Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall:

1, Heat pumps. Contrasting news from the US and Europe. In the US, heat pump sales exceeded gas boilers for the second year running, although sales of both types of heaters fell last year. Heat pump sales contracted by 17% compared to 23% for gas boilers. But the US still managed over 3.6 million installations. Europe saw a 5% fall to around 2.6 million heat pumps sold, with the number of units sold falling each quarter in 2023. (For a wider comparison, China installed over 12 million heat pumps in 2021).

2, Vehicle to Grid. The new Renault 5 E-Tech, just launched in Europe, will be able to put electricity from its battery back into the power networks. This small car will have a 40 kWh battery that can charge or discharge at 11 kW. Very few EVs have had this capacity up until today. Priced at €25,000 for its basic version, the car can therefore save owners money by charging at night and discharging at times of maximum electricity need. Vehicle to Grid capability will be a critical requirement for EVs within a couple of years. As an example, if 50% of UK cars were electric, their batteries would contain enough electricity to power the country for a day.

3, Clothing recycling. Renewcell, the pioneering Swedish clothing recycler, filed for bankruptcy. The company specialises in processing worn cotton clothing, such as jeans, and turning the material into new cellulosic fibres. It was one of the first genuinely circular technologies in the world clothing industry. Why did the company fail, even when it had the apparent backing of some fashion industry majors, such as Zara? Some commentators blame the remote location of Renewcell’s factory in central Sweden. They say it would have been better sited close to clothing manufacturers so that the product could be easily incorporated into new textiles. More cynical observers say that Renewcell’s troubles stemed from the reluctance of the fashion industry to get fully behind recycling of used clothing. I point out in Possible, to be published in the UK on 21st March, that textiles business around the world have been all too willing to talk about sustainability but their actions have rarely matched their rhetoric. The carbon reducing performance of the global fashion industry has fallen way behind other emissions intensive sectors such as cement manufacture, which faces even greater difficulties than textiles in decarbonising its industry.

4, Natural carbon storage. Leading researcher David Beerling and his colleagues contributed an important paper on how finely ground basalt rock applied to agricultural soils can capture CO2. The work, carried out on a US Corn Belt farm, suggests that applying 50 tonnes of dust to fields over four years can result in extra carbon storage, eventually carried into the oceans, of around 10 tonnes of CO2. This is a comparable result to previous work and Beerling suggests it allows for the possibility of a global target of 2 billion tonnes of CO2 sequestration a year (about 5% of current emissions) from the weathering of fine rock particles deliberately applied to agricultural land. Other major benefits include significant soil fertility improvement, helping to raise yields, and decreased acidification of the land, reducing the need to apply lime. Some estimates suggest that what is known as ‘enhanced rock weathering’ may cost substantially less than $100 a tonne of CO2 sequestered. Another unusual technique for carbon sequestration on currently agricultural land was put forward by researchers a year ago. They suggested that burying wood or organic materials underground in a dry chamber would permanently sequester carbon if kept free of moisture. The researchers estimate a cost of around $60 a tonne of CO2, a figure similar to the possible net cost of spreading basalt dust. The world needs to research natural carbon storage techniques such as these, which have the potential to be far lower cost than direct air capture. (Thanks to Thad Curtz and Nick Jelley).

5, Germany and carbon capture. The electricity sector and other industries in Germany have long wanted CCS to be allowed but environmental groups have been understandably sceptical: is CCS just a way for power producers and heavy industry to continue to burn fossil fuels? The problem Germany faces is that without carbon capture net zero is close to impossible. Even with massive imports of hydrogen and maximum expansion of offshore wind, substantial emissions will remain. It was a pivotal moment this week when economy minister Robert Habeck said the government proposes to allow offshore, although not onshore, storage of CO2. Habeck is a member of the Greens, and his parliamentary colleagues indicated strong disapproval of the new policy. The debate is not over but this was a significant change in direction in a country long sceptical of underground storage of CO2.

