The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

In response to the question on the G&E thread - I accidentally replied on there before I realised so moved my response here. Apologies Mart. 🤭

silverwhistle said:

'O' level chemistry was the only one I failed so could anybody work out how much energy and volume a kilo of hydrogen would be. 

You know the sort of thing: 'an area the size of Wales', 'the volume of 20 Olympic swimming pools' etc. How about 'half a Hindeburg' or '2 blimps'? 

To get a precise answer you would need to specify the temperature and pressure but for practical vehicle use 1kg could be stored in a 5 litre tank at a pressure of around 700bar. Uncompressed at room temperature it would roughly fill the load space of a Ford Transit SWB van.

As Mart suggested one kg would take you around 60 miles.  

JKenH

Can China hold the world to ransom over access to rare-earth metals?

https://moneyweek.com/investments/commodities/industrial-metals/602879/can-china-hold-the-world-to-ransom-over-access-to

JKenH

It’s not been a great week for generation from renewables with things particularly grim on 3rd March when over the whole day wind and solar managed just 3.42% of our generation requirements with emissions averaging 302g/kWh. Coal stepped in to fill the gap and at teatime was providing 3x as much of our power as solar and wind. From midnight to 7am wind was generating just 0.7 GW.
Over the week as a whole wind and solar provided 9.31% and our emissions averaged 272 g/kWh.

The dream of a renewables (with storage) only grid is still a long way off.

https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?period=7-days&start=2021-03-01&&_k=5lflgm

Pile_o_stone

Cardew said:

An energy consultant on Bloomberg stated that although Texas is the oil/gas capital of the USA, the peak load is always in the summer with air-conditioning and pool heating. So they have closed lots of fossil fuel generators and rely on loads of solar panels - which don't work well under a foot of snow.

Also Texas has its own Grid with little ability to import from other states. 

But solar panels do work well in sunshine when the peak load is occurring. The real issue seemed to me that, like the UK, Texas weather is pretty stable so they don't prepare for the extremes. We grind to a halt with a couple of inches of snow, they ground to a halt after a few feet of snow. Nothing to do with the mix of generation and everything to do with the lack of planning for emergencies.

JKenH

Norway's Oil Demand Data Is A Cold Shower For EV-Driven Peak Oil Demand Proponents

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4414544-norways-oil-demand-data-is-cold-shower

Solarchaser

Interesting article. 
So because Norway has just tipped over 50% on bev/ice it was expected a Peak in oil... but surely that would of be after all the trucks and ships start moving to ev's, according to uk charts, transport is less than 50% of oil demand

JKenH

Solarchaser said:

Interesting article. 
So because Norway has just tipped over 50% on bev/ice it was expected a Peak in oil... but surely that would of be after all the trucks and ships start moving to ev's, according to uk charts, transport is less than 50% of oil demand

Some believe we have already reached peak oil. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/14/global-oil-demand-may-have-passed-peak-says-bp-energy-report

JKenH

I watched the great video posted by @frozen_wastes on the generation thread and was interested in the comments made about electricity price inflation. 

I thought it might be of interest to show the comparative wholesale pricing for the first 3 months of this year compared to the same period in 2019. (I have ignored 2020 for obvious reasons). The average price in 2019 was £50.60/MWh and in 2021 £61.94. Wind and solar accounted for 23.57% of generation in 2019 compared to 28.95% in 2021.

What really stood out though was the Y axis of the graphs where the £/MWh scale only went up to £50 in 2019 compared to £300 in 2019. Prices today are far more volatile than in 2019 and this may account for the higher average price. (I would be interested to see a comparison of Octopus Agile average prices over the same period). 

With increased renewables we might expect to see increased volatility in wholesale pricing which may feed through eventually in higher prices for consumers. 

JKenH

Continuing on the theme of electricity costs below is a comparison of Bank Holiday Monday this year when we had record wind figures and Bank Holiday Monday in 2019. Demand in both years was similar at 29.5 GW average but the price in 2021 was £69.49/MWh against £39.80/MWh. Temperature was around 9 C both days.

Edit: I am also adding 2017 BH as temperatures (11.8 C) and demand (28.78GW) were not too dissimilar (2018 BH was 18 C so omitted).
https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?start=2017-05-07&&_k=mt1jrk

JKenH

France threatens to cut off power to Jersey amid fishing row

I see this being extended to other UK inter connectors in negotiations with EU countries. What price security of supply?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56984886