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Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

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  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,400 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Interesting to see how many microgrid projects are now popping up around the World. Not (I assume) a solution for much of the UK* as we don't have reliable PV all year, and are relatively well served with short leccy runs, but something I expect to grow vastly in number in parts of Asia as costs fall. I'm picturing small deployments in India, to bring reliable power to rural areas, which can be improved and expanded over time since PV and storage is modular.

    I also suspect the number of micro-grids in Australia will boom, just my opinion.

    *Some UK islands (thinking of Scotland) use local wind generation and storage to bolster their supplies, and even export to the mainland.

    Storage-enabled microgrid projects proliferate in California

    Investor-owned utility SDG&E and the City of San Diego are launching a dozen microgrid projects with energy storage across San Diego, California, following similar announcements elsewhere in the state.

    San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) received approval on June 24 from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to build four microgrid projects at existing substations in the San Diego region, with a combined 39MW/180MWh of energy storage capacity.

    The units will help the state of California meet high energy demand, particularly on hot summer days and during peak demand evening hours when solar generation is low. They will be able to operate independently or in parallel with the larger regional grid ensuring critical community facilities remain powered during grid-level outages.

    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 20kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
  • Coastalwatch
    Coastalwatch Posts: 3,603 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Further relaxation of rules in regard to PV and especially in relation to Agrovoltaics, this time from Romania. Limited quotes here due to copyright. It may be that relaxation has something to do with the possiblilty of attracting a contribution from a fund set up by the EU for such schemes.

    Romania introduces new rules for solar on agricultural land

    Romania is set to put new solar regulations into force through the end of 2026. The rules will allow PV, wind, biomass, bioliquid, biogas, storage projects, and transformer stations to be built directly on land in several previously prohibited fertility classes.
    “Although there are specific exceptions to this rule, none of them applies to renewable energy projects,” Nyerges said. “The new law mainly paves the way for agrivoltaic projects and solves some of the permitting inconveniences faced by developers.”

    East coast, lat 51.97. 8.26kw SSE, 23° pitch + 0.59kw WSW vertical. Nissan Leaf plus Zappi charger and 2 x ASHP's. Givenergy 8.2 & 9.5 kWh batts, 2 x 3 kW ac inverters. Indra V2H . CoCharger Host, Interest in Ripple Energy & Abundance.
  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,400 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi CW. I seem to recall another example from a few years ago. I think it was S. Korea, but not sure, but did relate to rice production. Permission for PV above crops was dependant on the yield not dropping by more than X% (I think it was 20%). Brilliant decision because a lot of diesel pumps are used to move water between fields for irrigation, so PV and leccy pumps could displace them completely, since the pumps wouldn't have to operate 24/7 but could follow generation.
    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 20kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
  • gefnew
    gefnew Posts: 933 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    A very smart looking truck and runs on hydrogen and built in the UK so a bonus.
    Essex firm's hydrogen lorry on show in Stoneleigh - BBC News
    Tevva lorry
  • shinytop
    shinytop Posts: 2,166 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    BBC News - Supreme Court limits Biden's power to cut emissions
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62000742

    Perhaps expected given recent events. 
  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,442 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Just in case anyone hadn't realised the sheer scale of off shore wind, here's a pic of one of the three platforms that will handle the power from the Dogger Bank A wind farm:

    It might just be me, but I looked at that photo, read the dimensions, compared them to my 3-bed semi and thought "hmm, could be a supervillain's lair" ...
    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,400 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I think this CCS news is good, I just always get a bad feeling when direct air capture gets mentioned, that some will think 'problem solved'.

    Anyways, technology needs to be researched, tested and improved, with hopes of significant CO2 removal this century to avert the worst of the climate crisis. So good to see projects being developed, and hopefully the cost of removal ($1,000/tonne in this case) will fall significantly. In fact, made me think about PV technology that fell from about $100/Wp to about $30 through the 1970's, hit about $5 by 2000, $2 by 2010, and is now around $0.2/Wp ...... well, one can hope.


    Australian company secures $700,000 deal for carbon capture and storage machine

    A solar-powered and tent-sized Australian prototype machine that can suck CO2 from the air has secured a $700,000 contract to capture and store carbon.

    The deal, part of a project backed by corporates including the owners of Google and Facebook, is thought to be the first time an Australian company has secured a deal to remove CO2 using direct air capture (DAC) technology.

    AspiraDAC will deploy about 180 of the machines, developed and made in Australia, to capture and store 500 tonnes of CO2 by 2027 at an agreed US$1,000 (AU$1,469) a tonne.

    In April several major corporates, including the owners of Facebook and Google, announced a new venture called Frontier that would commit US$925m (AU$1,359) to projects that pull CO2 from the air and then store it.
    In the first major purchase under the venture, technology company Stripe, one of the partners in Frontier, announced this week it was spending US$2.4m (AU$3.5m) on six direct air capture projects around the world, including AspiraDAC.

    The executive director of AspiraDAC, Julian Turecek, said up to 180 modules would be needed to fulfil the contract and these would cover an area of less than half a hectare.

    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 20kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,400 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Engineering with Rosie episode looking at how PV and wind differs for small scale urban installs. Sadly, wind generation at a height of 10m in an urban environment is approx 1/10th of that at 150m. Doesn't look good for an solutions. At least there are wind farm investments we can take part in, and now schemes like Ripple where generation can even impact your home bill directly.

    Urban Renewables Solar Panels vs Wind Turbines

    Does small wind energy or backyard wind turbines make sense? Why do we see so much rooftop solar, but so little rooftop wind?


    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 20kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
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