6, Wind to H2. Will large wind farms convert part or all their output to hydrogen at the point of production? The news this week gives varying pointers. The backers of Dogger Bank D in the UK North Sea said that the final phase of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm would not make hydrogen, an option previously considered. Instead it announced that the project had secured an electrical connection into the UK grid and may also connect to the rest of Europe. But a major new investment in offshore wind off the east coast of Canada will see a 4 GW wind farm connect to a 1.5 GW electrolyser to make about 120,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year. If I have done my calculations correctly, about 20% of the output of the wind farm will be used to make H2, presumably at times of abundant electricity. In China, a new 700+ km hydrogen pipeline will link Inner Mongolia, where solar and wind are abundant, to a port south of Beijing. This could be the world’s longest H2 pipeline but installing such a link would be far cheaper and quicker than building an electricity connection.

7, Goldman Sachs on batteries. The bank cut its estimates of battery growth this year to 29%, down from the 35% of a previous projection. Demand rose 31% in 2023, meaning that Goldman now sees growth slowing slightly this year. However, the bank went on to say that ‘Goldman Sachs Research expects a nearly 40% decline in battery prices between 2023 and 2025, and for EVs to reach breakthrough levels in terms of cost parity (without subsidies) with internal combustion engine cars in some markets next year’. 68% of car sales in Europe are projected to be electric in 2030, a forecast that might look too optimistic to someone noting that pure EVs only represented 11% of European sales in January 2024. (But January tends to be a bad month for battery-only cars).

8, IEA carbon emissions calculations. The International Energy Agency provided its estimate that CO2 output from global energy production rose by 1% last year. This rate of increase was slightly higher than 2022, even though global GNP growth was marginally lower. As with the previous year’s analysis, the IEA blamed the weather (also known as ‘climate change’) for part of the continued increase in emissions. In 2023 water shortages pushed hydro-electric production down, causing a rise of emissions from coal-powered stations of around 170 million tonnes, equivalent to around half of the global increase in CO2. In the previous year, the IEA had identified ‘extreme weather’ as causing about 20% of the rise in emissions. In an unrelated but striking comment, the Agency noted that advanced country emissions have now fallen to the level of fifty years ago. Coal use in these countries is similar to the amounts burnt in 1900. But increased coal use in China and India was responsible for a substantial part of the rise in global emissions this year.

9, Sustainable Aviation Fuel. The IAG, the parent of several European airlines including British Airways and Iberia, agreed to buy nearly a billion litres of what is called e-SAF, which is made from captured CO2 and hydrogen. The supplier is Twelve in Washington State. The  aviation group says this purchase will cover about one third of its target of 10% SAF use by 2030. Although this deal is not one of the largest contracts for the provision of sustainable fuel to the aviation industry, I think it is biggest to use captured CO2, rather than carbon obtained from biomass. The limited amounts of biomass available globally for use in making fuels, and the increasing competition for this material, means that the extensive use of synthetic fuels, also known as e-fuels, will be necessary for the aviation industry to decarbonise.

10,  China completes first SMR. As small nuclear reactors stall in the West, China announced the structural completion of its first onshore example, a 125 MW power station built on the southern island of Hainan. (Completion does not mean the reactor is producing power – that is scheduled for 2026). I could find no estimates of the likely cost of this SMR but the rapid progress of this pressurised water reactor suggests that China is likely to dominate this sector, much as it does all almost all other clean technologies.

I thought the transporting wind generation via H2 pipeline rather than wire electricity transmission was an interesting new new dimension to the economics of using wind spill.

Yep, might sound strange, but I'm kinda glad to see China trying it, even if it only proves that producing and transporting H2 is tough, too tough. Lessons learned exercise, so to speak.

In a similar vein, China has now connected an Energy Vault gravity storage scheme to their grid. It's an utterly vast build, that is 'only' equivalent to 25 Tesla Megapack batteries, but they are building more, so it may have legs.

There's also another side to the scheme's economics:

The Rudong project will charge from a nearby wind farm and discharge to the grid while its energy storage medium – composite blocks – will also provide an outlet for CNTY to utilise waste materials like concrete debris and coal ash as part of its waste remediation business.

Energy Vault China gravity ESS project connected to grid; starts building three others

Energy Vault has connected its first commercial EVx gravity-based energy storage system to the grid in China, while construction has been launched on three others, all-in-all totalling 468MWh of capacity.

The 25MW/100MWh project in Rudong, the company’s first commercial grid-scale project using its proprietary EVx gravity energy storage technology, was connected to the grid in December 2023, it announced last week (29 February). It can now start full commissioning of the project.

