Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

ed110220

debitcardmayhem said:

Martyn1981 said:

This news item follows on from one a while back talking about California hitting 100% low carbon electricity at times during the day (includes nuclear and biomass). Not to be confused with providing 100% of the leccy for the whole day, but just to show that grids can run on 100% low carbon at times without failing.

The latest stats / milestones, for California is that they've averaged 100% low carbon leccy for 7hrs of each day so far this year, and reached 100% for part of the day on 9 out of every 10 days.

These figures will rise as time goes on, especially given the rapid expansion of storage, but I'd suggest that it has already proven that a 100% low carbon leccy grid is both possible and capable.

California Hits 'Historic' Energy Milestone

New data shared by the Californian government shows that the state has supplied 100 percent of its electricity demand with clean energy sources for an average of seven hours a day so far this year.

More than nine out of 10 days in 2025 saw the state's power being run on completely clean energy sources for an extended period of time in the day—representing a 750 percent increase in clean energy days since 2022.

"The notion that the world's fourth largest economy could get to this point at all—with two-thirds of our electricity coming from clean sources like solar and wind—was considered mythology even 10 years ago," he added.

The nukes give the grid inertia I would assume.

I doubt ~2 GW of nuclear does much for that when peak demand was ~35 GW yesterday. A little, but not much. These days grid forming inverters can do the same job, presumably California has plenty of those, on batteries at least. 

Martyn1981

You'll have to forgive me for this messy post. I wanted to cover the news/update, but the article in question requires premium membership to read in full. But what can be seen is enough, I think.

So it mentions that the UK pipeline of approved bttery storage schemes grew by 5GW/10GWh in July. This takes the total of approved pipeline schemes (excluding those that are actually now operational) to a massive 69GW/144GWh. Of course, most of these schemes may never be built, and I assume there is a lot of overlap between competing providers. But at least it's great to see the scale of what could be deployed.

For context, and because it can be read in full, here's an article setting out the situation in March this year, with 1.6GW/3.2GWh being added to the pipeline bringing the total to 55GW/117GWh.

UK councils approve 5GW/10GWh of BESS in July

Martyn1981

I think this comes under a Doh! moment for me. Read the headline, thought, that's good news, then on second thoughts, why on earth would a new estate/town not be fully electric these days.

I think the lede is slightly misleading, as the town won't be running on solar all the time. But communal grid scale batteries for every 300 households, will, I assume, mean that the town can be run on an average draw from the grid (when needed), eliminating any need to build out for peaks.

[Slight digression, but the 300 households per grid scale battery, would appear to be on a similar scale to local sub stations. That's something I'm hoping will expand in the future, as such batteries would reduce peak demand on the distribution grid, and hopefully allow DNO's to relax PV export restrictions, as they'd now be able to handle some local excess. But time will tell.]

New all-electric town in Kent strikes deal to supply power back to the grid

Otterpool Park’s 8,500 homes will run on solar power and batteries – with enough renewable energy to help keep lights on elsewhere

The town’s on-site electricity sources will also mean that its developers can avoid paying for significant grid reinforcements to connect the National Grid, which is a big source of delay for around a third of housing developments, according to the property company Knight Frank.

The all-electric town will still draw from Britain’s power grid to meet its electricity needs – particularly during the gloomier winter months – but when parts of the National Grid need extra electricity, Otterpool Park will help to keep the lights on.

QrizB

There are two articles in the Washington Post today, which is about as mainstream a newspaper as you can find in the US. One about balcony solar and the other about home storage batteries. These aren't groundbreaking technologies or huge new capital investments, bit I thought it was interesting that both were featured to such a degree on a non-specialist publication.

Here are brief extracts and the links (links might be paywalled, apologies):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/08/12/balcony-solar-plug-in-rooftop/

Fifty-three million U.S. households cannot install rooftop solar, primarily due to building and roof limitations, because they live in apartments or because of their status as renters.
I’m one of them.
But as prices plummet and technology shrinks, soon almost anyone in the United States may be able to plug in to the sun. For a few hundred dollars, portable panels that hang on any sunny surface can pump free solar electricity into your home via a wall socket.
“Balcony solar” and other portable solar equipment avoids the complicated installation, roof mounts, permits and other annoyances that can get in the way of rooftop solar — and drive up costs far beyond the panels themselves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2025/08/13/home-battery-storage-backup-blackouts/

Blackouts are routine in Puerto Rico, where an aging and storm-battered fleet of oil, gas and coal plants teeter constantly on the edge of collapse. By the time this summer ends, the power will go out 93 times, according to a forecast from the island’s grid operator, LUMA.

But a solution is rising to alleviate the sticky, summer misery. Roughly 1 in 10 Puerto Rican homes now has a battery and solar array for backup power. The batteries don’t just protect the homeowners who purchased and installed them: They’ve also become a crucial source of backup power for the entire island grid.

A network of 69,000 home batteries can generate as much electricity as a small natural gas turbine during an emergency, temporarily covering about 2 percent of the island’s energy needs when things go wrong. For a system that’s always in crisis mode, that buffer can make a big difference. LUMA, which through agreements with homeowners can use stored power in emergencies, has already called in the backup batteries 30 times this year to ease shortages.

