Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

michaels

SO I think what they are saying is that simply adding a heat pump and higher standard of insulation there is basically no savings compared to average usage but that if you also invest in solar and battery (at what upfront cost, does the £5k include this?) then you can make a decent annual return?

Martyn1981

Battery storage contines to heat up in Chile.

Grenergy and BYD extend supply deal for ‘world’s largest BESS project’ in Chile to 3GWh

IPP Grenergy and electric vehicle (EV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) firm BYD have extended a supply agreement for the Oasis de Atacama project in Chile, which they claim will have the world’s largest BESS, to 3GWh.

The agreement now covers the third phase of the 1GW solar, 4.1GWh storage project in the Atacama desert, northern Chile, after the companies initially agreed 1.1GWh of BESS equipment for phase one back in January.

Martyn1981

I suspect there will be lots of news about this tomorrow, but today the grid was seeing a small amount of coal generation, that ended in the afternoon.

That is, I assume, the last coal generation the UK will see, now that we've reached the end of Sept, the planned date for UK coal gen to end.

The RE age is arriving fast, and I suppose we wouldn't be at this current tech stage without the cheap (but dirty) leccy we once enjoyed.

So long, and thanks for all the TWh's.

Reed_Richards

E.g. from yesterday:
.

Martyn1981

This article was far more interesting than I expected. We get a realistic opinion on achieving the 2030 targets, the problems faced, the changes still needed, and what meeting the target really means.

The suggestion is that low carbon leccy, will still include ~5% gas. I assume that will continue to fall, but may (I'm really not sure) also come under the 'net' 100% low carbon figure. Assuming we export more RE generation than we consume in FF gas generation, and FF imported gen.

Don't want to get too hung up on the 2030 target and definition, since they are tough, and things will continue to improve afterwards, despite increased leccy demand as we slowly 'electrify everything'.

I'll post some quick extracts, but really needs to be read for full context (if you have the time).

The man in charge of Labour’s green energy dream: ‘It’s at the limit of what’s achievable’

If the man tasked with turning energy secretary Ed Miliband’s dream of a clean power system by 2030 into a reality has any qualms about the scale of the challenge, he is not showing it. Standing in the Wokingham control room, Fintan Slye scans the screens: power plants are firing, turbines are spinning, and electricity is flowing through Britain’s subsea cables.

This is “absolutely” the biggest challenge facing the new organisation, Slye says. “We have a new government coming in with a really clear mission around what it wants to achieve in energy. It was one of the main planks of their election manifesto, and it’s one of their key missions now that they are in power. But it is undoubtedly hugely ambitious to get to clean power by 2030. It requires not only for us to do everything that we can do quicker, but also very, very differently as well.”

Many within the industry would more readily describe the task as unachievable. If Slye is to meet this challenge, in the timescale set by the government, it will require an unprecedented effort, they say. Slye admits that there is a “huge degree of scepticism”, which has already led many to believe that the plans are “fantastical, undoable”. But he is adamant that they can be delivered.

“Is it at the outer limit of what’s achievable? Yes. But if you’re prepared to do things differently and to take difficult decisions early on, then yes, absolutely it is doable,” he says.

“That would include, in all likelihood, things like a complete reform of the planning and consenting regime, a streamlining of the regulatory approval process, changes to the grid connections process …” The list goes on.

“So we’re not saying that the target is achievable with the current energy industry processes and systems and ways of working. In fact, it’s not achievable in those circumstances. But if you can make the required changes, then it can be delivered,” Slye says.

One thing these routes will not deliver is the “zero carbon electricity system” promised by the Labour party before the election – at least, not all of the time. Since coming to power, ministers have made subtle tweaks to the rhetoric, choosing to talk about “clean power” by the end of the decade. This is arguably a more flexible target.

“There’s no established definition of clean power,” says Slye. “So what does it realistically mean? One of the key pieces of work from the Committee on Climate Change found that the cost [of decarbonisation] really begins to escalate when you reach those last percentage points towards 100% clean power.