Martyn1981

Very, very big news, but we will have to see if it pans out. Plans for ~60GWh of battery storage, that's around 10% of what is thought to be needed to provide intra-day storage for a future, mostly leccy UK. As the article mentions, the large amounts of storage being suggested, would help to reduce grid constraints and RE curtailment, during high generation periods.

Hopefully this reflects the falling costs of RE and batts (certainly v's the competition). Keep those fingers crossed.

UK’s green power industry receives surprise £10bn pledge

Britain’s under-pressure green power industry has received a surprise fillip after a renewables developer pledged to plough £10bn into what would become the largest portfolio of battery storage projects in the country.

NatPower, a UK startup that is part of a larger European energy group, is poised to submit planning applications for three “gigaparks”, with a further 10 to follow next year.

Battery storage projects are seen as a key part of the jigsaw to decarbonise Britain’s power grid, allowing electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels to be stored for use when weather conditions are still or not sunny.

The NatPower investment would lead to the construction of 60 gigawatt hours of battery storage, with solar and wind projects also in the pipeline.

Stefano Sommadossi, the chief executive of NatPower UK, said: “To solve the bottlenecks that are slowing the shift to clean energy, we will drive investment into the grid itself, collaborating with grid operators to deliver more than 20% of the new substations required.

“By investing in substations and focusing on energy storage first, we will enable the next phase of the energy transition and bring down the cost of energy for consumers.”

Battery storage projects could also help significantly reduce curtailment – a process in which wind and solar projects receive payments to stop generating power when supply exceeds demand. Without upgrades to the grid, these costs could reach £3.5bn a year by 2030, according to the thinktank Carbon Tracker.

I think this para may be wrong, and the parties are aiming for 'low carbon generation' (including some nuclear) not RE only.

The government has set a target to generate power entirely from renewable sources by 2035, while Labour has pledged to achieve this by 2030.

Martyn1981

Government has announced a budget of £800m for the off-shore wind pot in this year's CfD auction (round 6). That's estimated to deliver ~5GW of projects, but will depend on the price agreed at the auction (so how far the pot will stretch). 5GW won't make up fully for the lost capacity from last year's auction that failed to deliver any bids due to the reduced max bid limit of £44/MWh (down from £46/MWh). Also prices were massively hit by the inflationary impacts from the gas/energy price rises, which of course impacted all large construction projects.

This year, the bid max has been raised to £73/MWh to allow headroom, so it will be interesting to see what the prices actually come in.

UK allocates £800m to offshore wind AR6 budget

The UK will offer a record £800m to support new offshore wind farms in its upcoming AR6 budget.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) confirmed that a total of £1bn will be set aside for the budget, with the lion’s share going into Pot 3 to develop offshore wind projects.

This represents a trebling of the size of the support package since last year’s CfD round failed to attract any bids from offshore wind developers amid concerns that the prices offered (capped at £44 per megawatt-hour) were too low.

The increased support will enable the UK for offer a higher price ceiling of £73/MWh to developers after Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho and her officials increased administrative strike prices last year.

Martyn1981

Report pointing to the huge potential for wave energy in UK/Ireland waters. Though of course extracting that energy is really tough.

If I'm reading the second to last para of the article correctly:

“We are now calling for a consistent route to market for wave energy with clear and ambitious targets of at least 300MW deployed by 2035," he added.

then that's a tiny figure, v's the article's repeated 27GW figure. Suggesting (to me) that this is about a slow start programme, looking to develop solutions over the next decade, that will later deliver large potential. Not a suggestion that the technology is ready today, nor soon.

If we are able to start rolling out large amounts of wave energy generation 2035+, then that would be timely, helping us to address both storage and intermittency issues (medium/long term), with an extra tool in the RE toolbox.

‘Wave energy key to UK & Ireland transition’

The UK and Ireland could potentially harness 27GW of wave energy capacity contributing to a 100% renewable energy system by 2050, according to a new study.

LUT University in Finland investigated a series of potential scenarios for the UK and Ireland to successfully transition towards a 100% renewable energy system by 2050.

The best performing scenario in terms of managing energy system cost and security forecast that the UK should seek to harness 27GW of wave energy capacity.

With electricity consumption potentially trebling by 2050, the study shows the UK will need 27GW of wave energy to reach the lowest cost, net zero energy system.

zeupater

Hi

Not 'yet another' group of researchers looking for wave power funding .... whether looking into my crystal ball or simply recalling the long and fraught history of such projects the prediction will be along the lines of 'financially inconclusive' .... 

