Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

zeupater

michaels wrote: »

Isn't there a particulates issue with burning wood though which impacts local air quality? I guess a bit like diesel cars, do it in an irban environment and the impact on lungs is much more comcentrated.

Hi

I suppose it all depends on which school of thought is followed ...

Like opposition to almost anything to do with renewable energy provision, the argument against each individual source is escalated to assess the position at 100% saturation, which would never be the case ... however, when pointing out that the only heating energy source approaching anywhere near 100% is fossil-fuel based gas the discussion normally concludes with mention of the other 'big industry' controlled 100% solution ....

If everyone turned to burning wood as a sustainable solution, then the source would be overwhelmed, therefore not sustainable. There's a limited supply of wood, so although it can help in the sustainable energy mix, the percentage is limited.

As for particulates resulting from combustion, yes it's called smoke - the higher the concentration of particulates, the more visible the smoke. Argument against burning logs usually tends to reference 'big city' smogs caused by concentrations of combustion and the effects on health prior to 'clean-air' legislation .... unfortunately, those utilising this argument tend to overlook the method of combustion.

Open fires tend to burn hot at source, but rapid cooling with distance cause the volatiles to escape the combustion process, resulting in both poor energy efficiency and the emission of particulate matter ... smoke ...

Modern efficient log burners are designed to retain the volatiles within the combustion chamber and through the introduction of more air, burn those too, therefore increasing burn efficiency and reducing particulate matter considerably ... after an initial release of smoke & condensation from within the chimney within the first 10-15 minutes I doubt that many would even know that we're burning ... sometimes there a clue when there's a heat shimmer above the chimney's shadow and often, when the air is cold but humid, the heat emitted and any residual particles cause a small area of condensed air about a metre above the chimney and that's about it ... so not quite as bad as it was over 70 years ago!

So onto argument related to 'Black Carbon' .. well, not much escapes our burner, however, there's been plenty of low efficiency burning from forest fires and land clearance recently which although newsworthy enough to make the headlines, never seems to be mentioned within articles related to log-burners and the environment ...

Now, particulate matter ... we're continually told that the major source in urban environments is diesel vehicles, followed by the increased popularity of wood-burning stoves ... however, I suggest that anyone interested simply investigates the relative proportions and sources of particulate matter and the relative concentration between high population concentration urban environments and open countryside ... or even quaint & remote little seaside communities ... the outcome may not exactly mirror the headlines, but it's quite interesting all the same ...

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Article about storage at PV sites, but the change in rules presumably applies to all RE, so may mean a speed up of deployment of storage at supply side sites.

RO accreditation retained by Anesco after adding storage to solar farms

Ofgem has made a “game changer” decision for UK energy storage by confirming that solar farms are able to retain accreditation under the Renewables Obligation (RO) when supplying electricity to batteries.

Luke Hargreaves, head of renewables at Ofgem, said: “Battery storage can assist with system balancing and save consumers money by matching supply and demand. It has the potential to play an important role as Britain makes the transition to a low carbon, smarter and more flexible energy system.

“The recent decisions demonstrate that, where the necessary criteria are met, co-location of storage facilities at accredited renewable installations is possible under the current legislative framework.”

In a recent blog for Solar Power Portal, Solar Media market research analyst Lauren Cook said the UK currently has a 3.5GW pipeline of utility-scale energy storage projects, writing that the queue of projects was diverse, with a wide range of business models, applications and project sizes.

Martyn1981

Bit thrown by this article, I wasn't expecting to see such big numbers so soon. [See my bold.]

Interview: India’s storage market readies the ground for growth

The executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) Rahul Walawalkar, talks to pv magazine about India’s vast energy storage potential ahead of next week’s World Energy Storage Day.

What do you expect from the Indian energy storage market in terms of investment?
Rahul Walawalkar: The market for energy storage in the South Asia region is dominated by India. Energy storage has almost 20 different applications in India, such as renewable integration, grid ancillary services, diesel minimization, micro-grids for energy access and campuses, as well as electric vehicles.

