61GW Renewables And Storage Pipeline Could Bring In £125bn To Economy
I did think about calling this post something like.
- Do You Like Large Numbers?
- My Calculator Just Blew Up!
- I Don’t Believe It!
- No Wonder Rishi Sunak Has A Smile On His Face!
But I’ll use my normal introduction for this type of post!
The title of this post, is the same as that on this article of Current News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The UK currently has a pipeline of 61GW of renewables and storage that if developed could bring in £125 billion to the UK economy.
The article also says that this pipeline could provide 200,000 jobs.
So where will this massive 61 GW of electricity come from?
- Off-shore Wind – 31.7 GW
- On-shore Wind – 11.9 GW
- Solar PV – 8.6 GW
- Storage – 8.5 GW
Where is the Nuclear Option?
iThe article also says that 18 GW of these projects are Shovel-Ready.
The figures come from UK trade association; Regen, whose Chief |Executive is the appropriately named; Merlin Hyman.
The page on the Regen web site, which is entitled Unlock Renewables For A Green Recovery, is the original document on which the Current News article is based.
Regen want three things from the Government, in return for creating all this renewable electricity capacity.
- Publish an Energy White Paper putting the UK on course for a flexible power system based on renewables and storage.
Commit to annual Contracts for Difference auctions to give investors confidence.
End the anti onshore wind policies in the English planning regime.
Some will not like the third condition.
I must go now, as I must go down the Chinese-owned Lucky Electronics Shop on Dalston Kingsland High Street to get a calculator with more digits to replace the one that blew up!
Exeter City Council Builds Its First Solar And Battery Storage Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Live News.
This paragraph describes the scheme.
The plant, which had its preparatory work finished recently, will be built on an inactive landfill site and will comprise of a 1.2MW array of 3,702 solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, two battery storage containers and an electrical switch room.
I do think, this is a superb use for a old landfill site.
As I believe that some landfill sites still give off methane for many years, if this is the case, this can surely continue.
The scheme will also include a 1 MW/2 MWh battery and will be geared to providing power to a council operation’s facility and in the future to supporting an electric fleet.
This is a superb example of how to turn an unwanted toxic liability into a green asset, with several benefits.
I have not heard of something like this before, but by searching the list of solar and energy-from-waste power sites in the UK, I found a cluster around the M5 to the North of the village of Puriton.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- The village of Puriton to the East of the Junction 23 of the M5, which is a forest of blue dots.
- The various solar farms showing as a blue-violet field. I can count fourteen separate fields.
In total, there are about half-a-dozen renewable energy producers in the area generating up to 25 MW of electricity.
The area to the North-East of the village with all the white dots, just above the green one, is the former Royal Ordinance Factory Bridgewater, which I’m sure solar farmers would like to get their hands on.
Would this become a modern version of swords into ploughshares?
Developer 8minute Says More Than 24GWh Of Batteries Included In Its US Solar-Plus-Storage Pipeline
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
What caught my eye was the 24 GWh!
When you consider that the biggest battery in the UK is Electric Mountain, which has a capacity of 9 GWh, 24 GWh of batteries is a large number!
It will need a lot of solar panels to keep that amount of batteries brim-full.
This is a sentence from the article.
The company’s projects include the Eland Solar & Storage Center, which will comprise 400MWac of PV and 300MW / 1,200MWh of battery energy storage, currently under construction in California’s Mojave Desert.
Those are big numbers against the UK’s largest solar park at Shotwick in Wales, which is just 72.2 MW.
Portugal’s Delayed 700MW Solar Tender With Storage Option Launches
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
According to the Wikipedia entry for Solar Power in Portugal, Portugal had 828 MW of installed solar power in 2018.
So 700 MW will almost double the capacity.
Note that if they had the same amount of installed solar power per square mile as the UK, Portugal would have 3 GW or 3,000 MW of installed solar power.
Newcomer Broad Reach Power To Deploy Increasingly Large Battery Systems In Texas
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
US-based independent power producer (IPP) Broad Reach Power has said it will build 15 projects in Texas in 2020, each of them just under 10MW / 10MWh, with construction on six of them set to begin this summer.
The article then goes on to describe the electricity industry in Texas and where the battery storage fits in.
It’s all a far cry from the Texas portrayed in soaps like Dallas.
Wind Power In Texas
Wind Power in Texas has its own Wikipedia entry and this is the first paragraph.
Wind power in Texas consists of over 40 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 28,000 MW (as of 2019). If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state.
But then everything in Texas, is famed as being the biggest in the world.
Their installed capacity of 28 GW compares with 17.64 GW of installed wind power in the UK.
Solar Power In Texas
Solar Power in Texas also has its own Wikipedia entry and this is the first paragraph.
