Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

I wasn't sure about this idea, plus I couldn't understand it, but having looked at the company's web-site it sounds quite promising (maybe?) so thought I'd post it.

So, it's PHS (pumped hydro storage) but from ground level to undergound. Here's the explanation from their website:

1. When electricity is abundant, it is used to pump water from a pond down a well and into a body of rock.
2. The well is closed, keeping the energy stored under pressure between rock layers for as long as needed.
3. When electricity is needed, the well is opened to let the pressurized water pass through a turbine to generate electricity, and return to the pond ready for the next cycle.

But this is when my interest got sparked:-

Comment from article:

“The innovative technology can operate at higher temperature than traditional PSH, achieve 95% mechanical efficiency (each way), and has the potential to reduce capital expenditures and energy storage solutions in relatively flat areas where conventional PSH may not be possible,” the Energy Department stated.

Comment from the company website:

Broad Geological Footprint

100+ TWh mapped across multiple US basins

Underground Water Battery To Bust Energy Storage Dam Wide Open

The US Department of Energy has been eyeballing pumped hydro energy storage for a makeover, and it looks like they have a winner. The Texas firm Quidnet Energy has just won a $10 million grant to put the finishing touches on a new type of “water battery” that deploys underground rock formations instead of having to rely on elevated reservoirs.

“GPS uses the earth as a mechanical battery by storing energy as pressurized water between layers of rock. The objective is to lower cost associated with long-duration energy storage by 50-75% to enable more reliable and cost-effective utilization of renewable electricity generating assets,” they add.

Is this like when they used to drill for oil and got a 'gusher' - so potentially using things like empty oil wells?

Does 95% each way efficiency suggest that you get back 90% ish of the energy received which sounds very high indeed especially if the capital costs are low as it uses existing technology and no major capital construction.

So the largest ever uncontrolled gusher released about 1.4m cubic meters of liquid.  Had it been water and the head was about 670m (shaft depth was 2200 feet) then that would have been about 2.5Gwh of GPE.  You would need a 'tank' 300m x 300m x 10m deep to hold that much liquid.

Lakeview Gusher - Wikipedia

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

I wasn't sure about this idea, plus I couldn't understand it, but having looked at the company's web-site it sounds quite promising (maybe?) so thought I'd post it.

So, it's PHS (pumped hydro storage) but from ground level to undergound. Here's the explanation from their website:

1. When electricity is abundant, it is used to pump water from a pond down a well and into a body of rock.
2. The well is closed, keeping the energy stored under pressure between rock layers for as long as needed.
3. When electricity is needed, the well is opened to let the pressurized water pass through a turbine to generate electricity, and return to the pond ready for the next cycle.

But this is when my interest got sparked:-

Comment from article:

“The innovative technology can operate at higher temperature than traditional PSH, achieve 95% mechanical efficiency (each way), and has the potential to reduce capital expenditures and energy storage solutions in relatively flat areas where conventional PSH may not be possible,” the Energy Department stated.

Comment from the company website:

Broad Geological Footprint

100+ TWh mapped across multiple US basins

Underground Water Battery To Bust Energy Storage Dam Wide Open

The US Department of Energy has been eyeballing pumped hydro energy storage for a makeover, and it looks like they have a winner. The Texas firm Quidnet Energy has just won a $10 million grant to put the finishing touches on a new type of “water battery” that deploys underground rock formations instead of having to rely on elevated reservoirs.

“GPS uses the earth as a mechanical battery by storing energy as pressurized water between layers of rock. The objective is to lower cost associated with long-duration energy storage by 50-75% to enable more reliable and cost-effective utilization of renewable electricity generating assets,” they add.

Is this like when they used to drill for oil and got a 'gusher' - so potentially using things like empty oil wells?

Does 95% each way efficiency suggest that you get back 90% ish of the energy received which sounds very high indeed especially if the capital costs are low as it uses existing technology and no major capital construction.

That's how I'm reading it. ~90%, sounds too good, but if it is, then incredible potential ...... or absolutely none. Fun times we are living in.

BTW I assume the effort and cost of building the pond will be pretty big, but in my mind, I'm picturing earth movers scooping out an area and using the material to build retaining walls, so maybe not that much cost ...... I honestly haven't got a clue?

Edit - meant to say in the original post, that perhaps something like this works, without the need to pump under pressure. Assuming there are voids available which can be used for the low pond of a normal PHS facility. Again, made me think and ponder, but I have no answers.

zeupater

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

I wasn't sure about this idea, plus I couldn't understand it, but having looked at the company's web-site it sounds quite promising (maybe?) so thought I'd post it.

