Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

Strange little news piece, but maybe worth a quick read, especially as it explains a few targets, and their meanings.

Analysis: Great Britain has run on 100% clean power for record 87 hours in 2025 so far

The government’s 2030 target has been widely reported as a goal for 95% clean power, with no more than 5% of electricity generation coming from gas.

However, there is a second part to its goal, which is that 100% of national demand in 2030 should be covered by domestic clean-electricity generation.

The two elements mean that the country would need to generate 105% of the electricity it needs – no more than 5% of which would come from gas – with the surplus supply being exported.

The 2030 target relates to electricity supply and demand across the whole year. In 2025 to date, 66% of electricity generation was from nuclear or renewables, which covered 59% of demand. (The difference is due to net imports covering around 17% of demand.)

As such, the 2030 targets are a long way from being met.

How are imports counted for the renewable energy targets - are assumptions made about renewable percentages?

Have a dig and see if you find a useful link/source.

But from memory, yes the source of supply is taken into account, and I think it will almost always be lower carbon than UK generation at that time. If it was FF, it would cost more, and UK gas generation would probably be competitive instead. The big(gest) two will be excess French nuclear, and Norwegian hydro.

Magnitio

Martyn1981 said:

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

Strange little news piece, but maybe worth a quick read, especially as it explains a few targets, and their meanings.

Analysis: Great Britain has run on 100% clean power for record 87 hours in 2025 so far

The government’s 2030 target has been widely reported as a goal for 95% clean power, with no more than 5% of electricity generation coming from gas.

However, there is a second part to its goal, which is that 100% of national demand in 2030 should be covered by domestic clean-electricity generation.

The two elements mean that the country would need to generate 105% of the electricity it needs – no more than 5% of which would come from gas – with the surplus supply being exported.

The 2030 target relates to electricity supply and demand across the whole year. In 2025 to date, 66% of electricity generation was from nuclear or renewables, which covered 59% of demand. (The difference is due to net imports covering around 17% of demand.)

As such, the 2030 targets are a long way from being met.

How are imports counted for the renewable energy targets - are assumptions made about renewable percentages?

Have a dig and see if you find a useful link/source.

But from memory, yes the source of supply is taken into account, and I think it will almost always be lower carbon than UK generation at that time. If it was FF, it would cost more, and UK gas generation would probably be competitive instead. The big(gest) two will be excess French nuclear, and Norwegian hydro.

The best place to look is https://www.neso.energy/

debitcardmayhem

If you think Trump is Bad Enough now we have Badenoch

Badenoch vows to scrap ‘failed’ climate change law

todays Telegraph, probably behind a paywall , wii read later…

BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrp2k3m3deo

Martyn1981

And sadly, the anti-RE news in the US is spreading wider, with extremely dodgy news spreading in Australia too.

It's almost as if the FF industry has deep pockets.

News Corp embraces fantasy genre by turning climate crisis into ‘laughable’ science fiction

ed110220

Another interesting report from Ember about how Spain has been cutting the link between expensive gas and electricity wholesale prices with solar and wind to have some of the lowest prices in Europe. It's not in the Ember report but lower electricity prices have been mentioned as one of the reasons for Spain's better economic performance lately compared with the generally gloomy picture in Europe. Meanwhile we're being increasingly sold the big lie that what we really need to bring prices down is MOAR fossil fuels.

Decoupled: how Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables

Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country’s strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the electricity market.

Netexporter

It's almost as if we are being held to ransom by the large contributions to the major political parties' funds by the fossil fuel industry.

michaels

ed110220 said:

Another interesting report from Ember about how Spain has been cutting the link between expensive gas and electricity wholesale prices with solar and wind to have some of the lowest prices in Europe. It's not in the Ember report but lower electricity prices have been mentioned as one of the reasons for Spain's better economic performance lately compared with the generally gloomy picture in Europe. Meanwhile we're being increasingly sold the big lie that what we really need to bring prices down is MOAR fossil fuels.

Decoupled: how Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables

Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country’s strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the electricity market.

I hope we all noticed that the cost per mwh of renewables in Spain was 62eur.  Compare that to the UK CfD numbers and perhaps that also tells a story rather than just the cost of gas generation?

Martyn1981

ed110220 said:

Another interesting report from Ember about how Spain has been cutting the link between expensive gas and electricity wholesale prices with solar and wind to have some of the lowest prices in Europe. It's not in the Ember report but lower electricity prices have been mentioned as one of the reasons for Spain's better economic performance lately compared with the generally gloomy picture in Europe. Meanwhile we're being increasingly sold the big lie that what we really need to bring prices down is MOAR fossil fuels.

Decoupled: how Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables

Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country’s strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the electricity market.

Plus for Spain, something I noticed a decade or so ago, when playing with PVGIS, is not just that they generate more (for any given amount of PV), but also how much less variation there is across the year. In the UK, even with  very steep pitched PV (60d+), south facing, you can expect about 3 or 4:1 ratio of best month (usually May or June) to Dec. But in Spain, especially the lower half, it's better than 2:1.

In fact, just playing now:- for optimised generation, with a random pin in Ciudad Real, it gives 1,646kWh/kWp and 165kWh July v's 102kWh Dec.



Increase the pitch to 50d and you get 1,604kWh/kWp with best month August of 152kWh and worst month, December of 113kWh. That's a ratio of 1.35:1.



Or 60d pitch for 1,526kWh/kWp and 140kWh (Mch) v's 116kWh Nov (ironically, June is the next lowest). That's a 1.2:1 ratio.



And for PV farms, you can use simple single axis tracking for ~20% more generation pa. So pretty 'reliable' all year round (on average).

QrizB

Martyn1981 said:

Plus for Spain, something I noticed a decade or so ago, when playing with PVGIS, is not just that they generate more (for any given amount of PV), but also how much less variation there is across the year.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but this is almost all down to their lower latitude. We're just accustomed to living between 50 and 60 degrees away from the Equator!

The ~40% of Earth's surface that's in the tropics gets essentially no seasonal variation in day length.

As you leave the tropics and get closer to the poles, seasons become more distinct until you reach the (Ant)Arctic where you have periods with 24h daylight and others with 24h darkness.

ed110220

QrizB said:

Martyn1981 said:

Plus for Spain, something I noticed a decade or so ago, when playing with PVGIS, is not just that they generate more (for any given amount of PV), but also how much less variation there is across the year.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but this is almost all down to their lower latitude. We're just accustomed to living between 50 and 60 degrees away from the Equator!

The ~40% of Earth's surface that's in the tropics gets essentially no seasonal variation in day length.

As you leave the tropics and get closer to the poles, seasons become more distinct until you reach the (Ant)Arctic where you have periods with 24h daylight and others with 24h darkness.

We also have the misfortune of largely overcast winters. If you look at say Calgary on the edge of the Canadian prairies, it's at almost exactly the same latitude as London, but PVGIS estimates almost twice the generation in the worst month (Dec for both cities): London 43 kWh/kWp, Calgary 82 kWh. Wikipedia gives only 21% possible sunshine for London Heathrow in Dec (ie just 21% of the already short daylight hours are sunny) but 46% for Calgary International Airport. Not only is Dec the month with the shortest days and lowest sun angle, but it's also the cloudiest at least at LHR with a sunshine peak in Aug (45%).