Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Couple of energy storage news items caught my eye.

The first is a new article on Energy Dome, energy storage based on compressing CO2. I think it has a few tidbits of interest, particularly the suggested 75% round trip efficiency. The article emphasises that the sweet spot for this storage is around 8-24hrs. So sits between shorter term battery storage, and longer term storage like H2 and CAES (compressed air energy storage).

Energy Dome: Turning a greenhouse gas into a cheaper form of energy storage than lithium-ion batteries

And a second article that caught my eye, because I assumed it was a typo, referring to 200GW's of storage applications in Turkey. But no, it's correct. I just didn't expect to see such large numbers so soon in the energy transition. Hope it all works out well for the 20GW's of 'winners'.

Turkey begins energy storage licensing with over 200GW of applications received

The national regulator in Turkey has begun awarding pre-licensing for energy storage facilities paired with wind and solar, with around 20GW expected to be issued over a period of about three years.

Pre-licenses were issued for a total of 12 applications, totaling 744MW, by the Energy Market Authority earlier this month, representing an investment value of around US$1.5 billion.

According to remarks by Energy Market Regulation Authority (EMRA) head Mustafa Yilmaz, these are the first selected from 4,369 applications, adding up to about 221,000MW, state-owned news outlet Andolu Agency reported.

The pre-licensing comes after key regulatory changes including an EMRA ruling in 2021 that energy companies should be allowed to invest in energy storage. Last year, energy laws were adapted to allow power producers to develop new renewables projects on the congested Turkish grid, if paired with energy storage.

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

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.

Hi

There's plenty of battery manufacturing capacity in the pipeline & the release of a considerably more competitive powerwall around now would act to stir the global ESS market up more than a little as it seems to have stagnated recently, particularly price wise .... you could currently argue that when compared to ESS, EV pricing is effectively based on buying the batteries with a discount and getting the rest of the car thrown in for free, which isn't really a good look if saving the planet is supposed to be the goal ! ... 

I'd not be surprised if the new version encompassed production techniques lifted & pasted from their automotive plants, there's quite a synergy between the products and the desire to reduce manufacturing costs, so why not have a single piece cast powerwall chassis including integrated heat-sink etc & simply have a pressed metal cover, reduced parts, reduced complexity, reduced cost, reduced assembly footprint, increased mfg capacity in existing plant .... it's not as if Tesla don't share expertise globally already ... 

HTH - Z

Coastalwatch

Just to add further to continuing development of storage, be it battery or Energy domes etc, it would appear the Xlinks project is not yet dead in the water, as some would have us believe!

https://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/plans-to-bring-wind-power-from-morocco-to-uk-via-torridge-altered/

Martyn1981

Just to show that plans to deploy large huge vast amounts of storage in the UK continue. It may frustrate some, that storage seems to be low currently, but I believe it's a function of many factors - storage costs falling, excess RE growing (in both volume and frequency) and also interconnectors (I suspect) which may compete somewhat today, but will all form a lovely package in the medium/long term.

Also, before everyone rushes to find the energy figure (GWh) to go with the power figure (GW), let me save you the effort, it's not stated. Large scale storage tends to be discussed in terms of power, so no energy figures given. That may seem odd, but balancing the grid on an intraday basis, requires power, whereas energy for interday purposes is (perhaps?) a step further along, when we try to move from net zero CO2, to zero CO2 leccy.

We can hit net zero through exporting excess RE in a greater volume, than we consume FF gas generation plus the import of FF generation. I'm guessing/speculating that part of the reason for the huge amount of capacity, is to go hand in hand with our huge deployment of off shore wind, and hopes to become a massive net exporter of RE .... maybe?

Yet more thoughts and speculation from me, but I can't help adding that 2030 24GW figure to the UK's interconnector targets of ~16GW mid decade, and ~20GW by 2030. Combined those power figures are similar to our current average leccy demand of ~38GW. I suspect this is almost meaningless, as things are more complex than that. But at least it looks like we could have short term supplies of significant scale to help balance us through intermittent RE generation on a daily basis.

[Next step, large scale longer term storage of a TWh or three, but let's just enjoy this news for now.  ]

UK battery energy storage market to grow to 24GW by 2030, says Rystad Energy

The UK’s battery energy storage market will grow to 24GW by the end of the decade and account for almost 9% of all global capacity installations, energy research firm Rystad Energy said.

Utility-scale battery systems could also present an opportunity investment in the battery storage space with Rystad having said it could “attract investment of up to £16.15 billion ($20 billion) by 2030.”

In terms of capacity by 2030, the UK is forecast to sit fourth in the table only behind China, the US and Germany.

One of the major reasons for this leading position in the global battery storage race is the ever-growing pipeline of intermittent renewable energy in the UK such as solar and wind. Consequently, the government has set ambitious energy storage requirement targets, eyeing 30GW of capacity by 2030, including batteries, flywheel, pumped hydro and liquid air energy storage.

