Ofgem Enables National Grid To Make Early Payment Of Interconnector Revenues, Helping To Reduce Household Bills
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are the first three paragraphs.
National Grid has offered to pay £200m of interconnector revenues ahead of schedule rather than at the end of the standard five-year review period to play its part in reducing household energy bills.
Interconnectors, which are subsea electricity cables connecting the UK and Europe, enable the import of cheaper, cleaner energy from European neighbours, supporting security of supply and reducing carbon emissions.
It’s estimated that National Grid’s interconnector portfolio will help the UK avoid around 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030.
Ofgem has approved National Grid’s request to make early payments.
These are my thoughts.
What’s In It For Consumers?
National Grid is making a payment early, so they are not getting anything, they won’t eventually get.
But they are getting it early!
What’s In It For National Grid?
As National Grid is making a payment early, they are forgoing interest on the £200 million.
In New Electricity ‘Superhighways’ Needed To Cope With Surge In Wind Power, I talked about National Grid’s plan to build new North-South interconnectors, that would handle all the extra wind-power.
National Grid currently owns all or part of these operating or planned interconnectors.
- BritNed
- HVDC Cross-Channel
- IceLink
- IFA-2
- Isle of Man to England Interconnector
- NemoLink
- North Sea Link
- Viking Link
- Western HVDC Link
National Grid would appear to have a substantial interest in the UK’s interconnectors and is the £200 million payment to ensure they get the contract to build and operate any new UK interconnectors? I’m not saying it’s a bribe, but it’s just operating the interconnectors in a manner that is an advantage to the UK and its electricity customers.
Surely, if the ultimate customers are happy, there will be less calls for the break-up of National Grid.
What Is A Cap And Floor Regime?
The press release explains a cap and floor regime like this.
Ofgem’s cap and floor regime sets a yearly maximum (cap) and minimum (floor) level for the revenues that the interconnector licensees can earn over a 25-year period. Usually, revenues generated by the interconnector are compared against the cap and floor levels over five-year periods. Top-up payments are made to the interconnector licensee if revenues are lower than the floor; and similarly, the licensee pays revenues in excess of the cap to consumers.
Ofgem’s approval enables National Grid to make payments of above cap revenues significantly earlier than originally planned, which will contribute to reducing consumer energy costs over the next two years. National Grid is now working with Ofgem to explore how to ensure the early payments can have the most impact for consumers.
I wonder if Ofgem and National Grid feel that a cap and floor regime is not only good for them, but for electricity consumers as well.
Cap And Floor Regimes And Energy Storage
There has been talk that cap and floor regimes should be used for energy storage.
This article on Current News is entitled Cap And Floor Mechanism The ‘Standout Solution’ For Long Duration Storage, KPMG Finds.
These are the first two paragraphs.
A cap and floor regime would be the most beneficial solution for supporting long duration energy storage, a KPMG report has found.
Commissioned by Drax, the report detailed how there is currently no appropriate investment mechanism for long duration storage. Examining four investment mechanisms – the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, Regulated Asset Value (RAV) model, cap and floor regime and a reformed Capacity Market – it identified cap and floor as the best solution.
I also suspect that if the operator does a National Grid with the revenues, a cap and floor regime, must be even better.
I would not be surprised to see schemes like Coire Glas pumped hydro operating under a cap and floor regime.
Effect On Other Energy Companies
Wind farms seem to be operated under the Contracts for Difference scheme in many cases, but will we see cap and floor regimes being used in this market?
I can certainly see a new regime emerging, that is better for investors, wind farm builders, consumers and the Treasury.
In some ways keeping a happy relationship between the investors, Government and consumers is most important. So as National Grid, the Government and consumers don’t seem to be jumping up and down about their cap-and-floor regime, it must be working reasonably well!
Conclusion
Get the right regime and quality investors could be flocking to the UK’s energy generation and supply industry.
National Grid by their actions in paying up early, have thoroughly endorsed the system.
DP Energy And Offshore Wind Farms In Ireland
DP Energy are a company that are developing these offshore wind farms in Ireland.
Located off the West Coast of Ireland, the Clarus Offshore Wind Farm project will utilise Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) technology and upon completion, will have the potential capacity of up to 1 GW.
Located off the South Coast of Ireland, the Inis Ealga Marine Energy Park project will utilise Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) technology and upon completion, will have the potential capacity of up to 1 GW.
Latitude 52 Offshore Wind Farm
DP Energy has given the name Latitude 52 to the area it is exploring for a potential future offshore wind farm off the coast of Counties Wicklow and Wexford.
It appears to be another 1 GW project.
Located off the East Coast of Ireland, the Shelmalere Offshore Windfarm project will utilise fixed bottom wind turbines and upon completion, will have the potential capacity of up to 1 GW.
Note.
- These wind farms are being developed in a partnership with Spanish Energy company; Iberdrola.
- Each is a one GW offshore wind farm.
They are also developing the Gwynt Glas offshore wind farm in the UK sector of the Celtic Sea.
- In January 2022, EDF Renewables and DP Energy announced a Joint Venture partnership to combine their knowledge and
expertise, in order to participate in the leasing round to secure seabed rights to develop up to 1GW of FLOW in the Celtic Sea. - The wind farm is located between Pembroke and Cornwall.
The addition of Gwynt Glas will increase the total of floating offshore wind in the UK section of the Celtic Sea.
- Blue Gem Wind – Erebus – 100 MW Demonstration project – 27 miles offshore
- Blue Gem Wind – Valorus – 300 MW Early-Commercial project – 31 miles offshore
- Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy – Petroc – 300 MW project – 37 miles offshore
- Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy – Llywelyn – 300 MW project – 40 miles offshore
- Llŷr Wind – 100 MW Project – 25 miles offshore
- Llŷr Wind – 100 MW Project – 25 miles offshore
- Gwynt Glas – 1000 MW Project – 50 miles offshore
This makes a total of 2.2 GW, with investors from several countries.
It does seem that the Celtic Sea is becoming the next area of offshore wind around the British Isles to be developed.
Interconnectors
Interconnectors are to be built to connect Ireland, UK and France.
The Celtic Interconnector is being built between County Cork in Ireland and the North West Coast of France.
Greenlink is being built between County Wexford in Ireland and Pembroke in Wales.
Conclusion
Are the British, Irish and French governments, planning to build a large wind power resource in the Celtic Sea?
How Britannia With Help From Her Friends Can Rule The Waves And The Wind
The Government doesn’t seem to have published its future energy plans yet, but that hasn’t stopped the BBC speculating in this article on their web site, which is entitled Energy Strategy: UK Plans Eight New Nuclear Reactors To Boost Production.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Up to eight more nuclear reactors could be delivered on existing sites as part of the UK’s new energy strategy.
The plan, which aims to boost UK energy independence and tackle rising prices, also includes plans to increase wind, hydrogen and solar production.
Other points include.
- Up to 95% of the UK’s electricity could come from low-carbon sources by 2030.
- 50 gigawatts (GW) of energy through offshore wind farms, which would be more than enough to power every home in the UK.
- One of the big points of contention is thought to have been the construction of onshore wind turbines.
- Targets for hydrogen production are being doubled to help provide cleaner energy for industry as well as for power, transport and potentially heating.
- A new licensing round for North Sea oil and gas projects.
- A heat pump accelerator program.
In this post I shall only be looking at one technology – offshore wind and in particular offshore floating wind.
Who Are Our Friends?
I will start with explaining, who I see as our friends, in the title of this post.
The Seas Around Us
If we are talking about offshore winds around the the UK, then the seas around the UK are surely our biggest and most-needed friend.
The Island Of Ireland
The seas are shared with the island of Ireland and the UK and the Republic must work together to maximise our joint opportunities.
As some of the largest offshore wind farm proposals, between Wales and Ireland involve a Welsh company called Blue Gem Wind, who are a partnership between Irish company; Simply Blue Energy, and French company; TotalEnergies, we already seem to be working with the Irish and the French.
The City Of London
Large insurance and pension companies, based in the City of London like, abrdn, Aviva, L & G and others are always looking for investments with which to provide income to back their insurance business and our pensions.
