Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Exiled_Tyke

ABrass said:

The article said they were planning to let sheep graze around the panels. Which is nice.

Yeah, sheep grazing is a common thing. And I think Martyn previously posted a reference to some research which shows sheep and solar PV complement each other well. 

Personally I reckon this location is a good one. The land is pretty poor (I"m no expert), presumably the link into the grid at Drax will save some installation costs and I can't imagine the locals will be too upset they've got the M62 on their doorstep, never mind the existing power station.   I reckon if they tell them the alternative is wind turbines (there are some on-shore in East Yorks) or worse still Fracking I'm sure they'll go for it! 

 If this works it will be a great bit of PR for the industry as a whole and help convince other communities not to unduly worry about such schemes.  I

michaels

It is a win if we are not eating veg grown in the (heavy metal, PCB etc) fallout soil from drax...although of course the lamb may not be that healthy either....

Spies

If it goes ahead how long is it going to take them to get that many panels? Would they not be affected by the huge lead times for equipment? 

ABrass

Spies said:

If it goes ahead how long is it going to take them to get that many panels? Would they not be affected by the huge lead times for equipment? 

They'll be using industrial sized modules, rather than dinky little domestic ones. It's a different supply pipeline.

Coastalwatch

When it comes to onshore wind generation then this announcements timing is impeccable. I hadn't previously recognised the significance of it other than a simple line in one of Ripples placements about the size/scale of one of their wind turbines due to it being on or near a flight path of an airport a year of two ago. I appreciate that transporting the monsters along UK's roads etc is a limitation in itself also but it does at least mitigate one area of concern that might otherwise arise when planning permission is being sort.

NATS deploys new radar system to unlock further renewable energy

Guy Adams, NATS Strategy & Commercial Director said: “NATS has long been committed to working with the renewables industry to find the best way to mitigate the impact of wind turbines. This new radar – the first to be deployed in UK civil aviation – is another tool to help us do that. It will unlock a huge amount of vital renewable energy, while making sure air traffic operations continue to be safe and efficient.”

https://www.nats.aero/news/nats-deploys-new-radar-system-to-unlock-further-renewable-energy/

Coastalwatch

Got to give it to China they do seem to be acting on climate change even if traditionally they have been one of the worst polluters. Although individually I believe their carbon footprints are less than ours!

China connects world’s largest redox flow battery system to grid

The first phase of the project has a capacity of 100 MW/400 MWh, for an investment of about CNY 1.9 billion ($266 million). The second phase of the project is expected to push the full capacity to 200 MW/800 MWh.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/09/29/china-connects-worlds-largest-redox-flow-battery-system-to-grid/

Coastalwatch

An interesting development in the progress of CO2 batteries with the announcement of this partnership. According to Energy Dome's CEO Claudio Spadacini "The CO2 goes back to the atmospheric gas holder to be used again for another storage cycle, without any emissions to the atmosphere". I guess that's always providing the Russians don't gain access to it.

Ørsted, Energy Dome partner on 20 MW/200 MWh of CO2 batteries in Europe

Energy Dome has entered into a partnership with Ørsted to run a feasibility study on the deployment of at least one 20 MW/200 MWh energy storage facility featuring its carbon dioxide (CO2) battery technology. The first facility will have a 10-hour storage capacity and construction could begin in the second half of 2024.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/09/29/orsted-energy-dome-partner-on-20-mw-200-mwh-of-co2-batteries-in-europe/

Coastalwatch

Mean while in Oz, the announcement below, along with several other measures is most welcome and especially so coming from a state which relies heavily on coal for it's energy generation. Currently less than 25% of it's energy is from renewables. Ambitious plans and worth reading the article in full of which the announcement below forms only a part.

Australian state announces world’s ‘biggest pumped hydro scheme’

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/09/29/australian-state-announces-worlds-biggest-pumped-hydro-scheme/

zeupater

Coastalwatch said:

silverwhistle said:

EricMears said:

There can be some spectacular price drops as new technology is embraced.  e.g.  I thought £12,500 quite reasonable for our 4kWp system in 2011 but well within 5 years prices of £6k were being quoted.

Or going a little further back,  colour TVs were only for the very well off in 1966 but within 5 years almost anyone could afford one.

Within two years actually! :-)  As for colour TVs I still had to do Saturday night babysitting to watch in 1972 as we didn't have one at home.

I'm waiting just a bit longer on domestic batteries.

Sorry to have to say that with the current fall in the pound and battery price increases prior to this I reckon you are going to need to be a little chuffing patient!

Our Inverter has been out for three weeks now with no indication of a likely repair/replacement date. Currently running on batteries only, charged on Octopus Go faster overnight tariff to 95%, down to 22% now and that's without any heating requirement. 

Thankfully there's a 9.5kWh Givenergy unit waiting to be hooked up just as soon as cables arrive!

Hi

There's plenty of movement possible on prices for batteries, it's just that current global demand for end products is outstripping supply by quite a margin ... 

For thought ...

• Tesla LFP battery long term supply contract with BYD widely reported to be $64/kWh. (~£60)
  
• MG4 Std range (51kWh) UK price incl VAT etc ~£26k, so ~£510/kWh incl free car!
• MG4 Long range (64kWh) UK price incl VAT etc ~£28.5k, so ~£450/kWh incl free car!
• MG4 ........ extra 13kWh costs ~£2.5k, so ~£200/kWh being charged to consumer ...
• Pylontech 4.8kWh battery, ~£1720incl VAT, so ~£360/kWh ...

Margins & opportunities come to mind! ..

Whilst pondering the above, if the current media narrative is that the pound is weak for whatever reason suits them at the time, then why hasn't the movement against (say) the Euro or the Chinese Yuan (both major product supply currencies for the storage market sector) been particularly significant ?! ...

.... could it simply be that the USD is doing what the USD (as the main global reserve currency) tends to do whenever there's a crisis of some form and investors are looking for a more stable shelter from financial storms .... again a supply & demand issue, more demand to buy dollars causes the USD to strengthen  

HTH - Z

zeupater

ABrass said:

The article said they were planning to let sheep graze around the panels. Which is nice.

Hi

.. agree, but it's likely that the usual suspects that would protest against the change of use of land for PV would be the same ones showing up when Shep the sheepdog is rounding up the marketable 'product' for shipment, or it's time to spread all that 'nasty' fertiliser that keeps their food prices affordable, or one of those very rare GC newts is spotted within 5 miles of erecting a new fence around a field etc! ...

... by the way, how come those 'very rare' newts are still 'very rare' as they seem to be found absolutely everywhere around here when something needs to be done - maybe there's only one, but it's (notice the non gender specific neutral use of pronoun .. must admonish myself severely for that!) got a very small & very quiet (electric?) motorbike to get around on!! ..  

HTH - Z