Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

silverwhistle

Coastalwatch said:

On the Heatpump side then having gone down the road of A2A version for space heating, the purchase and installation costs are but a fraction of those for it's water based cousin currently being promoted by one and all. While they would not suit every property they have worked extremely well for us so I see no reason why it shouldn't for a proportion of the existing housing stock. 

I must admit that is the solution I am tending towards when my gas boiler gives up the ghost. Most of my DHW is via spare PV, my current GCH usage annually (including DHW) is <1700 kWh although as I get older I can see the wood burner being used less (which is probably environmentally better anyway). Already I use a bit of spare PV for direct acting space heating during the shoulder months (I'm on FITS).

There does seem to be a big silence on A2A  which as you have noted is a lot cheaper to install. I have found that in my house passive measures are enough to avoid any need for cooling using it. If there were, of course, my PV would be producing at the right time..

Martyn1981

OK, read this article, and my first thought was 'folk on MSE are going to think this is a set-up'. Can't believe the coincidence, but it's worth reading, and pretty much states everything we've been saying about H2 boilers v's HP's.

[The NIC are the same body that recommended to the Gov in 2018, that they scale back their nuclear plans, as RE + storage was looking to be the cheaper option.]

Hydrogen boiler push to continue despite verdict of UK watchdog

The government and sections of UK industry will continue to back the prospect of using hydrogen for home heating, despite a clear verdict against the technology from the UK’s infrastructure watchdog.

The National Infrastructure Commission advised this week, after an exhaustive investigation of the technology, that hydrogen was not suitable for heating homes. The report was unambiguous: “The Commission’s analysis demonstrates that there is no public policy case for hydrogen to be used to heat individual buildings. It should be ruled out as an option to enable an exclusive focus on switching to electrified heat.”

However, the government indicated to the Guardian that it would continue to push hydrogen for home heating, and the body that represents most of the heating industry also vowed to continue to pursue it.

The reasons it gives for rejecting hydrogen for home heating are manifold. Hydrogen is many times less efficient than heat pumps, and would be much more expensive, according to NIC calculations. “[Hydrogen uses] five to six times more electricity than using the same electricity directly in a heat pump. This is because more energy is lost in converting electricity to hydrogen, and heat pumps use less energy than boilers to produce the same level of heat,” the report found. Heat pumps were suitable for the majority of UK homes, it found.

Scores of independent scientific studies have also found that hydrogen would not be suitable for home heating in the UK, and trials of the technology have failed.

Some companies are now selling gas boilers as “hydrogen-ready”, in an effort to make their products appear future-proof or low-carbon. This has also been called into question: earlier this week, the Competition and Markets Authority announced it would investigate whether Worcester Bosch, a major UK boiler brand, was “misleading shoppers with confusing or inaccurate green claims” by advertising “hydrogen-blend ready” home boilers.

David Cowdrey, director of external affairs at the MCS Charitable Foundation, which certifies renewable installations, said: “Hydrogen for home heating is a costly chimera, debunked by a wealth of independent scientific research as well as the NIC saying it is just not a solution. The government must not allow the false promises of hydrogen to distract from the true solution of deploying tried and tested, efficient heat pumps at huge scale. It is now time for the government to abandon hydrogen for home heating once and for all, and remove this distraction from the urgent work of electrifying clean heat.”

Exiled_Tyke

Excellent summary of tidal electricity here. Nothing new and most contributors here know most of this already. It's good that it's getting mainstream (pardon the pun) coverage. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67170625

Martyn1981

Exiled_Tyke said:

Excellent summary of tidal electricity here. Nothing new and most contributors here know most of this already. It's good that it's getting mainstream (pardon the pun) coverage. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67170625

And a small milestone for one tidal energy project:

Welsh tidal stream site opens for business

The First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford has officially opened the substation linked to Morlais tidal energy on Anglesey this week.

As part of this week’s Ireland Wales Forum, the First Minister will host the Irish Tánaiste, Micheál Martin TD (Deputy Prime Minister) and show the Morlais project as a key tidal stream development in Wales.

