Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

NedS

The Government have today published a press release on their drive to introduce plug-in solar to the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-make-plug-in-solar-available-within-months

and the BBC have reported it here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjw7klkjm2o

The BBC headline states "Heat pumps for all new homes and plug-in solar in green tech drive"

Developers will be required to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes in England as part of updated planning requirements published by the government.

The guidance published on Tuesday means that from 2028, no new homes will be on the gas network - and will instead be on a heat network or get a heat pump - and they must have solar panels on their roofs covering an area equivalent to 40% of the ground floor space.

QrizB

I don't always agree with George Monbiot, but he seems to have got this one right.

(Screen cap from Bluesky via Mastodon.)

QrizB

Is there a "wind energy in the news" thread like the solar one? If so, I can't find it (it's not linked from the sticky).

Anyway, the UK set a new wind generation record this week. Only a fraction higher than the previous one, but it all counts!

23880 MW, beating the previous 23825 MW.

https://www.renewableuk.com/news-and-resources/press-releases/new-british-wind-energy-record-set-as-gas-generation-falls-to-two-year-low/

Netexporter

Good to have some cheerful news, for a change.

Certainly been a good week to be all electric.

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940695#Comment_81940695

Some momentary good news, we have wind and solar supplying 89% of UK demand at the moment. Gas a bit high at 2.24GW, so perhaps distribution of the wind generation isn't ideal (I'm not sure).

We are filling storage ~1.4GW, and bio-mass dialed down, but still net exporting 4GW.

Note - Like investments, RE generation can go down as well as up! 😉

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940659#Comment_81940659

I read that too earlier in the week (apologies for not sharing here). The record has been surpassed every year for the last 5 years (2022-2026) as we continually add more wind resource to the network, and lets hope it continues to grow.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940812#Comment_81940812

I noted gas was down to around 1.3GW earlier in the week (Wednesday). I'm not sure if that is around the minimum before those plants are shut down or whether that can go lower. I think they partly need to keep the gas plants operating at minimum output to provide inertia to maintain a stable 50Hz frequency.

Distribution is also obviously a limitation currently were we cannot always get that wind energy to where it needs to go. Lots of technical challenges to overcome besides just building more wind and solar farms but at least we are heading in the right direction (albeit slowly).

Netexporter

I believe NESO do have a plan to switch the gas off entirely, when a suitable day comes along. I imagine it will be kept spinning, but disconnected, in case anything goes wrong, A few years ago the gas would neevr go below 3GW, no matter how windy it was, but they've been creeping towards 1GW for a while.

QrizB

I believe NESO do have a plan to switch the gas off entirely, when a suitable day comes along.

I think you're right. I remember talking of a trial being planned for 2025, but it never quite materialised.

Maybe 2026 is the year we manage FF-free generation!

NedS

NESO says the closest we have come in a single 30min period is 97.7% of zero carbon electricity on 1st April 2025:

https://www.neso.energy/news/britains-energy-explained-2025-review

Hopefully 2026 will see the first 30min period with no FF generation.

NedS

Does anyone use the NESO app?

Just installed it, and it gives nice real time generation figures, plus useful CO2 intensity data if you are interested in shifting grid usage to greener times as opposed to cheaper times. It also lists all the current records (max wind, max solar, min carbon intensity, max zero carbon)