When will people start using basic logic .... in a storm a ship on the surface gets tossed around and suffers damage whereas those in a submarine are barely aware of the weather conditions above even at relatively shallow depths .... transfer this long-held knowledge to generation at sea simply highlights the truth that capturing energy from waves is an engineering nightmare - it's not that it's not possible, it's just that everything either needs to be over-engineered in order to cope with the most severe surface level storm conditions for each potential location -- or -- the cost of regular repair/maintenance/replacement needs to be considered (up front!!) according to a pretty strict risk assessment .... even then it must be recognised that harvesting energy from waves need an essential, but variable factor .... waves ....

... Put this up against a barrier based or sub-surface tidal energy scheme and there's literally no comparison, so why doesn't everyone simply stop considering the funding of such academically flawed schemes and actually fund real projects which would deliver real returns ...   

HTH - Z ....  ....

Martyn1981

This weeks carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall.

1, Peatland restoration. Returning degraded peatland to a healthy state is a very cheap way of storing new carbon. Scottish entities gave us new details of two projects. One government body said it had restored 10,000 hectares of degraded land and expects to store almost 9 extra tonnes of carbon per hectare each year. Separately, Edinburgh University plans to restore about 800 hectares and will use this land to ‘offset’ the university’s remaining emissions. Typical costs of peatland restoration run to around £1,000-£2,000 per hectare depending on whether tree removal is necessary. The Scottish government intends to improve about 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland. At the lower bound of prospective cost, the bill will be about £250m. This investment will reduce Scottish emissions by about 2.2 million tonnes a year, or around 6% of the national total. Given that healthy peatland continues to absorb carbon almost indefinitely, these actions are extremely inexpensive and may cost less than £10 per tonne of CO2. Nothing matches this in cost. More details on the value and scalability of peatland restoration in Possible.

2, Polyester recycling. Although clear plastic bottles are increasingly mechanically recycled, very few textile fabrics are fully reused. H&M invested in Syre, a new Swedish company that will chemically recycle polyester clothing. Sparse details were provided about the technology to be used but the backers do state that it will employ glycolysis, a chemical route to breaking up polyester into its constituent monomers. Scientists have been working on efficient breaking down of polyester using glycolysis for decades, partly because the temperatures required are around 200-250 degrees, meaning energy costs are significantly lower than other routes. Perhaps the most important aspect of this investment is the financial backing also provided by Vargas, the Swedish finance group that is behind H2 Green Steel and battery maker Northvolt. Syre has ambitious plans to open first in the US and then to expand internationally to recycle about 3 million tonnes of polyester a year, or about 5% of the global production of this most important plastic. There didn’t seem to any detail on the likely cost of creating circular polyester but based on other sources, I’d estimate an initial premium of 20-30%. Not much extra cost for a polyester dress, a large percentage for a soft drinks bottle.

3, Nuclear costs. In April 2021, EdF estimated the potential cost at around €8.6 billion for each new EPR reactor to be built in France. Less than two years later, EdF’s latest estimate is €11.2 billion (also in 2020 prices) for the first phase of six power plants. This is a 30% increase and commentators asked why the company is so pessimistic about achieving economies of scale. (However Hinkley Point C, the EPR reactor being built currently in the UK by EdF, is likely to cost very substantially more – perhaps twice as much as the new estimate).

4, Romanian steel. A report from a Romanian think-tank into the country’s steel industry offers some excellent analysis of the costs and consequences of switching to hydrogen. The calculations are useful for any analyst looking at the conversion of blast furnaces to direct reduction using hydrogen anywhere in the world. The key conclusion from this work is that the switch of the single remaining coal-fired blast furnace in Romania will require the country to more than double its total renewable energy capacity in order to make sufficient H2 just for this site. Indeed, the amount of hydrogen required for one direct reduction plant will be greater than the Romanian government currently envisages for the entire economy. As we’d expect, the grid will need substantial upgrades to cope with the expanded renewable electricity output and pipelines will need to be converted to carry hydrogen. By 2050, the report says that steel produced using hydrogen will still be more expensive than metal made using coal today, even at very low electricity costs. The gradual increase in EU carbon taxation will however mean that green steel is likely to be the cheapest alternative at mid-century. However the cost of all electricity made in Romania may be forced up by the ravenous needs of this single steel plant. And it is also pointed out that as recently as 2023 production from this single site was disrupted by the low level of the Danube river which made shipping in raw materials impossible for part of the year. The steel industry remains vulnerable to climate change, even after the switch to hydrogen. (Thanks to Gijsbert Huijink).