In World’s Largest Wind Farm Attracts Huge Backing From Insurance Giant, I describe why and how, Aviva back wind farms.
Germany
Germany are certainly on our side, despite being in a mess of Mutti Merkel’s making, because she got the country too deeply dependant on Vlad the Mad’s tainted gas.
- German utilities are providing finance to build wind farms in British waters.
- German company; Siemens is manufacturing turbine blades in Hull.
- Germany wouldn’t mind buying any electricity and hydrogen we have spare. Especially, as we haven’t invaded them since 1944.
I suspect a mutually-beneficial relationship can be negotiated.
Norway
I have customised software for a number of countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States and despite selling large numbers of systems to Norway, the Norwegians never requested any modifications.
They are generally easy-going people and they are great friends of the UK. They were certainly a fertile country for the sale of Artemis systems.
Just as the UK worked together with the Norwegians to deliver North Sea Oil, we are now starting to work together to develop renewable energy in the North Sea.
In UK To Norway Sub-Sea Green Power Cable Operational, I describe how we have built the North Sea Link with the Norwegians, which will link the British and Norwegian energy networks to our mutual benefit.
In Is This The World’s Most Ambitious Green Energy Solution?, I describe an ambitious plan called Northern Horizons, proposed by Norwegian company; Aker Solutions to build a 10 GW floating wind farm, which will be 120 km to the North-East of the Shetlands.
Floating Wind Turbines
This is the introduction of the Wikipedia entry for floating wind turbines.
A floating wind turbine is an offshore wind turbine mounted on a floating structure that allows the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not feasible. Floating wind farms have the potential to significantly increase the sea area available for offshore wind farms, especially in countries with limited shallow waters, such as Japan, France and US West coast. Locating wind farms further offshore can also reduce visual pollution, provide better accommodation for fishing and shipping lanes, and reach stronger and more consistent winds.
At its simplest a floating wind farm consists of a semi-submersible platform, which is securely anchored to the sea-bed to provide a firm platform on which to erect a standard wind turbine.
There are currently two operational floating wind farms off the East Coast of Scotland and one in the Atlantic off the Portuguese coast.
- These wind farms are fairly small and use between three and five turbines to generate between 25-50 MW.
- The largest current floating turbines are the 9.5 MW turbines in the Kincardine Wind Farm in Scotland, but already engineers are talking of 14 MW and 20 MW floating turbines.
- Experience of the operation of floating wind turbines, indicates that they can have capacity factors in excess of 50 %.
- Floating wind turbines can be erected on their floats in the safety of a port using a dockside crane and then towed into position.
- Floating wind turbines can be towed into a suitable port for servicing and upgrading.
Many serious engineers and economists, think that floating wind farms are the future.
The Energy Density of Fixed Foundation And Floating Wind Farms
In ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations, I summarised the latest round of Scotwind offshore wind leases.
- Six new fixed foundation wind farms will give a capacity of 9.7 GW in 3042 km² or about 3.2 MW per km².
- Ten new floating wind farms will give a capacity of 14.6 GW in 4193 km² or about 3.5 MW per km².
Note.
- Floating wind farms have a small advantage in terms of energy density over those with fixed foundations.
- Suppose these energy densities are achieved using 14 MW turbines.
- Engineers are talking of 20 MW turbines.
- Using large turbines could increase the energy density by 20/14 or 43 %
We could see in a few years with 20 MW turbines, fixed foundation turbines having an energy density of 4.6 MW per km², with floating turbines having 5 MW per km².
The Potential Of A Ten-Mile Square In The Seas Around Us
I will assume.
- It is at least 100 km from land.
- The water would be at least 100 metres deep.
- There are no structures in the area.
And calculate.
- The area will be a hundred square miles, which is smaller than the county of Rutland.
- This will be 259 square kilometres.
If it were to be filled with floating wind turbines at a density of 5 MW per km², the capacity would be 1300 MW or 1.3 GW.
There must be hundreds of empty ten-mile squares in the seas around us.
Offshore Hydrogen Production And Storage
I believe in the near future, that a lot of offshore wind energy will be converted to hydrogen offshore.
- Electrolysers could be combined with wind turbines.
- Larger electrolysers could be combined with sub-stations collecting the electricity.
- In Torvex Energy, I discuss a method to create hydrogen from seawater, without having to desalinate the water. Surely, this technology would be ideal for offshore electrolysis.
Hydrogen would be brought to shore using pipelines, some of which could be repurposed from existing gas pipelines, that are now redundant, as the gas-fields they served have no gas left.
I also suspect that hydrogen could be stored in a handy depleted gas field or perhaps some form of specialist storage infrastructure.
Combining Wind And Wave Power In A Single Device
Marine Power Systems are a Welsh company, that has developed a semi-submersible structure, that can support a large wind turbine and/or a wave-power generator.
This is the mission statement on their home page.
Marine Power Systems is revolutionising the way in which we harvest energy from the world’s oceans.
Our flexible technology is the only solution of its type that can be configured to harness wind and wave energy, either as a combined solution or on their own, in deep water. Built on common platform our devices deliver both cost efficiency and performance throughout the entire product lifecycle.
Our structurally efficient floating platform, PelaFlex, brings excellent stability and straightforward deployment and maintenance. The PelaGen wave energy converter represents market-leading technology and generates energy at an extremely competitive cost of energy.
Through optimised farm layout and the combination of wind and wave energy, project developers can best exploit the energy resource for any given area of seabed.
We are unlocking the power of oceans.
There is a link on the page to more pages, that explain the technology.
It looks to me, that it is well-designed technology, that has a high-chance of being successful.
It should also be noted that according to this news page on the Marine Power Systems web site, which is entitled MPS Lands £3.5M Of Funding From UK Government, the UK government feel the technology is worth backing.
I certainly believe that if Marine Power Systems are not successful, then someone else will build on their original work.
If wind and wave power can successfully be paired in a single float, then this must surely increase the energy production at each float/turbine in the floating wind farm.
Energy Storage In Wind Turbines
The output of wind farms can be very variable, as the wind huffs and puffs, but I believe we will see energy storage in wind turbines to moderate the electricity and deliver a steadier output.
Using lithium-ion or other batteries may be possible, but with floating offshore turbines, there might be scope to use the deep sea beneath the float and the turbine.
Hybrid Wind Farms
In the latest round of Scotwind offshore wind leases, one wind farm stands out as different. Magnora ASA’s ScotWind N3 Offshore Wind Farm is described as a floating offshore wind farm with a concrete floater.
I can see more wind farms built using this model, where there is another fixed or floating platform acts as control centre, sub-station, energy store or hydrogen electrolyser.
How Much Electricity Could Be Produced In UK And Irish Waters?
I will use the following assumptions.
- Much of the new capacity will be floating wind turbines in deep water.
- The floating wind turbines are at a density of around 5 MW per km²
This Google Map shows the British Isles.
I will look at various seas.
The Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea is to the South-West of Wales and the South of Ireland.
In Blue Gem Wind, I posted this extract from the The Our Projects page of the Blue Gem Wind web site.
Floating wind is set to become a key technology in the fight against climate change with over 80% of the worlds wind resource in water deeper than 60 metres. Independent studies have suggested there could be as much as 50GW of electricity capacity available in the Celtic Sea waters of the UK and Ireland. This renewable energy resource could play a key role in the UK meeting the 2050 Net-Zero target required to mitigate climate change. Floating wind will provide new low carbon supply chain opportunities, support coastal communities and create long-term benefits for the region.
Consider.
- The key figure would appear 50 GW of electricity capacity available in the Celtic Sea waters of the UK and Ireland.
- Earlier I said that floating turbines can have a wind turbine density of 5 MW per km².
- According to Wikipedia, the surface area of the Celtic Sea is 300,000 km².
To accommodate enough floating turbines to generate 50 GW would need 10000 km², which is a 100 km. square, or 3.33 % of the area of the Celtic Sea.
This wind generation capacity of 50 GW would appear to be feasible in the Celtic Sea and still leave plenty of space for the shipping.
The Irish Sea
According to Wikipedia, the surface area of the Irish Sea is 46,000 km².
