Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

The tide is turning, not fast enough, but it's turning.

Investments in clean energy this year should be double that for FF's, and for leccy generation, 10x as much.

Investment in clean energy likely to be double figure for fossil fuels in 2024, IEA says

Global investment in low-carbon electricity will rise to 10 times as much as fossil fuel power this year due to an increase in spending on solar projects, according to the International Energy Agency.

The global energy watchdog has predicted that investment in clean energy including renewables and nuclear power as well as electric vehicles, power grids, energy storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency improvements and heat pumps will reach $2tn this year.

The global clean energy investment figure, which topped fossil fuels for the first time last year, is likely to be double the $1tn forecast for coal, gas and oil in 2024, the IEA said.

“For every dollar going to fossil fuels today, almost $2 are invested in clean energy,” said the IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol.

Martyn1981

Article that jumped out at me - It's about flow batts, built in the UK, with plans to scale up to 500MWh pa. No idea how successfull they will (or won't be), nor how they will compete against Li-ion batts economically, but nice to see them progressing.

Invinity expanding UK flow battery assembly to more than 500MWh annual capacity

Invinity Energy Systems, a technology company that develops vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), plans to expand its manufacturing footprint in Scotland, UK.

The London Stock Exchange-listed company announced earlier this week (3 June) that it has leased a 26,000-square-foot site in Motherwell in the North Lanarkshire region bordering Glasgow.

It follows the successful raise of £57.38 million (US$73.29 million) financing by Invinity, which was completed on 24 May, and the new plant will be accompanied by an expansion to its existing facility in Bathgate, in the nearby West Lothian council area of Scotland.

Together, the new Motherwell plant, which will focus on assembly of VRFBs, and Bathgate, at which the batteries’ cell stacks are manufactured, will bring Invinity Energy System’s VRFB annual manufacturing capacity in the UK to more than 500MWh, the company claimed.

The new factory is expected to come online in the third quarter of this year, and Invinity said it would assist in delivering products to customer projects in its near-term pipeline.

Martyn1981

Another wind farm starts delivering power. This is actually a big one for on-shore wind, and if I've done the maths right, could provide about 2TWh pa, due to a very high predicted capacity factor of ~50%. That's around a two thirds of a percent of the UK's current annual leccy consumption (which is just over 300TWh).

Viking achieves first power

First power has been produced at the 443MW Viking wind farm on Shetland island, Scotland.

The milestone comes as Shetland gears up to be fully connected to the GB electricity transmission grid for the first time, with the 260 km Shetland High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) subsea cable project being delivered separately by SSEN Transmission, with energisation expected later this summer.

Engineers will continue to progress through commissioning ahead of the wind farm reaching full power and entering commercial operations later in summer 2024, when it is expected to become the UK’s most productive onshore wind farm.

michaels

Good also to see the UK getting on board with HVDC which we should probably be making much more use of throughout the grid.

Netexporter

we should probably be making much more use of throughout the grid.

HVDC is only suited to undersea links, where pylons can be used, or for extremely long overland links, where the cost of the converter stations is less than than the cumulative losses on an AC link over the system lifetime. Britain isn't big enough to justify the latter.

Martyn1981

Netexporter said:

we should probably be making much more use of throughout the grid.

HVDC is only suited to undersea links, where pylons can be used, or for extremely long overland links, where the cost of the converter stations is less than than the cumulative losses on an AC link over the system lifetime. Britain isn't big enough to justify the latter.

Thanks, you reminded me to check the breakeven distances. I remembered there was a big difference, but forgot just how big.

Found a selection of sources, but roughly, the breakeven for HVDC v's HVAC seems to be about 500-800km for above ground, and ~50km for subsea. Wow, that does put the UK into context. And the Chinese are rolling out UHVDC (ultra) for some of their distances, as they 'ship' solar energy 1,000's of km across the country.

ed110220

Martyn1981 said:

Netexporter said:

we should probably be making much more use of throughout the grid.

