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Renewable/Green energy funds

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  • Prism
    Prism Posts: 3,847 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with the fluctuation of the energy price which affects many of the wind and solar power infrastructure trusts so I went for big scale batteries. Currently investing in GRID. It has its own risks mainly due to shifting technology but I have been happy with it so far.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    Apodemus said:
    * for multiple reasons. Including, refining petrol uses a lot of electricity. That will go. Most cars will charge overnight when demand is very low so no infrastructure upgrade needed there.  A common mode now to install charging stations is with a big battery to store cheap overnight electricity and again, theres plenty of that around but is also means fewer expensive cabling to the chargers.


    I'm not sure that is entirely true. A new Tesla has a 100kWh battery, while the current average household electricity consumption is about 11kWh per day. Even if the Tesla only receives the equivalent of one full charge a week, that is roughly the same as ten days household consumption. That is fine if there are only one or two Teslas in the street, but at present the average house in UK has 1.3 cars. If all these have to be charged, just once a week at home, the added demand (even overnight) per street is quite considerable and in many places will be beyond the capacity of the network at the local level. ...and this is before factoring in a shift from oil and gas across to electricity for domestic heating. Adding this additional demand to the existing network might just be doable if we all accept smart-meter control over our usage, to limit (or smooth out) consumption, but I suspect we will not all be happy to have a remote algorithm making prioritisation decisions between my dishwasher and your Tesla!

     While the urban parts of the country may indeed not need grid strengthening and be manageable, many rural villages are on 11kV lines and simply have no capacity at present for installation of public access chargers, never mind a huge growth in domestic demand. These areas are also where daily car mileages often approach EV limits, so the frequency with which users charge overnight can be expected to be higher. Clearly there needs to be an investment in grid capacity to these communities or a greater commitment to localised energy networks (which would be my preference).

     In the longer term, I think you are right, that improving battery storage solutions to domestic charging will be affordable, but in the short-term we are going to have a messy interim period where we will be struggling to use old grid technology to meet demands that it was never intended for.
    Your calculations are based on battery size, but the calculation you need to do is based on miles driven. National Grid have done those calculations and say"no problem". I'm sure it's googleable. 
  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,410 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Your calculations are based on battery size, but the calculation you need to do is based on miles driven. National Grid have done those calculations and say"no problem". I'm sure it's googleable. 

    Fair enough...but SSEN recently said

    By 2035 we can expect 35 million EVs on our roads (up from 200,000 in 2018) requiring 386,000km of network line reinforcement, with up to 66% of this taking place underground in built up areas across the UK.

    They also cite the National Infrastructure Commission who said
    network reinforcements at the distribution level alone could cost up to £30bn from now to 2030.

    Perhaps there are differing levels of optimism in the industry.
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