Currently, there are ten wind farms in the Irish Sea.
- Six are in English waters, three are in Welsh and one is in Irish.
- None are more than sixteen kilometres from the coast.
The total power is 2.7 GW.
I feel that the maximum number of wind farms in the Irish Sea would not cover more than the 3.33 % proposed for the Celtic Sea.
3.33 % of the Irish Sea would be 1532 km², which could support 7.6 GW of wind-generated electricity.
I can’t leave the Irish Sea without talking about two wind farms Mona and Morgan, that are being developed by an enBW and BP joint venture, which I discussed in Mona, Morgan And Morven. This infographic from the joint venture describes Mona and Morgan.
That would appear to be a 3 GW development underway in the Irish Sea.
Off The Coast Of South-East England, East Anglia, Lincolnshire And Yorkshire
These wind farms are proposed in these areas.
- Hornsea – 6 GW
- Triton Knoll – 900 MW
- Dogger Bank – 3.6 GW
- Norfolk Boreas – 1.8 GW
- Norfolk Vanguard – 1.8 GW
- East Anglia Array – 7.2 GW
- Rampion Extension – 1.2 GW
Note.
All wind farms have comprehensive web sites or Wikipedia entries.
The total capacity of these wind farms is 22.5 GW
The North Sea
According to Wikipedia, the surface area of the North Sea is 570,000 km².
Would it is reasonable to assume, that perhaps a tenth of this area would be available for new wind farms in UK waters?
3.33 % of the available North Sea would be 1898 km², which could support 9.5 GW of wind-generated electricity.
On The East Coast Of Scotland
In Wind Farms On The East Coast Of Scotland, I summarised the wind farms off the East coast of Scotland, that are being built in a cluster in the First of Forth.
This map shows the proposed wind farms in this area.
There are five wind farms in the map.
- The green area is the cable corridor for Seagreen 1a
- Inch Cape is the odd-shaped wind farm to the North and West of the green area
- Seagreen at the top of the map, to the North of Inch Cape.
- Marr Bank with the pink NE-SW hatching
- Berwick Bank with the green NW-SE hatching
- Neart Na Gaoithe is edged in blue to the South of the green area.
Berwick Bank and Marr Bank are both owned by SSE and appear to have been combined.
The capacity of the wind farms can be summarised as follows.
- Seagreen – 1075 MW
- Neart Na Gaoithe – 450 MW
- Inch Cape – 1000 MW
- Berwick Bank and Marr Bank – 4100 MW
This gives a total of 6625 MW or just over 6.6 GW.
Around The North Of Scotland
This map shows the latest successful ScotWind leases.
Note.
- Several of these proposed wind farms have detailed web sites.
These seventeen leases total up to 24.3 GW.
An Interim Total
I believe these figures are realisable.
- Celtic Sea – 50 GW
- Irish Sea – 7.6 GW – 3 GW already underway
- South East England, East Anglia, Lincolnshire And Yorkshire – 22.5 GW
- North Sea – 9.5 GW
- On The East Coast Of Scotland – 6.6 GW
- Around The North Of Scotland – 24.3 GW
Note.
- I have tried to be as pessimistic as possible.
- Irish and North Sea estimates are based on Blue Gem Wind’s professional estimate for the Celtic Sea.
- I have used published figures where possible.
My estimates total up to 120.1 GW of extra wind-power capacity. As I write this, current UK electricity production is around 33 GW.
Vikings Will Invade
This Google Map shows the Faroe Islands, the North of Scotland, Norway and Denmark.
To get an idea of scale, the Shetland Isles are around 70 miles or 113 km. from North to South.
In Is This The World’s Most Ambitious Green Energy Solution?, I talked about Norwegian company; Aker Solutions’s plan for Northern Horizons.
- It would be a 10 GW offshore floating wind farm 136 km to the North-East of the Shetlands.
- This position would probably place it about halfway between the Faroes and the Norwegian coast.
- The project is best described in this article on the Engineer, which is entitled Northern Horizons Plans Clean Energy Exports For Scotland.
- In the article, there is a good graphic and a video.
This will be offshore engineering of the highest class, but then I first came across Norwegian offshore engineering like this in the 1970s, where nothing was too difficult for Norwegian engineers.
There are two major points to remember about the Norwegians.
- They have the Sovereign Wealth Fund to pay for the massive investment in Northern Horizons.
- They need to replace their oil and gas income, with a zero-carbon investment stream.
I feel that Northern Horizons will not be a one-off and the virgin sea in the map above will be liberally carpeted with more floating wind farms.
- On Shetland, electricity can be fed into the UK grid.
- On Norway, electricity can be fed into the Norwegian grid or stored in Norwegian pumped storage systems.
- On Scotland, more pumped storage systems can be built to store energy.
- Hydrogen can be piped to where it is needed to decarbonise heavy industry and transport.
- Norwegian fjords, Shetland harbours, Scottish lochs and possibly Scapa Flow would be ideal places to assemble and service the giant floating turbines and build the other needed floating infrastructure.
- I can also see Denmark getting in on the act, as they will probably want to decarbonise the Faroe Islands.
I estimate that between the Faroes, Scotland and Norway, there are 510,000 km² of virgin sea.
With a potential of 5 MW per km², that area has the potential to create an amazing amount of both electricity and hydrogen.
Exporting Power To Europe
There will need to be more interconnectors from the UK to Europe.
These are already working.
- BritNed – 1 GW – Isle of Grain and Rotterdam
- ElecLink – 1 GW – Through the Channel Tunnel
- HVDC Cross-Channel – 2 GW – England and France
- IFA-2 – 1 GW – England and France
- NemoLink – 1 GW – Kent and Belgium
- North Sea Link – 1.4 GW – Blyth and Norway
- Viking Link – 1.4 GW – Lincolnshire and Denmark
These are proposed.
- GridLink – 1.4 GW – Kent and Dunkirk
- NeuConnect – 1.4 GW – Isle of Grain and Germany
- North Connect – 1.4 GW – Scotland and Norway
There are also gas interconnectors, that could be converted to hydrogen.
This press release from National Grid, which is entitled Undersea Electricity Superhighways That Will Help Deliver Net Zero Move A Step Closer, has these bullet points.
- Positive progress on plans for £3.4bn electricity super-highway projects – Scotland to England Green Links.
- Ofgem opens consultation that recognises the “clear case” and “consumer benefit” of two subsea high voltage cables to transport clean between Scotland and England.
- The cables form part of a planned 16 project £10 billion investment from National Grid to deliver on the government’s target of 40GW of offshore wind generation by 2030.
This paragraph expands on the work by National Grid to meet the third point.
These projects are part of National Grid’s work upgrading the electricity transmission system to deliver the UK government’s target of 40GW of offshore wind generation by 2030. In addition to the Eastern Links, it is developing 14 major projects across its network to facilitate the target representing a £10 billion investment. This includes two further Scotland to England high voltage links (also in partnership with the Scottish transmission network owners) and proposals in the Humber, Lincolnshire, East Midlands, North of England, Yorkshire, North Kent, as well as four in East Anglia (one of which is a proposed offshore link between Suffolk and Kent).
I think we can assume, that National Grid will do their part to allow the UK government’s target of 40GW of offshore wind generation by 2030 to be met.
Will The UK Have 40 GW Of Offshore Wind Generation By 2030?
In the Wikipedia entry for Windpower In The UK, this is the opening sentence.
The United Kingdom is one of the best locations for wind power in the world and is considered to be the best in Europe. By the beginning of March 2022, the UK had 11,091 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 24.6 gigawatts (GW): 14.1 GW of onshore capacity and 10.4 GW of offshore capacity.
It would appear an extra 30 GW of wind power is needed.
In An Interim Total earlier, I gave these figures.
- Celtic Sea – 50 GW
- Irish Sea – 7.6 GW – 3 GW already underway
- South East England, East Anglia, Lincolnshire And Yorkshire – 22.5 GW
- North Sea – 9.5 GW
- On The East Coast Of Scotland – 6.6 GW
- ScotWind – 24.3 GW
The wind farms in South East England, East Anglia, Lincolnshire And Yorkshire and ScotWind and Mona and Morgan are either being planned or under construction, and in many cases leases to construct wind farms are being paid.
