Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

silverwhistle

Not sure if this has already been linked to. I haven't finished reading (or digesting!) but some interesting observations on the utility (or not..) of zonal pricing:

https://insights.lcp.com/rs/032-PAO-331/images/LCP-Delta-SSE-Impacts-of-Beyond-2030-network-plans-on-zonal-pricing-October-2024.pdf

Magnitio

Martyn1981 said:

Magnitio said:

There are quite a few interesting alternatives for energy storage appearing, even in countries that you would think have plenty of opportunity for pumped-hydro e.g. Switzerland redox-flow project....

https://flexbase.ch/en-us/projekt

Great find. I was pondering flow batts when thinking about CW's post about PHES. I had in mind 100's or 1,000's of smaller locations dotted all over the UK.

Looking at your link, you could even skimp massively on the power side, with perhaps just 100MW, whilst maintaining the cheap energy part at 1 or 2GWh. If it can get as cheap as hoped, with safe and abundant electrolytes, then that would provide a TWh+ of storage, and be easily scaleable in line with growing need.

Also a good way to 'ship' the leccy around the country when demand is lower, ready for low RE / high demand periods.

I get a bit excited about MDES and LDES these days. Not sure why, but I suspect it's because SDES looks solved and relatively cheap, so this is now the last piece of the jigsaw(ish).

You might find this video of interest, which is what prompted me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_NCnxO1KLY

Coastalwatch

A step forward for battery recycling in the UK claimed to make EV's even greener!

Altilium starts producing EV battery cells in the UK

Altilium has announced that the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) has successfully manufactured the UK's first EV battery cells using recycled active cathode materials (CAM).

https://www.electrive.com/2025/03/18/altilium-starts-producing-ev-battery-cells-in-the-uk/

70sbudgie

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

I don't know if I have managed to skip over the answer despite reading the article a few times, but what is the solution? Why are the reasons for overlooking the sites incorrect? 

Something that has been on my mind is that if the generation queue is more than twice what is needed for net zero and a large proportion of that is SDES, why can't several SDES be combined into MDES? Two 50MW / 150MWhr into a single 50MW /300MWhr.

michaels

70sbudgie said:

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

I don't know if I have managed to skip over the answer despite reading the article a few times, but what is the solution? Why are the reasons for overlooking the sites incorrect? 

Something that has been on my mind is that if the generation queue is more than twice what is needed for net zero and a large proportion of that is SDES, why can't several SDES be combined into MDES? Two 50MW / 150MWhr into a single 50MW /300MWhr.

I think the economics don't work for using SDES as M or L duration because they need to earn a small amount every cycle and obviously M and especially L duration don't cycle very often at all.

[On the other hand, the times when M and L duration do come into play, their output should be extremely valuable]

One problem with pumped storage is that it is likely to be most effective in scenic areas unlike for example the PV they compare it to.  Also it is likely to be in remote areas whereas other storage 'media' can be located close to areas of demand so it will require much more grid infrastructure.

michaels

Probably reported elsewhere but this is the Electrek summary of latest IEA annual commentary

EVs power up, oil demand growth slows: 2024's rapid global energy shift – IEA | Electrek

Recently I saw a BBC piece that just chucked in a general 'ev sales are falling' line in the middle of a piece about the car industry - interesting that the IEA see them as having risen by 25% last year....

Coastalwatch

Early days no doubt but progress towards a circular economy one small step at a time.

Chinese researchers announce battery recycling breakthrough

The invention uses tiny micro batteries to break down lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from a battery before the metals are extracted using an amino acid. Additionally, the use of glycine as the amino acid avoids the use of harsh chemicals in the recycling process and the creation of toxic by-products, making the process significantly more environmentally friendly.

The biggest success of the new method, however, is the amount of raw materials that can be recovered, however: the newly developed system can recover 99.99 per cent of the lithium, 96.8 per cent of the nickel, 92.35 per cent of the cobalt and 90.59 per cent of the manganese from used batteries.

https://www.electrive.com/2025/03/24/chinese-researchers-announce-battery-recycling-brakethrough/

Martyn1981

Yet another UK interconnector. Nice and big at 2GW, but this one is UK to UK to help improve the movement of leccy around the UK.

National Grid seeks consent for Sea Link

National Grid has applied for development consent for Sea Link, a new electricity connection between Kent and Suffolk in England.

The aim of the project is to boost energy security and deliver cleaner energy to strengthen Great Britain’s network.

As part of The Great Grid Upgrade, the Sea Link project is designed to increase electricity capacity, as demand for energy is set to double, ensuring more renewable and low-carbon power reaches homes, business and public services.

The proposed 138km connection, from Pegwell Bay in Kent to a point on the Suffolk coast between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, will run mostly offshore.

michaels

Putting this here rather than heat pumps as it raises some interesting issues:

The "Fabric First" Trap: Decades Of Studies Show Electrification Wins Every Time - CleanTechnica

The 'received wisdom' is that you need to maximise building energy efficiency before fitting a heat pump.  However studies show that insulation measures are not reducing total heat usage as people are choosing to maintain real energy spend and increase temperatures rather than maintain temperatures and reduce spend when they have insulation fitted.  This means from a CO2 perspective, counter-intuitively going for insulate first, switch to heat pump second produces less carbon savings than doing it the other way around.

Of course the situation in the UK is a bit unique in that our electricity costs are out of sync with our gas prices.  Gas CCGT power stations are about 66% efficient - eg 3 kwh of gas give 2kwh of electricity, thus electricity should only cost about 1.5 times as much as gas per kwh. (Ignoring other costs like distribution - but both need distribution networks).  Instead electricity costs 4x as much making heat pumps a hard sell in like for like efficiency scenarios.

I will drop this in here as it is very pertinent

silverwhistle

What about OCGT power stations? The ones they are now building for peak lopping?..