Scotland, 100% Renewable energy reliant soon!

Coastalwatch

Announced this morning Scotland is soon to produce 100% of it's electrical energy from renewable sources. Today, three quarters of it's requirements are poduced by renewables.
Will it be the first of the developed nations to achieve 100%?
https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/09/23/scotland-will-soon-generate-100-of-its-power-through-renewables/

Martyn1981

That's so impressive, and they have done the right thing since they have a large neighbour who's desperate for any spare RE leccy.

What jumped out at me, was the point about moving on next to transport and heating, and given a high penetration of clean leccy they are perfectly placed to advance those other sectors.

They really seem to have embraced the advantages, and possibly established an employment replacement as N. Sea oil and gas declines?

GreatApe

Not many people are aware that Scotland produces about 17TWh annually from nuclear while her domestic consumption of electricity is about 35TWh

That's roughly 50% of needs from nuclear
Another 15% is from hydropower

Those nukes are to be shut down in a few years time and probably none will be built to replace them
Probably will be replaced by CCGTs/GTs somewhere in Scotland

Really the story of Scotland is one of interconntors
They have/will-have huge links to England Wales Scotland and Norway relative to their population/demand
As such the Scottish grid has next door neighbours which act as free batteries
This isn't a negative but actually shows how important interconnection is going to be
The UK as a whole needs significantly more links and we would have done well to have built them 30 years ago
But I guess better late than never. Two new links come online in the next 12 months or so. Another 5 under construction or likely by 2025

GreatApe

Not worth its own thread

But the Scots have a plan to build a huge pumped hydro project

1.5GW power 30GWh storage

Hasn't really got anywhere

Good or bad is debatable but it's clearly not economic as it stands

Better and more electrically efficient to build an additional 1.5 GW link to Norway than to build such a pumped hydropower system

In fact it looks like pumped hydro is dead there isn't much of an economic case
And like nuclear what killed it was gas fired power stations

Solarchaser

It was 37% nuclear in 2017, down from 43% in 2016, so closer to a third than a half, the assumption would be that figure will continue to decrease.
They wont build more nukes here.
And I really cant see how they would go with gas seen as how much methane is used.

I can see a big investment coming in batteries for the wind farms on and off shore.

Well done Scotland:)

GreatApe

Solarchaser wrote: »

It was 37% nuclear in 2017, down from 43% in 2016, so closer to a third than a half, the assumption would be that figure will continue to decrease.
They wont build more nukes here.
And I really cant see how they would go with gas seen as how much methane is used.

I can see a big investment coming in batteries for the wind farms on and off shore.

Well done Scotland:)

That is a percentage of total generation
Scotland generates about 50TWh and consumes about 35TWh annually the difference is exported South

Of her own needs nuclear generates roughly 50% of Scotland's annual consumption

Yes I'm aware no nukes will be built in Scotland she doesn't need new nukes but extending the current nukes by 5-10 years would be a good idea

Regarding building a new CCGT
Scotland doesn't need a new CCGT she can just use the thermal of England and the hydro of Norway to meet her needs. However that's dangerous especially if you want independence. Not being able to guarantee 100% using your own infrastructure is not a good idea imo
Electricity is too important to lose control of

Imagine an independent Scotland
The English could screw them by implementing an export tax on electricity
£1000/MWh and the Scots would have no choice but to pay it until they are able to build domestic thermal generation. It's not at all likely but even a one in a thousand chance isn't worth taking
You could just build a cheap OCGT and almost never use it it's your guarantee

Solarchaser

Or a big assed battery

GreatApe

Solarchaser wrote: »

They wont build more nukes here.

I agree but I don't think many Scots understand how important nuclear is for Scotland. Much more so than the UK as a whole. Scotland is 50% nuclear powered while rUK is closer to 16%

It adds about £800 million a year to your GDP and it goes 100% to your trade balance

An extension of 10 years will be worth £8 billion in GDP to your country well worth doing if at all possible

Irrespective of what you plan for wind power or renewables you have links south and soon to Norway which means you have the capacity to export this energy and keep the wealth and jobs in Scotland. It's not one or the other Scotland isn't an energy island. Closing the nukes will means £800 million less in exports irrespective of what you plan for wind power

GreatApe

Solarchaser wrote: »

Or a big assed battery

Not realistic

As noted there has been a plan going on for nearly a decade to build a big pumped hydro project in Scotland with 1.5GW power and 30GWh storage

It's just not economical and isn't going anywhere.

Plus you put in 100 units and get out 80 units not very efficient
Better to build a backup CCGT or OCGT and another one two three links to England and Norway

Solarchaser

Yep 15 huge batteries, fitted in the ugly as sin remnants of an old nuke.
Would be quite fitting.
New tech replacing ancient tech

GreatApe

Solarchaser wrote: »

Yep 15 huge batteries, fitted in the ugly as sin remnants of an old nuke.
Would be quite fitting.
New tech replacing ancient tech

How does '15 huge batteries' replace the 15-20TWh annual production of Scotland's Nukes?
Those batteries won't produce one kWh of net power
Batteries consume net power So what the hell are you talking about?

Scotland's Nukes already exist they help your balance of trade they add to your economy and Scottish jobs

How does importing foreign batteries help for any of this?
Are you proposing these batteries will allow Scotland to deploy more wind power?
How about you start building the Scotland Norway link instead. 1.4GW and an actual losing term 'virtual' battery cheaper and more efficient than your batteries