I would feel, that at least 30 GW of these 56.4 GW of wind farms will be completed by 2030.
Conclusion
Boris’s vision of the UK becoming a Saudi Arabia of wind is no fantasy of a man with massive dreams.
Standard floating wind turbines, with the possibility of also harvesting wave power could be assembled in ports along the coasts, towed into position and then connected up.
Several GW of wind-power capacity could probably be added each year to what would become the largest zero-carbon power station in the world.
By harvesting the power of the winds and waves in the seas around the British Isles it is an engineering and mathematical possibility, that could have been developed by any of those great visionary Victorian engineers like Armstrong, Bazalgette, Brunel and Reynolds, if they had had access to our modern technology.
Up Yours! Putin!
NeuConnect Awards Two Major Contracts
This page on the NeuConnect web site is entitled NeuConnect Awards Over £1.5 billion Of Major Contracts As First Ever UK-German Energy Link Moves An Important Step Closer.
NeuConnect is a proposed interconnector between England and Germany.
- It will have a capacity of 1.4 GW.
- The interconnector will be around 450 miles long.
- It will be HVDC, like many similar undersea power cables.
- As the title says, it will be the first-ever UK-German energy link.
Wikipedia describes the route like this.
The cable will run between the Greystones substation on the Isle of Grain, in Kent in England to the new Fedderwarden substation in Wilhelmshaven in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. Landfall will be next to Grain Coastal Park, in Kent, and at Hooksiel, near Wilhemshaven in Germany.
Two contracts have been awarded.
- The contract to design, manufacture, install, test and commission the 725km interconnector has been awarded to Prysmian Group.
- The contract to design and build two converter stations in the UK and Germany has been awarded to Siemens Energy.
This sounds like a very simple plan to add an important interconnector between the UK and Germany.
I have some observations and thoughts.
The Isle Of Grain
The Isle of Grain is described in Wikipedia like this.
Isle of Grain (Old English Greon, meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. No longer an island and now forming part of the peninsula, the area is almost all marshland and is a major habitat for diverse wetland birds. The village constitutes a civil parish, which at the 2011 census had a population of 1,648, a net decrease of 83 people in 10 years.
Apart for the birds, over the last few decades it has been home to the following.
- Until 1982, it was the location of a BP oil refinery.
- In the 1990s, the isle was used to make the segments for the lining of the Channel Tunnel.
- Following completion of the Channel Tunnel, the site is now part-occupied by Thamesport, the UK’s third largest container port.
- Next to the former BP site is Grain Power Station, built in the 1970s, which previously burnt oil.
- This power station was demolished in the 2015 and replaced with a 1.275 GW gas-fired power station.
- Another major installation is a new Grain Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import facility, which takes heat from the gas-fired power station.
- The Isle of Grain is the landing point for the BritNed undersea power cable between The Netherlands and the UK.
The Google Map shows the Isle of Grain.
Note.
- Thamesport is in the South-West corner
- To its North is the LNG import facility.
- To the North-East of Thamesport is the 735 MW Medway power station.
- There is a rail connection to Hoo Junction on the North Kent Line.
This second Google Map shows the Eastern side of the Isle.
Note.
- Grain Coastal Park, where NeuConnect will make landfall, is marked by the green arrow at the top of the map.
- Towards the South-Eastern corner of the map is the 1.275 GW Grain gas-fired power station.
- To the East of the power station, there is more switchgear than you see in a bad Frankenstein film.
- The smaller square at the bottom with the two white squares could be the converter station for the BritNed interconnector.
I am sure there is space on the island for a connection for NeuConnect.
There is also a total of 2.01 GW of gas-fired power stations on the Isle of Grain.
Wind Power In The Thames Estuary
This Google Map shows the Thames Estuary.
Note that the red arrow indicates the Isle of Grain.
This map from Wikipedia shows the wind farms in the area.
These are the ones that are operational.
- 2 – East Anglia Array – 714 MW
- 8 – Greater Gabbard – 504 MW
- 9 – Gunfleet Sands – 184 MW
- 13 – Kentish Flats – 140 MW
- 15 – London Array – 630 MW
- 27 – Thanet – 300 MW
Note.
- The Isle of Grain is just above the second o in London.
- I have ignored the Ramplion wind farm (21!), as it is too far from the Isle of Grain.
- This is a total of nearly 2.5 GW.
Planned extensions in the area include.
- East Anglia Array – 3.1 GW – Completion date of 2026
But the Wikipedia entry for the East Anglia Array says this about the wind farm.
The target capacity for the entire East Anglia Zone is 7200 MW which could require up to 1200 turbines.
Could we see one of the following?
- A connector from the East Anglia Array to the Isle of Grain.
- One or more new wind farms in the Thames Estuary connected to the Isle of Grain.
- German investment in a wind farm or farms connected to the Isle of Grain.
The Isle of Grain could become an island of energy providing power for London, the South-East of England, Germany and The Netherlands.
An Electrolyser On The Isle Of Grain
Consider.
- There will be plenty of renewable electricity.
- As there is a liquified natural gas terminal, there is plenty of gas storage.
- One or both of the gas-fired power stations can be converted to run on hydrogen.
- As more and more trucks are converted to hydrogen, there will be a large demand for hydrogen for heavy transport.
This must surely make a large electrolyser on the Isle of Grain a possibility.
The BritNed Interconnector
The BritNed interconnector is described like this in Wikipedia.
BritNed is a 1,000 MW high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) submarine power cable between the Isle of Grain in Kent, the United Kingdom; and Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The BritNed interconnector would serve as a link for the foreseeable European super grid project.
Up to now, most of the electricity flow has been to the UK.
But surely, as more wind farms are developed power will flow the other way.
Wilhelmshaven Will Be A German Hub For Green Hydrogen
In Uniper To Make Wilhelmshaven German Hub For Green Hydrogen; Green Ammonia Import Terminal, I described plans by the Germans for a hydrogen hub at Wilhelmshaven.
The original story came from an article with the same name on Green Car Congress.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Under the name “Green Wilhelmshaven,” Germany-based international energy company Uniper plans to establish a German national hub for hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven and is working on a corresponding feasibility study.
Plans include an import terminal for green ammonia. The terminal will be equipped with an ammonia cracker for producing green hydrogen and will also be connected to the planned hydrogen network. A 410-megawatt electrolysis plant is also planned, which—in combination with the import terminal—would be capable of supplying around 295,000 metric tons or 10% of the demand expected for the whole of Germany in 2030.
As I said in the original post, I’m not happy about green ammonia, but the 1.4 GW NeuConnect interconnector has more than enough power to run a 410 MW electrolyser plant at full capacity.
It could even run three electrolysers of this size.
Hooksiel And Wilhelmshaven
NeuConnect will make landfall at Hooksiel.
This Google Map shows Hooksiel and Wilhelmshaven.
Note.
- Hooksiel is the village outlined in red.
- The water to the right of the map is the Jade Bight.
- The square block sticking out into the bight appears to be a container port.
- There appears to be chemical works or oil refineries North of the port.
- Wilhelmshaven is the town to the South of the port.
There would appear to be plenty of space for Uniper to construct Green Wilhelmshaven.
German And UK Wind Power Production
According to this page on Wikipedia, which is entitled Wind Power By Country, in 2020, these were installed wind power in various countries.
- Germany – 62,184 MW
- Spain – 27,089 MW
- UK – 24,665 MW
- France – 17,382 MW
- Italy – 10,389 MW
- Netherlands – 6,600 MW
In 2020 we were 37.5 GW behind Germany.
It looks like we’ll commission 3.3 GW this year and 6.1 in 2023, with Wikipedia saying that 12.9 GW is under development, which should close the gap to a certain extent.
In ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations, I described how Scotland will add 15.1 GW of floating and 9.7 GW of fixed foundation offshore wind.
It looks like initially, we’ll be buying German wind-generated electricity, but in the future the direction could easily change around.
Boris And Olaf
There were mumblings from Boris, that energy was talked about in their meeting in Downing Street last week.