“It has very, very certainly prevented more widespread outages,” said Daniel Haughton, LUMA’s transmission and distribution planning director. “In the instances that we had to [cut power], it was for a much shorter duration: A four-hour outage became a one- or two-hour outage.”

Puerto Rico’s experience offers a glimpse into the future for the rest of the United States, where batteries are starting to play a big role in keeping the lights on. Authorities in Texas, California and New England have credited home batteries with preventing blackouts during summer energy crunches. As power grids across the country groan under the increasing strain of new data centers, factories and EVs, batteries offer a way for homeowners to protect themselves — and all of their neighbors — from the threat of outages.

QrizB

From that second article, US solar PV system prices are still bonkers. Completely out of whack with the rest of the world.

While both options are pricey, (combustion) generators have an edge on up-front cost. Buying and installing a typical standby generator could cost somewhere between $7,000 and $15,000, while a home battery system might cost between $10,000 and $20,000, according to a guide from the tech news and review site CNET.
For home batteries to last through days-long outages, they need to be paired with rooftop solar panels, which could add another $20,000 to the price, according to listing data from EnergySage, an online marketplace for solar panels and batteries

$20k for rooftop solar? Seems crazy!

And from the referenced EnergySage site:

https://www.energysage.com/local-data/solar-panel-cost/

According to the most recent data from the EnergySage Marketplace, the average cost-per-watt across the U.S. is around $2.53/W before incentives.

That's about double the cost here, I think?

Netexporter

The price of protectionism.

michaels

I think I read somewhere that it was meeting various codes and getting the equivalent of dno sign off that made US prices so crazy.

NedS

QrizB said:

From that second article, US solar PV system prices are still bonkers. Completely out of whack with the rest of the world.

While both options are pricey, (combustion) generators have an edge on up-front cost. Buying and installing a typical standby generator could cost somewhere between $7,000 and $15,000, while a home battery system might cost between $10,000 and $20,000, according to a guide from the tech news and review site CNET.
For home batteries to last through days-long outages, they need to be paired with rooftop solar panels, which could add another $20,000 to the price, according to listing data from EnergySage, an online marketplace for solar panels and batteries

$20k for rooftop solar? Seems crazy!

And from the referenced EnergySage site:

https://www.energysage.com/local-data/solar-panel-cost/

According to the most recent data from the EnergySage Marketplace, the average cost-per-watt across the U.S. is around $2.53/W before incentives.

That's about double the cost here, I think?

Is that the cost before rebates though? I think they get large tax rebates on renewables. Or maybe it's just the effect of Trump's tariffs on China, LOL

QrizB

NedS said:

Is that the cost before rebates though? I think they get large tax rebates on renewables. Or maybe it's just the effect of Trump's tariffs on China, LOL

$20k for 12kWp is after a 30% tax credit. It would have been $30k otherwise. 30/12 = $2.50 per watt.

Trump's BBB is cancelling the tax credit.

And this is before applying any of the new tariffs.

Martyn1981

QrizB said:

From that second article, US solar PV system prices are still bonkers. Completely out of whack with the rest of the world.

While both options are pricey, (combustion) generators have an edge on up-front cost. Buying and installing a typical standby generator could cost somewhere between $7,000 and $15,000, while a home battery system might cost between $10,000 and $20,000, according to a guide from the tech news and review site CNET.
For home batteries to last through days-long outages, they need to be paired with rooftop solar panels, which could add another $20,000 to the price, according to listing data from EnergySage, an online marketplace for solar panels and batteries

$20k for rooftop solar? Seems crazy!

And from the referenced EnergySage site:

https://www.energysage.com/local-data/solar-panel-cost/

According to the most recent data from the EnergySage Marketplace, the average cost-per-watt across the U.S. is around $2.53/W before incentives.

That's about double the cost here, I think?

Hi Qriz. I've been chatting with Americans, or about American costs for mabye 10yrs+ on various sites and articles. The cost difference for PV v's UK (and especially Australia, which got its costs down low very quickly) is horrendous.

Believe it or not, but around $2-$3 per Wp is actually a big improvement on say 5yrs ago, when $5/Wp wasn't unusual. Back then Aus was already at ~$1/Wp, and the UK perhaps $1.5/Wp.

The big cost impacts are cost of panels, due to some US constraints and tariffs, but mainly two other factors that may be a bit surprising. The first is marketing, where US install costs reflect much higher expenditure by installers on getting the jobs. And the other big one is permitting.

Somebody else may have a better understanding about permitting in the US, which would be useful to know, but my understanding is that you will need to apply for a permit to have the work done (and this seems to apply to many jobs on a house). After permission, the work will then need to be inspected to make sure it's up to code, and before the PV can be switched on.

That would seem to me, to be the equivalent of permitted development in the UK, and the workers having the appropriate certification to do work (such as qualified electricians, gas engineers, builders meeting building regs etc). In most cases we wouldn't have the work inspected, instead we get certificates, and if done wrong, the worker can lose certification(?)

It seems to me, that the UK system is far more simple, and I've been genuinely surprised when watching programmes about clean tech installs in US properties, how 'permitting' always comes up. Perhaps akin to having a building regs inspector come around (in the UK) when more substantial work/changes are being made.