5, Electrolysers. BloombergNEF reported that the manufacturing costs for electrolysers in both China and the rest of the world have increased over the past year, rather than decreasing as expected. Volumes of sales and orders are lower than expected for some manufacturers. However investor interest has not significantly abated. German manufacturer Sunfire raised a further €315m on the back of several other large fund raisings in recent months and years. Sunfire specialises in solid oxide electrolysers, which rely on the supply of high temperature heat but deliver the highest conversion efficiency of electricity into hydrogen. It also makes pressurised alkaline electrolysers, machines which work well with rapidly varying renewable power sources. Sunfire said it had spun off its full cell business to concentrate exclusively on electrolysers. If solid oxide electrolysis turns out to be the cheapest route to make hydrogen, Sunfire is in an enviable global position.

6, Advanced supercapacitors. A Cambridge, UK startup claims it has invented a new energy storage technology that combines the ‘physics’ of capacitors with the ‘chemistry’ of conventional batteries. Superdielectrics launched this week stating that its product can accept electricity for storage at a faster rate than conventional batteries, that it can cope well with rapid fluctuations in power input and that the energy density (kWh per litre) is better than lithium ion, a particular feature not seen before in supercapacitors. In addition, the product uses no scarce materials, is cheap to make and can be fully recycled. These are giant claims but if halfway accurate this product will strongly influence the development of the global energy storage industry.

7, Share of electric cars. The addition of a new small SUV increased the share of EVs in Volvo’s global sales. Including hybrid models, 44% of the manufacturer’s global sales in February were electric, up from 40% last year. The share of pure electric cars in Europe was up slightly to just under a third of all Volvo sales.

8, Active travel.  A detailed study of the impact of measures to increase walking and cycling in outer London produced results suggesting that the benefit outweighs the cost by at least ten times. These benefits principally arise from estimates of improved health increasing average life expectancy and reducing the working time losses through illness. Gains are even sharper in ‘low traffic neighbourhoods’ (LTNs), where reduced car use encouraged a greater shift to active travel. In these areas, the average resident walked for 100 minutes more per week than people in the control group. The calculations suggest that in some areas the health benefits exceeded the costs of establishing LTNs by over two hundred times.

9, Paris renovations and energy consumption. Many previous studies have suggested little long-term impact on energy consumption from improved insulation and other measures. By contrast, a Paris study of renovations in social housing completed between 2012 and 2020 suggested large reductions. Energy use was down 28% in the 76,000 housing units under study, representing a saving of around 2,200 kWh, or between €200-450 a year. Interestingly, the study also found no ‘rebound’ effect, whereby householders increase the temperatures in the house after better insulation is installed. However the cost of a typical renovation is now running at around €70,000 per unit, meaning the financial return is very limited. But commentators note that the returns to better insulation should just be measured financially. The French study suggests that proper insulation may reduce daytime heatwave temperatures by 15 degrees on the top floor of a building, improving the health of residents, particularly older people.

10, EV assembly costs. We know that battery prices are falling. And because they can represent 50% of the costs of an EV, this is vital progress. But what about the other aspects of making a car? A report from Gartner noted the surprisingly rapid reduction in assembly costs arising from the simpler designs of electric cars and from improvements in manufacturing processes that are possible with EVs. The Tesla innovation of casting a large section of the base of the car as a single piece (‘gigacasting’) is particularly identified as helping to reduce costs. as well as the increasing use of battery packs as a structural element in the vehicle. Although the decline in the rate of growth in EVs is currently slowing the pace of cost reductions, Gartner comments that ‘electric vehicles will be less expensive to build than internal combustion cars by 2027 thanks to new manufacturing techniques and lower battery costs’.

Martyn1981

Amazing how quickly time goes. Only a decade left (just being a bit dramatic for fun), before we need lots of long duration energy storage.

Long-duration energy storage: UK’s House of Lords tells government to ‘get on with it’ and act fast

The UK’s House of Lords Science and Technology Committee released a report yesterday (13 March) determining that the government must make “major decisions about future energy infrastructure”.