It does appear there is a lot of ways that the UK and Germany can co-operate in the future with respect to energy.
- German finance can be used to build wind farms in UK waters.
- German companies can build the turbines and the interconnectors we need to develop vast offshore wind farms.
- We can supply surplus energy to Germany through the NeuConnect interconnector.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Boris and Olaf had signed a very comprehensive energy co-operation agreement.
A Resilient Net Zero Electricity System Achievable By 2035 But Increased Investment Required, Regen Report Finds
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Current News.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The technical solutions needed to operate a net zero electricity system by 2035 are available or attainable, Regen has found, though a step-change in the level of investment is still needed.
The trade body has produced a new report for National Grid ESO into a ‘day in the life’ of a fully decarbonized electricity system by 2035, which the ESO is aiming for.
The article gives a lot of figures about our electricity supply in 2035.
Consumption of electricity will be between 450 and 500TWh per year, with the following sources.
- 55-65GW of offshore wind
- 25-35GW onshore wind
- 40-50GW of solar
- 6-10GW of other renewables
- 10-15GW of low carbon dispatch
- 8-10GW of nuclear
- 8-12GW of carbon capture and storage (CCS)
- 15-25GW of fossil fuel backup.
Note.
- 450-500 TWh is 51-57 GW per hour averaged out over the year.
- They emphasise the importance of energy storage.
- No mention is made of the massive Coire Glas pumped hydro storage.
- No mention is made of hydrogen.
- As is normal, with reports like this the authors don’t keep their GW and GWh separate.
- They also don’t explain the hierarchy of MW, GW and TW, which is 1000 x steps up the scale.
The full report is at this page on the Internet.
Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme, Stream 1 Phase 1: Details Of Successful Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this document from the UK Government.
This is the introduction.
Stream 1 aims to accelerate commercialisation of innovative longer duration energy storage projects through to actual demonstrations. During Phase 1, projects will be expected to mobilise their proposed technologies to prepare for potential deployment on the UK energy system.
These are the projects.
Ballylumford Power-to-X
This is the description of this project in Northern Ireland.
B9 Energy Storage will receive £986,082 to mobilise a 20MW membrane free electrolyser green hydrogen project. Using otherwise curtailed wind power, hydrogen produced will be stored in local underground salt caverns for later use as a fuel in transport and electricity sectors, creating a full-cycle hydrogen economy (production, storage, distribution and usage) on site.
Note.
Ballylumford power station is a 600 MW gas-fired power station, that provides half of Northern Ireland’s electricity.
A 20 MW electrolyser will produce just under nine tonnes of hydrogen per day.
This Google Map shows the location of the power station opposite the port of Larne.
Note.
Ballylumford power station is clearly visible to the East of the channel towards the bottom of the map.
Ballylumford is also the Irish end of the HVDC Moyle interconnector from Scotland, which has a capacity of 500 MW.
Ballylumford would appear to have enough power for a large electrolyser.
Salt Beds In Northern Ireland
This document on the British Geological Survey web site is entitled Geological Storage In Northern Ireland.
The document discusses Irelands energy needs and gives a good description of using compressed air energy storage in salt caverns.
Then these two paragraphs describe the salt bed in Northern Ireland compare them to other deposits under Great Britain.
Thick halite deposits, found both onshore in Northern Ireland and immediately offshore in the North Channel, offer potential for salt cavern storage facilities. The salt deposits occur as bedded deposits with minor halokinesis (geological movement of salt) forming salt swells rather than pillows or domes so that the height of any cavern may be restricted by bed thickness. Pure salt beds tend to be thin (approximately 100-250 metres maximum thickness) compared to those used elsewhere and the presence of significant insoluble impurities and minor intrusive dolerite dykes or sills may reduce their suitability.
The Larne and Carrickfergus area of County Antrim is the only part of the whole island where thick salt beds occur. Elsewhere in the UK parts of Cheshire, Lancashire, Teesside, Humberside and Dorset have similar, or thicker, developments of salt beds and gas storage facilities are either in construction, or are already in operation.
It would appear that the thick salt beds in the Larne and Carrickfergus area could be suitable for gas storage.
Ballylumford might actually be on top of the salt beds, as Carrickfergus is a few miles to the South.
On a personal note, I used to work for ICI Mond Division and during that time and immediately afterwards, I met many people, who had been into the salt mines and worked with boreholes extracting the salt and the one thing everybody said about the salt mine, was that water must not get in.
Membrane-Free Electrolysis
I saw this in operation when I worked at ICI Mond. Most of their hydrogen and chlorine was produced using the main Castner-Kellner process at Castner-Kellner works in Runcorn. That is a nasty process that uses a lot of mercury, which got into the air and plant operators’ bodies.
But ICI also had a much smaller plant, where they used simple electrolysers, that had a metal cell, with a concrete top, with the anode and cathode going through the concrete into the brine. I seem to remember that its main purpose was to provide mercury-free hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide. I can remember seeing workers rebuilding the cells, as was done on a regular basis.
These were membrane free electrolysers and had been running successfully for many years.
Searching the Internet for “membrane free electrolyser” I found a company in Doncaster called CPH2.
The home page on their web site declares
Clean Power Hydrogen are the manufacturers of the unique Membrane-Free Electrolyser
Turning to the About page, this is said.
Being passionate about hydrogen as clean energy for the future, we wanted to find an alternative to PEM electrolysers as these had barriers to adoption. We realised that the cleanest way to produce hydrogen was by membrane-free water electrolysis, and in doing so, it would be a less expensive and more robust technology.
Dr. Nigel Williamson and Joe Scott established CPH2 (Ireland) in 2012 with the ambition to help clean up the environment for our children and future generations. Entering the green technology sector; a high growth and profitable market, they developed a Membrane-Free Electrolyser™ to produce hydrogen faster, more reliably, and more cost-effectively than other electrolysers.
They also have the ambition to be leading developer and manufacturer of green hydrogen technologies and an Irish connection.
My experience says that their technology will work. Especially, with the application of modern materials.
Have the Government backed the Ballylumford Power-to-X project, as they can back two promising technologies with one grant?
GraviSTORE
This is the description of this project.
Gravitricity Limited will receive £912,410.84 to design their multiweight energy store demonstrator project, which will store and discharge energy by lifting and lowering multiple weights in a vertical underground shaft.
Note.
- I like the Gravitricity concept and have invested through crowdfunding.
- The project will be based on a brownfield site in Northern England.
- Gravitricity’s current demonstrator in Edinburgh, which I wrote about in Gravitricity Celebrates Success Of 250kW Energy Storage Demonstrator, only uses a single weight, but this project talks about multiple weights.
According to other sources on the Internet, the demonstrator will have a storage capacity of 4 MWh and will be built on a brownfield site.
Will we see Gravitricity coming to a disused deep coal mine near you?
Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle
This is the description of this project.
Subsea 7 Limited and FLASC B.V. will receive £471,760.00 to further develop the Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle which will store energy as a combination of pressurised seawater and compressed air, using an innovative hydro-pneumatic technology.
Note.
- Subsea 7 Limited are a subsea engineering, construction and services company serving the offshore energy industry, domiciled in Luxembourg with headquarters in London.
- According to their web site, FLASC B.V. is a spin-off of the University of Malta, established in The Netherlands in 2019.
On the page on the FLASC web site, which is labelled The Technology, this is said.
FLASC is an energy storage device that can be integrated directly into a floating offshore platform. Energy is stored using a hydro-pneumatic liquid piston, driven by a reversible pump-turbine.
Charging Mode: electricity is used to pump water into a closed chamber containing pre-charged air.
Discharging Mode: the pressurised water is released through a hydraulic turbine to generate electricity.
FLASC leverages existing infrastructure and supply chains, along with the marine environment itself as a natural heatsink, resulting in a safe, reliable and cost-effective solution.
There is also this video.
The news page on the FLASC web site is a comforting read.
My knowledge of modelling vessel systems for chemical plants, tells my brain to like it.
Vanadium Flow Battery Longer Duration Energy Asset Demonstrator
This is the description of this project.
Invinity Energy Systems will receive £708,371 to demonstrate how a 40 MWh Vanadium Flow Battery could deliver long duration storage-enabled power on demand from UK-based solar generation.