70sbudgie

This piece of work from National Grid will also have a major impact on how much battery storage is connected to the UK grid this decade:

https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/connections-process-reform

NigeWick

Attended https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDMIzs1-u8&t=813s on Saturday. Interesting information by some of the speakers.

Coastalwatch

Hi @NigeWick thanks for the post. When first viewing I mistook the duration as approx 6 minutes then discovered that even the introduction went beyond this. But Wow, it was compelling viewing and I watched Christian Breyers presentation thro to it's conclusion, complete with Q & A's.

I'll try and catch up with the remainder on another occasion, but appreciate your attendance and subsequent posting. Great to see such a positive clean outcome mapped out for us, if only the powers that be can be persuaded to do the right thing.

NigeWick

Coastalwatch said:

I'll try and catch up with the remainder on another occasion

I found Doug Parr and Nick Eyre to be the ones who explained things so I could understand.

Martyn1981

Still early days, but court cases in the US on climate are starting to progress. The stalling stage, as similar to the tactics used by the Tobacco Industry, may be coming closer to the end.

Too late I suppose to make a huge difference, now that the world is moving towards RE, and most people (maybe not so many in the US) now accept the science of AGW. But at the very least, this won't help the FF industry, and may raise additional concerns for those considering the economics of FF's v's RE.

Unfortunately, this won't make up for the additional emissions released during the ~40yrs of denial,had we acted faster. Nor the increased cost now of trying to move quickly, rather than slowly and steadily, to RE. But at least it's some form of progress.

‘Like a dam breaking’: experts hail decision to let US climate lawsuits advance

The decision, climate experts and advocates said, felt “like a dam breaking” after years of legal delays to the growing wave of climate lawsuits facing major oil companies.

Without weighing in on the merits of the cases, the supreme court on Monday rebuffed an appeal by major oil companies that want to face the litigation in federal courts, rather than in state courts, which are seen as more favorable to plaintiffs.

ExxonMobil Corp, Suncor Energy Inc and Chevron Corp had asked for the change of venue in lawsuits by the state of Rhode Island and municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California and Hawaii.

Six years have passed since the first climate cases were filed in the US, and courts have not yet heard the merits of the cases as fossil fuel companies have succeeded in delaying them. In March, the Biden administration had argued that the cases belonged in state court, marking a reversal of the position taken by the Trump administration when the supreme court last considered the issue.

Rhode Island attorney general Peter Neronha said his state was now finally preparing for trial after “nearly half a decade of delay tactics” by the industry. A joint statement from the California cities of Santa Cruz, San Mateo and Richmond and Marin county said the oil companies knew the dangers of fossil fuels but “deceived and failed to warn consumers about it even as they carried on pocketing trillions of dollars in profits”.

The cases have been compared to tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s that resulted in a settlement of more than $200bn and changed how cigarettes are advertised and sold in the US.

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

[ ... ]
Too late I suppose to make a huge difference, now that the world is moving towards RE, and most people (maybe not so many in the US) now accept the science of AGW. But at the very least, this won't help the FF industry, and may raise additional concerns for those considering the economics of FF's v's RE.
[ ... ]

Hi

Suppose that depends on how you'd define 'accept' and to what degree of acceptance that would compose ....

In reality there's probably a good proportion of the population that would agree that x% of scientists agree that humans contribute towards rising CO2 levels, which is good, however, the degree to what that agreement is and the level of variance in what the significance towards climate change, where that climate change will be going forward & how this directly effects the habitability of the planet going forward to any given timescale is pretty much up in the air for most, including most scientists who actually have a grasp of subject matter related to climate, who actually comprise a pretty small subset of 'all scientists' polled on such matters, which questions the relevance of the polls in the first place!! ...

Food for thought ...

Current day scientific community thinking seems to be based more on .....

Criticism is something you can easily avoid — by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

... however, in the not too distant past the correct approach was believed to be more like .....

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.  

I find it odd really - how did scientific consensus move from a place of 'free will' to 'doctrine' so quickly, and moreover, why? .... is scientific consensus under the rule of what is effectively enforced doctrine effectively a form of control through censorship? ... so the effective question relates to why this approach is necessary, why the need for haste, and to what end ... ?  .... after all, the first predictions of climate related doom are around a century old and the majority of 'scientific' predictions for historic doom-laden climatic thresholds have well passed, without consequence, so the main question remains, and absolutely everyone should be asking it before any form of academic or logical capitulation over 'acceptance of AGW science' to any degree ... 'cui bono' ?????

Once the list (in terms of current personal gain) has been made, if it's short then that's good, if not then serious questions need to be asked ....

HTH - Z