Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

michaels said:

Sounds great but only 2% of typical UK daily usage....

S'funny, according to National Grid daily consumption for the last month was 34.3 GW which with 1.5GW according to my calculator returns a figure of 4.37%. Not huge in terms of what is required long term but I believe more substantial than anything available presently. It certainly highlights the direction current incentives need to take if we are to achieve a clean grid by 2030.

ed110220

michaels said:

ABrass said:

Coastalwatch said:

A development surely welcomed by all seeking a cleaner future. While it's no silver bullet it's certainly a step along the road to medium term storage so desperately needed. Have to confess to being a little confused as the total power it would deliver, the optimist in me hopes for 1.5GW/hr but suspect it's more likely a total, so perhaps 50MW/hr for the 30 hours of supply!

Happy to be advised whichever one it turns out to be.

ILI Group to develop 1.5GW pumped storage hydro project

Clean energy developer ILI Group has begun the initial planning phase for a new pumped storage hydro project in Scotland.

The Balliemeanoch project at Loch Awe, Dalmally in Argyll and Bute will be able to supply 1.5GW of power for up to 30 hours. It is the third and largest of ILI’s pumped storage hydro projects, with the other two being Red John at Loch Ness and Corrievarkie at Loch Ericht.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/ili_group_to_develop_1.5gw_pumped_storage_hydro_project

It says 58 million cubic meters against Dinorwigs 9.2 million. It does read like it's going to be a 15GW / 450GWh system.

Sounds great but only 2% of typical UK daily usage....

UK electricity consumption was about 346 TWh pre pandemic in 2019 so on average about 39.5 GW, so 1.5 GW would be more like 4% than 2%. Also I'm not sure why you'd say "only" as 1.5 GW is more than all but a handful of power stations in the country.

ABrass

What's more interesting than if 2 or 4% is significant is the number of hours it can deliver over. Dinorwig can only do 4 hours at max power, aiming for 30 is a long time. It's the first storage scheme I've heard of that's clearly targeting multiple day cycles. Otherwise why not double the output?

We've always known storage would have to go beyond the 4-8 hour window of Lion batteries. It's interesting to see it happen.

EVandPV

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

European scientists say they have made a major breakthrough in their quest to develop practical nuclear fusion - the energy process that powers the stars.

The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen.

Verdigris

Still 20 years away, then.

EricMears

Verdigris said:

Still 20 years away, then.

ISTR  'ZETA' was only about 30years away - but that was 60+ years go !

Verdigris

It'll be too cheap to meter (and other lies politicians have spun).

NigeWick

EVandPV said:

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

European scientists say they have made a major breakthrough in their quest to develop practical nuclear fusion - the energy process that powers the stars.

The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen.

The only reason I can see nuclear fusion being necessary is when it is small enough to fit in spacecraft. Here on Earth, the big fusion reactor in the sky provides more than enough energy for our requirements, if we would just use it.

shinytop

NigeWick said:

EVandPV said:

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

European scientists say they have made a major breakthrough in their quest to develop practical nuclear fusion - the energy process that powers the stars.

The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen.

The only reason I can see nuclear fusion being necessary is when it is small enough to fit in spacecraft. Here on Earth, the big fusion reactor in the sky provides more than enough energy for our requirements, if we would just use it.

It does, but at the wrong times and places.  Until we address that, we still have a problem.   

Martyn1981

Ickle bit of wave energy research news.

US awards $25m to support west coast wave testing

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded $25m to eight recipients to test wave energy technologies at Oregon State University’s PacWave South facility off the central Oregon coast.