Note.
- I wrote about Invinity Energy Systems in UK’s Pivot Power Sees First Battery On Line By 2021.
- Invinity Energy Systems was formed by a merger of RedT and Avalon Battery.
- The project appears to be located at Bathgate in Scotland.
This picture from EdF shows a large vanadian flow battery.
Invinity Energy Systems flow battery at Energy Superhub Oxford
If this project works out, vanadium flow batteries would be a good replacement for lithium-ion batteries.
Cheshire Energy Storage Centre
This is the description of this project.
io consulting will receive £1 million to enable its consortium to develop an electricity storage facility which could use mothballed EDF gas cavities in Cheshire utilising Hydrostor’s Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage technology
Note.
- This is another project based on salt caverns.
- I wrote about Canadian company; Hydrostor in Gigawatt-Scale Compressed Air: World’s Largest Non-Hydro Energy-Storage Projects Announced.
- Hydrostor have received at least one large order for their system.
I have put Hydrostor on my list of tecnologies that should make it.
Conclusion
This is a well-balanced list of projects.
I would rate success as follows.
- Ballylumford Power-to-X – 60 %
- GraviSTORE – 80 %
- Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle – 60 %
- Vanadium Flow Battery Longer Duration Energy Asset Demonstrator – 70 %
- Cheshire Energy Storage Centre – 80 %
But then all these projects are a bit of a gamble
New Electricity ‘Superhighways’ Needed To Cope With Surge In Wind Power
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Telegraph.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Energy companies are pushing for the rapid approval of new electricity “superhighways” between Scotland and England amid fears that a lack of capacity will set back the country’s wind power revolution.
Businesses including SSE and Scottish Power are calling on the industry regulator Ofgem to approve a series of major new north-south power cables in a bid to ease congestion on the existing electricity network.
These points are mentioned in the article.
- Current capacity is 6 GW, which even now is not enough.
- Another 17 GW of capacity will be needed by 2033.
- Wind farms in Scotland have been switched off and replaced by gas-fired power stations because of a lack of grid capacity.
- Another 25 GW of wind farms could be built after leases were awarded last month.
Two North-South interconnectors are being planned.
Peterhead And Drax
This is being proposed by SSE and National Grid.
- It will be an undersea cable.
- It will be two cables, each with a capacity of 2 GW.
- Peterhead and Drax power station are four hundred miles apart by road and 279 miles as the seagull flies, as a lot of the route would be over the sea. So an undersea connection would appear to be sensible.
- Peterhead is on the coast, so connecting an undersea interconnector shouldn’t be too challenging or disruptive to the locals.
- Drax power station is a 4 GW power station and the largest in the UK, so it must have good grid connections.
This Google Map shows the location of Drax power station in relation to Hull, Scunthorpe and the rivers in the area.
Note.
- Drax is marked by the red arrow in the West of the map.
- The large body of water in the East is the Humber Estuary.
- Hull is on the North Bank of the Humber.
- Scunthorpe, which is famous for its steel industry is South of the Humber in the middle of the map.
- To the West of Scunthorpe the Humber splits into the Trent and the Ouse.
- The Ouse leads all the way to Drax power station.
I suspect an undersea cable could go up the Humber and Ouse to Drax power station.
Is it a coincidence that both Drax power station and the proposed link to Peterhead are both around 4 GW?
Consider.
- Drax is a biomass power station, so it is not a zero carbon power station.
- Drax produces around six percent of the UK’s electricity.
- Most of the biomass comes by ship from North America.
- Protest groups regularly have protests at Drax because of its carbon emissions.
- Drax Group are experimenting with carbon capture.
- Drax is a big site and a large energy storage system could be built there.
- Wind is often criticised by opponents, saying wind is useless when the wind doesn’t blow.
- The Scots would be unlikely to send power to England, if they were short.
This is also said about Drax in Wikipedia.
Despite this intent for baseload operation, it was designed with a reasonable ability for load-following, being able to ramp up or down by 5% of full power per minute within the range of 50–100% of full power.
I take this it means it can be used to top up electricity generation to meet demand. Add in energy storage and it could be a superb load-follower.
So could the similar size of the interconnector and Drax power station be deliberate to guarantee England a 4 GW feed at all states of the wind?
I don’t think it is a coincidence.
Torness And Hawthorn Pit And Torness and South Humberside
These two cables are being proposed by Scottish Power.
- Each will be two GW.
- Torness is the site of the 1.36 GW Torness nuclear power station, which is likely to be decommissioned before 2030.
- Torness will have good grid connections and it is close to the sea.
- Hawthorn Pit is a large closed coal mine to the North of Newcastle, with a large substation close to the site. I suspect it will be an ideal place to feed power into the grid for Newcastle and it is close to the sea.
- Just South of Hawthorn Pit are the 1.32 GW Hartlepool nuclear power station, which will be decommissioned in 2024 and the landfall of the cables to the massive Dogger Bank wind farm.
- As I showed earlier with Drax, the Humber would be an ideal estuary to bring underwater power cables into the surrounding area. So perhaps the cable will go to Scunthorpe for the steelworks.
- As at Drax, there is backup in South Humberside, but here it is from the two Keadby gas-fired power stations.
The article in the Telegraph only gives the briefest of details of Scottish Power’s plans, but I suspect, that given the locations of the ends of the interconnectors, I suspect the cables will be underwater.
Conclusion
It strikes me that all three interconnectors have been well thought thought and they serve a variety of objectives.
- Bring Scottish wind power, South to England.
- Connect wind farms to the two nuclear power station sites at Hartlepool and Torness, that will close at the end of the decade.
- Allow the big 4 GW biomass-fired station at Drax to back up wind farms and step in when needed.
- Cut carbon emissions at Drax.
- Use underwater cables as much as possible to transfer the power, to avoid the disruption of digging in underground cables.
It looks to be a good plan.
Offshore Service Facilities
Some years ago at a wedding in The Netherlands, I got talking to a Dutch engineer, who had a lot to do with the creation of the Delta Works.
Also in The Netherlands, I visited the Watersnoodmuseum, which describes the floods in the Netherlands, that brought about the Delta Works.
So I was not surprised to see the spectacular offshore construction ideas talked about on the Offshore Service Facilities web site.
The site talks about a project to create a four GW wind farm, eighty kilometres off the coast, all serviced from an artificial island.
This is their overview of what they call the IJVER project.
IJmuiden Ver (IJVER) is one of the designated wind farm areas under the Dutch offshore wind road map 2030. With a capacity of at least 4 GW and a distance to shore of approximately 80 km, it is currently the largest foreseen Dutch wind farm zone, and the furthest from shore. The area also includes legacy oil & gas asset, including several gas pipelines that can be retrofitted to transport other gasses such as hydrogen or for CCS-purposes.
Note.
- 80 km. is not far offshore, when you consider the UK’s Dogger Bank C wind farm is 196 km from Teesside.
- There are depleted gas fields for storage and pipelines to transport gases to and from the shore.
This page describes the concept, starting with this introductory paragraph.
A multi-purpose island provides additional benefits over fixed offshore platforms (so-called jackets). It stimulates the energy transition, drives down the costs of the renewable energy transition, creates room for nature inclusive island design, facilitates Research & Development (R&D) and innovation, creates a safe working environment, as well as additional economic opportunities.
One feature they are proposing is an interconnector to the UK.
In Is There A Need For A Norfolk-Suffolk Interconnector?, I suggested that Bacton, Sizewell and Felixstowe could be places, where wind power from the North Sea were to be landed.
Distances to the IJVER island would be as follows.
- Bacton – 85 miles
- Sizewell – 77 miles
- Felixstowe – 92 miles
These distances are feasible for an interconnector.
There is this explanatory video.
Conclusion
My experience of the Dutch, their civil and marine engineers and their creations, indicates to me, that the Dutch could build an island like this.
Once you have built the island and it can stand up to the weather, you could of course fit it out how you want. Even with a football pitch, as shown in the video.
As with many ideas, the realisation of this concept will depend on the costs involved.
