Denmark Launches World’s First Power-to-X Tender
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has invited bids to build and operate Power-to-X projects with a deadline for applications set to 1 September. Through the tender – the first of this kind in both Denmark and the world – the country has made available DKK 1.25 billion (approximately EUR 167.7 million) in state support for the production of Power-to-X in the form of green hydrogen.
This paragraph outlines the deal.
The tender is being held to procure hydrogen produced by using renewable energy sources and is part of Denmark’s goal to reach between 4 and 6 GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030 and its Power-to-X strategy, released in 2021, according to which the country’s offshore wind resources provide good conditions for the production of green hydrogen, which requires large amounts of green electricity.
These are the conditions.
- Only hydrogen that is produced from renewable energy sources and meets the EU’s documentation requirements for green PtX fuels is eligible for support.
- The winning bidder(s) must have the project(s) built to full capacity and start green hydrogen production within four years of signing the contract with the Danish Energy Agency.
The tender has been approved for state aid by the European Commission.
I can see all the large electrolyser builders getting their bids ready for what will be tough competition.
Overview – Siemens Energy Electrolyser Deal Dwarfs Rest In Q1 2023
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
This is the first paragraph.
The global electrolyser market concluded the first quarter of 2023 with a variety of equipment supply deals, partnerships, framework agreements and even some firm contracts. Siemens Energy stood out with the news of its selection to equip a “world-scale” eFuels facility in Texas with a total capacity of 1,800 MW.
The article is a good summary of the electrolyser market.
SSE To Help Decarbonise 5000 Homes In Major London Retrofit Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item on SSE.
These three paragraphs outline the work.
SSE Energy Solutions has agreed a deal with Berkeley Homes that will help to decarbonise a heat network for up to 5,000 homes in London, thought to be one of the largest retrofits of its kind in the country.
An Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) system will be installed to supply the homes on an existing district heating network at the Woolwich Arsenal site after several options were considered, including the use of waste heat and ground and river source solutions. An ASHP was chosen as the best low carbon, low tariff option over the length of the supply contract.
The system will be installed in nearby Wellington Park where a new landscape will be created through a unique planting scheme that broadens the biodiversity of the area by responding to the microclimate. The ASHP will connect directly to the existing district heating network pipes, reducing the carbon content of the heat provided by the network.
It strikes me, that no new housing estates or blocks of flats, should be built without a district heating system.
In this example, SSE are able to decarbonise a large number of houses and flats, by just replacing a boiler with an air source heat pump.
Just imagine the hassle if five-thousand individual boilers had to be replaced.
Siemens Completes Study To Decarbonise Major UK Industrial Estate By 2038
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item on Siemens UK web site.
This is the sub-heading.
Siemens has proposed a road-map for decarbonising Trafford Park, one of Europe’s largest industrial estates, to support Trafford Council’s aims for the Greater Manchester borough to achieve net zero by 2038.
This three paragraphs outline the proposal.
The Low Carbon Trafford Park 2038 study, proposed by Siemens, aims to identify, cost and measure the impacts of low carbon technologies at the industrial estate. It covers a broad range of solutions, from waste to energy and heat recovery from energy intensive industrial players, to the potential for solar photovoltaics across the park to generate 147 GWh of clean energy.
The study acts as a blueprint for the council to consider as it works to eliminate the 714,000 tonnes of carbon emitted from Trafford Park each year. The estate is home to 1,330 businesses employing more than 35,000 people, with a dense population of industrial and commercial occupiers over an area of 4.6 sq miles.
The Council aims to use the roadmap to facilitate stakeholder engagement and collaboration across the industrial park, aligning business and environmental goals to different commercial segments across recommended technological and behavioural measures. It will then consider its broader recommendations as part of a long-term plan in partnership with occupiers.
This is decarbonisation on a grand scale!
- Siemens expects the decarbonisation of Trafford Park to attract new business to the Park and maintain and enhance its standing as a commercial and industrial hub in the region.
- The measures recommended would require £1.2 billion of private and public investment to achieve a 94% reduction in emissions.
- The study provided Trafford Council with modelling of an extensive range of measures for conserving gas and electricity and for generating clean energy on-site.
This page on the Siemens web site is entitled Smart Infrastructure For A Sustainable Future, outlines some of the company’s solutions.
Conclusion
It will be interesting to see how Trafford Park decarbonises.
Seaway7 Installs Final Foundation At Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Seaway7 has installed the final wind turbine foundation on Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, concluding the 18-month installation campaign.
Note.
- As 114 foundations have been installed in eighteen months or just over six installations in a month.
- According to Deepest Ever Fixed-Bottom Wind Turbine Foundation Stands Offshore Scotland, each foundation weighs two thousand tonnes.
- Some are also the deepest ever turbine foundations with a depth or is that height of nearly sixty metres.
