Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

Part 1.

The UK closes its last coal power station this year, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar appears to be down to one turbine, and using up the coal stocks.

When I drove past it yesterday lunchtime, there was water vapour coming out of chimney and from all 8 cooling towers.  Surely that represents more than 1 turbine running ?

Netexporter

Coal is running at just shy of 1GW, at the moment. That's the highest I've seen for a long while.

Martyn1981

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

Part 1.

The UK closes its last coal power station this year, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar appears to be down to one turbine, and using up the coal stocks.

When I drove past it yesterday lunchtime, there was water vapour coming out of chimney and from all 8 cooling towers.  Surely that represents more than 1 turbine running ?

I wouldn't know, but I suspect your MkI eyeball is a far, far better judge than I. Maybe they aren't down to just one turbine yet? The 1GW Netexporter mentions, would suggest two (of the 4 turbines), and the current output (~0.25GW), would suggest one at low power.

Almost at the end of an era. 

Powering down: end times for the UK’s final coal-fired station

With its last winter behind it, the sprawling site, which covers the same acreage as the City of London, is quiet save for the hum of a single turbine and the crackle of electricity power lines overhead.

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

Powering down: end times for the UK’s final coal-fired station

With its last winter behind it, the sprawling site, which covers the same acreage as the City of London, is quiet save for the hum of a single turbine and the crackle of electricity power lines overhead.

The Grauniad quote doesn't actually claim that all but one turbines are finally shut down - perhaps it just means that on the day their reporter visited there was only one running ?

I really wouldn't have expected to see all 8 cooling towers working unless there were multiple (or even all 4 ?) turbines running.  My 'visit' lasted all of 30 seconds so not really representative of the whole day.

Martyn1981

Pumped hydro, but with 'heavy water'.

New hydro system set for deployment

UK company RheEnergise is to build its first-of-a-kind long-duration hydro-energy storage system demonstrator at Sibelco’s mining operations at Cornwood, near Plymouth, England. 

Work onsite to build the demonstrator will start imminently with its commissioning to start in September 2024.

The power generated by the HD Hydro demonstrator, which has a peak power production of 500kW, will support Sibelco’s mining operations at times of high energy demand and support the company’s work to decarbonise its operations.

Rather than using water, the company has developed a fluid, which is 2.5 times denser than water, and which can provide 2.5 times the energy when compared to a conventional low-density hydro-power.

Martyn1981

Nice little workaround to accelerate new projects:

UK accelerates connections for 8GW clean energy capacity

Electricity networks in England and Wales have enabled the grid connection offer dates for nearly 8GW of clean and renewable energy projects to be brought forward.

Over 200 projects, totalling 7.8GW of capacity, have had their connection offer dates brought forward by up to 10 years through the Technical Limits programme.

Under this programme projects can connect to lower voltage distribution networks prior to reinforcement of the high voltage transmission network.

Networks have so far sent offers to 203 projects totalling 7.8GW with an average connection acceleration of 6.5 years.

Martyn1981

Saw this article, and thought of the 'duck curve' in California, where the grid demand for leccy has been falling for a decade when the sun is shining, before bouncing back in the late afternoon.



Of course, FF generation can be dialed down, and fuel saved/emissions reduced, but you don't want to curtail all the grid side RE generation. So, having storage that can absorb GW's of power, for several hours, ready for the evening peak, is very useful (understatement of the decade!)

California: ‘Energy storage revolution is here,’ says governor as US leader state surpasses 10GW

California now has more than 10GW of battery storage, with Governor Gavin Newsom hailing the state’s “energy storage revolution,” which is underway.

Cumulative installations have now reached 10,379MW in the state, and on 16 April, for the first time ever, batteries became the single largest contributor of power on the grid for a short time during the evening peak.

At 8:10 pm on that day, 6,177MW of power was being fed into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid from battery energy storage system (BESS) resources, exceeding the contributions of the four other biggest sources of power: renewables (4,603MW), natural gas (5,121MW), large-scale hydroelectric (4,353MW), and energy imports (3,936MW).

BNEF forecasts 40GW/150GWh of California storage by 2030.

Martyn1981

Not perfect, but good news regarding coal power generation in the G7. Some loopholes, and of course globally we need to see Asia turning the tide, but things are moving, slowly. [Or fast, as I think the UK deserves some praise.]

G7 agree to end use of unabated coal power plants by 2035

Ministers from the G7 countries agreed on Tuesday to end the use of unabated coal power plants by 2035 – but left the door open for those heavily reliant on coal to breach the deadline.

In the UK, coal-fired power is due to end this year with the closure of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal plant in Nottinghamshire in September. The plant generated just 1% of the UK’s electricity last year.

In Canada and Italy coal power accounted for less than 6% of the generation mix, but it still comprises 32% of Japan’s electricity mix and 27% of Germany’s.

Martyn1981

Incredible to see the speed at which the battery storage pipeline and deployments is accelerating.

UK battery pipeline hits 95GW

RenewableUK has revealed that the total pipeline of battery projects (operational, under construction, consented or being planned) has increased from 57GW a year ago to 95GW.

It has grown by 38GW, 67.4%, in the past 12 months and it marks the second consecutive 12-month period in which the pipeline has increased by this percentage.

Operational battery storage capacity has risen to 4.4GW, and the capacity of projects under construction has reached 4.3GW.

A further 30.4GW has been consented, 26GW has been submitted in the planning system and 30.4GW is at an early stage of development but yet to be submitted.

The average capacity of projects being submitted for planning permission has risen from 27MW in 2019 to 80MW now – an increase of 53MW or 196%.

Martyn1981

Apologies, I cut this note off the bottom of the last Carbon Commentary newsletter I posted. Just in case anyone is wondering.

Unfortunately I will not be able to write a regular newsletter every week over the next few months. Thank you very much for the interesting and always thought-provoking emails recently received and many apologies if I have failed to reply.