The Long-duration energy storage: get on with it report highlights that the government must “act fast” to ensure long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies can scale up and contribute to the decarbonisation of the electricity system. This target is a mere 11 years away.

The Committee which published the report is among a number of select committees set up by the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament which is independent of the elected House of Commons. The committees are appointed to examine and explore general issues affecting the country.

In a bid to support the technology, the Committee’s report outlined that a coordinated effort is needed to unlock investment in LDES and to ensure a strategic reserve of storage is delivered both to achieve net zero and to protect the UK from future energy supply shocks, a perspective shared by various members from across the energy industry.

Martyn1981

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall.

1, ‘Heat batteries’. A Finnish company will supply a 100 MWh heat battery to a municipality near Helsinki. This battery contains a type of sand that is heated up by electricity when supplies are abundant and the high temperatures can be retained for weeks or months if necessary. The heat is then transferred to the water in the town’s district heating system in winter. The transfer outwards can be up to 1 MW, not a huge flow but which helps reduce the costs of running the heating system. A conventional battery would be able to deliver a much faster energy transfer but the land area taken by the heat battery - about 230 sq metres – is far less than would be needed for lithium ion.

2, Effect of trees on temperatures. A 2021 study showed that most forested areas have more cloud cover, holding temperatures down because more sunlight is reflected. Global reforestation may therefore help mitigate climate change. A 2024 article suggest a second effect: increased forest cover in the eastern United States over the 20th century held down temperatures by increasing water evaporation through transpiration, helping to explain the anomalous lack of increase in this region. The researchers conclude that ‘Locations surrounded by reforestation were up to 1°C cooler than neighboring locations that did not undergo land cover change’. Reforestation can therefore both capture CO2 and hold down local temperatures. The research suggests that heat suppression is greatest near to younger forests composed of conifers rather than broadleaved trees.

3, Grid improvement. A striking indication of the investment requirements for the world’s electricity networks. RTE, the operator of the high voltage transmission network in France, noted that it would need about €100bn capital spending by 2040. Although large, this figure only equates to a rate of about 1% of total capital investment in the country. However five years ago RTE’s estimate was about a third of this amount. Much of this new investment budget will be spent on extending the network to offshore wind farms and other new locations but RTE also stresses the need to replace much of the existing ageing infrastructure. It says that the average age of its overhead lines is 55 years while 20% are over 70 years old. These figures are said to be better than other European countries, suggesting other networks will need even more new spending. Investment needs are also increasing because higher temperatures are tending to speed up the natural deterioration of cables.

4, Individual legal action. A Belgian farmer is suing Total, the oil and gas major. This is the first such claim under Belgian law. The farmer’s case is that the CO2 emissions resulting from Total’s fossil fuel production have damaged his ability to farm his land because of longer, more intense summer droughts and winter flooding. He claims, for example, that he can no longer grow enough feed to maintain the 160 cows he used to keep but can now only host 100 animals. Belgian law obliges an entity that causes damage to pay compensation for the costs imposed. Some claims similar to that of the Belgian farmer have already resulted in initial judgments against the fossil fuel industry around the world but most are being appealed. In this case the court is being asked both to compensate the farmer and to mandate rapid, well-quantified reductions in Total’s fossil fuel output as well as the ending of exploration for new resources. For what it is worth, my guess is that this case might well succeed in lower courts but that the appeal process will be drawn out for many years and eventual action will be slow. But legal actions like this are only going to increase in frequency and legal merit.

5, Vehicle-to-Grid. The Australian renewable energy agency published a report indicating that EV owners could earn an average of A$12,000 ($8,000) a year from supplying power back into the network, principally in the form of short term response to varying grid frequency. The agency pointed out that EV batteries will probably represent the cheapest form of short-term storage. In the UK, Octopus Energy recently launched a tariff that offers free EV charging to owners making their batteries available for vehicle to grid use for a minimum numbers of hours a year. (Thanks to Gage Williams).

6, Biochar. Biochar can be made from many organic materials by subjecting them to intense heat in the absence of air. Zurich-based Cotierra, focuses on turning residual materials from coffee bean farming into this permanent form of carbon sequestration. This newly formed startup raised $1m in early stage financing from investors specialising in carbon removal technologies. Cotierra’s distinctive approach enables small scale coffee farmers in the South to make their own biochar by using a newly designed simple furnace. The company is starting with coffee farms in Colombia. Biochar has the additional huge benefit of increasing the retention of nutrients in agricultural soils meaning that less artificial fertiliser is needed.

