Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

silverwhistle

Firstly I need to declare an interest as an ex-SSE employee who still owns shares. I was amazed at the dramatic (16.8%) share price increase today; it came on the back of the announcement of a 33bn investment plan. 

I haven't looked at the details yet but it will certainly centre around increased renewables, no doubt the grid support to get the power to the markets and hopefully Coire Glas and other storage.

Martyn1981

Thought I'd post a couple of UK PV records, but can't help thinking they've been mentioned before ... or maybe I read them somewhere else before, sometimes it's just like deja vu, all over again.

UK solar capacity hits 20 GW

The United Kingdom has broken the 20 GW barrier for deployed solar capacity, according to the latest government figures, having added 1.4 GW since the start of 2025 including 106 MW in September.

Solar capacity figures from the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) are provisional and subject to revision as new data is added, but show growth of at least 1.9 GW in a 12-month period, an increase of 10.7%.

Record year for UK rooftop solar installations

Previous record from 2011 broken in early November as number of certified solar installations surpasses 203,125 in 2025. New-build properties driving growth with further gains expected when Future Homes Standard comes into force. UK energy secretary describes solar as a “slam dunk” way of cutting household electricity bills.

Martyn1981

thevilla said:

I don't think Ive seen this here.

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Wind-Power/How-Britains-Wind-Boom-Has-Slashed-Energy-Bills.html

How Britain’s Wind Boom Has Slashed Energy Bills

I was thinking about this post/news recently, whilst reading a news series about Australia, especially given the way that RE and AGW are being used as political footballs.

I don't know if this is relevant to us as UK billpayers, but interesting to see that the same claims are being on the opposite side (diagonal?) of the planet. So it's very much a global affair, with similar arguments, and dare I say 'dodgy' attacks from FF interests.

The climate crisis is expensive: net zero is cheaper for Australia than not doing more

[Short and sweet, with a simple graphic.]

Factchecking five Coalition claims about net zero, from power prices to the $9tn cost

[Responses to the main criticisms of net zero policies, explaining the cost impact of gas prices (Russian invasion of Ukraine) being falsely blamed on RE.]

The Coalition is spinning a line that climate action is economically bad. How are they getting away with it?

[I think it was these paragraphs that led me back to the OP, as we see the same arguments and tactics being used worldwide.]

Voices that cut through with facts and reason are few and far between. I can’t figure out if they’re cowed or just don’t know how to get into the fight.

There’s a useful article here that sets out the evidence (not opinion) that renewables provide the cheapest form of energy; that coal-fired power is much more expensive and that global gas prices have driven energy costs up over the last few years – not the renewables transition.

And yet, Sussan Ley has been allowed to spin the line that because of the push towards net zero there’s been a 40% increase in power costs since Labor took government.

Again, I'm not saying this is relevant to us as UK billpayers, but interesting (to me), to see the same 'games' being played worldwide, as AGW, RE and net zero become a way to grab votes, if you can successfully spin them as negatives.

Tis a funny ole world.

Martyn1981

Europe is approaching a nice milestone, with almost 100GW of energy storage. Just over half is PHS (pumped hydro storage), but batts are catching up fast. More dispersed storage across Europe, should help considerably when combined with interconnectors, varying weather and intermitency of RE. And the pace of deployments is picking up, with 20-25GW pa expected by 2030.

Interestingly, that's to say I was surprised to find out, that the current battery deployment of ~45GW is split roughly 60:40 BtM (behind the meter) to FoM (front of meter).

‘Europe’s fastest-growing clean energy technology’: 100GW of energy storage installs

Europe is on track to reach 100GW of cumulative energy storage deployments this month, according to new analysis from LCP Delta and Energy Storage Europe.

As of the beginning of November, 99.3GW of energy storage had been deployed to date across various technologies, according to the report from market intelligence organisation LCP Delta and trade association Energy Storage Europe (formerly the European Association for Storage of Energy, EASE).

EMMES 9.5 forecast cumulative capacity to surpass 215GW by 2030, including around 160GW of battery energy storage system (BESS) assets. The rate of deployment is set to accelerate, reaching 20GW to 25GW a year by the end of this decade.