India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) estimates the market for energy storage would grow to 100-200 GWh between 2017-22. Due to this growth, we anticipate existing energy storage and PCS companies to expand their existing capacities for manufacturing as well as new investments to target new lithium-ion cell manufacturing. As per our initial estimates, India could attract investments in the energy storage devices manufacturing sector to a tune of $4-6 billion in next five years. With growing opportunities globally, we are confident that India will not only be one of the largest markets for advanced storage technologies, but it can become a global hub for manufacturing, with significant export potential to South East Asia and MENA.

zeupater

Hi All

Interesting comments from Rolls Royce following the offshore wind price mic drop ...

Small-scale nuclear projects could deliver electricity to Britain for a similar cost as offshore wind, Rolls-Royce said on Tuesday, providing another potential option for a country struggling to get big nuclear projects off the ground.

www.reuters.com

... don't think it'll fit at the back of my garage though! ...

HTH
Z

lstar337

zeupater wrote: »

... don't think it'll fit at the back of my garage though! ...

HTH
Z

Nor would an off-shore turbine I'm guessing.

silverwhistle

zeupater wrote: »

Modern efficient log burners are designed to /SNIP/

An excellent summary, and a little longer than is my wont!

I'd hope to get my flue thermometer up to efficient burning temperature within 10 minutes, after which you'd be hard pressed to work out if it was on. I also have a moisture meter to make sure what goes on there is dry. My neighbour two doors down has one (he's a forestry worker) and they also know how to burn, so nobody notices and that's about it locally. I use mine as my primary heat source in spite of GCH, but it's the lifestyle supplement people who burn inefficiently.

Martyn1981

zeupater wrote: »

Hi All

Interesting comments from Rolls Royce following the offshore wind price mic drop ...



www.reuters.com

... don't think it'll fit at the back of my garage though! ...

HTH
Z

Ahh go on go on, as Mrs Doyle would say. Someone has to be an early adopter.

I'm all for a broad energy mix, but RR has identified a 2035 market equal in size to what PV generates today, (65-85GW - page 5 rhs) when you take cf into account.

So in 20yrs will they be able to sell something around the world that PV and even off-shore wind can match today. I reckon they may be too far behind the curve now to ever catch up.

Martyn1981

Interesting article looking at the costs of delaying investment in renewables in the UK.

Delays In Renewable Deployment Could Cost UK Consumers £2.6 Billion

Green Alliance analysis has determined that the UK Government has cut back on renewables so much that there is a queue of 65 terawatt-hours of renewable energy waiting to be developed — which would account for approximately 20% of the UK’s energy consumption. This pipeline could also be developed for much less than the comparable amount of natural gas.

Martyn1981

Busy news day today. Drax looking at storage and gas generation

UK power firm Drax plans world’s largest battery storage project

Drax, a U.K. power company, has announced that it is seeking planning permission to continue the reinvention of its North Yorkshire coal plant by installing a 200 MW battery onsite.

If approved and commissioned, the storage facility would be the biggest in the world, dwarfing the 129 MW lithium-ion battery project currently being built in Australia by Tesla and Neoen.

Drax first announced plans to convert its 2,500 acre coal-fired plant – which is the largest in the U.K. and one of the largest in Europe – earlier this year, and has already switched three of the six units from coal to biomass.

These new proposals would see the remaining coal capacity idled and replaced with 3.6 GW of new gas generation capacity and the 200 MW battery storage facility. Drax said that the proposal is “subject to a positive investment decision and would need to be underpinned by a 15-year capacity market contract”.

The upgrade would significantly enhance Drax’s flexible and responsive power capability, placing the English county of Yorkshire at the forefront of the global energy storage sector in the process.

Martyn1981

Another One Bites The Dust: Cost Of Wind Power Cancels Kansas Coal Facility Expansion

Even the Koch brothers with all their money can’t fight the benefits that renewable energy adds to a utility company’s bottom line.