Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Big plans (or continued big plans) for off-shore wind.

North Sea ‘to be Europe’s green power plant’

The Energy Ministers of the nine North Seas countries have reaffirmed their ambition to transform the region into “Europe’s green power plant” at the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) ministerial meeting in Odense, Denmark.  

They gave clear recommendations to the new EU Commission on how best to support that ambition, notably on the need to further strengthen Europe’s wind energy supply chain.

They also highlighted the necessity of getting hybrid offshore wind farms moving by defining a cost-sharing formula as soon as possible and creating a new dedicated offshore financing facility.

They also highlighted the importance of involving the UK fully in all of this.

Martyn1981

A very promising headline, and lede, but as the article goes on, it does require a lot of work, and positive changes to be reached by 2030 - so I'm not holding my breath, but hopefully great news for 2035 ..... (or earlier).

Britain’s green energy pledge ‘credible’ if planning fixed, says system operator

State-owned Neso says Britain could be net exporter of green electricity by end of decade at no extra cost

A plan to create a clean electricity system by 2030 promised by Labour before the election is “immensely challenging” but still “credible” if ministers take urgent action to fix Britain’s sluggish planning system, the energy system operator has said.

Britain could become a net exporter of green electricity by the end of the decade at no extra costs to the energy system under the plans and bills may even fall if ministers make the right policy changes, according to the operator.

The newly formed National Energy System Operator (Neso) put forward the conclusions as part of its official advice to new ministers on how to reach Labour election pledge to decarbonise the power system by 2030.

Fintan Slye, the chief executive of Neso, said: “There’s no doubt that the challenges ahead on the journey to delivering clean power are great. However, if the scale of those challenges is matched with the bold, sustained actions that are outlined in this report, the benefits delivered could be even greater.”

70sbudgie

I hadn't spotted this when I linked to the report on the Energy News in General chat!

I am an optimist and think that it can be done. Though imho, the biggest challenge isn't the science, it is the mindset and behaviour changes. 

thevilla

70sbudgie said:

I hadn't spotted this when I linked to the report on the Energy News in General chat!

I am an optimist and think that it can be done. Though imho, the biggest challenge isn't the science, it is the mindset and behaviour changes. 

I bought solar PV in 2016 purely because I was p*ssed off with paying other peoples subsidy.  Since then we're a 2 EV family with Ripple investments, home storage and just paid a ridiculous sum to replace gas with a heat pump.  Behaviour change?  Hopefully

michaels

Texas to get 1 GW AI-powered virtual power plant, enough to power 200,000 homes

Thought this was interesting, power supplier setting up a virtual power plant by handing out free smart thermostats.  Surprised we have not seen something similar from Octopus yet, although I guess there is less scope in the UK as there is much less electric heating and virtually no AC.

Martyn1981

Another UK off-shore wind farm is approaching completion.

Ocean Winds installs final Moray West turbine

The 60th and final Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD wind turbine has been successfully installed on Ocean Winds’ 882MW Moray West project in Scotland.

Coastalwatch

Thanks for posting Mart it's great news. I've been aware of it's progress and keenly waiting for it to show on the GB Renewables Map. Hopefully not too long to go now!

2nd_time_buyer

Indeed, great news. I often wonder if they “turn on” each turbine as it is installed? Or do they turn them all on at the end?

Coastalwatch

Interesting development step regarding recycled batteries. Nothing mentioned about comparable costs compared to mining that I could find, but at least proves recycling can be achieved.

Altilium recycles cathode active material without compromising on quality

The results of electrochemical testing of cells made from recycled CAM at Altilium’s ACT1 facility in Devon have shown a comparable charge rate and cycle performance to commercially available CAM used in today’s high nickel NMC 811 batteries. In the tests, the recycled cathode active material from Altilium achieved the same cycle cell capacity typical for commercial CAM. Furthermore, an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that the structure of Altilium’s CAM is indistinguishable from commercial variants.

https://www.electrive.com/2024/11/18/altilium-recycles-cathode-active-material-without-compromising-on-quality/

Martyn1981

2nd_time_buyer said:

Indeed, great news. I often wonder if they “turn on” each turbine as it is installed? Or do they turn them all on at the end?

Hi. Depends? That's to say, with off-shore wind, they have to wait till they install and commission the electrical control thingymebob, which looks like a small oil rig. Once that's connected and commissioned, then the completed WT's (wind turbines) can put power through, I assume they are in strings, so perhaps once a string is complete.

So, purely as an example, say the WF will have 4 blocks of WT's, and the electrical unit is installed after two WT units are complete, then you do see generation start, and step up each time the next block of WT's is finished.

So sometimes we get a news item that the new ABC wind farm has started supplying power, but maybe a year or so later, we get the news that the ABC WF has been completed and fully commissioned.

I assume that on-shore wind is similar, but perhaps in smaller units/strings?

PV farms are I believe, even easier. So long as the electrical connection is in place, then each block of panels tends to have its own inverter, so generation can begin once a block/inverter and leccy control unit, is working.

[I'm massively oversimplifying of course.]