The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

Instead we have a power station chimney blown over in the wind.

JKenH

UK govt awards power contracts at record prices to help keep lights on next winter

National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.) said the capacity market auction, to ensure enough electricity capacity is available for 2022/23, was completed at a record high of £75 per kilowatt (kW) per year on Tuesday evening.

A total of nearly 5 GW of capacity was awarded in the auction, Reuters reported, with over 3.4 GW from gas-fired plants.

The record price demonstrates the current tightness of UK power markets, RBC analysts said, and suggested next week’s auction to secure initial capacity for the winter of 2025-26 “could also achieve record results” and benefit a larger number of companies.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/974244/sse-and-centrica-win-contracts-at-record-prices-to-help-keep-lights-on-next-winter-974244.html

markin

JKenH said:

Controversial Norway-UK interconnector project canceled

The cable would have made NOK 8.5bn for the state, and would have been able to reduce the UK's carbon emissions by 2 million tonnes annually.

https://energiwatch.dk/Energinyt/Energiselskaber/article13600904.ece

"Shortly before New Year's Day, the Norwegian government has chosen to do away with a significant hanging party. Specifically, a 655 km long one of its kind in the form of the 1,400 MW power cable between Great Britain and Norway called North Connect. The cable was initially postponed indefinitely by Norway's previous Conservative government, led by Erna Solbjerg, as they would first gain experience from Nordlink to Germany and ...."

Was that widely reported in English? So no using Norway as a battery then.

All i found in google was the English version of that page.

https://energywatch.eu/EnergyNews/Utilities/article13601816.ece

EDIT: just read the next page/post about it. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78948929/#Comment_78948929

1961Nick

Hydrogen would appear to be the ideal fuel for peaker plants, especially if we do manage to nearly triple wind output by 2030. With 40GW of metered wind, plus all the unmetered wind, there’d be an off peak surplus of 15GW (assuming nuclear & exports balance each other out).

I’d be a very similar situation to what we’re seeing in Scotland at the moment. Excessive wind energy & nowhere to send it to because the grid’s bottlenecked in the north east.

JKenH

How much does energy cost to produce?

In the light of recent developments in Ukraine, these are estimated costs for the various energy sources Britain has at its disposal, plus pros and cons:

• Renewables (intermittent, and including the subsidies) - £110/megawatt hour
• Gas (after developments in Russia and Ukraine) - at least £120/MWh
• Coal (having closed all our coal mines, but CO2 emitters) - £60/MWh
• Nuclear (stable, carbon free) - £92/MWh
• Interconnects - purchasing energy from neighbouring countries (not necessarily carbon free; security issues) - £100/MWh

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/expensive-wasteful-heat-pumps-not-solution-britains-energy-crisis/

This table was in an article in the Telegrapgh about heat pumps. 

ABrass

How do they get £110 for Renewables? Those must all be 2012 money prices as well since that's the strike price for Hinckley.

Sound like the Telegraph continuing on its push against renewables.

2nd_time_buyer

ABrass said:

How do they get £110 for Renewables? Those must all be 2012 money prices as well since that's the strike price for Hinckley.

Sound like the Telegraph continuing on its push against renewables.

My thinking was that this is the current cost of production i.e. not the cost of adding increased capacity.

Out of the context of the massive reductions that have occurred in renewables costs (but not other sources), it certainly looks like naughty reporting.

2nd_time_buyer

Interesting comments in response to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia being suspended.

Cutting itself off completely from Russian gas would leave a big hole in the market that in the first instance would “drive prices higher”, said Habeck of the Green party.

However Germany’s power demands could be “compensated” with other energy sources and suppliers, including an accelerated renewables push set out by the government, he said.

JKenH

2nd_time_buyer said:

ABrass said:

How do they get £110 for Renewables? Those must all be 2012 money prices as well since that's the strike price for Hinckley.

Sound like the Telegraph continuing on its push against renewables.

My thinking was that this is the current cost of production i.e. not the cost of adding increased capacity.

Out of the context of the massive reductions that have occurred in renewables costs (but not other sources), it certainly looks like naughty reporting.

Like you, I am assuming it to be the current cost of the various forms of generation currently available to us (the Telegraph article says “has at its disposal”) not what they might be in 2023/4 when we start to see new generation come on line at the strike price of around £40/MWh (2012 figures, possibly nearer £50 by now). Someone recently enquired why we were still burning coal and the answer is in those figures. 

I don’t consider it to be naughty reporting. It is factual but perhaps it is perceived to be so as it is contrary to the narrative we usually here about renewables being distinctly cheaper than other sources. They will be but they aren’t yet and there will still be the legacy renewable generators in the fleet that are still heavily subsidised.The g gas price is currently an anomaly but it is included at what it is now, not what it was 12 months ago or what it might be in a couple of years time. The nuclear price to me also looked suspiciously like the 2012 strike price for HPC so I was a little circumspect about that.

JKenH

ABrass said:

How do they get £110 for Renewables? Those must all be 2012 money prices as well since that's the strike price for Hinckley.

Sound like the Telegraph continuing on its push against renewables.

This report suggests a higher cost for current renewable wind and solar. 

The average-weighted strike price for wind and solar producers currently stands at GBP151/MWh as of July 2021, with over 6 GW of renewable capacity allocated under the scheme already installed.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/blogs/electric-power/082621-uk-renewables-power-price-rally