So, it's PHS (pumped hydro storage) but from ground level to undergound. Here's the explanation from their website:

1. When electricity is abundant, it is used to pump water from a pond down a well and into a body of rock.
2. The well is closed, keeping the energy stored under pressure between rock layers for as long as needed.
3. When electricity is needed, the well is opened to let the pressurized water pass through a turbine to generate electricity, and return to the pond ready for the next cycle.

But this is when my interest got sparked:-

Comment from article:

“The innovative technology can operate at higher temperature than traditional PSH, achieve 95% mechanical efficiency (each way), and has the potential to reduce capital expenditures and energy storage solutions in relatively flat areas where conventional PSH may not be possible,” the Energy Department stated.

Comment from the company website:

Broad Geological Footprint

100+ TWh mapped across multiple US basins

Underground Water Battery To Bust Energy Storage Dam Wide Open

The US Department of Energy has been eyeballing pumped hydro energy storage for a makeover, and it looks like they have a winner. The Texas firm Quidnet Energy has just won a $10 million grant to put the finishing touches on a new type of “water battery” that deploys underground rock formations instead of having to rely on elevated reservoirs.

“GPS uses the earth as a mechanical battery by storing energy as pressurized water between layers of rock. The objective is to lower cost associated with long-duration energy storage by 50-75% to enable more reliable and cost-effective utilization of renewable electricity generating assets,” they add.

Is this like when they used to drill for oil and got a 'gusher' - so potentially using things like empty oil wells?

Does 95% each way efficiency suggest that you get back 90% ish of the energy received which sounds very high indeed especially if the capital costs are low as it uses existing technology and no major capital construction.

So the largest ever uncontrolled gusher released about 1.4m cubic meters of liquid.  Had it been water and the head was about 670m (shaft depth was 2200 feet) then that would have been about 2.5Gwh of GPE.  You would need a 'tank' 300m x 300m x 10m deep to hold that much liquid.

Lakeview Gusher - Wikipedia

Hi

Soooo ... as they're basically describing the hydraulic fracking process ... is there any chance of similar levels of 'concerned locals' pushback due to worries of 'huge apocalyptic earthquakes' on this one too? ...  

Not too sure really, the local water authority develops loads of 'fracked' wells around here using the same process & materials as would be used for gas and no-one even tends to notice all of the road fissures, ground upheaval and piles of rubble where buildings recently stood, in fact, I'm pretty sure that I've seen bus loads of those very same 'concerned locals' on their way from somewhere to somewhere else, in order to preach the word of the enlightened, disembarking from their procession of diesel air conditioned coaches ("but don't you understand, it's being used for the greater good and we have 10 official degrees in 'smartly education things .. ok-yah' and so know better, you lowly local peasants!") whilst the wheels negotiate the latest road-cracks & rubble, chuntering all the time "nothing to see here", "anyone else for avacardo on ricecakes" & the all time classic for anyone claiming to be a local - "are we there yet?" ..... thank goodness for the good work of the 'Ministry of Truth' & newspeak because if it wasn't for them we might actually understand what's going on and we'd all be in a real tizzy ...

"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength." & all that stuff ...

HTH - Z  (Slow, dull &cold day here)

Exiled_Tyke

I reckon this confirms what many of us thinking all the way along: the only way out of the energy crisis is renewables.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63834755

Martyn1981

More tidal testing (space) hopefully increases the chances of finding viable solutions.

META to provide expanded tidal test space

META, Wales’ national marine test centre, is now able to accommodate more tidal turbines and larger mooring spreads, after upgrading its Marine License.

As the project moves into a new tranche of funding from Swansea Bay City Deal, part of the Pembroke Dock Marine Project, one of the aims is broadening testing capabilities for the open water sites to meet the needs of the evolving industry and wider blue economy.

Martyn1981

Good news bad news for this monster scheme to connect the UK to Morocco with PV, wind and storage.

Bad news, progress is delayed.

Good news, it still exists, I really wasn't sure if this was just a pipedream (cabledream?) I'm still astonished at the suggested £48/MWh contract price, it sounds simply too good to be true, but what a beaut if it is delivered. [I assume that's a 2012 baseline price, as used by the CfD mechanism, so ~£60/MWh today.]

