E.ON Invests £4 million In Allume Energy To Boost Solar Rollout For Flats
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
These three paragraphs explain the deal and say a small amount about Alume’s SolShare system.
Energy supplier E.ON UK has today (17 June) announced that it has signed a strategic investment agreement with Australian firm Allume Energy to help the firm expand into the UK.
E.ON UK has invested £4 million into Allume Energy to enable Allume to expand the reach of its SolShare technology within the UK market. SolShare allows solar energy from a single rooftop solar PV installation to be fairly shared amongst multiple homes in the same building in order to allow residents of flats to access solar PV energy.
Residents are supplied their energy when they are using by a pre-determined allocation, allowing them to lower their energy bills. Many blocks of flats that do have solar panels fitted currently only use this energy to power the common areas of the building while residents still pay their full electricity bill. According to Allume, a shared rooftop solar PV system can reduce resident energy bills by between 30% and 60%.
I must say, that when I read this article, it had something of the too-good-to-be-true about it.
But.
- My solar installation on a fair-sized roof cost me about £6,000 and I am constantly surprised at how much electricity it provides.
- If you have fifty flats, they all won’t do their weekly washing at the same time each week.
- I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big battery somewhere or a small battery in each flat.
- The batteries could soak up any excess electricity or charge on cheap-rate overnight electricity.
- Do Allume’s engineers go through every flat and make suggestions about saving energy?
- Is the pattern of electricity usage in a block of flats predictable from past usage and factors like weather, the time of the year and what’s on television?
- I wouldn’t be surprised that Allume have performed extensive mathematical modelling on blocks of flats.
I think this deal could be a winner foe E.ON, Allume and their customers.
I have some ideas about the use of the system.
Would It Work On A Small Housing Estate?
A small housing estate would be a number of solar roofs feeding a number of houses, whereas with flats it will be one roof feeding a number of dwellings.
I suspect that with a well-designed sharing and pooling system, a lot of features of the flat-powering system could be used to power houses.
How Does The System Handle Electric Vehicles?
The system could use these to store electricity, so that they are always charged at the cheapest rate.
And when there is a shortage of electricity, the electricity could be borrowed by the Allume system.
Conclusion
If you have community sharing their own source of electricity, you can probably make ideas work, that wouldn’t in a single application.
My nose says Allume’s idea has legs.
E.ON, Superdielectrics Develop Polymer-Based Battery Tech For Residential Storage Applications
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Solar Power Portal.
These two introductory paragraphs outline the deal.
Energy supplier E.ON and energy storage technology firm Superdielectrics have joined forces to promote and develop a new battery technology for stationary storage applications.
The new BESS technology takes a unique approach by using a polymer-based technology, with the main component being a membrane similar to contact lens materials. According to the two companies, these polymer batteries are both more affordable and more environmentally friendly than their lithium-ion counterparts.
I believe that this battery could be a game-changer. Especially, for those like me, who have solar panels on their roofs.
Check out the Superdielectrics web site for more details.
I First Spotted Superdielectrics In 2019
I wrote about them in Is Cambridge Going To Save The World From Global Warming? in 2019.
This was my conclusion in that post.
I have been observing technology since the 1960s.
This is either one of those scientific curiosities , like cold fusion, that appear from time-to-time and then disappear into the scientific archives or become a game-changer.
I suspect we’ll know in a couple of years.
But even if it is isn’t the solution to affordable and massive energy storage,, that will save the world, I believe that one of the teams of men and women in white coats, somewhere in the world will crack the problem.
It looks like they’ve taken longer than I thought they would.
Note though, that in the linked post, they have a link-up with Rolls-Royce.
Conclusion
This is one of the great energy breakthroughs of my life-time.
Fortescue And E.ON To Supply Europe With Green Hydrogen
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Fortescue Future Industries Pty Ltd. of Australia and E.ON SE, energy giant from Germany, have teamed up to supply green hydrogen to Europe. This strategy is meant to help the EU to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
These are other points from the article.
- FFI intends to supply five million tonnes of hydrogen per year by 2030.
- The hydrogen will be produced by renewable hydrogen in Australia.
- E.ON will handle the distribution.
- Five million tonnes is about a third of Germany’s energy imports.
I have some further thoughts.
How Much Energy Is Needed to Produce Five Million Tonnes Per Year Of Hydrogen?
In Can The UK Have A Capacity To Create Five GW Of Green Hydrogen?, I said the following.
Ryze Hydrogen are building the Herne Bay electrolyser.
- It will consume 23 MW of solar and wind power.
- It will produce ten tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The electrolyser will consume 552 MWh to produce ten tonnes of hydrogen, so creating one tonne of hydrogen needs 55.2 MWh of electricity.
55.2 MWh/tonne is 55.2 kWh/kg.
To produce five million tonnes of hydrogen will need 55.2 * 5.000,000 / 10 MWh.
- This is 27,600,000 MWh or 27,600 GWh.
- It works out at an average of 75.6 GWh per day or 3.15 GWh per hour.
This article on vox is entitled The Economic Limitations Of Wind And Solar Power, where this is said.
“Capacity factor” refers to how often a power plant runs and thus how much power it produces relative to its total potential (capacity). Nuclear power plants in the US run around 90 percent of the time, so they have a 90 percent capacity factor. On average, the capacity factor of solar ranges anywhere from 10 to just over 30 percent. For wind, it ranges from 20 to just over 50 percent, averaging around 34 percent in the US.
If FFI is using solar to generate electricity in Australia, I suspect that the capacity factor will be around twenty percent at best.
So will FFI need around 16 GW of solar power to satisfy the supply to Germany?
The Wikipedia entry for Solar Power In Australia gives a good insight into its capability of providing the 16 GW of energy needed. This statement is key.
Using solar to supply all the energy needed would use less than 0.1% of land.
It does look that Australia could provide Germany with some of the hydrogen it needs.
Would It Be Cheaper To Produce The Hydrogen In The North Sea?
This is probably heresy to Andrew Forrest, who is the Australian billionaire behind Fortescue Future Industries.
Consider.
- North Sea Hydrogen could be piped to Germany.
- Australia and Germany would probably need transfer by liquid hydrogen tanker.
- Electrolysers would need to be used to create hydrogen from renewable energy in both Australia and the North Sea.
- Floating wind farms in the North Sea could be more efficient than solar in Australia, as the capacity factor is higher.
We obviously won’t know until both wind and solar technologies are fully developed.
Will There Be Price Competition Between Australian And North Sea Hydrogen?
It does appear that Andrew Forrest believes in research and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his company developing ideas that drop the price of solar-produced hydrogen.
Research and good engineering on both sides will also drop prices, so I suspect price competition will occur.
Will Fortescue Future Industries Develop North Sea Hydrogen?
Given the ambition being shown by Andrew Forrest to be the Hydrogen King, I wouldn’t be surprised if he joined the streams of international investors in the North Sea, who are developing wind farms.
Conclusion
Go! Aussie! Go!
The Anonymous Widower 