Solar power in Texas, along with wind power, has the potential to allow Texas to remain an energy-exporting state over the long term. The western portion of the state especially has abundant open land areas, with some of the greatest solar and wind potential in the country. Development activities there are also encouraged by relatively simple permitting and significant available transmission capacity.
The Wikipedia entry also says that in 2019, Texas had 4.32 GW of installed solar power.
By comparison, the UK has 8.1 GW of installed solar power. Who’d have thought that?
As Texas is 2.87 times geographically larger than the UK, if Texas had the same solar panel density as the UK, Texas would have an installed capacity of 23.2 GW.
The Need For Energy Storage In Texas
With all this installed wind and solar energy in Texas and its potential for expansion, there would appear to a massive demand for energy storage in the state.
Conclusion
What would JR think?
Britain Goes Coal-Free For Two Months – Longest Period Since Industrial Revolution
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Independent.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Britain is on course to pass an energy milestone as it reaches two months of coal-free power generation on Wednesday – the longest period the country has gone without using the fossil fuel since the industrial revolution.
It is partly due, to a lack of electricity demand due to COVID-19, but overall it is a good thing.
As I write this at 14:30 on the 9th June 2020, UK Electricity Production gives the various sources of production as follows.
- Biomass – 3,045 MW
- CCGT – 17,442 MW
- Hydroelectric – 217 MW
- Interconnects – 1,977 MW
- Nuclear – 4,229 MW
- Other – 75 MW
- Pumped Storage – 0 MW
- Solar – 4,800 MW
- Wind – 697 MW
This all adds up to a total of 32.42 GW.
Note.
- CCGT stands for combined cycle gas turbine.
- Solar power is generating more than nuclear.
- I don’t think today is a very windy day!
I have just used the site to look at a few solar farms in Kent. Most seem to be generating 14.8 % of their capacity.
Understanding Floatovoltaics
Floatovoltaics is mounting panels on floats, on an appropriate stretch of water.
This video, which I think from some of the words in the commentary, is shown to visitors who visit the floating solar farm at Yamakura Dam.
It describes all the advantages of floating solar and shows how this 13.7 MW solar farm was constructed.
We’ve even got a couple of these floating solar farms in the UK.
This Google Map shows the farm in the Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir, near Walton-on-Thames.
There is also this article in the Guardian, which is entitled World’s Biggest Floating Solar Farm Powers Up Outside London. It gives a good description of the project.
The article also states that unlike large solar arrays on land, no planning permission is required.
United Utilities have also installed a system at Godley Reservoir in Hyde, near Manchester, as this Google Map shows.
They must like the first installation, as this Press Release from United Utilities indicates that they are now building a second floating solar farm at Langthwaite Reservoir near Lancaster.
Some points from the Press Release.
- The floats are made locally.
- Godley is three times the size of Langthwaite.
- Godley can generate up to 3 GWh per year.
- It is thought that the panels help to stop the growth of algae in the water.
- United Utilities already has 45 MW of installed solar and intends to add 22 more sites in the next two years.
In some ways, this embracing of solar is a bit surprising, as the North West, is England’s wettest region.
Conclusion
If my excellent physics teacher in the 1960s had said that it will be commonplace by 2020 to generate electricity using solar panels floating on water, I would not have believed him!
UK’s Largest Solar Park Cleve Hill Granted Development Consent
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
These are the two introductory paragraphs.
Cleve Hill Solar Park, set to be the largest in the UK, has been granted development consent by the energy secretary.
The colossal 350MW project will include 880,000 panels along with battery storage, and sit just one mile northeast of Faversham, in Kent, situated close to the village of Graveney.
Other points from the article.
- Cleeve Hill Solar Park is a £450million project.
- It is the first solar project to be considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.
- It is being developed as a joint venture between Hive Energy and Wirsol.
- It is due to be operational by 2022.
- To complete the project 700 MWh of energy storage will be added later.
The article also contains this quote from Solar Trade Associations chief executive Chris Hewett.
Solar has a significant role to play in boosting the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. With the right policies we can expect to see an 8GW pipeline of solar projects unlocked and rapidly deployed, swiftly creating a wealth of skilled jobs and setting us on the path towards a green recovery.
8 GW of intermittent energy will need a lot of storage.
As Cleeve Hill’s developers are planning to provide 700 MWh of storage for 700 MW of solar panels, it would appear that 8 GW of solar panels could need up to 16 GWh of energy storage.
As our largest energy storage system is the pumped storage Electric Mountain in Snowdonia with a capacity of 9.1 GWh and most of the large solar developments are towards the South of England, the UK needs to develop a lot more energy storage, where the solar is generated and much of the energy is used.
I can see the following environmentally-friendly developments prospering.
- Highview Power‘s CRYOBattery, which uses liquid air to store energy. Systems have a small footprint and up to a GWh could be possible.
- Electrothermal energy storage like this system from Siemens.
- Using electrolysers from companies like ITM Power to convert excess energy into hydrogen for transport, steelmaking and injecting into the gas main.
