Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

The UK CfD register has been updated with 2018 prices (well it is April). Also it now shows the off-shore wind projects that were successful in the last CfD auction, so I though a quick comparison of costs might be useful. And I'm not nuclear bashing, just showing cost trends and the positive news.

CfD Register

So the latest nuclear contract, HPC is now £99.87/MWh.

The latest PV and off-shore contracts are in the £80's, issued in early 2015. Similar costs were issued in Germany at that time, but their latest contracts are around £40-£50/MWh.

The real news is off-shore wind, look at the cost trajectory with contracts issued over the years at:
£166.59
£155.53
£133.29
£127.21
£82.70
£63.66

For subsidies, you need to deduct the price at which any generation is sold. Assuming the NAO are right (see page 39) then expect wholesale prices of approx £40/MWh this decade, approx £55/MWh in the 2020's and dropping through £50, to £45/MWh in the 2030's.

Wind and PV CfD's are for 15yrs, nuclear is for 35yrs.

I'll be honest, I never thought off-shore wind would fall this fast. Germany and the Netherlands have already issued subsidy free contracts, but the schemes are slightly different, such as shallower inshore deployments, or HV infrastructure upgrade costs not included.

Some great charts showing how RE has developed this decade. Click on them for a better view.

NRDC Launches Tool To Track Cost Reductions & Adoption Of Wind, Solar, EVs, & LEDs

The National Resources Defense Council has this week launched a new tool to track the historic development and cost reductions of four clean energy technologies — wind, solar, LED light bulbs, and electric vehicles — after the Energy Department abandoned their own efforts now that President Donald Trump is in charge.

Revolution Now is a new online tool created by National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that tracks the latest cost and adoption data for wind energy, solar power, LED lighting, and electric vehicles, and replaces a similarly named report that used to be published by the US Department of Energy, but has since been cancelled. The importance of tracking these metrics is evident in the chart below, which shows the cost reductions going back to 2008.

[Careful with the headline, as conventional generation was needed to fill in gaps at times.]

Renewable Energy Meets 100% Of Portugal’s March Electricity Needs

According to new numbers published earlier this month, Portugal’s renewable energy production in March exceeded the country’s electricity consumption for the month, a record not seen in forty years.

Accordingly, thermal fossil fuel power plants and/or imports were required to complement the country’s electricity supply at times, but these periods were fully compensated by renewable energy generation in other times.

Specifically, therefore, Portugal’s supply of renewable energy accounted for a minimum daily share of 86% on March 7, and a maximum of 143% on March 11. Hydroelectricity and wind energy accounted for the lion’s share of renewable energy production, with 55% and 42% respectively.

Another bright point from March was the role renewable energy had in lowering the average daily wholesale market price for electricity, which came in at €39.75 per megawatt-hour (MWh), well down on the €43.94/MWh a year ago.

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

The reference to inflexible gas powered generators comes from the article not Martyn.

Many thanks

Thanks ET, I'll amend my post with some quotes for those that simply wish to argue.

And of course, higher RE generation naturally displaces FF's such as gas, all the time.