It should be noted, that some UK wind farms have been built with offshore substations, but nothing appears to be as ambitious as this idea and is probably based on proven oil and gas platform technology.
The Dutch also have plans with the Germans and the Danes to create the North Sea Wind Power Hub in the middle of the North Sea.
- This would probably connect to the UK’s Dogger Bank wind farms.
- It would feed electricity as required to the countries around the North Sea.
- Hydrogen could be created on the hub.
- Over a hundred GW of electricity could be generated according to some forecasts.
I like the concept of the North Sea Wind Power Hub and suspect that the Dutch will see it built.
Is There A Need For A Norfolk-Suffolk Interconnector?
The coast of East Anglia from the Wash to the Haven Ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and Ipswich is becoming the Energy Coast of England.
Starting at the Wash and going East and then South, the following energy-related sites or large energy users are passed.
Bicker Fen Substation
Bicker may only be a small hamlet in Lincolnshire, but it is becoming increasingly important in supplying energy to the UK.
Nearby is Bicker Fen substation, which connects or will connect the following to the National Grid.
- The 26 MW Bicker Fen onshore windfarm.
- The 1,400 MW interconnector from Denmark called Viking Link.
- The proposed 857 MW offshore wind farm Triton Knoll.
This Google Map shows the location of Bicker Fen with respect to The Wash.
Bicker Fen is marked by the red arrow.
The Google Map shows the substation.
It must be sized to handle over 2 GW, but is it large enough?
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
The Dudgeon offshore wind farm is a 402 MW wind farm, which is twenty miles off the North Norfolk coast.
- It has 67 turbines and an offshore substation.
- It is connected to the shore at Weybourne on the coast from where an underground cable is connected to the National Grid at Necton.
- It became operational in Oct 2017.
- Equinor and Statkraft are part owners of the windfarm and this is the home page of the wind farm’s web site.
- Equinor is the operator of the wind farm.
This Google Map shows the location of Weybourne on the coast.
Note.
- Weybourne is in the middle on the coast.
- Sheringham is on the coast in the East.
- Holt is on the Southern edge of the map almost South of Weybourne.
This second map shows the location of the onshore substation at Necton, with respect to the coast.
Note.
- The Necton substation is marked by a red arrow.
- Holt and Sheringham can be picked out by the coast in the middle.
- Weybourne is to the West of Sheringham.
- Necton and Weybourne are 35 miles apart.
Digging in the underground cable between Necton and Weybourne might have caused some disruption.
Looking at Weybourne in detail, I can’t find anything that looks like a substation. So is the Necton substation connected directly to Dudgeon’s offshore substation?
Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm
The Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm is a 316.8 MW wind farm, which is eleven miles off the North Norfolk coast.
- It has 88 turbines and two offshore substations.
- As with Dudgeon, it is connected to the shore at Weybourne on the coast.
- But the underground cable is connected to an onshore substation at Salle and that is connected to the National Grid at Norwich.
- It became operational in Sept 2012.
- Equinor and Statkraft are part owners of the windfarm and this is the home page of the wind farm’s web site.
- Equinor is the operator of the wind farm.
This second map shows the location of the onshore substation at Salle, with respect to the coast.
Note.
- The Salle substation is marked by a red arrow.
- Holt, Weybourne and Sheringham can be picked out by the coast in the middle.
- Weybourne is to the West of Sheringham.
- Salle and Weybourne are 13.5 miles apart.
Could the following two statements be true?
- As the Sheringham Shoal wind farm was built first, that wind farm was able to use the shorter route.
- It wasn’t built large enough to be able to handle the Dudgeon wind farm.
The statements would certainly explain, why Dudgeon used a second cable.
Extending The Dudgeon And Sheringham Shoal Wind Farms
Both the Dudgeon And Sheringham Shoal web sites have details of the proposed join extension of both wind farms.
This is the main statement on the Overview page.
Equinor has been awarded an Agreement for Lease by the Crown Estate, the intention being to seek consents to increase the generating capacity of both the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm and the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm.
They then make three points about the development.
- Equinor is proposing a joint development of the two projects with a common transmission infrastructure.
- As part of the common DCO application, the Extension Projects have a shared point of connection at the National Grid Norwich Main substation.
- These extension projects will have a combined generating capacity of 719MW which will make an important contribution to the UK’s target of 30GW of electricity generated by offshore wind by 2030.
This statement on the Offshore Location page, describes the layout of the wind farms.
The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm extension is to the north and the east of the existing wind farm, while its Dudgeon counterpart is to the north and south east of the existing Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm site. The proposed extension areas share the boundaries with its existing wind farm site.
They then make these two important points about the development.
- Equinor is seeking to develop the extension project with a joint transmission infrastructure. A common offshore substation infrastructure is planned to be located in the Sheringham Shoal wind farm site.
- The seabed export cable which will transmit the power generated by both wind farm extensions will make landfall at Weybourne.
There is also this map.
Note.
- The purple line appears to be the UK’s ten mile limit.
- The Sheringham Shoal Extension is outlined in red.
- The Dudgeon Extension is outlined in blue.
- The black lines appear to be the power cables.
I suspect the dotted blue lines are shipping routes sneaking their way through the turbines.
This statement on the Onshore Location page, describes the layout of the offshore and onshore cables.
A new seabed export cable will bring the electricity generated by both the Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm extensions to shore at Weybourne, on the coast of Norfolk.
They then make these two important points about the development.
- From there a new underground cable will be installed to transmit that power to a new purpose built onshore substation, which will be located within a 3km radius of the existing Norwich main substation, south of Norwich. This will be the National Grid network connection point for the electricity from both wind farm extensions.
- The power will be transmitted from landfall to the substation using an HVAC system which eliminates the need for any relay stations along the onshore cable route.
There is also this map.
It will be a substantial undertaking to build the underground cable between Weybourne and South of Norwich.
Bacton Gas Terminal
The Bacton gas terminal is a complex of six gas terminals about ten miles East of Cromer.
- It lands and processes gas from a number of fields in the North Sea.
- It hosts the UK end of the BBL pipeline to The Netherlands.
- It hosts the UK end of the Interconnector to Zeebrugge in Belgium.
- The Baird and Deborah fields, which have been developed as gas storage, are connected to the gas terminal. They are both mothballed.
This Google Map shows the location of the terminal.
Note.
- The Bacton gas terminal is marked by a red arrow.
- Sheringham is in the North West corner of the map.
- Cromer, Overstrand, Trimingham and Mundesley are resort towns and villages along the coast North of Bacton.
This second map shows the Bacton gas terminal in more detail.
Would you want to have a seaside holiday, by a gas terminal?
Norfolk Boreas And Norfolk Vanguard
Norfolk Boreas and Norfolk Vanguard are two wind farms under development by Vattenfall.
- Norfolk Boreas is a proposed 1.8 GW wind farm, that will be 45 miles offshore.
- Norfolk Vanguard is a proposed 1.8 GW wind farm, that will be 29 miles offshore.
This map shows the two fields in relation to the coast.
Note.
- The purple line appears to be the UK’s ten mile limit.
- Norfolk Boreas is outlined in blue.
- Norfolk Vsnguard is outlined in orange.
- Cables will be run in the grey areas.
This second map shows the onshore cable.
Note.
- The cables are planned to come ashore between Happisburgh and Eccles-on-Sea.
- Bacton gas terminal is only a short distance up the coast.
- The onshore cable is planned to go from here across Norfolk to the Necton substation.
But all of this has been overturned by a legal ruling.
This article on the BBC is entitled Norfolk Vanguard: Ministers Wrong Over Wind Farm Go-Ahead, Says Judge.
These are the first four paragraphs.
A High Court judge has quashed permission for one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms to be built off the east coast of England.
The Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm was granted development consent in July by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
But Mr Justice Holgate overturned the decision following legal action from a man living near a planned cable route.
A Department for BEIS spokeswoman said it was “disappointed by the outcome”.
I bet the spokeswoman was disappointed.
Vattenfall and the BEIS will go back to the drawing board.
But seriously, is it a good idea to dig an underground cable all the way across Norfolk or in these times build a massive overhead cable either?
