Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

Lot's of if's, buts and maybe's associated with various installs of both Wind and Solar under the headline so was beginning to write it off as conjecture for which ever path was chosen the Grid Operator accepted that the Netherlands would not be self sufficient and continue to rely on energy imports with a preference for clean energy from European partners.

Upon reaching the final paragraph below when the cumulative installed capacity was stated at 16.5 GW so not to disimilar to ours here in the UK currently standing at 14.48 GW some real figures stood out. But it was the annual install figures for '21 and '22 that caught my eye being 3,803 and 3,882 MW which somewhat overshadowed efforts here, being but 335 MW in '21 and 650 MW in '22.

While I'd previously made a comparison between here and China, then perhaps comparing to a near neighbour of a smaller population may draw a more balanced view. Either way here in the UK we have been rolling out PV at a rate no better than 1W per person per month. On the other hand with a quarter of our population the Dutch appear to be striding ahead by a factor several times greater.

But worry not, when it comes to wind they are but marginally ahead.

Netherlands may hit 180 GW of installed solar power by 2050, say grid operators

A new report from the association of Dutch grid operators predicts strong growth for the Dutch PV sector, regardless of potential international scenarios.

The Netherlands reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 16.5 GW at the end of June 2022, according to the most recent statistics released by CBS, the nation’s statistics agency. It also said the nation installed 3,803 MW in 2021 and 3,882 MW in 2022.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/04/07/netherlands-may-reach-up-to-180-gw-of-installed-solar-power-in-2050/

70sbudgie

Coastalwatch said:

Lot's of if's, buts and maybe's associated with various installs of both Wind and Solar under the headline so was beginning to write it off as conjecture for which ever path was chosen the Grid Operator accepted that the Netherlands would not be self sufficient and continue to rely on energy imports with a preference for clean energy from European partners.

Upon reaching the final paragraph below when the cumulative installed capacity was stated at 16.5 GW so not to disimilar to ours here in the UK currently standing at 14.48 GW some real figures stood out. But it was the annual install figures for '21 and '22 that caught my eye being 3,803 and 3,882 MW which somewhat overshadowed efforts here, being but 335 MW in '21 and 650 MW in '22.

While I'd previously made a comparison between here and China, then perhaps comparing to a near neighbour of a smaller population may draw a more balanced view. Either way here in the UK we have been rolling out PV at a rate no better than 1W per person per month. On the other hand with a quarter of our population the Dutch appear to be striding ahead by a factor several times greater.

But worry not, when it comes to wind they are but marginally ahead.

Netherlands may hit 180 GW of installed solar power by 2050, say grid operators

A new report from the association of Dutch grid operators predicts strong growth for the Dutch PV sector, regardless of potential international scenarios.

The Netherlands reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 16.5 GW at the end of June 2022, according to the most recent statistics released by CBS, the nation’s statistics agency. It also said the nation installed 3,803 MW in 2021 and 3,882 MW in 2022.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/04/07/netherlands-may-reach-up-to-180-gw-of-installed-solar-power-in-2050/

Does the figure of ~14.5GW installed PV in the UK include domestic installations? Likewise for the '21 and '22 figures. 

Coastalwatch

Hi budgie, thanks for asking the totals are made up from six categories 0 - 4kW, 4 - 10, 10 - 50, 50 kW to 5 MW, 5 - 25 and >25MW. With the number of Installations reducing from  1,119,017 for 0 - 4kW, 84,134 for 4 - 10 kW(domestic ?) to just 44 for the last.

In terms of capacity the first two categories combined, account for 25% of the total.

The link below will take you to the government website from which you can download an Excel spreadsheet with it all listed on, should you wish to interrrogate it further.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-photovoltaics-deployment

Martyn1981

Big plans in India - targeting 50GW of RE contracts per year.

As RE costs fell, India was able to switch its plans, and reduce the amount of coal power it was to roll out. Hopefully this will continue, and they can keep revising their plans, with ever less new FF capacity.

The final paragraph points out that they fell a little short of their 2022 targets, but still managed to roll out huge amounts of wind and solar.

India To Speed Up Renewable Auctions, Tender 50 Gigawatts Every Year

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued an updated timeline for issuance of renewable energy tenders. The Ministry has laid out plans to issue tenders for 50 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity every year between the financial years 2024 and 2028. At least 10 gigawatts of the tenders issued every year will be for wind power projects. 

With planned tenders for 250 gigawatts over the next five years, India’s renewable energy capacity could reach close to 550 gigawatts by 2030 — a target previously stated by the Indian government. Tenders will be issued for standalone solar, standalone wind, solar-wind hybrid, and round-the-clock supply projects. Tenders will also be issued for projects with storage.