Morlais, off the west coast of Holy Island is the largest consented tidal energy scheme in the UK.

It is manged by Anglesey-based social enterprise, Menter Môn.

Drakeford said: “Morlais is a groundbreaking project and a key part of our transition to a low carbon economy.

“It is an example of the type of development that will help Wales reach our net zero targets and underlines the importance of investing in clean energy infrastructure for our future generations."

Once operational the site has potential to generate up to 240MW of low carbon electricity.

Martyn1981

Some huge deployments for energy storage being predicted for this decade. Obviously large amounts for the US, and especially China, but I have to say that the German prediction (yellow in the chart) appears to be enormous pro-rata.

World’s energy storage capacity forecast to exceed a terawatt-hour by 2030

Cumulative energy storage installations will go beyond the terawatt-hour mark globally before 2030 excluding pumped hydro, with lithium-ion batteries providing most of that capacity, according to new forecasts.

Separate analyses from research group BloombergNEF and quality assurance provider DNV have been published this month. Each predicts a surge in deployments as renewable energy investments and government policies drive the need for storage to add flexibility to the world’ grids.

In BloombergNEF’s 2H 2023 Energy Storage Market Outlook report, the firm forecasts that global cumulative capacity will reach 1,877GWh capacity to 650GW output by the end of 2030, while DNV’s annual Energy Transition Outlook predicts lithium-ion battery storage alone will reach 1.6TWh by 2030. In other words, both see the terawatt-hour mark being breached well before the end of this decade.

For BloombergNEF, it follows successive upward revisions of its forecasted numbers. In the report for the first half of this year, published in March, it predicted 508GW/1,432GWh of cumulative installed capacity by the year-end 2030. A year ago, the figures had been 411GW and 1194GWh, representing enormous leaps from the 27GW/56GWh of cumulative installs recorded as of the end of 2021.

Martyn1981

Potentially bad news for energy prices next year, as we fail to move to cheaper RE fast enough. The economic impacts of slowing down the UK's transition was also reflected in recent comments from the IEA.

Rishi Sunak faces further pressure over his U-turn on net zero targets, after the head of the world’s energy watchdog said countries that water down green policies risked worsening the climate crisis and damaging their own economies.

So we have an open goal for cleaner, greener, cheaper energy, but want to score political points instead, playing up to a small, but highly vocal minority.

Higher energy bills forecast for UK households next year

UK households could face higher energy bills next year, after a leading forecaster said electricity market prices will rise in 2024 – and remain well above pre-energy crisis levels for the rest of the decade.

Tom Edwards, a senior modeller at Cornwall Insight, said slowing the UK’s shift towards renewable energy could keep energy bills higher for longer. Cornwall’s latest report found the UK was likely to miss its target to increase offshore wind fivefold to 50GW by 2030 due to rising costs in the supply chain.

“Rolling back our net zero ambitions and slowing our transition away from fossil fuels is likely to be a costly delay that will not only see us fall further behind in decarbonising the country but will leave consumers shouldering the prolonged burden of high prices,” Edwards said.

Exiled_Tyke

Well I wasn't thinking of investing anymore with Ripple but this is making me think again. Perhaps project 4 (even if it is PV again) looks more tempting now. 

Martyn1981

Couple of small items here. First is some progress being made by Orbital marine, and their tidal stream energy generator:

Orbital Marine selected for EU’s EURO-TIDES project

The European Commission’s Horizon Europe Programme has announced the project partners to deliver a multi-turbine tidal energy project called EURO-TIDES.

The project partners include marine energy company Orbital Marine, as well as Ocean Energy Europe, Laborelec, Marasoft, European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Center for Wind Power Drives (CWD) of RWTH Aachen University, Energie De La Lune and the University of Edinburgh.

The project aligns with the European Commission’s goal of moving from single turbine deployments to multi-turbine arrays in an effort to maximise tidal stream technology in reaching net zero targets.