Perhaps the solution is to connect the Norfolk Boreas And Norfolk Vanguard wind farms to a giant electrolyser at Bacton, which creates hydrogen.
- The underground electricity cable across Norfolk would not be needed.
- Bacton gas terminal is only a few miles up the coast from the cable’s landfall.
- The UK gets another supply of gas.
- The hydrogen is blended with natural gas for consumption in the UK or Europe.
- A pure hydrogen feed can be used to supply hydrogen buses, trucks and other vehicles, either by tanker or pipeline.
- Excess hydrogen could be stored in depleted gas fields.
The main benefit though, would be that it would transform Bacton gas terminal from a declining asset into Norfolk’s Hydrogen Powerhouse.
Great Yarmouth And Lowestoft
Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour and the Port of Lowestoft have not been the most successful of ports in recent years, but with the building of large numbers of wind farms, they are both likely to receive collateral benefits.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the support ships for the wind farms switching to zero-carbon power, which would require good electrical connections to the ports to either charge batteries or power electrolysers to generate hydrogen.
Sizewell
Sizewell has only one nuclear power station at present; Sizewell B, but it could be joined by Sizewell C or a fleet of Small Modular Reactors (SMR).
The Sizewell Overhead Transmission Line
Sizewell also has a very high capacity overhead power line to Ipswich and the West.
I doubt, it would be possible to build an overhead transmission line like this today.
Sizewell And Hydrogen
EdF, who own the site are involved with Freeport East and may choose to build a large electrolyser in the area to create hydrogen for the Freeport.
East Anglia Array
The East Anglia Array will be an enormous wind farm., comprising up to six separate projects.
It will be thirty miles offshore.
It could generate up to 7.2 GW.
The first project East Anglia One is in operation and delivers 714 MW to a substation in the Deben Estuary, which connects to the Sizewell high-capacity overhead power line.
Most projects will be in operation by 2026.
Freeport East
As the Freeport develops, it will surely be a massive user of both electricity and hydrogen.
Problems With The Current Electricity Network
I don’t believe that the current electricity network, that serves the wind farms and the large energy users has been designed with the number of wind farms we are seeing in the North Sea in mind.
Every new windfarm seems to need a new connection across Norfolk or Suffolk and in Norfolk, where no high-capacity cables exist, this is stirring up the locals.
There is also no energy storage in the current electricity network, so at times, the network must be less than efficient and wind turbines have to be shut down.
Objections To The Current Policies
It is not difficult to find stories on the Internet about objections to the current policies of building large numbers of wind farms and the Sizewell C nuclear power station.
This article on the East Anglia Daily Times, which is entitled Campaigners Unite In Calling For A Pause Before ‘Onslaught’ Of Energy Projects ‘Devastates’ Region is typical.
This is the first paragraph.
Campaigners and politicians have called on the Government to pause the expansion of the energy industry in Suffolk, which they fear will turn the countryside into an “industrial wasteland” and hit tourism.
The group also appear to be against the construction of Sizewell C.
I feel they have a point about too much development onshore, but I feel that if the UK is to thrive in the future we need an independent zero carbon energy source.
I also believe that thousands of wind farms in the seas around the UK and Ireland are the best way to obtain that energy.
Blending Hydrogen With Natural Gas
Blending green hydrogen produced in an electrolyser with natural gas is an interesting possibility.
- HyDeploy is a project to investigate blending up to 20 % of green hydrogen in the natural gas supply to industrial and domestic users.
- Partners include Cadent, ITM Power, Keele University and the Health and Safety Executive.
- Natural gas naturally contains a small amount of hydrogen anyway.
- The hydrogen gas would be distributed to users in the existing gas delivery network.
I wrote about HyDeploy in a post called HyDeploy.
Thje only loser, if hydrogen were to be blended with natural gas would be Vlad the Poisoner, as he’d sell less of his tainted gas.
An Interconnector Between Bicker Fen And Freeport East
I believe that an electricity interconnector between at least Bicker Fen and Freeport East could solve some of the problems.
My objectives would be.
- Avoid as much disruption on the land as possible.
- Create the capacity to deliver all the energy generated to customers, either as electricity or hydrogen.
- Create an expandable framework, that would support all the wind farms that could be built in the future.
The interconnector would be a few miles offshore and run along the sea-bed.
- This method of construction is well proven.
- It was used for the Western HVDC Link between Hunterston in Scotland and Connah’s Quay in Wales.
- Most wind farms seem to have existing substations and these would be upgraded to host the interconnector.
Connections en route would include.
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
The interconnector would connect to the existing offshore substation.
Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm
The interconnector would connect to the existing offshore substation.
Dudgeon and Sheringham Shoal Extension Offshore Wind Farms
These two wind farms could be connected directly to the interconnector, if as planned, they shared an offshore substation in the Sheringham Shoal Extension offshore wind farm.
Bacton Gas Terminal
I would connect to the Bacton Gas Terminal, so that a large electrolyser could be installed at the terminal.
The hydrogen produced could be.
- Stored in depleted gas fields connected to the terminal.
- Blended with natural gas.
- Exported to Europe through an interconnector.
- Supplied to local users by truck or pipeline.
After all, the terminal has been handling gas for over fifty years, so they have a lot of experience of safe gas handling.
Norfolk Boreas And Norfolk Vanguard
These two wind farms could be connected directly to the interconnector, if they shared an offshore substation.
It would also help to appease and silence the objectors, if there was no need to dig up half of Norfolk.
Great Yarmouth And Lowestoft
It might be better, if these ports were supplied from the interconnector.
- Either port could have its own electrolyser to generate hydrogen, which could be.
- Used to power ships, trucks and port equipment.
- Liquefied and exported in tankers.
- Used to supply local gas users.
- Hydrogen could be supplied to a converted Great Yarmouth power station.
Both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft could become hydrogen hub towns.
Sizewell
This site has a high-capacity connection to the National Grid. This connection is a big eyesore, but it needs to run at full capacity to take electricity from the Energy Coast to the interior of England.
That electricity can come from Sizewell B and/or Sizewell C nuclear power stations or the offshore wind farms.
East Anglia Array
There would probably need to be a joint offshore substation to control the massive amounts of electricity generated by the array.
Currently, the only wind farm in operation of this group is East Anglia One, which uses an underground cable connection to the Sizewell high-capacity connection to the Bullen Lane substation at Bramford.
Freeport East, Ipswich And Bullen Lane Substation
This Google Map shows the area between Ipswich and the coast.
Note.
- Sizewell is in the North-East corner of the map.
- Felixstowe, Harwich and Freeport East are at the mouth of the rivers Orwell and Stour.
- The Bullen Lane substation is to the West of Ipswich and shown by the red arrow.
I would certainly investigate the possibility of running an underwater cable up the River Orwell to connect the Southern end of the interconnector Between Bicker Fen And Freeport East.
This Google Map shows the Bullen Lane Substation.
It looks impressive, but is it big enough to handle all the electricity coming ashore from the offshore wind farms to the East of Suffolk and the electricity from the power stations at Sizewell?
Conclusion
I believe there are a lot of possibilities, that would meet the threeobjectives, I stated earlier.
- Avoid as much disruption on the land as possible.
- Create the capacity to deliver all the energy generated to customers, either as electricity or hydrogen.
- Create an expandable framework, that would support all the wind farms that could be built in the future.
In addition, simple mathematics says to me, that either there will need to be extra capacity at both Bicker Fen and Bullen Lane substations and onward to the rest of the country, or a large electrolyser to convert several gigawatts of electricity into hydrogen for distribution, through the gas network.
Cap And Floor Mechanism The ‘Standout Solution’ For Long Duration Storage, KPMG Finds
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Current News.
These are the first two paragraphs.
A cap and floor regime would be the most beneficial solution for supporting long duration energy storage, a KPMG report has found.
Commissioned by Drax, the report detailed how there is currently no appropriate investment mechanism for long duration storage. Examining four investment mechanisms – the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, Regulated Asset Value (RAV) model, cap and floor regime and a reformed Capacity Market – it identified cap and floor as the best solution.
Cap and floor has been used successfully in the financing of interconnectors, so perhaps to apply it to long duration energy storage, will lead to greater use of such storage.
