despite all the advances in new storage technologies (batteries, LAES, weights in mines, etc) that hollowing out a mountain for pumped storage still makes commercial sense.

Martyn1981

This article looks at the cost of rolling out more RE (or less) in the US. It actually finds that 54% RE (up from 20%) is the sweet spot for cost, with more, or less RE% increasing costs. But it gets much better, and is worth a read.

It looks at the cost of going to a much higher percentage and prices the increase at 2.8% (low RE cost assumptions), 8% (current cost assumptions), 14% (high cost asumptions). However the report doesn't take into account the learning curve of going bigger:

It is important to note that renewable energy costs are also driven by the learning curve, or the experience curve that relates the cost of a renewable technology to its cumulative installed capacity or electricity generated. The authors did not model learning curve effects where greater renewable deployment can accelerate cost reductions.

and it also doesn't consider the externalities:

Notably, this analysis does not consider the costs of externalities—damages from climate change, air pollution impacts, jobs and economic development, or other social impacts—that might also affect the optimal amount of renewable deployment. Future research should revisit the optimal (and near-optimal) amount of renewable deployment, given expectations for renewable technology improvements and whether we need to internalize these other effects when planning the system.

So, overall, looks like RE (and more RE) is a big win for the US, and a cost increase of ~8%, before RE costs fall further from a larger rollout, and before considering the savings/benefits of less FF generation, looks like a very safe bet.

Study Finds Limiting Renewable Energy Growth Would Result In Higher U.S. Power Costs

With declining costs for renewable energy technologies, interest has turned to how that might translate into the total system costs of integrating more renewable energy on the U.S. grid.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers Wesley Cole, Nathaniel Gates, and Trieu Mai examined how changing the contribution of renewable energy from the optimal solution impacts the cost of building and operating the electricity system, as well as trade-offs between emissions savings and system costs for higher and lower levels of renewable generation.

Martyn1981

The Guardian has started to run a series of articles:

A new Guardian series examines attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the havoc they have created

I won't provide links as there will be many articles, all quite painful / infuriating to read, but looking at how 'Big Oil' concluded that the burning of FF's was a serious problem, but instead chose to spread false information, and fund denial.

In 1979, an Exxon study said that burning fossil fuels “will cause dramatic environmental effects” in the coming decades.
“The potential problem is great and urgent,” it concluded.

But instead of heeding the evidence of the research they were funding, major oil firms worked together to bury the findings and manufacture a counter narrative to undermine the growing scientific consensus around climate science. The fossil fuel industry’s campaign to create uncertainty paid off for decades by muddying public understanding of the growing dangers from global heating and stalling political action.

The articles focus on the legal attempts, mostly in the US, to try to find ways to make the companies liable for at least some of the cost impact from their misinformation efforts, and the lost time and further emissions that have resulted.



From a G&E energy viewpoint, I'm hopeful that any attention that focuses on the solidity of the science, going back 50yrs+, will help to drive RE and clean technology forward ever faster.

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

The Guardian has started to run a series of articles:

A new Guardian series examines attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the havoc they have created

I won't provide links as there will be many articles, all quite painful / infuriating to read, but looking at how 'Big Oil' concluded that the burning of FF's was a serious problem, but instead chose to spread false information, and fund denial.

In 1979, an Exxon study said that burning fossil fuels “will cause dramatic environmental effects” in the coming decades.
“The potential problem is great and urgent,” it concluded.

But instead of heeding the evidence of the research they were funding, major oil firms worked together to bury the findings and manufacture a counter narrative to undermine the growing scientific consensus around climate science. The fossil fuel industry’s campaign to create uncertainty paid off for decades by muddying public understanding of the growing dangers from global heating and stalling political action.

The articles focus on the legal attempts, mostly in the US, to try to find ways to make the companies liable for at least some of the cost impact from their misinformation efforts, and the lost time and further emissions that have resulted.



From a G&E energy viewpoint, I'm hopeful that any attention that focuses on the solidity of the science, going back 50yrs+, will help to drive RE and clean technology forward ever faster.

Obviously way off topic but big companies are not entities on their own but are made up of individual employees.  For these individuals who mostly have kids either they didn't believe the science or they chose to put profit for the company over the good of the world.  I am wondering what the dynamic is that makes a person do this, is it group think - everyone is just following the company line - or the thing we often hear on climate change 'no point me doing something as China/US/India won't change and we are too small to make any difference'.

Martyn1981

Cornwall's geothermal project progresses.

Full steam ahead for Cornwall’s geothermal energy project

By next year, the company behind the project, Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), says it will have built a power plant to produce electricity and heat from the hot rocks. It plans to feed electricity into the grid and send heat to a local rum distillery and a new housing estate.

Coastalwatch

Maybe a topic for the battery thread but thought to post on here as it is probably applicable to other areas also and could be a step change in the way recycling is approached going forward. The piece is well worth reading entirely but have posted just the key aspects below.

From toothbrushes to saving the planet: How ultrasonic delamination could hold the key to battery recycling

The use of ultrasonic sound waves has been applied to battery recovery. Researchers from the ReLiB project at the U.K.’s Faraday Institution say the process has already proven to be 100 times faster than conventional approaches. It is also much more sustainable and less energy intensive.

Ultrasonic toothbrushes could be the key to a novel, highly efficient battery recycling method.

New research from the U.K.'s Faraday Institution has suggested ultrasonic delamination could offer a fast, sustainable approach. Not only is the technique apparently quicker and more eco-friendly than hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes, but researchers say it could also yield higher-purity materials.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/06/30/from-toothbrushes-to-saving-the-planet-how-ultrasonic-delamination-could-hold-the-key-to-battery-recycling/

coffeehound

BBC R4 programme called Inside Science has a piece on the transition from FF to HP and hydrogen in the home.  They mentioned the shortfall in capacity to meet the installation schedule and relative running costs + emissions. Didn’t catch it all though probably not much we didn’t already know. Repeated tonight at 21.00 and on Sounds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xfh9

Coastalwatch

Great to read this piece of news this morning, as much of it will be centred around London where the greatest demand must surely be. Let's hope the trend continues apace and spreads to all areas ensuring that leccy can be generated and used locally to assist the Grid in coping with surges in demand which will only grow in future.

‘Extraordinary’ solar and battery storage boom underway in East of England, says UKPN

A total of 34 new solar generation sites and nine battery storage sites have secured connection contracts with UK Power Networks (UKPN) between January and May in Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

For both technologies, this is a rapid increase on the previous few years, with there being 17 new solar connections accepted in 2020 and four in 2019. Most of these new sites are to be mid-size solar farms on former agricultural land, according to the distribution network operator (DNO), generating almost 840MW once operational.

Mainly located within a 30 mile radius north of the M25, the sites have planning permission and the contracts between the generation owners and UKPN have been signed. Having secured connections to the electricity network, generators can then make a down payment on connections costs, with the renewable sites then to be built. Some of the 34 new sites will be able to generate as soon as the next few months, according to the DNO.

Edit. With apologies to OrizB who I've subsequently spotted his post in the Solar int the News Section a few days ago, albeit from another source.

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

QrizB

Coastalwatch said:

Great to read this piece of news this morning, as much of it will be centred around London where the greatest demand must surely be. Let's hope the trend continues apace and spreads to all areas ensuring that leccy can be generated and used locally to assist the Grid in coping with surges in demand which will only grow in future.

‘Extraordinary’ solar and battery storage boom underway in East of England, says UKPN

Edit. With apologies to OrizB who I've subsequently spotted his post in the Solar int the News Section a few days ago, albeit from another source.

No need to apologise, multiple sources are always welcome