How Is The XLinks Project Progressing?
The Wikipedia entry for the XLinks project has this introductory paragraph.
The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project is a proposal to create 10.5 GW of renewable generation, 20 GWh of battery storage and a 3.6 GW high-voltage direct current interconnector to carry solar and wind-generated electricity from Morocco to the United Kingdom. Morocco has far more consistent weather, and so should provide consistent solar power even in midwinter.
I ask the question in the title of this post, as there are two articles about the XLinks project in The Times today.
This article is optimistic and is entitled Xlinks Morocco Project Could Throw Britain A Renewable Energy Lifeline.
On the other hand this article is more pessimistic and is entitled Britain ‘Risks Losing Out’ On Green Energy From The Sahara.
This is the first paragraph of the second article.
Sir Dave Lewis has complained of “frustratingly slow” talks with the government over an £18 billion plan to generate power in the Sahara and cable it to Britain. The former Tesco chief executive has warned that the energy could be routed elsewhere unless ministers commit to the scheme.
It appears there have been little agreement on the price.
I have some thoughts.
Will XLinks Get Funding?
Xlinks is going to be privately funded, but I have doubts about whether the funding will be made available.
As an engineer, who was involved in many of the major offshore projects of the last forty years of the last century, I believe that the XLinks project is feasible, but it is only 3.6 GW.
These wind farm projects are also likely to be privately funded.
- SSE’s Berwick Bank project opposite Berwick is 4.1 GW
- Aker’s Northern Horizon off Shetland is 10 GW.
- The Scotwind Leasing Round is 25 GW.
- There is talk of 10 GW being possible off East Anglia.
- 50 GW may be being possible in the Celtic Sea.
- BP is planning 3 GW in Morecambe Bay.
Many of these enormous wind power projects are looking for completion on or before 2030, which is the date given for the Morocco cable.
I do wonder, if those financing these energy projects will find these and other projects better value than a link to Morocco.
Is the Project Bold Enough?
Consider.
- Spain has high levels of solar, wind and hydro power.
- France is developing wind to go with their nuclear.
- Both countries and Portugal, also have mountains for sensibly-sized pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations.
- France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland also have the Atlantic for wind, tidal and wave power.
Perhaps, the solution, is an Atlantic interconnector linking the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar to West Africa.
Any excess power would be stored in the pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations and withdrawn as required.
In the UK, the National Grid are already using the huge 7800 GWh Ulla-Førre pumped-storage hydroelectric power station to store excess wind-generated energy using the North Sea Link from Blyth.
To my mind XLinks is just a UK-Morocco project.
BP’s Project In Mauretania
In bp And Mauritania To Explore Green Hydrogen At Scale, I discussed BP’s deal to create green hydrogen in Mauretania.
Is this a better plan, as hydrogen can be taken by tanker to where it is needed And for the best price.
Conclusion
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the XLinks project change direction.
Research And Development Agreement Signed For Hydrogen Combustion Trains In US
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on H2-View.
This is the opening paragraph.
Hydrogen combustion engine-powered trains are set to be at the centre of a collaborative research and development agreement between Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Wabtec in a bid to decarbonise US rail.
The US is certainly calling up the heavy brigade in Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Wabtec.
This appears to be the main objective.
It is hoped the team will be able to design train engines that will deliver the same power, range, and cost-effectiveness as current diesel technology.
The article states that there are 25,000 diesel locomotives in the United States, but because of exports to large parts of the world, including the UK, this research could clean up a lot more than just the United States.
The omens are good, in that both Cummins and Rolls-Royce mtu, who are two of the world’s big diesel engine manufacturers have successfully launched hydrogen combustion engines.
Is Hydrogen The Fuel Of The Future?
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on Engineering and Technology Magazine.
The article is a must read about hydrogen.
bp And Mauritania To Explore Green Hydrogen At Scale
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from BP.
I’m fairly certain, that this post is the first on this blog about Mauretania.
This Google Map shows the country’s position in West Africa.
Note.
- The population is about ten percent more than Wales.
- But the land area is fifty times as large.
- Most people live in the South-West of Mauretania.
The weather appears very different in the two countries.
This is the first paragraph of the press release.
bp today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Mauritania under which it will deliver an innovative programme exploring the potential for large-scale production of green hydrogen in the country. Building on bp’s existing strong relationships with the country, the agreement could be an important step towards the development of significant green hydrogen production in Mauritania.
There’s certainly a large area to explore.
The MoU was signed today in a meeting alongside COP27.
This paragraph outlines what will be done.
Under the agreement, bp will carry out a number of studies to evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of producing green hydrogen in Mauritania. Green hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water, powered by renewable energy.
Given the area of Mauretania, there could be a substantial tonnage of green hydrogen produced.
