Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

QrizB

I was posting elsethread and looked back at historical carbon intensity data on the Drax Electric Insights site. It was quite interesting.

Looking at the three months November to January, the average carbon intensity of the grid was:

• 2009-10 - 480g/kWh (!)
• 2016-17 - 311g/kWh
• 2017-18 - 268g/kWh
• 2018-19 - 230g/kWh
• 2019-20 - 192g/kWh
• 2020-21 - 186g/kWh
• 2021-22 - 185g/kWh

In the words of Fatboy Slim, we've come a long way baby.

2nd_time_buyer

QrizB said:

I was posting elsethread and looked back at historical carbon intensity data on the Drax Electric Insights site. It was quite interesting.

Looking at the three months November to January, the average carbon intensity of the grid was:

• 2009-10 - 480g/kWh (!)
• 2016-17 - 311g/kWh
• 2017-18 - 268g/kWh
• 2018-19 - 230g/kWh
• 2019-20 - 192g/kWh
• 2020-21 - 186g/kWh
• 2021-22 - 185g/kWh

In the words of Fatboy Slim, we've come a long way baby.

Encouraging stuff. Thanks

Martyn1981

QrizB said:

I was posting elsethread and looked back at historical carbon intensity data on the Drax Electric Insights site. It was quite interesting.

Looking at the three months November to January, the average carbon intensity of the grid was:

• 2009-10 - 480g/kWh (!)
• 2016-17 - 311g/kWh
• 2017-18 - 268g/kWh
• 2018-19 - 230g/kWh
• 2019-20 - 192g/kWh
• 2020-21 - 186g/kWh
• 2021-22 - 185g/kWh

In the words of Fatboy Slim, we've come a long way baby.

Saw this on another forum and immediately thought that you'd love it, then second thought was you probably already use it.

So a map of Europe, showing carbon intensity, but also the interconnectors and movements between countries.


Electricity Map


PS - Check out Australia, the different states cover most of the colour band, with Tasmania doing well.

michaels

QrizB said:

I was posting elsethread and looked back at historical carbon intensity data on the Drax Electric Insights site. It was quite interesting.

Looking at the three months November to January, the average carbon intensity of the grid was:

• 2009-10 - 480g/kWh (!)
• 2016-17 - 311g/kWh
• 2017-18 - 268g/kWh
• 2018-19 - 230g/kWh
• 2019-20 - 192g/kWh
• 2020-21 - 186g/kWh
• 2021-22 - 185g/kWh

In the words of Fatboy Slim, we've come a long way baby.

Looks really good - until it stalls in 20/21 and 21/22

shinytop

Isn't most of the decrease because we stopped using coal quite suddenly and replaced it with gas?  And some of the slowdown is due to nuclear being allowed to decline and also being replaced by gas? And some poor RE performance recently with the shortfall being made up by, em, gas. 

Verdigris

Should start to decline again as the latest offshore wind projects start to come on stream, but a plateau for a coupleof years, at least.

Martyn1981

shinytop said:

Isn't most of the decrease because we stopped using coal quite suddenly and replaced it with gas?  And some of the slowdown is due to nuclear being allowed to decline and also being replaced by gas? And some poor RE performance recently with the shortfall being made up by, em, gas. 

Actually gas was higher in 2009 than today. We went from about 75% FF*, 20% nuclear and 5% RE, to roughly 40% FF, 40% RE and 20% nuclear. Between the time periods nuclear gen did rise a bit higher, but is now starting to decline.

*Depending on their prices, sometimes we burnt more coal, sometimes more gas. At times in the past gas generation was higher than it is now.  

Tricky finding a graph that shows everything, but this one's not too bad and also shows imports, which will of course also have an impact:

Britain’s electricity since 2010: wind surges to second place, coal collapses and fossil fuel use nearly halves





Note 1 - Those are percentages, and leccy demand in 2009 was about 10% higher than today, so the same percentage in 2009, would be a higher actual amount than in the later years.

Note 2 - Sadly it's been quite common for some newspapers, and articles when UK leccy mix graphs are produced, to just show the mix from 2012, or even 2015 to give the impression that gas replaced coal. If you go back even further of course then coal was more dominant before North Sea gas changed things.

Actually, I've just found one in TWh's so 'a picture paints a thousand words'. So around 170-175TWh of gas in 2009, down to around 135TWh in 2018/19. So in a word 'no' gas didn't replace coal, RE displaced some gas and almost all coal.

Analysis: UK electricity generation in 2018 falls to lowest level since 1994

Coffeekup

Sorry for the bad link I can't seem to sort it out.... about ev's bringing down co2 emissions to the lowest point ever.......
Ever????

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/04/electric-vehicles-bring-down-co2-emissions-of-new-cars-in-uk-to-lowest-level-ever?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a8&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM=#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16443107436296&csi=0&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/04/electric-vehicles-bring-down-co2-emissions-of-new-cars-in-uk-to-lowest-level-ever

Martyn1981

So, here's another design for a floating offshore WT. The article mentions that it can scale to 15MW+, so that answers a question I had as to how they compare (potentially) to 'normal' WT's sat on seabed monopiles. So I guess all that's left is the economics, but I get the gut feeling that 'floaters' will compare well.

Technip Energies takes stake in Spanish floater designer

Technip Energies has acquired a stake in a Spanish start-up that has designed an offshore wind turbine floating platform with “environmental and operational benefits”.

The design allows for a lighter floater design with a “significantly reduced” steel requirement and for a more efficient and restricted mooring system minimising the impact on seabed. It is scalable for turbines of 15MW capacities and upwards, facilitating cost- effective deployment for large-scale offshore wind farms.

Technip Energies and X1 Wind will collaborate on the development of the first commercial-scale demonstrator, as well as the related industrialisation and commercialisation plans of the technology.

EVandPV

Martyn1981 said:

So, here's another design for a floating offshore WT. The article mentions that it can scale to 15MW+, so that answers a question I had as to how they compare (potentially) to 'normal' WT's sat on seabed monopiles. So I guess all that's left is the economics, but I get the gut feeling that 'floaters' will compare well.

Technip Energies takes stake in Spanish floater designer

Technip Energies has acquired a stake in a Spanish start-up that has designed an offshore wind turbine floating platform with “environmental and operational benefits”.

The design allows for a lighter floater design with a “significantly reduced” steel requirement and for a more efficient and restricted mooring system minimising the impact on seabed. It is scalable for turbines of 15MW capacities and upwards, facilitating cost- effective deployment for large-scale offshore wind farms.

Technip Energies and X1 Wind will collaborate on the development of the first commercial-scale demonstrator, as well as the related industrialisation and commercialisation plans of the technology.

Nice, apart from the slightly unfortunate name 'Spanish floater'.