“So at the moment, the working definition that we’re using for this analysis is to reach 95% clean power. That means that, by 2030, 95% of the generation in Great Britain over the period of a year will be from clean power sources. And that means that the remaining 5% will come from unabated gas. That’s our definition.”

There will continue to be “a significant amount” of gas power plants in reserve for the cold, dull, windless weeks of winter, but they will run for only limited periods, Slye says. Conversely, there will be days when Great Britain generates far more electricity from renewable energy sources than it can use or store, so there are likely to be greater exports to neighbouring countries.

Today, renewables make up just over half of Britain’s electricity, but that is due to climb to around two-thirds by 2030 as more windfarms and solar panels plug into the grid.

“There are issues,” agrees Slye. “But it’s not a bias issue, or a culture issue. The reality is that the scale of change that has happened in Great Britain’s generation portfolio means the IT systems have not kept up with it. The systems that we have today were designed to dispatch a small number of really large gas or coal plants to a far, far larger number of smaller-scale energy sources. We’ve shifted from needing to send five instructions an hour to 500 instructions an hour. It’s creaking.”

Martyn1981

Not a massive revelation to say more RE needs more storage, but a potential cost saving of €9bn pa in the EU by 2030, is certainly thought provoking. And of course that's just the economic side, the reduced FF gas is a major win too.

With regard to the UK, presumably more storage near the demand points would help too, shifting excess ready for later use, with storage near(er) generation to help reduce clipping when the grid can't handle it all. Quite a complex job ahead, so nice to see the positivity from Mr Slye in the previous article.

BESS could save EU €9 billion a year in gas costs by 2030, says Ember

The EU could save €9 billion (US$10 billion) a year in gas costs by deploying BESS to capture excess wind and solar, according to think tank Ember.

The findings are based on its power price and hourly generation mix datasets and were revealed in a recent report tiled ‘EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun’.

If Germany had an additional 2GW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in June 2024 it would have saved €2.5 million in fuel costs that month alone, the report added.

Exiled_Tyke

I read today that one of the papers had reported that closing the last coal station would create problems namely regarding increasing our dependence on gas which is more difficult to transport and store.  Of course those of us in the know realise that this is complete nonsense and that the solution is of course getting grid infrastructure an storage sorted to be able to increase our dependency on RE sources. So this article is refreshing not only because it confirms what many of us hope and believe in but also because it undermines some of the rubbish being spread by less reliable media sources. 

Martyn1981

Yes ET, rather annoying to see those scare tactics, especially since coal generation was already down to ~2% of UK demand at the start of this decade.

silverwhistle

Martyn1981 said:

With regard to the UK, presumably more storage near the demand points would help too, shifting excess ready for later use, with storage near(er) generation to help reduce clipping when the grid can't handle it all. Quite a complex job ahead, so nice to see the positivity from Mr Slye in the previous article.

I was reading an article about RE, and in particular roof top solar in Australia where it talked about "community battery storage": don't recall if that was purely in connection with microgrids, but don't think it was.

Martyn1981

silverwhistle said:

Martyn1981 said:

With regard to the UK, presumably more storage near the demand points would help too, shifting excess ready for later use, with storage near(er) generation to help reduce clipping when the grid can't handle it all. Quite a complex job ahead, so nice to see the positivity from Mr Slye in the previous article.

I was reading an article about RE, and in particular roof top solar in Australia where it talked about "community battery storage": don't recall if that was purely in connection with microgrids, but don't think it was.

Something along those lines that I thought was very interesting - A friend did some filming for a DNO installing a small/medium sized containerised size battery into a street substation in the UK.

I don't have any details but would guess at 1 or 2 MWh. This excited me, as it would not only help with peak demand management, but presumably would make managing local PV far, far more easy. No need for export limits if the sub station can absorb excess when needed.

[Currently they can't send excess back up the line, hence the need to manage within the local demand, but localised storage solves that problem.]

So the storage would help grid scale gen such as wind in the winter, and local PV in the summer. In theory?