Seven reasons why the Government’s ideas on balancing renewables don’t make sense. In its latest call for evidence on how to balance renewable energy, the Government wants to make windfarms and solar farms be responsible for assuring power delivery all the time. This is something that is not even required of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. Apparently fixated on this notion, and also that of ending the current system of incentivising renewables through giving the long term contracts guaranteeing to pay them set electricity prices, the Government ignores the most practical options for balancing fluctuating renewables. Under the title ‘Enabling a High Renewable, Net Zero Electricity System‘, the Government has set down a series of loaded questions encouraging solutions that involve removing the most successful incentives for renewable energy and making wind and solar plant guarantee continuous delivery of power. Our research, based on modeling of Scottish grid constraints, implies that for every TWh of inflexible nuclear generation, an extra 120 GWh of renewable energy generation (the equivalent of 12 percent of the nuclear generation) will be forced off the grid. This is in a system dominated mostly by renewable and nuclear generation. Clearly, the Government could help balance renewables much better by scrapping plans to give more extremely expensive (and wasteful in terms of its impact on renewable generation) contracts to nuclear power plant and instead spending some of the savings on measures which genuinely help balance renewables. Amongst the techniques necessary for balancing renewables that the Government ignores in their call for evidence are: encouraging energy suppliers to bring in half-hour pricing tariffs for all consumers; this can help shape demand to suit the availability of power supplies; giving requirements and ambitious targets to Distribution Companies to hold ‘flexibility auctions’ whereby regional distribution networks hold competitive auctions to enable a range of players to offer demand reductions when needed, so helping balance renewables. These already exist on an experimental level, as illustrated by Western Power Distribution Company; setting up markets, some of them niche development markets, to deliver storage for short, medium terms and long term balancing purposes; Encouraging thermal as well as other types of storage both at the level of the individual building (hot water tanks) and also through district heating systems served by large scale heat pumps with large long term hot water stores.

100% Renewables 27th Feb 2021 read more »

Lowestoft is at the heart of a bid for a greener future, according to a project director who claims its windfarm has brought in more than £140 million to the local economy. The East Anglia ONE windfarm was completed 43km off the Lowestoft coast during the first national lockdown in 2020, with all 102 turbines now operational. It was a major milestone for operator ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), with the £2.5 billion installation set to produce 714 megawatts of clean energy a year – enough to power more than 630,000 homes, the equivalent of the majority of houses in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Eastern Daily Press 27th Feb 2021 read more »

A Suffolk MP says a single ‘connection point’ for new power projects off the county’s coast would avoid “spaghetti-like cabling” wrecking some of its most beautiful areas. Therese Coffey says proposals for a huge 30-acre electricity substation at Friston and the associated cabling corridor from Thorpeness for two new windfarms, if approved, would have a “devastating impact” on the area including elements of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Campaigners says 9km trenches at 60 metres wide would be gouged through the Suffolk Coastal Path, the Suffolk Sandlings, the AONB, and lead to the destruction of mature woodland and swathes of Grade 2 and 3 agricultural land.

East Anglian Daily Times 27th Feb 2021 read more »

When a small community just west of Oxford watched as the Thames destroyed their houses in a dramatic flood, they realised just how powerful the river was. Now, they have harnessed that force and protected their homes by using their little stretch for hydroelectric renewable energy. The people of Osney Lock are just one of the communities which hope to be the first to go truly “off grid” under plans to allow local people to buy renewable energy which is generated nearby. At the moment, when a community buys a group of solar panels, or starts a hydroelectric dam, they are forced to sell the energy back to the grid. Under a new proposed Local Energy Bill, neighbourhoods could club together to become their own energy suppliers, breaking free from the big utility companies and creating green, cheap energy. Ministers heartily support the plans, with one telling The Sunday Telegraph: “These ideas bring out the Conservative in me. The government should send the signal, create incentives and remove red tape – this then lets 1,000 flowers bloom.”

Telegraph 27th Feb 2021 read more »

Batteries double CO2 savings of households with PV systems. Photovoltaic systems for single-family homes reduce electricity-related CO2 emissions of the households by 45%, according to EUPD Research. When a battery is added the CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 85%. German-based market and economic research company EuPD Research has conducted an analysis on behalf of German storage manufacturer E3 / DC to determine how much the addition of a home storage system to a residential PV system can reduce CO2 emissions.