In order to speed up commercialisation of the technology and scale deployment, the EURO-TIDES project will work to establish manufacturing solutions that facilitate series production.

And less fun/sexy(?), but potentially important, are plans to remove RE schemes from the UK 'pipeline', if they aren't really ready to move forward. Thus, allowing other projects to advance:

Ofgem urged to address ‘damaging’ UK grid connection backlog

Around 62GW of projects are sitting in the UK’s grid connection queue that do not have planning permission or necessary land rights, according to a report.

The study commissioned by Centrica suggests the waiting list for new connections is now four-times oversubscribed, with the majority of projects now looking at dates from 2030 and beyond.

The backlog is having a “damaging effect on the investments that could drive the UK’s energy transition and energy security”, it warns.

Ofgem is examining the issues and is expected to decide on rule changes by 10 November.

These would grant National Grid ESO powers to remove projects from the queue if they miss key milestones.

Applying the rule changes to projects already in the waiting list, as well as new entrants, could free up around 12GW of new capacity in the short-term, according to report authors Charles River Associates.

ABrass

22MW wind turbines anyone?

https://renews.biz/88989/mingyang-launches-22mw-offshore-wind-turbine/

Due 2024/25

zeupater

Hi

Don't you just love the UK's inbuilt bureaucracy having such a positive effect on all our lives ... another turn around the table ...

1. Opportunity to 'do good'
   
2. We need to reduce carbon emissions
3. We have lots of wind
4. Let's build turbines
5. Let's export turbines
6. Let's become the world leader in wind & rebuild our manufacturing sector
7. HOLD ON ... making wind turbines uses lot's of energy!
8. Yes, but that's offset by future clean generated energy & helps with trade
9. CLIMATE! ... NOOOO! ... crisis ... timeline ... booo ... hiss ... we haven't got time to worry about that!
   
10. Man holding UK climate abacus SHOUTS NO ... we'll buy cheaper from elsewhere and thus export the emissions ...
11. What's the benefit of doing that ... isn't the climate thing a global issue?
12. SHUT UP man, you don't know what you're talking about ...
    
13. Jobs?
14. SHUT UP man, you don't know what you're talking about ...
15. CLIMATE! ... NOOOO! ... crisis ... timeline ... booo ... hiss ... we haven't got time to worry about that!
16. Ummm ... errrr .... sort of Okay, we'll do that then (!?!)
17. Man wearing suit & holding UK spinning top says ... we can claim success through 'joint ventures' ... they build the things, we import the things & we jointly fit the things ... count the new jobs (but don't mention they're mostly temporary!) ... ECONOMIC SUCCESS ... and all without harming the CLIMATE (You know, the little bit immediately within the borders of the UK that we're immediately responsible for emissions)
    
18. REJOICE, REJOICE ... someone's willing to export another bunch of turbines to us ... REJOICE!!
19. Where are they being made?
20. Where? ... but aren't they the biggest emitters of nasty stuff ... WAIL, SNIFF, rant ....
    
21. CLIMATE! ... NOOOO! ... crisis ... timeline ... booo ... hiss ... They're not as good at protecting the climate as us!!!
    

..... fun ain't it! ... and that's before the newts, birdies & little fishies brigades stick their noses in ... !

Maybe we should all sit back and simply play the "yes sir, whatever sir, how much do we owe you this time sir ... you're such a nice man, a very nice man" game ... ???

Clock turns & turns ...

Opportunity lost once again, so what, it doesn't effect me .... 

Clock turns & turns ...

AGI?, what's that? .... oh, in that case that's my high skill/low skill job gone maybe we should have thought differently about a manufacturing based economy when we had the chance! ... 

Clock turns & turns ...

ahh, the good old days, mmmmm .... are we having a special treat tonight and finishing off that Christmas jar of locust spread with our bread & water before the council 'larder auditor' comes around to check our BBE date compliance in the morning?

Opportunity ... or ... Opportunity lost ?

HTH - Z .... .... It's all real, just read the book ...