BP And Mauritania
This paragraph details the current relationship between BP and Mauretania.
bp and Mauritania already have a long-standing relationship. bp and partners, including Mauritania’s Société Mauritanienne Des Hydrocarbures (SMH), are now working toward the completion of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1 liquefied natural gas project. The development of this innovative offshore project on the border of Mauritania and Senegal was approved in 2018. It is set to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year, with sufficient resources to support production for over 20 years. Earlier this year, bp also announced the signature of an Exploration and Production Sharing Contract for the BirAllah gas resource in Mauritania.
There could be scope to move Mauretania towards net-zero.
Electrolysis Of Salt Water
Typically electrolysis for hydrogen uses pure water, but companies like Torvex Energy, which I covered in a post called Torvex Energy can electrolyse salt water.
Surely, in a country like Mauretania, where water is much more precious than the UK, salt water electrolysis should be used.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a major gas company like BP or Shell form a very strong relationship with Torvex Energy.
Shannon Estuary Could Support Build-Out of 30 GW Of Floating Wind, House 2 GW of Electrolysis Capacity
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article from offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the opening paragraph.
The Shannon Estuary in Ireland can support the build-out of up to 1.8 GW of floating wind per year and up to 30 GW by 2050. In addition, it could accommodate a 2 GW electrolyser for hydrogen and downstream e-fuels production, according to the US-headquartered company Bechtel, which reviewed the Shannon Foynes Port Company’s Vision 2041 masterplan.
The island of Ireland will truly be going green.
The Turbine Production Figures
The headline talks about rolling out 1800 MW of floating wind turbines per year and in the body of the article it says this.
At peak, up to 120 floating turbines could be installed offshore per year.
This would imply 15 MW turbines, which is entirely feasible.
As all these figures were produced and/or fully checked by Bechtel, I would suspect that they are very sound.
So does this imply that 120 floating wind turbines is a typical production limit of this type of turbine assembled in a custom-built facility in a port?
Centrica Partners With Hull-Based HiiRoc For Hydrogen Fuel Switch Trial At Humber Power Plant
The title of this post, is the same as that on this article on Business Live.
This is a paragraph.
It comes as the owner of British Gas has also increased its shareholding in the three-year-old business to five per cent. Last November it was one of several investors to pump £28 million into HiiRoc alongside Melrose Industries, HydrogenOne, Cemex, Hyundai and Kia, who joined existing strategic investors Wintershall Dea and VNG.
This could be sensational.
The reason I said that was that I used to share an office at ICI Mond Division, with Peter, who was putting instruments on a plant called the Badische. It was a new process to create acetylene. If I remember correctly, the process was as follows.
Ethylene was burned and then quenched in naptha.
The trouble was that the process produced a lot of carbon, which clogged the burners, and masses of black smoke, which upset everybody in Runcorn, especially on washing day!
Someone was worried that the plant might go into explosive limits, so Peter had devised a clever infra-red instrument to read the composition of the off-gas from the burner. It was found to be in explosive limits and ICI shut it down. BASF said ICI were wrong and there was no way to measure the composition of the off-gas anyway. A few months later BASF’s plant exploded and buried itself in a hillside in Southern Germany. Upon hearing this news, ICI shut the Badische for ever. ICI were annoyed in that they had to spend £200,000 on a flameless cutter to dismantle the plant.
I do wonder, if HiiROC have tamed BASF’s beast to do something useful, like produce hydrogen and carbon black!
Cummins Is Charging Towards Green
If ten years ago, you’d asked any green activist to name companies, that would be ruined by or fail to adjust to global warming by decarbonising their product line, I’m sure most big diesel engine manufacturers, like Cummins, would have been on their list.
But Cummins have successfully moved on as their latest press releases about their technology show.
- October 13th – Cummins Drives Gigawatt Electrolyzer Manufacturing Plant Forward in Spain, Expanding Its Global Clean Energy Footprint.
- October 10th – Cummins Drives Domestic Green Hydrogen Economy Forward With First U.S. Electrolyzer Manufacturing Facility.
- October 6th – Atura Power Selects Cummins To Design, Manufacture 20 MW Electrolyzer System For Niagara Hydrogen Centre.
- October 5th – Cummins’ Second Largest Solar Farm Goes Live at Rocky Mount Engine Plant.
- September 22nd – Destination IAA: Cummins Unveils New Technology For Zero-Emissions Power Solutions.
- September 20th – Cummins QSK95 Engine Proven Fully Compatible With Renewable Diesel.
- September 15th – Cummins Advocating for Racial Equity (CARE) Supports Mobile Grocery Markets in Communities Across the U.S.
- September 15th – Destination IAA: Cummins Debuting Electrified Meritor Powertrains For The First Time Since Acquisition.
- September 8th – Cummins Advocating for Racial Equity (CARE) Invests in a Sustainable Future Through Private Equity Partnership.
