Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

A couple of articles on Australia from yesterday which I think link nicely.

One is about the government's support to keep an old coal generation plant going, despite it looking like renewables would be far cheaper, and the second is about renewables being able to provide 50% of generation without significant storage deployment.

These articles are important because the amount of generation RE can supply 'before problems occur' tends to be 'just' above the level of RE any country already has, according to critics. So we've seen 20%, 25%, 30% etc but the number keeps going up.

Also, and with reference to a recent thread on network costs for PV'ers, Australian domestic PV is a problem for the leccy generators and suppliers as PV reduces import by about 40%, or with storage, about 95%.

If Aus puts up network charges much more (they are already around Aus$400 pa) then they simply encourage people to go off-grid, and effectively contribute $4,000 over 10 years to the cost of transistion.

So Aus is working with PV households and buying battery leccy off them to reduce peak leccy prices.

I think it's fair to say that Aus will be the leaders in storage going forward, helping to test and reduce the cost of domestic, commercial and grid scale storage for all of us.

Renewables could reliably contribute 50% to power grid, says Finkel report

Australia’s power grid can reach penetrations of 50% renewable energy without a significant requirement for storage to support reliability, according to a new report commissioned by Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel.

While the Turnbull government has made much of the need for storage to increase security and reliability in the national power grid, the new report from the Australian Council of Learned Academies (Acola) says at an aggregated national level, 50% renewables is possible without major investments in storage for reliability purposes.

But the report also points out that the requirement to shore-up network security as power systems decarbonise in accordance with international climate policy commitments is an ongoing task, and that transition means energy storage is now a major global growth industry.

Replacing Liddell coal plant with clean energy $1.3bn cheaper – analysis

Replacing the Liddell coal power station with clean energy technologies would slash pollution and be at least $1.3bn cheaper than the Turnbull government’s plan to extend the life of the New South Wales plant by five years, a new analysis has found.

A second report released on Monday also found Australia has the potential to lead the world in developing large and home-scale energy storage systems if public uncertainty can be overcome.

California is just showing off now:-

California To Meet 2030 Renewable Energy Targets By 2020

A new report from the California Public Utilities Commission has concluded that the state’s major utilities have already met or will all soon exceed the state’s 2020 renewable energy target of 33%, and will likely meet the 2030 target of 50% by 2020.

gefnew wrote: »

A bit from the house of commons audit committee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42065837
The poorest will be hit the hardest from hinkley point.
regards
gefnew

Interesting.

Just a few clarifications from the article.

1. It states that the top up payments are about £30bn, but that's the figure from the 2016 NAO report. Since then future wholesale leccy prices have been revised down further, lifting the subsidy element to around £46bn.

2. EDF state:

"The agreed price is lower than 80% of other low carbon capacity contracted so far and the project has restarted UK nuclear construction after a quarter century.

The 80% figure is probably true, but relates to the fact that off-shore wind contracts so far have been very high. But those contracts prices have fallen in every auction and the latest is £57.50/MWh v's £92.50/MWh for HPC (2012 prices).

And, as always needs stating, the renewables subsidies are their first, dating back about 10yrs, whilst nuclear has been subsidised for 60yrs already.

CfD rates can be compared here: CfD Register

3. For anyone interested, when the HPC deal was being made, the NAO state:-

2.8 The HPC strike price appears cost-competitive with other technologies in part because of the way it is structured. At the outset of negotiations, the Department set its negotiating team a firm mandate that a fixed strike price should lie in the range £78-£85/MWh (in 2012 prices). This was to ensure broad comparability with onshore wind costs, the cheapest renewable technology at the time, and new gas power stations delivering in 2020. To achieve this strike price, the Department agreed to a CfD longer than the standard 15-year term to spread the costs, and with the strike price indexed to inflation. Our!analysis shows to achieve the same investor return a 15-year CfD would have required a headline strike prices of around £113/MWh (in 2012 prices). The Department also considered that having a CfD with a longer duration would have helped EDF secure debt finance for the project, although it subsequently financed HPC using equity along with the investment from CGN.

Firm mandate for £78-£85, giving a deal of £92.50!

£78 v's £92.50 works out at £13bn in additional subsidies.