7, Low carbon cement. Decarbonising cement production is one of the trickiest challenges. The major global manufacturers have therefore poured money into the many different potential routes for reducing emissions, including focusing on carbon capture (Heidelberg Materials) or the use of supplementary materials to complement limestone as a cement source (Holcim). The venture capital arms of the industry are among the most active net zero investors. This week France’s Saint Gobain added to its venture capital portfolio by participating in a fundraising from Fortera, a young Californian company whose technology uses the CO2 arising from the manufacturing process to incorporate back into its cement at a late stage in the production cycle. At the same time as announcing its participation in the Fortera financing, Saint Gobain said it was ‘supporting’ Ecocem, an Irish business with a very different approach to that of Fortera which recently received full EU approval for its product for use in construction. There’s a chapter on the bewildering variety of options for cement decarbonisation in Possible, out in the UK this week.

8, Tidal barrages. Every few years, tidal barrages resurface as potential sources of UK electricity. These dams capture the energy of rising and falling tides. Although the country probably has the best resources of this type of energy in the world, the expense and difficulty of damming a large river estuary has deterred private companies and governments. Will this change? In the last few weeks, early work has (again) commenced looking at barrages on both the Severn and the smaller Mersey rivers, both pushed strongly by local government. The challenges are immense, which is probably why there are only 3 tidal barrages installed in the world. But both a Severn barrage, running from South Wales to western England, and the Mersey dam, running southwards from the Liverpool area, could generate more electricity per unit of capital expenditure than the new Hinkley Point nuclear power station, at least according to some estimates. They would be by far the largest tidal projects in the world and they would probably continue working for over a century with a low operating cost.

9, Green steel using electrolysis. Although large sums are being directed at hydrogen steel-making projects, another route for green steel is possible. Boston Metal announced it has completed its first ‘molten oxide electrolysis’ facility for recovering waste metals from mining waste in Brazil. If this plant works, it will provide an example which can then be replicated to make iron directly by passing electricity through iron ore. The potential advantages of the Boston Metal approach include an ability to use lower grades of ore than hydrogen furnaces. And, according to the company, the process will use less electricity than would be required to make the hydrogen needed for manufacturing iron.  

10, Electric charging for heavy trucks. BP said it had bought control of a large existing truck stop near the Channel Tunnel in England. The intention is to install a large number of charging stations for commercial trucks, BP’s first such plan in the UK. Some chargers will be up to 1 megawatt speed, or four times the maximum charging rate of a Tesla Model 3 and the site will have 125 chargers operating at 100 kilowatts.  This is part of BP’s plan to build very rapid charging stations for electric heavy trucks on commercial routes across Europe. It already has a substantial network in Germany.

A note about Possible from the Financial Times journalist Tim Harford in one of this latest columns:
As Chris Goodall explains in his new book Possible: Ways to Net Zero, removing fossil fuels from our energy system is technologically feasible, but it is a daunting task requiring huge upgrades to the electricity grid, our storage capacity and much else besides. We should take heart from the fact that these steps to fight climate change will also lead to large and immediate gains in our day-to-day health.

Martyn1981

Can't say I fully understood this news, but I think the gist of it, is that thanks to some administrative/contract changes, batteries are now able to provide a greater amount of support.

All part of the new, low carbon world we are heading for.

Great Britain’s battery fleet dispatching 47% more energy after changes brought in by ESO

Battery storage market intelligence firm Modo Energy has released data confirming a 47% increase in weekly battery energy storage system (BESS) dispatched volume on the grid in Great Britain (GB) compared to eight weeks prior.

In January 2024, the electricity system operator National Grid ESO relaunched bulk dispatch for battery energy storage units in the Balancing Mechanism (BM) following its closure in December 2023 due to technical issues.

The bulk dispatch functionality allows for more battery instructions to be issued simultaneously across the GB energy network, which includes England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland (hence the GB prefix, rather than the UK, which does).

michaels

I guess balancing is more complex using a large number of distributed batteries than a few big generator turbines so you need the correct controls in place for it to happen successfully using the batteries.