Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

Crikes and we thought Europe was in a bad way!

Given all the sunshine and wind power on offer over there it's bl**dy criminal that they are so far behind the rest of civilisation on such matters.

10 solutions to Australia’s foreign fuel dependence

Australia’s reliance on imported transport fuels like petrol and diesel has grown in the last three years, even as the pandemic laid bare the problem of global supply chains more recently enflamed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Today 91% of the fuel Australia uses for transport is imported. “We do not have fuel security,” Zali Steggall, the Independent Member of Parliament for Warringah said yesterday at the emergency summit held by the Smart Energy Council in Sydney, pointing out national fuel reserves are pitiful.

https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2022/04/22/10-ways-to-solve-australias-precarious-foreign-fuel-reliance/?utm_source=USA+|+Newsletter&utm_campaign=910a7e2f86-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_80e0d17bb8-910a7e2f86-159341337

Martyn1981

Article is mainly focused on Wales, but it explains multiple tidal power generation technologies.

Could Anglesey’s tidal energy project drive a new energy revolution?

On the stunning and craggy coastline of Holy Island in north Wales, work has started on a construction project to generate energy from one of the world’s greatest untapped energy resources: tidal power.

The Morlais project, on the small island off the west of Anglesey has benefited from £31m in what is likely to be the last large grant for Wales from the European Union’s regional funding programme. It will install turbines at what will be one of the largest tidal stream energy sites in the world, covering 13 square miles of the seabed.

Gerallt Llewelyn Jones, a director of Morlais Energy, which is operated by Anglesey-based social enterprise Menter Môn, said: “We have strong tidal resources around Wales and they have huge potential.” Compared with wind and solar power, tidal was a more predictable energy source, he added.

Simon Hamlyn, chief executive of the British Hydropower Association (BHA), said the government had missed a “massive opportunity” by failing to include tidal lagoons, tidal barrages and hydropower as a major element in its new energy strategy.

He said: “It’s an incomprehensible omission. I simply cannot understand why the government continues to dismiss hydropower and tidal range – both of which are world-beating technologies and which could power the UK into the future.”

Hamlyn said the BHA was supporting a number of potential tidal range projects, including the North Wales Tidal Lagoon and a proposed £590m scheme at the Port of Mostyn in Flintshire, north Wales. There are also proposals for tidal schemes on the West Somerset coast, in Morecambe Bay and on Merseyside. The BHA said the schemes could deliver more than 10% of the UK’s energy needs.

Coastalwatch

We seem to be relying increasingly upon computing for almost everything these days and no less so than in regard to weather forecasting. So guess it should come as no surprise to see it stretched further for the very topic described below. As to how accurate they might eventually become or what probabilities are aligned one can but speculate. No doubt a great and important tool for long term operational efficiency but sadly I can't see it impacting upon the immediate race to get as many renewable energy sources generating asap.

New method for long-term prediction of renewables generation in Europe

A group of scientists from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain has shown for the first time how changes in atmospheric circulation patterns on a planetary scale, which are known as teleconnections, affect renewable energy generation in different European countries.

In the paper “Seasonal prediction of renewable energy generation in Europe based on four teleconnection indices,” published in Renewable Energy, the Spanish team proposed a novel method to forecast long-term variations in the generation of renewable energy sources months in advance through climate predictions. These forecasts can be very useful for electricity network operators in order to program alternative energy sources, for power providers to estimate electricity prices, and for governments to prevent crises in energy prices.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/04/25/new-method-for-long-term-prediction-of-renewables-generation-in-europe/

Martyn1981

Nice milestone for this large off-shore wind project. Annual output should be equal to about 1.5% of current UK demand:

NKT completes Hornsea 2 cable job

NKT has commissioned the export cable for the 1320MW Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm located 89 km off the English east coast.

The 220 kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) power cable system connects the world’s largest wind farm to the National Grid.

Patrick Harnett, Orsted’s programme director for Hornsea 2, said: “Once fully operational later this year, Hornsea 2, located 89km off the UK's east coast, will be the world's largest operating offshore wind farm, taking the title from its sibling project Hornsea 1, with the power to generate 1.32GW of clean energy.

gefnew

Plus this is being built to mop up spare capacity.
Crekye Beck Storage | Battery Storage Facility | Statera Energy

gefnew

Cornish water heating trial.
Disused Cornish mines could heat county's homes - BBC News

Coastalwatch

X-Links Morroco Project! In the words of Crocodile Dundee "You call that a project. Nah, this is a PROJECT"!

If anyone has doubts about the original proposed above then it is positively dwarfed by the one down under and surely points to at least one of the ways forward if we are to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, no matter where the source. For Australia to Singapore just read Sahara to Europe and beyond.

Sun Cable reveals full extent of its giant solar-plus-storage project in Australia

Singapore-based Sun Cable has submitted its Environmental Impact Statement to the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority. The document reveals the full extent of the project’s enormity, specifically a 17-20 GW solar farm tied to 36-42 GWh of battery energy storage, which is set to be transmitted by subsea cables to Singapore.

According to the EIS, the $30 billion-plus Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPL), which already has financial support from Australian billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, is set to generate its renewable energy via a 17-20 GW solar farm with 36-42 GWh of battery energy storage called the Powell Creek Solar Precinct, occupying 12,000 hectares in the NT’s Barkly region.

The document presents the project’s key benefits as being the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 480 million tonnes over the project’s 70-year lifespan (equivalent to the average electricity used by more than 2.5 million Australian homes annually, and saving 10% of the NT’s greenhouse gas emissions).

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/04/27/suncable-reveals-full-extent-of-its-giant-solar-plus-storage-project-in-australia/

Martyn1981

Hiya CW, I think the Aussie - Singapore project is brilliant. I was extremely disappointed a year or so back when they discussed changing it from subsea cables to H2 shipping, but now they've switched back, it's extremely exciting.

The switch to H2 was because it would be modular, build a bit of PV, a bit of electrolysers, a ship or two and your in business, then just keep expanding it. Whereas the HVDC scheme has enormous costs and is pretty much all in, with no income till it's finished ...... but, it's so, so, so ................. so, so much more efficient and 'simpler'.

There's also a huge psychological boost for Australia, showing that they can still export energy, from their incredible natural resources, without it having to be coal or LNG.


With this scheme, the proposed UK Morocco one, and China's massive 2,000 mile HVDC, it kinda looks like RE might work. 

Coastalwatch

Yeah me to Mart, I got one hell of a kick when coming across it last night. Surely it must have implications for the future of the nuclear industry as well. Other than clearing up the mess it's created thus far.

I wonder if it will now awaken the Aussie's population sufficiently to question why they are still so reliant on coal thus contributing to AGW and affecting their continent as much as any other!

michaels

Any update on Iceland cables in the light of these projects?