US DOE Offers US$1.76 billion Loan To Hydrostor For A-CAES California Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
These three paragraphs give more detail.
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has made a conditional commitment for a loan to long-duration energy storage (LDES) developer and operator Hydrostor of up to US$1.76 billion.
If finalised, the loan would be used to help fund the Willow Rock Energy Storage Centre, a 500MW/4,000MWh, 8-hour advanced compressed air energy storage system (A-CAES) in Eastern Kern County, California, led by Hydrostor subsidiary GEM A-CAES.
Compressed air energy storage (CAES) charges by pressurising air and funnelling it into a storage medium, often a salt cavern, and discharges it by releasing the compressed air through a heating system, which expands air before it is sent through a turbine generator.
Note.
- Both the Canadian Hydrostor and the British Highview Power use air in their batteries, with the Canadians using compressed air, often in salt caverns and the British using liquid air in tanks.
- Highview Power’s first large scale battery will be 200MW/2.5GWh, which is about half the size of Hydrostor’s, which will be 500MW/4.0GWh.
- Having mathematically-modeled large tanks full of chemicals in the 1970s for ICI, I wouldn’t be surprised, if the Highview Power battery is more easily scalable.
This could be an interesting technological shootout.
Complicating matters could be Trump’s policies to big batteries.
This article on Utility Dive, which is entitled Potential Trump Policies Pose Risks For US Storage Sector, With Musk Impact Uncertain.
Analysts Say Gives A Reasoned.
Higher battery material tariffs and phased-down IRA tax credits threaten a 15% drop in U.S. storage deployment through 2035 in a “worst-case” scenario,
BNEF analysts said.
German Far-Right Vows To Tear Down Wind Turbines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on oilprice.com.
These two paragraphs add detail to the story.
Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has vowed to dismantle wind parks and wind turbines should it win power in the upcoming presidential elections in February, aligning itself with similar sentiments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. AfD asserts in its election platform that it “rejects the further expansion of wind energy” and has called for cuts to renewable subsidies.
German offshore-wind group BWO has hit back at AfD’s anti-wind policy, saying Putin would be the biggest beneficiary of such a move. AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel has also tried to walk back that position, saying her earlier anti-wind comments referred to a local matter in the state of Hesse.
This could be good for the UK.
This is the first two paragraphs of the Wikipedia entry for Wind Power in Germany.
Wind power in Germany is a growing industry. The installed capacity was 55.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2017, with 5.2 GW from offshore installations. In 2020, 23.3% of the country’s total electricity was generated through wind power, up from 6.2% in 2010 and 1.6% in 2000.
More than 26,772 wind turbines were located in the German federal area by year end 2015, and the country has plans for further expansion. As of the end of 2015, Germany was the third largest producer of wind power in the world by installations, behind China and the United States. Germany also has a number of turbine manufacturers, like Enercon, Nordex and Senvion.
By the end of June 2022, Germany had a total of 30,000 installed wind turbines, with a capacity in excess of over 64 GW.
Large numbers of second-hand wind turbines to plant all over Starmer, Reeves and Miliband’s vision of the UK would go down just fine in the cash-strapped Treasury, but would the British public like them?
So as Starmer and Reeves will talk to anybody to save their skins, are they talking to the AfD?
Octopus Energy Generation Acquires 252MW Solar And Storage Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
These two introductory paragraphs add more detail.
The generation arm of British energy major Octopus Energy has announced that it has acquired four new solar projects across England as part of a plan to invest £2 billion into renewable energy projects by 2030.
Four new solar farms currently under development have been acquired from renewable energy developer BayWa.re, with a combined generation capacity of 222MW. One of the sites will also play host to a 30MW battery energy storage system (BESS).
On Sunday, there was an Interview with Greg Jackson, who is the boss of Octopus in the Sunday Times, which was entitled Octopus Boss: Split UK Into Price Zones Or Bills Will Keep Rising.
I think we should watch, where Greg splashes his money.
Will Trump Venture To Impose ‘No New (Offshore) Wind Turbines’ Policy And Bring US Industry Supporting 120,000 Jobs To Halt?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
During his presidential campaign in 2024, Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order to stop offshore wind farms from being built in the US “on day one”. On 7 January, the US president-elect reiterated the plan which now seems to apply to wind energy on land too, saying he would look into implementing “a policy where no windmills are being built”.
He really does look to be following his “Drill, Baby, Drill” philosophy.
But the first paragraph of the article does indicate that Trump might not be having it all his own way.
The backlash is coming not only from the wind energy industry but also from government officials, as wind energy now accounts for 10 per cent of the US electricity generation, employs more than 120,000 people, and attracts tens of billions of US dollars in investments per year.
How easy is it to get rid of the President of the United States, without doing them any physical harm?
The whole article is well-worth reading, but the last paragraph is priceless.
So, will the incoming US president fulfil the promise and embark on implementing a policy that bans building new wind farms, both offshore and onshore, jeopardising jobs and billions in investments and federal lease fees?
It would certainly be a policy, that would have a profound negative effect on much of the US economy.
The Anonymous Widower 