Between 2020 and 2030, that equates to an additional 128GW/300GWh of electrochemical energy storage added to grids across Europe in the analysis.

Europe now has 18 million solar homes and four million with battery systems. Although higher borrowing costs and cost-of-living pressures subdued demand in 2024, the authors see electricity price uncertainty as a driver of activity through 2030.

Germany (2.1 million) and Italy (780,000) lead Europe for cumulative home battery installs, with the UK third (280,000), which matches the three countries’ status as leading adopters of home solar PV.

Edit - Bonus news, UK just announced a new wind record of 22.711GW supplied to the grid on 11th November.

Martyn1981

And in local news .... 

Suggestions of Wales leading the World are I suspect more than a tad exaggerated, but would be great for the nation, if not for international newsreaders. "Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick. You'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight."

Wales hosts marine energy roundtable

UK Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens met representatives of the marine energy sector this week to discuss how government and industry can work together to realise Wales’ 6GW tidal stream and wave energy potential, according to the UK Government.

John Idris Jones, director of Morlais, said: “Wales has significant and untapped tidal stream potential.”

He said: “Wales can lead the world in developing, building, and exporting marine energy technologies.”

debitcardmayhem

Another BBC article why this country’s power problems and distribution is a NIMBY mess
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0y033xngxo

markin

I just want to point out that 'AI data centres' are not the same thing as the big GWH Training clusters used by GTP and Grok.


Most 'DATA centres' have switched to simple AI model years ago using CPU's. 

Google and AWS (Amazon web services) report 30–50% energy savings from GPU adoption in AI.

Google 2024–2025 reports show ~20–30% lower energy per search vs. 2020.

Google today (Gemini + indexes)

fewer user refinements,

Users now type natural-language questions, not keyword lists. AI is the only way to answer them correctly.

 GPUs deliver up to 25% better energy efficiency year over year.

markin

michaels said:

Hmm - 78GW - peak UK demand is what - 45GW?  Does that big a pipeline in that configuration make sense?

That to go all electric is it not, Home heating heatpumps and EV's, Making steel, Ect.

Hold on..
hundreds of thousands lose heat-pump subsidies in reevess budget plan.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/13/hundreds-of-thousands-to-lose-heat-pump-subsidies-in-reevess-budget-plan

QrizB

markin said:
hundreds of thousands lose heat-pump subsidies in reevess budget plan.

Any article about "reeves budget plan" has now been superseded by the actual budget.

Was this "plan" anywhere in evidence?

Martyn1981

Couple of storage articles that are not conventional batteries.

First the UK's Highview and their LAES technology (liquid air energy storage), have broken ground on their 50MW/300MWh project in Carrington, Greater Manchester.

Liquid air energy storage startup Highview breaks ground at 300MWh UK project

The groundbreaking ceremony at Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park welcomed Burnham alongside Highview CEO Richard Butland, Chairman Colin Roy, and Andrew Western, MP for Stretford and Urmston, as construction begins on the facility scheduled for operation by late 2026.

Highview claims that the project is the world’s largest commercial-scale plant of its kind.

The Carrington plant will deliver 50MW/300MWh of storage capability for six hours. The facility will integrate with existing substation and transmission infrastructure while incorporating a stability island designed to enhance local grid resilience against outages and blackouts.

And secondly, another 'sand battery' starts construction in Finland, this one being 2MW/250MWh. I thought I may have mentioned this before, but suspect I'm thinking of the 1MW/100MWh project mentioned in the article that was completed this summer.

250MWh ‘Sand Battery’ to start construction in Finland, for both heating and ancillary services

The project will have a heating power of 2MW and a thermal energy storage (TES) capacity of 250MW, making it a 125-hour system and the largest sand-based TES project once complete.

It will supply heat to Lahti Energia’s Vääksy district heating network but is also large enough to participate in Fingrid’s reserve and grid balancing markets.

Polar Night Energy’s technology works by heating a sand or a similar solid material using electricity, retaining that heat and then discharging that for industrial or heating use.

The project will cut fossil-based emissions in the Vääksy district heating network by around 60% each year, by reducing natural gas use bu 80% and also decreasing wood chip consumption.