India had a target to have 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by December 2022, against which it had achieve 169 gigawatts by end of February 2023. Against a target of 100 gigawatts of solar power capacity, only 64 gigawatts had been commissioned. Only 42 gigawatts of wind energy capacity was commissioned against a target of 60 gigawatts by December 2022. 

zeupater

Hi

Heads up ....

Second Tesla Powerwall price reduction since February announced in Australia ... that's a 20.5% reduction so far this year in what is a trend leading market for uptake of Solar / ESS solutions .... ( https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/powerwall-price-drop-april-mb2895/ )

Looks like the constraints on batteries are lifting & prices are on their way back towards more sensible levels .... maybe it's also preparing the groundwork for a potential Powerwall III release at substantially lower pricing than what's currently on the market ....

Keep an eye out for how other players (Pylontech, Sonnen, Alpla, Fox, GivEnergy etc) react to this development as they surely will if they intend to remain relevant ...

HTH - Z

Martyn1981

Hi Z - not just a pretty face apparently, as I started to see news of the PW3 yesterday. Here's one article:

Exclusive: Tesla is about to launch Powerwall 3

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

Hi Z - not just a pretty face apparently, as I started to see news of the PW3 yesterday. Here's one article:

Exclusive: Tesla is about to launch Powerwall 3

Hi

I note that the author's take is that larger storage capacity would be welcome due to the majority of current installations having two units .... very American viewpoint ...

I'd guess that the PW3 will simply be a repackaged, smaller physical size unit utilising cheaper battery technology (LiFePO4), probably having the same (/similar) capacity as the current units, although a smaller base capacity would likely better suit UK/EU markets.

As with everything else Tesla, the driving force behind anything new is product & process simplification, so I wouldn't be surprised if the whole gateway unit becomes a simple slot-in card for product harmonisation & installation/commissioning streamlining, this making both installation easier & the installed package less costly ....

What, with raw material costs falling, simplified production processes, lower cost battery tech & easier/quicker installations things may be starting to look promising .... all that's needed now is for my (very optimistic!) guesswork to be in the right ballpark, powerwall prices to take a downward step change & the rest of the market to make appropriate competitive adjustments and things may be improving on the distributed energy front ....

HTH - Z

Martyn1981

On Twitter National Grid ESO have confirmed that during the 10th April a new 'low' record for carbon intensity was set, reaching 33g/kWh. Previous record was 39g/kWh.

NigeWick

zeupater said:

I'd guess that the PW3 will simply be a repackaged, smaller physical size unit utilising cheaper battery technology (LiFePO4), probably having the same (/similar) capacity as the current units, although a smaller base capacity would likely better suit UK/EU markets.

I suspect the capacity will be similar but the unit fractionally larger due to the cheaper chemistry likely to be used. And yes, I believe Tesla will have worked out how to simplify and reduce production costs. Obviously, I sit to be corrected.

Martyn1981

zeupater said:

Martyn1981 said:

Hi Z - not just a pretty face apparently, as I started to see news of the PW3 yesterday. Here's one article:

Exclusive: Tesla is about to launch Powerwall 3

Hi

I note that the author's take is that larger storage capacity would be welcome due to the majority of current installations having two units .... very American viewpoint ...

I'd guess that the PW3 will simply be a repackaged, smaller physical size unit utilising cheaper battery technology (LiFePO4), probably having the same (/similar) capacity as the current units, although a smaller base capacity would likely better suit UK/EU markets.

As with everything else Tesla, the driving force behind anything new is product & process simplification, so I wouldn't be surprised if the whole gateway unit becomes a simple slot-in card for product harmonisation & installation/commissioning streamlining, this making both installation easier & the installed package less costly ....

What, with raw material costs falling, simplified production processes, lower cost battery tech & easier/quicker installations things may be starting to look promising .... all that's needed now is for my (very optimistic!) guesswork to be in the right ballpark, powerwall prices to take a downward step change & the rest of the market to make appropriate competitive adjustments and things may be improving on the distributed energy front ....

HTH - Z

So ..... watched some news on Youtube yesterday, and pondered something that fits in well with your guesses.

News from Australia that the Powerwall prices have been cut. No great surprise, I think Elon said last year that it was the first time in Tesla's history that they were no longer battery constrained ..... but .....

[All prices US$'s (not Aussia A$'s)] ..... but the Aussie price of under $9k is ~$3k less than the US price. Given that they only make them in the US (as far as I'm aware), then that doesn't make much sense. So, my guess, and it's a total speculative guess, is that they may be building the PW's in the US, but shipping them without batteries to Asia. Then 'cheap' LFP's batts are installed for sales in the region.

What do you think? The economic issues in China are hitting car sales, and CATL (just as an example) seem to have spare batts, so perhaps there are cheap batts available.