HVDC is only suited to undersea links, where pylons can be used, or for extremely long overland links, where the cost of the converter stations is less than than the cumulative losses on an AC link over the system lifetime. Britain isn't big enough to justify the latter.

Thanks, you reminded me to check the breakeven distances. I remembered there was a big difference, but forgot just how big.

Found a selection of sources, but roughly, the breakeven for HVDC v's HVAC seems to be about 500-800km for above ground, and ~50km for subsea. Wow, that does put the UK into context. And the Chinese are rolling out UHVDC (ultra) for some of their distances, as they 'ship' solar energy 1,000's of km across the country.

I don't pretend to understand the physics, but the maximum length of underwater or buried HVAC is pretty short, so HVDC is the only option for undersea cables unless they are unusually short. Same for underground. I think HVDC technology has advanced and is advancing, which means the breakeven distance is going down, plus the ability to mesh HVDC together is increasing (almost all HVDC links used to only have a connection point at each end, but now intermediate connections are more common).

As for HVAC I've wondered why Britain doesn't try higher voltages. Increasing the voltage dramatically increases the amount of power that a line can carry (at the expense of modestly increasing the tower, insulator etc size). Eg this single circuit 765 kV line in South Africa can carry about twice as much power as the double circuit lines here and the towers aren't as tall (but they are wider): https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.3110467,19.1189446,3a,75y,95.97h,91.03t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6IM0rF_P4Q6QMsV_FsmG2g!2e0!3e11!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

zeupater

Hi

... Don't forget that DC interconnectivity also solves any apparent differential or fluctuations between the AC frequency or voltage on the grids at each end ... that's why DC is used on comparatively short connectors between countries that historically controlled their own national power supplies ... 

HTH - Z

Martyn1981

Couple of storage news items, just to show that deployments are increasing, as costs have been coming down. So looks like the tipping point has been reached, and we will see more storage deployed alongside RE (new and retro-fit).

Orsted takes FID on Hornsea 3 BESS

Orsted has taken the final investment decision on a 300MW battery energy storage system that will be installed on the same site as the onshore converter station for its Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm in Norfolk, England.

The battery’s location is on the same land as the onshore converter station minimises disruption to those living and working nearby, the developer said.

The storage system has a capacity of 600MWh equivalent to the daily energy use of 80,000 UK homes.

Europe’s battery storage deployments doubled in 2023, policymakers must support continued growth, says SolarPower Europe

Europe’s annual battery storage deployments doubled in 2023, but the pace of adoption is still much slower than required, according to SolarPower Europe.

The continental trade association for solar PV industries published new analysis of the sector in its report, European Market Outlook for Battery Storage 2024-2028.

Alongside the report’s launch, SolarPower Europe has called for the European Union (EU) to adopt a comprehensive energy storage strategy and a 200GW by 2030 deployment target which it said would fully unlock solar PV growth potential in the bloc.

The association’s analysis found that 17.2GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) installations were made in 2023, a 94% year-on-year increase from 2022, after a similar percentage increase the previous year. Looking back at a decade of data, it is a far cry from 2014 when Europe-wide deployments totalled just 150MWh for the year. 

Martyn1981

Many will be aware of Highview (or LAES - liquid air enrgy storage) the UK based company. Here's more news as they start to build a LDES (long duration energy storage) project in the UK.

Highview raises £300 million to start building 300MWh liquid air energy storage project in the UK

Liquid air energy storage firm Highview Power has raised £300 million (US$384 million) from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and utility Centrica to immediately start building its first large-scale project.

The funding will enable Highview to launch construction on a 50MW/300MWh long-duration energy storage (LDES) project in Carrington, Manchester, using its proprietary liquid air energy storage (LAES) technology. Construction will start immediately for an early 2026 commercial operation, the company said.

The funding round was led by the state-owned UKIB and utility Centrica, with participation from mining firm Rio Tinto, bank Goldman Sachs, private equity firm Mosaic Capital and KIRKBI, the family office of the Lego-founding Kristiansen family.