- The Seagreen web site, says that phase 1 will be complete in the second quarter of this year.
- The first phase will generate 1075 MW.
We should raise a few cheers for the companies involved.
Mingyang Building Fish Farm-Equipped Offshore Wind Jacket Foundation
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Mingyang Smart Energy revealed on 17 April that it started the construction of a jacket foundation that also features a net cage system for fish farming, which will be installed at the Mingyang Qingzhou 4 offshore wind farm in the South China Sea later this year.
The picture in the article, looks like something out of Baldrick’s book of cunning plans.
This paragraph gives more details.
The jacket is typhoon-resistant and the aquaculture system, which will raise up to 150,000 fish in 5,000 cubic metres of water, will have remote functions such as automated feeding, monitoring, detection, and collection, according to Mingyang.
Mingyang also state that the Qingzhou 4 offshore wind farm will also produce hydrogen.
Does that mean that in the next phase of the development, they’ll be putting a fish and chip shop on top?
Australia Climate Protest: Rising Tide Activists Shovel Coal Off Train
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
About 50 climate activists have been arrested in the Australian state of New South Wales after protesters climbed on a train carrying coal and began shovelling its cargo out of the wagons.
At least with coal, the mess won’t do too much damage.
UK Government Grants £30 Million For Long Duration Energy Storage Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
These two paragraphs outline the grants and their recipients.
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is providing £30 million in grants for three long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects using novel energy storage technologies.
The three projects awarded funding are from Synchrostor, Invinity Energy Systems and Cheesecake Energy. Synchrostor and Cheesecake Energy are to receive £9.4 million each to fund thermal energy storage systems and Invinity Energy Systems receiving £11 million to develop a vanadium flow battery.
The UK Government seems to give out a lot of these grants for research and development purposes and from feedback I have received from recipients and also by applying my own experience, I am of the opinion, that they are spending tax-payers money more in a wise, rather than a foolish direction.
Cheesecake Energy
I wrote about Cheesecake Energy’s grant in Cheesecake Energy Collects £9.4m Government Funding.
The Government’s press release says this about Cheesecake’s grant.
Cheesecake Energy Ltd, Nottingham, which will receive £9.4 million to test their FlexiTanker technology which stores electricity using a combination of thermal and compressed air energy storage and uses a reversible air compression / expansion train to charge and discharge. They will then install pilot units at 2 sites within a microgrid development in Colchester.
If this project proves successful, it surely is one that can be duplicated in many places.
I have had my eye on Cheesecake Energy for some time and this could be their breakthrough.
Invinity Energy Systems
I first wrote about Invinity Energy Systems in UK’s Pivot Power Sees First Battery On Line By 2021.
The Government’s press release says this about Invinity’s grant.
Invinity Energy (UK) Limited, Scotland, which will receive £11 million to develop and manufacture their 7MW, 30MWh 4-hour Vanadium Flow Battery (VFB), the largest in the UK. Invinity will manufacture the 30 MWh VFB at the Company’s factory in West Lothian, Scotland. The location of the plant will be confirmed in due course.
In this article on renews.biz, which is entitled Invinity Wins Funds For 30MWh UK Battery, these two paragraphs introduce the project.
Invinity Energy Systems plc has today been awarded £11m in funding by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to build what it says is the largest grid-scale battery ever manufactured in the UK.
The £11m in funding will come from the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration (LODES) Competition, with funding matched by Invinity’s, as yet unnamed, project partner.
These are other points from the article.
- It will be a fast-response 30MWh battery.
- The battery will be assembled at Bathgate in Scotland.
- It will operate as a stand-alone energy storage asset.
- It will be connected to the National Grid.
- Invinity’s vanadium flow batteries are an alternative to lithium-ion.
The aim is to go live by 2025.
This paragraph indicates the differences between a vanadium flow battery and a traditional lithium ion one.
Invinity said this battery is safer as they cannot catch fire, more durable as they do not degrade with use and are almost completely recyclable at the end of their 25+ year life, reducing environmental impacts and disposal costs for project owners.
I believe that there will come a point, when fully-developed vanadium flow batteries, will become very attractive for financial reasons to the successful energy storage funds like Gresham House and Gore Street.
If the UK government’s funding hastens the day, when energy storage funds feel that these new-fangled vanadium flow batteries are a safe investment, then it is money well spent.
It is not as though the money is going to an early start-up, as this page on the Invinity Energy Systems web site indicates at least a dozen installations.
This project for an as yet unnamed customer, which has a capacity of 30 MWh, is probably much bigger and the Government help is probably very much welcomed.
SynchroStor
SynchroStor was new to me, today.
The Government’s press release says this about SynchroStor’s grant.
Synchrostor, Edinburgh, Scotland, which will receive £9.4 million to build a Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES) grid-connected demonstration plant operating at 1MW, with the ability to charge and discharge for a period of 10 hours, longer than current battery technology.