- September 8th – Cummins Scaling Belgium Electrolyzer Manufacturing Capacity To 1 Gigawatt Through IPCEI Support.
- September 7th – Werner Enterprises Signs Letter of Intent Planning to Secure 500 X15H Engines from Cummins.
- August 31st – Transport Enterprise Leasing Planning to Integrate Cummins’ X15H into Heavy Duty Truck Fleets.
These can be summarised as follows.
- Green Solutions – 4
- Electrolysers for green hydrogen – 3
- Decarbonisation of diesel engines – 3
- Community Support – 2
- Electric Powertrains – 1
- Solar Power – 1
According to Google, the Cummins share price has risen thirty percent in the last five years.
They must have done something right!
Centrica Re-Opens Rough Storage Facility
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
It has this sub-heading.
Rough Operational For Winter And Increases UK’s Storage Capacity By 50%.
On the face of it, this sounds like good news and these two paragraphs give more details.
Centrica has announced the reopening of the Rough gas storage facility, having completed significant engineering upgrades over the summer and commissioning over early autumn.
The initial investment programme means the company has made its first injection of gas into the site in over 5 years and is in a position to store up to 30 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas for UK homes and businesses over winter 2022/23, boosting the UK’s energy resilience.
Note.
- The Rough gas storage facility has been able to hold up to 100 billion cubic feet of gas in the past.
- Rough is a complex field with two platforms and thirty wells transferring gas to and from the facility.
- Additionally, there is an onshore gas-processing terminal at the Easington Gas Terminal, where it connects to the UK gas network.
It appears to be a comprehensive gas storage facility, that should get us through the 2022/3 winter.
These two paragraphs from the press release, which are the thoughts of the Centrica Chief Executive are significant.
Centrica Group Chief Executive, Chris O’Shea, said “I’m delighted that we have managed to return Rough to storage operations for this winter following a substantial investment in engineering modifications. Our long-term aim remains to turn the Rough field into the world’s biggest methane and hydrogen storage facility, bolstering the UK’s energy security, delivering a net zero electricity system by 2035, decarbonising the UK’s industrial clusters, such as the Humber region by 2040, and helping the UK economy by returning to being a net exporter of energy.
“In the short term we think Rough can help our energy system by storing natural gas when there is a surplus and producing this gas when the country needs it during cold snaps and peak demand. Rough is not a silver bullet for energy security, but it is a key part of a range of steps which can be taken to help the UK this winter.”
Note.
- Effectively, in the short term, Rough is a store for gas to help us through the winter.
- In the long-term, Rough will be turned into the world’s largest gas storage facility.
- It will be able to store both methane (natural gas) and hydrogen.
Having worked with project managers on complex oil and gas platforms and chemical plants, I wouldn’t be surprised to find, that when the design of this facility is released, it will be something special.
Centrica certainly seem to have upgraded Rough to be able to play a significant short term role this winter and they also seem to have developed a plan to give it a significant long-term role in the storage of hydrogen.
Aldbrough Gas Storage
A few miles up the coast is SSE’s and Equinor’s Aldbrough Gas Storage, which is being developed in salt caverns to hold natural gas and hydrogen.
Blending Of Hydrogen And Natural Gas
I believe that we’ll see a lot of blending of hydrogen and natural gas.
- Up to 20 % of hydrogen can be blended, without the need to change appliances, boilers and processes.
- This cuts carbon dioxide emissions.
I wrote about this in a post called HyDeploy.
It might be convenient to store hydrogen in Aldbrough and natural gas in Rough, so that customers could have the blend of gas they needed.
With two large gas stores for hydrogen under development, the HumberZero cluster is on its way.
Why BMW Chair Oliver Zipse Says Hydrogen Cars Will Be The “Hippest Thing” On The Road
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
BMW Chair Oliver Zipse recently spoke at an interview in Goodwood, England, underscoring that hydrogen cars will soon be the most desirable zero-emission passenger vehicles to drive, not battery electrics.
He made these points and predictions.
- Electric vehicles will hit their peak in about ten years, then H2 will take over.
- After the electric car, which has been going on for about 10 years and scaling up rapidly, the next trend will be hydrogen.
- When it’s more scalable, hydrogen will be the hippest thing to drive.
I agree with him, but I do find anybody called Zipse to take seriously, because of the character in the Tom Sharpe novel; Porterhouse Blue.
UK Funds Hydrogen-Enabled Decarbonisation Of Steel, Cement, Ceramics Production
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ryse Hydrogen.
This is the first paragraph.
The latest round of grants under the UK government’s Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator Programme shows the breadth of decarbonisation opportunities that hydrogen provides and the depth of innovative talent in our country.
Industries targeted by the projects that received funding include steelmaking, asphalt, cement, waste, paint, and ceramics manufacturing.
The article is good background to how hydrogen will change industry.
The Anonymous Widower 