PV Magazine 26th Feb 2021 read more »

A new solar panel installation at Dundee Science Centre will generate enough renewable energy to power the entire facility. The 40 kilowatt solar panel installation is the latest investment made as part of a £2 million refurbishment.

Dundee Courier 26th Feb 2021 read more »

UK green supplier Good Energy has signed a new subsidy-free agreement for two solar farms in Wales. The two sites – Flint Landfill and Crumps Yard – are being developed by ENGIE on land owned by Flintshire County Council. Cumulatively the sites have a capacity of 3.5MW from 9,000 400W panels across the two. Both received planning permission in 2020, and will enter the construction phase now following the financial agreement with Good Energy, which provides financial security to the Council and offers above market rates, the company said.

Solar Power Portal 26th Jan 2021 read more »

Thousands of homes in Kingston could soon take advantage of energy captured from sewage in a pioneering low carbon district heating trial that will channel heat recovered from a local sewage plant to a nearby council estate, it was announced today. Thames Water and Kingston Council announced this morning they have applied for capital funding from the government for the ‘poo power’ scheme, which they said would be able to supply up to 7GWh of low carbon heat annually to 2,000 homes. The partners touted the pioneering scheme as a model for low-carbon heating systems that could be replicated elsewhere in the UK, confirming they planned to ultimately extend the project’s reach within Kingston to deliver greater carbon savings across the borough. They said they were applying for funding to launch the trial after completing feasibility studies and design work for the project over the last two years that were backed by the government and Greater London Authority. Under the plans, heat is to be captured from the final effluent of the sewage treatment process at the Hogsmill sewage plant in Surrey and diverted to a dedicated waste-to-energy centre that will be built on site. The heat will then be concentrated and supplied to homes on the Cambridge Road Estate through a sealed network of pipes, they said.

Business Green 26th Feb 2021 read more »

The government should aim to ramp up UK solar power capacity to 40GW at a minimum by the end of the decade, backed by a comprehensive skills development and financing deal to support the sector’s growth in line with national climate targets, a group of NGOs and think tanks have urged. Solar power capacity currently stands at around 14GW, but there remains “major potential” for far more, argues the coalition, which includes Greenpeace, the Green Finance Institute (GFI), the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), WWF, E3G, Community Energy England, and CPRE. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has estimated the UK will need around 54GW of solar capacity by 2035 in order to put the UK on track for its 2050 net zero target, while the National Infrastructure Commission has suggested the UK would need roughly 38GW of solar by the end of the current decade.

Business Green 26th Feb 2021 read more »

Solar Power Portal 25th Feb 2021 read more »

Thousands of homes in south-west London could soon be warmed by the waste from their local sewage works as part of England’s first poo-powered district heating scheme. Thames Water hopes to harness the heat of human waste from its treatment plant in Kingston upon Thames to warm more than 2,000 new homes that form part of a regeneration plan for the borough’s Cambridge Road estate. Typically, the water company flushes the clean warm water that remains after it has treated its customers’ sewage back into a local river system as effluent. But under the new plan it will funnel the warm water to an energy centre where the effluent will help heat the water destined to warm local homes. The new Thames Water energy centre will use heat pumps to boost the temperature of the water higher, and heat exchangers to transfer the heat of the waste water to a separate system of water pipes which will carry hot water to the district heating scheme.

Guardian 26th Feb 2021 read more »

The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) has claimed that the UK can reach 100% renewable electricity in the next 11 years, with clean technology uptake set to create 200,000 new jobs provided the Government can deliver enabling policies. The REA has published its ‘Strategy for Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies’, which outlines how clean technology uptake can boost job growth and push the nation towards its net-zero emissions target set for 2050. By the end of 2022, the report claims that renewables will account for more than 50% of electricity generation, with 100% renewable electricity achievable by 2032. As for energy demand, the REA states that the majority will be accounted for by heat and transport sectors, both of which could be met from clean technologies by 2035 which would enable both sectors to reach net-zero by 2050.

Edie 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Recent weeks have seen influential bodies urging the Government to publish the Hydrogen Strategy sooner rather than later. In tandem, announcements have been made about hydrogen-powered homes and vehicles. So, is the UK’s hydrogen revolution about to begin? The Strategy is due before the end of March and business groups are urging the government to ensure that it does not suffer the same fate as the Heat and Buildings Strategy and other policy frameworks affected by Covid-19 related delays.

Edie 23rd Feb 2021 read more »