- Zinc8‘s zinc-air battery could be the outsider, that comes from nowhere.
Developers could opt for conservative decision of lithium-ion batteries, but I don’t like the environmental profile and these batteries should be reserved for portable and mobile applications.
Floatovoltaics
One concept, I came across whilst writing was floatovoltaics.
The best article about the subject was this one on Renewable Energy World, which is entitled Running Out of Precious Land? Floating Solar PV Systems May Be a Solution.
A French company call Ciel et Terre International seem to be leading the development.
Their web site has this video.
Perhaps, some floatovoltaics, should be installed on the large reservoirs in the South of England.
- The Renewable Energy World article says that panels over water can be more efficient due to the cooling effect of the water.
- Would they cut evaporative losses by acting as sunshades?
- As the French are great pecheurs, I suspect that they have the answers if anglers should object.
This Google Map shows the reservoirs to the West of Heathrow.
Note.
- Wraysbury Reservoir has an area of two square kilometres.
- King George VI Reservoir has an area of one-and-a-half square kilometres.
- Using the size and capacity of Owl’s Hatch Solar Farm, it appears that around 65 MW of solar panels can be assembled in a square kilometre.
- All these reservoirs are Sites of Special Scientific Interest because of all the bird life.
- Heathrow is not an airport, that is immune to bird-strikes.
Could floatovoltaics be used to guide birds away from the flightpaths?
Incidentally, I remember a report from Tomorrow’s World, probably from the 1960s, about a porous concrete that had been invented.
- One of the uses would have been to fill reservoirs.
- The capacity of the reservoir would only have been marginally reduced, as the water would be in the voids in the concrete like water in a sponge.
- Soil would be placed at the surface and the land used for growing crops.
I wonder what happened to that idea from fifty years ago!
Hydrogen Power Plant Bid In Herne Bay Set For Green Light From Canterbury City Council
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Kent Online.
These are the introductory paragraphs.
Controversial plans to build a hydrogen fuel plant on a rundown plot of land look set to be given the green light – despite more than 160 objections from concerned residents.
Canterbury City Council was inundated with letters from locals – with one even worried about a Fukushima-style disaster – after a bid to construct the plant in Westbrook Lane, Herne Bay, was revealed in January.
The article said, that the project would create twenty jobs.
This Google Map shows the proposed site for the electrolyser.
Note.
- The Railway running East-West at the top of the map.
- The A2990 Thanet Way running East-West at the bottom of the map.
From a visualisation on the Kent Online article, it appears that the electrolyser will be built to the West of the Recycling Centre.
I suspect that given the closeness of the railway, it might even be possible to despatch hydrogen to users by specially-designed trains.
The electrolyser will need large quantities of electricity and I can’t see any wires around the site.
This Google Map shows the wider area around the site.
Note.
- The Recycling Centre indicated my a blue arrow, just to the right of top-centre of the map.
- The A2990 running East-West across the top of the map.
- The 18 MW Molehill Solar Farm between the old and new Thanet Ways, in the middle of the map.
- The 51.9 MW Owls Hatch Solar Farm, in the South East corner of the map.
- For full production, the electrolyser needs 23 MW!
These two solar farms, mean, that there must be a high-quality electricity connection in the area.
With all the offshore wind in Kent and these solar farms on the doorstep, the Herne Bay electrolyser, will not have much difficulty obtaining genuine renewable electricity.
Conclusion
As someone, who once worked, in a hydrogen factory, I would be happy to live near to the site.
Are Ryze Hydrogen planning to put a filling station for hydrogen vehicles on the A2990?
Hawaii’s Renewable Tender To Deliver Major Solar And Storage Push
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on PVTech.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The largest renewable tender in Hawaii’s history has chosen its winners, contracting a solar and storage pipeline that exceeds anything the US state has ever seen.
The article gives a lot of information about the order and Hawaii’s energy.
- A fleet of 400 MW of solar panels and 3 GWh of energy storage will be installed, with some running in 2022.
- Another fleet of 260 MW of solar panels and 1 GWh of energy storage is in the pipeline, for delivery in 2021.
- The strike price appears to be 9.38 US dollar cents per KWh or $93.80 per MWh. We’re paying £92.50 per MWh for electricity at Hinckley Point C nuclear power station.
- Hawaii aims to be full-powered by renewable energy by 2045.
- Two fossil-fuel plants will shut by 2024.
From this document on the Hawaii State Energy Office, I have found that in 2018, these renewable energy sources contributed to the state’s electricity.
- Geothermal sources – 2.9%
- Wind – 4.9%
- Hydro – 0.9%
- Biomass – 2.8%
- Small-scale solar – 9.3%
- Utility-scale solar – 3.9%
These add up to 24.7%.
I’ll be interested to see, what the percentage will be in 2024!
The Anonymous Widower 