Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

silverwhistle

Don't the networks have a problem with the midday peaks in PV power generation? I appreciate the demand for air conditioning may match it to a certain extent, but I'd hope some of any surplus could be mopped up at the local level by charging EVs, when they eventually get around to the Federal government not trying to quash them.  Static consumer level batteries will become more popular I imagine and perhaps they'll be able to store power in the form of cold: eutectic plates or a damn gurt big ice-cube!

Martyn1981

Just a bit of silliness, but having talked about Australia, coal, and Silverwhistle mentioning BEV's, here's a fun vid putting them all together, as a BEV driver introduces his locals who are coalminers to BEV power. These folk would typically be used to 'utes' (utility vehicles (pickups)) and big engined V8s. The language is quite expressive!

Coal Miners in Teslas | #Auspol says Tradies will hate them!?

Martyn1981

Just looking through some of the RE info from the latest quarterly Gov Public Attitudes Tracker. They've renamed them now by season, but this would be number 39, so closing in on 10yrs.

Nice to see support for renewables still climbing. Onshore wind now at 80% with 4% opposition, which is quite a change from 10yrs ago with 'only' 67% support and 12% oppossed - bearing in mind that during those 10yrs we've been 'impacted' by them visually and financially, and the result is a 2/3rds reduction in opposition. Lovely.


BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker: Energy Infrastructure and Energy Sources Autumn 2021, UK

In Autumn 2021, support for using renewable energy such as wind power, solar energy and biomass to provide electricity, fuel and heat was high at 87%, including 54% of people saying they strongly supported this (Figure 2.1). Just 1% of people said they opposed renewable energy. 

Men were more likely to strongly support renewables (58%, compared with 50% of women). The level of strong support declined by age, from 62% of those aged 16 to 24, declining through the age bands to 50% of those aged 55 or over.

Support for renewable energy was higher for people educated to degree level (93%, compared with 86% of those with other qualifications and 78% of people with no qualifications).

While overall support for renewables was very high, support for different types of renewable energy developments was more variable. At least eight in ten were supportive of solar energy (90%), wave and tidal energy (85%), off-shore wind (84%), and on shore wind (80%), while support for biomass was slightly lower (72%). However, where support was lower, this was mainly driven by larger proportions saying they had no opinion. Opposition remained low across all renewable energy technologies (between 1% and 7%).

Martyn1981

OK, here's the bad news - coal generation is still rising. The increase in demand for energy in Asia is still outgrowing the rollout of RE, even though that rollout is very impressive. The per capita emissions for India are still low, v's 'the Western World' but the population understandably aspires to a higher standard of living.

So now it's a race against time for RE deployment around the World, and for a transition away from coal by Europe and the US to help balance this. I do hope we are getting close to a peak for coal, and annual Co2(e) emissions, but it's probably still some time off.

Global demand for coal could hit all-time high in 2022

Coal power is on track to hit a new global record this year after an economic rebound that could drive worldwide coal demand to an all-time high in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

The amount of electricity generated from coal power plants has soared by 9% this year after a surge in fossil fuel demand to fuel the recovery from Covid lockdowns, a report by the watchdog says.

Coal power fell by 4% in 2020 as the pandemic caused a global economic slowdown, but the IEA found that demand for electricity this year had outpaced the growth in low-carbon sources, leading many wealthy economies to rely more heavily on fossil fuel power plants.

The IEA report found India was on track to grow its coal-fired electricity generation by 12% this year, while China’s use of coal plants was forecast to increase by up to 9% despite a sharp slowdown in recent months. This would mark an all-time high in both countries, despite an “impressive” rollout of solar and wind power projects, the IEA said.

In the US and the EU, coal power generation is expected to rise by 20%, from low levels in 2020, which is likely to keep power plant use below the levels recorded in 2019. The use of coal plants is expected to go back into decline next year as electricity demand slows and the expansion of renewable energy alternatives continues.

In the UK, where coal power has been in steady decline in recent years, the owners of the last remaining coal power stations were paid record sums to help keep the lights on this year as electricity prices reached new highs after record gas market prices and one of the least windy summers since 1961.

Coastalwatch

Well it's known as the sunshine state so seems to make sense to me with new build premises almost becoming self sufficient in energy rather than just adding to the burden on the grid. It also offers some opportunity for grid balancing into the bargain. I wonder how long before other states follow suit!

California first state to require solar power and batteries in commercial structures

California has become the first state to require solar power plus energy storage to be integrated into all future commercial structures via its most recent update to building codes. Additionally, the new building code added a requirement that all new residential construction must be ready for the addition of energy storage.

The rules that the California Clean Energy Commission (CEC) voted to approve can be found in the 2022 Build Energy Efficiency Standards. The regulatory body estimates this requirement may add 280 MW of annual solar capacity, as well as 400 MWh of energy storage.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/12/16/california-first-state-to-require-solar-power-and-batteries-in-commercial-structures/

Martyn1981

A bit more offshore wind will start to come on line this year, just.


The world’s largest wind farm will power up before end of 2021

The UK’s Hornsea Two offshore wind farm, soon to be the world’s largest when it’s completed in 2022, will produce its first power before December 31 of this year.

139 of Hornsea Two’s 165 Siemens Gamesa 8.4 megawatt (MW) wind turbines are installed, and all of the wind farm’s inter-array cables are now in place, reports Offshorewind.biz.

Hornsea Two’s first wind turbine was installed in May, and the majority of the blades were delivered from the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull.

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more offshore wind will start to come on line this year, just.


The world’s largest wind farm will power up before end of 2021

The UK’s Hornsea Two offshore wind farm, soon to be the world’s largest when it’s completed in 2022, will produce its first power before December 31 of this year.

139 of Hornsea Two’s 165 Siemens Gamesa 8.4 megawatt (MW) wind turbines are installed, and all of the wind farm’s inter-array cables are now in place, reports Offshorewind.biz.

Hornsea Two’s first wind turbine was installed in May, and the majority of the blades were delivered from the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull.

This week is going to be pretty interesting for the grid with very low levels of RE predicted for about 7 days in a row.  I guess imports, coal, biomass and of course gas (assuming there is enough available) can bridge the gap at the moment but as we see more nukes and the last coal close things will get tighter and tighter and more and more dependent on gas for periods like this.  We need those long term storage solutions asap.

Coastalwatch

The article below published in Bloomberg Law appears to put the future of any new nuclear energy into serious doubt with a no holds barred look at the facts and figures from which to back up the headline.

Afraid it's beyond my powers of comprehension to question or present an opposing view but appreciate others just might.

Why Nuclear Power Is Bad for Your Wallet and the Climate

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/why-nuclear-power-is-bad-for-your-wallet-and-the-climate?s=09

Martyn1981

Coastalwatch said:

Afraid it's beyond my powers of comprehension to question or present an opposing view but appreciate others just might.

WOW!

OK, here's my best shot at it - "Ok, so apart from everything, what's wrong with it?"


Cheers CW, that's a good read. It seems to pull together everything we've been hearing for 5-10yrs, most crucially, that RE gets you more clean generation, and sooner, so more bang for your buck. So based on this, and the past performance/decisions of UK Gov, I'm now only 99% certain that they will still push Sizewell C through, regardless. 

shinytop

I'm all for RE but in the UK (not sure if the US is different) I worry about times with no wind and sun.  Apart from undefined and unpriced 'storage', what are the serious, proven domestically produced zero emission options to ff and nuclear?