This page named Technology on their web site, explains their technology, both with words and diagrams.
It is probably the most complex technologies of the three batteries, but I don’t think that will be a problem.
Conclusion
The Government has given grants to three different storage technologies.
If all goes well three good sizable pilot plants will be created and those companies like Centrica, Gore Street, Gresham House, National Grid, Ørsted, SSE and others, will be able to judge, which system is best for their needs.
Cheesecake Energy Collects £9.4m Government Funding
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on UKTN.
These two paragraphs outline how they will use the grant.
Cheesecake Energy will use the government funding to install its energy storage solution as a microgrid in Colchester to help with local grid limitations.
University of Nottingham spinout Cheesecake Energy’s installation will collect energy made by a solar farm with a capacity of 8MW and a central heat pump that supplies a district heat pump network.
Cheesecake Energy have been on my list of possible successful energy storage systems for some time and this sounds like a very neat application for energy storage.
Cheesecake Energy bill themselves on their web site as The World’s Greenest Battery, which is a big claim to make.
This outline of their technology is given on their Our Technology page.
Cheesecake Energy’s eTanker energy storage system is a stationary, medium to long-duration energy storage solution which delivers cheap, reliable, efficient energy storage in a modular, containerised package.
The technology stores energy in the form of heat and pressurised air, re-tasking ex-service truck engines to become zero-emission electrical power-conversion machines for putting energy into storage and recovering it from storage. The resulting system does not use diesel or any fuel. It is safe, straightforward to operate, has a lifetime of up to 25 years and can deliver turnaround efficiencies of around 70%.
I like the idea of using recycled truck engines at the heart of the system.
Conclusion
The World’s Greenest Battery could be right!
N-Sea To Connect German Offshore Wind Farm To Dutch Gas Platform
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Dutch upstream oil and gas company, ONE-Dyas, has awarded N-Sea with a contract to install a subsea power cable between the Riffgat offshore wind farm in the German North Sea and the new, to-be-built N05-A gas production platform.
At a first look it appears that wind power is being used to power the gas production platform.
Other points from the article include.
- The distance of the connecting cable is ten kilometres.
- The Dutch government approved the scheme in June 2022.
- A final investment decision was made in September 2022.
I have some thoughts and further information.
Borkum, Rottumerplaat and Schiermonnikoog
The article says this about the position of the gas platform.
The N05-A platform will be installed some 20 kilometres north of the islands of Borkum, Rottumerplaat and Schiermonnikoog, and approximately one and a half kilometres from German waters.
This Google Map shows the three islands.
Note.
- Borkum is the horseshoe-shaped German island in the North-East corner of the map.
- Schiermonnikoog is the long and thin island in the West.
- Rottumerplaat is the larger of the two Dutch islands in middle map.
- Eemhaven, which I wrote about in The Train Station At The Northern End Of The Netherlands, is in the South-East corner of the map.
Shipping routes run up the River Ems and German-Dutch border in the East of the map
Riffgat Wind Farm
This web page on the EWE web site, gives this description of the wind farm.
EWE has built the first commercial wind farm in the German North Sea in summer 2013 with Riffgat. The modern wind farm has a total capacity of 108 megawatts of power and can supply around 120,000 households with environmentally friendly electricity. In just 14 months of construction, the 30 wind turbines of the 3.6 megawatt class have been installed 15 kilometers off the north seas of Borkum. The rotor diameter of the units is 120 meters, while the hub height is 90 meters, which corresponds to the height of the Bremen dome. Overall, the plants are 150 meters high from the water surface to the top rotor blade tip. They are founded on 70 meter long steel foundations (monopiles), 40 meters deep in the sea bottom. The water depth in the wind farm is between 18 and 23 meters. In addition to the wind power plants, Riffgat also consists of a substation which transports the generated electricity to a better transportable voltage level.
It looks a pretty standard 100 MW wind farm with fixed foundations.
The N05-A Platform
The article says this about the N05-A project.
The N05-A project is part of the so-called GEMS area, an area approximately 20 to 80 kilometres north of the Ems estuary. ONE-Dyas, together with partners Hansa Hydrocarbons and EBN, aims to extract natural gas from the N05-A field as well as surrounding fields in the German and Dutch North Sea.
The GEMS area has a web site with a URL with a .co.uk extension.
It has an informative video, which I don’t think would go down with Dutch chapter of Just Stop Oil.
The North Sea’s First Gas Platform To Run Entirely On Wind Power
The article says this about the N05-A project.
While the N05-A platform will not be the first in the North Sea to run on wind energy, it will be the first to do so entirely.
Hywind Tampen floating wind farm will be the first.
Conclusion
This looks like a good pragmatic solution to me.
I can see more connections between offshore wind farms and oil and gas facilities all over the world.
The Anonymous Widower 