Waffle warning - my doubts stem from the idea many years ago of a connection with Iceland for green leccy. The cost of the leccy was suggested to be around £20/MWh, but with the cost of the interconnector, the scheme needed a CfD strike price of around £80/MWh. Hence my doubts about the Morocco scheme, but time has moved on and HVDC's are rolling out seemingly hither and thither. 

£18bn project to link UK to huge wind and solar farm in Sahara delayed by a year

An £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster.

The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030.

The project had been expected to begin generating power by 2027. However, that target date now appears unlikely.

When the Morocco-UK link is complete, Xlinks expects to generate 20 hours of reliable renewable energy a day using the Sahara’s sunshine and breezy night-time conditions.

The plan is to build almost 12m solar panels and 530 windfarms over the 960 sq km area of desert. The site, in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, will also have 20 gigawatt hours of battery storage.

Xlinks hopes to land a strike price of £48 per megawatt hour, lower than the £92.50 agreed for the delayed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset.

Martyn1981

Looks like progress is being made on UK on-shore wind. Not great news as the article points out, but getting better.

Sunak set to end ban on new onshore windfarms in face of Tory rebellion

Rishi Sunak has signalled the end of a moratorium on new onshore wind projects in an attempt to head off a row with Tory MPs, his second U-turn in two days.

The prime minister and the business secretary, Grant Shapps, reached a deal on Tuesday afternoon that will pave the way for communities to be able to authorise such energy developments without unanimous support.

It came after the former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke tabled an amendment to the levelling up bill that would have ended a ban on new onshore windfarms. It was endorsed by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as the former chief whip Wendy Morton.

The government will now set up a consultation on scrapping the moratorium on new windfarms later this month, to run until March 2023, with the National Planning Policy Framework updated to reflect the outcome by the end of April 2023.

Government sources admitted the compromise was designed as a “fudge”, and insisted the bar for new wind projects would still be very high.

Martyn1981

Had to read through this to make sure it was new(s), as I was getting a deja vu feeling. Might be wrong but seems to be yet another huge battery for Australia. Those guys and gals are literally on fire with the scale of storage deployments to displace FF generation. Really impressive. So the country that loves (or loved) coal, is replacing its use fast. Timelines for some states have gone from 2045, to 2035 or even 2030. Well done Aus.

[The article also has a short run through of some of the large batt projects in Aus.]

EnergyAustralia submits application for 1.4GWh BESS to replace Victoria coal plant

Utility EnergyAustralia has filed planning applications for Australia’s first four-hour duration large-scale lithium battery energy storage system (BESS), in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

The energy retailer-generator said last week that it has submitted documents to the state’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for the 350MW/1,400MWh BESS.

Called Wooreen Energy Storage System, the project is being built in part to replace EnergyAustralia’s 1,450MW Yallourn coal-fired power station, scheduled for retirement in mid-2028.

Coastalwatch

S'funny, just as Storage Battery prices are being discussed on here the article below came to my notice this afternoon so thought it worth giving an airing too!

More than 1 million European homes powered by solar batteries

The number of residential battery energy storage systems (BESS) installed across Europe jumped from 650,000 in 2021 to more than 1 million in 2022, according to the latest figures from SolarPower Europe.

The total installed capacity of home batteries in Europe has grown from around 3 GWh in 2020 to more than 5 GWh in 2021 and beyond the 9 GWh mark this year. The top five European markets for home batteries – Germany, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland – were responsible for 88% of the installed batteries in Europe in 2021, with Germany leading the pack with a 59% share.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/12/08/more-than-1-million-european-homes-powered-by-solar-batteries/

Martyn1981

Forgot to post this - the state of South Australia had negative leccy demand due mostly to rooftop solar. They had to export the excess plus the gas gen that was still running, to other states.

Yes it was only a partial day, and a sunny Sunday, so low demand, but still ..... wowza.

I popped this on here (not the PV thread) as I thought it was a pleasant sign of the times ahead, including other countries, and other mixes of RE.

South Australia experiences negative electricity demand thanks to renewables

South Australia’s gigawatt-scale grid reached zero demand on Sunday 21 November when the combined output of rooftop solar PV and other non-scheduled generators exceeded local customer load demands.

This is the first time that a gigawatt-scale grid has achieved this landmark event, noted RenewEconomy. This event was brought about when minimum operational demand hit a new record low of 104MW, down 45% from the previous record of 188MW on 31 October 2021.

Between 1PM to 1:30PM on Sunday, the estimated rooftop solar PV output was 1,220MW, accounting for 92% of the region’s underlying electricity demand, according to Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).