Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Yet another interconnector is approaching completion. The 0.5GW bi-directional link between Wales and Ireland is now ready to begin testing/trials. Target date for commissioning was 'end of 2024', so looks to be proceeding well. 

Sumitomo completes Greenlink cable system

Sumitomo Electric Industries has completed the cable system for the Greenlink Interconnector Project, which provides an HVDC and fibre optic connection between Ireland and Wales.

Trial operations will commence in the coming months. 

The project included the manufacture and installation of onshore HVDC cables along a 24km route in Ireland, a 6km route in Wales, and submarine cables along a 160km offshore route.

michaels

HVDC, interesting, are all the subsea cables DC?

ed110220

michaels said:

HVDC, interesting, are all the subsea cables DC?

Pretty much. The shortest ones can be AC but anything longer has to be DC because of physics I don't really understand. Burying cables imposes similar limits on AC transmission, so longer buried cables have to be HVDC too.

Open Infrastructure is an open source map that shows grid infrastructure around the world, you can see the HVDC in dark blue (dashed underwater/underground): https://openinframap.org/#2/26/12

Coastalwatch

Adil Asks Ofgem CEO Why Energy Bosses Can Profit While People Struggle to Heat Homes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1YrabieG-w

Magnitio

ed110220 said:

michaels said:

HVDC, interesting, are all the subsea cables DC?

Pretty much. The shortest ones can be AC but anything longer has to be DC because of physics I don't really understand. Burying cables imposes similar limits on AC transmission, so longer buried cables have to be HVDC too.

Open Infrastructure is an open source map that shows grid infrastructure around the world, you can see the HVDC in dark blue (dashed underwater/underground): https://openinframap.org/#2/26/12

 https://openinframap.org/#2/26/12 is fascinating. Incredible detail and hyperlinks to projects and real-time output from some sites. Also shows the scale of India and China's energy generation infrastructure issues.

Coastalwatch

The Methane Hunter, Sharon Wilson, talks to Robert Llewellyn about her startling discoveries over the last thirty years.

Just how bad does it have to get before humanity takes notice of the harm that the Oil and Gas industry are doing to our planet? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHkpkWwAAT8&t=179s

On the other hand China are going all out for a renewable energy future, away from reliance upon either. I wonder how history will look back and view the paths each of these nations have followed!

Thankfully, I'm just relieved we don't live too close to either!

Martyn1981

Me and my milestones, I do like a nice big one!

UK wind power reaches historic 30GW milestone

The UK has today hit a historic milestone of 30 gigawatts (30,000 megawatts) of wind generation capacity. The opening of SSE Renewables’ Viking Wind Farm on the Shetland Islands boosted the country’s capacity by 443MW, taking the total past the 30GW threshold. 

Total operational capacity of combined onshore and offshore wind in the UK now stands at 30,299MW, as tracked by RenewableUK’s EnergyPulse, the industry’s  market intelligence service. This is enough to meet the annual power needs of more than 26 million homes and cut carbon emissions by more than 35 million tonnes a year.

Commenting on the milestone, RenewableUK’s Executive Director of Policy & Engagement Ana Musat said:
 
“It took 26 years to install the first 15GW of wind energy in the UK, so to double that to 30GW in just seven years represents a tremendous success for the industry. As the latest record-breaking figures from the Government show, wind is the backbone of our future energy system and a key driver of our transition away from expensive and volatile fossil fuels to become a clean energy superpower.
 
“Our research also shows doubling the UK’s onshore wind capacity by the end of the decade would boost the economy by £45 billion and create 27,000 jobs, whilst moving to an electricity system dominated by offshore wind by 2035 would leave consumers around £68 a year better off.”

Reed_Richards

Only £68 per year better off, how disappointing.

michaels

Reed_Richards said:

Only £68 per year better off, how disappointing.

I guess it is a bi of a random number as it depends entirely on he price of gas which as we know can't be reliably forecast even a few months ahead.

Martyn1981

CfD round 6 auction results are out, and they look good with ~10GW of capacity awarded contracts. Roughly half of that being off-shore wind. These CfD contracts are for 15yrs.

Onshore wind prices have fallen back a bit from the inflationary highs of last year at £51/MWh v's £52.

PV is up a bit at £50 v's £47.

Off-shore wind has gone up considerably (from the £37 in the round 4 results), but at £59/MWh for 2/3rds of the bids and £54/MWh for the others, still way below the £73 bid max (panic) price that was introduced to ensure bids. [In the R5 auction the bid max was lowered from £46 to £44, despite the Ukraine invasion and costs spiralling, and attracted no bids.]

All auctions/prices use a 2012 baseline. So index linking of ~1.38x is needed to bring to 2024 (post Apr) pricing. For comparison HPC was issued a 35yr CfD at £89.50/MWh which is now ~£124/MWh.

Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 results