37GWp of UK solar projects pipelined

[nowty]

Below is a graph I have just made from downloading from Gridwatch the last months UK Demand v Wind v Solar generation with data points of 5 mins. Obviously its the worst time of year but if we truly want to rid ourselves of FF (and maybe even Nuclear) generation, it illustrates the mountain of renewables and storage capacity that needs to be added.

Just look at the week from the 16th to the 21st of Dec 2021, if you cannot read the bottom scale its bit were wind is down to about an average of 2 GW.

My wet finger in the air guess is we'd need about 5x Wind and 10x Solar and 1 week's worth of storage capacity just to deal with that 1 low renewable week at current demand levels.

[Moxi]

Post removed

[billi]

well again , .... just saying that the same wind will then blow in the next country and the same sun might generate in the other country , as will water power will bee a storage for Europe and pimped storrage is not integrated , but sure as an ex off gridder i like to be independant , but the only reason for that was , that i disagreed with irish el. politics to burn peat or germany burning coal at the time

We, beside Politics and differences ,one should not forget, that it might need a cooperation, to stay strong here in Europe , and a combined renewable Grid that exchanges, might be some kind of a " umbilical cord"

And that cord we should spin all over Europe , including North Africa ( or even further)

But maybe one should just stop all energy supply for a week or two , to for all live in a Darkness to think about it


billi

[AE-NMidlands]

Or just maybe we need to stop procrastinating and build between 4 and 8 tidal barrages around the UK coastline and use the moon to power the grid? I wonder how much it would costs to insert a few turbines in the Thames barrier and then use the other gates to arrest tides to spin the turbines? ok not the best example because its a busy water way in that area but up here I sit and watch the tide race through the Menai straits every day and wonder at the wasted opportunity flowing past.

There are plenty of locations if we just knuckle down to it - big civil build with sections for drop in turbine sets and a indefinite operational life span if built to allow turbine swop outs ?

We could even do it all "built" in the UK if they wanted to pin the union flag on the projects to get the country behind it.

Moxi

I have big reservations about tidal (they will need lots of additional energy storage for start, plus the fact that lots of suitable intertidal locations have massive adverse environmental implications.)
I agree with billi that inter-European sharing will be important, and would like to think that Norwegian hydro (and pumped storage) might help. If the Belgians can dig pumped storage in deep holes in relatively small artificial islands the N Sea why can't we?

It's a tragedy (but not surprising) that the UK's regulations - as usual protecting the established operators - are preventing the construction of already-approved storage capacity in several countries too.
A

[dan_b]

There is a pipeline of another 12GW of HVDC interconnectors either in construction or planning
4.8GW to France (another 3x interconnectors)
1.4GW to Denmark (actually in construction)
1.4GW to Germany
1.4GW to Belgium
1.6GW to the Netherlands
0.5GW to Ireland

And the "will it/won't it" 1GW connector to Iceland.

[AE-NMidlands]

There is a pipeline of another 12GW of HVDC interconnectors either in construction or planning
4.8GW to France (another 3x interconnectors)
1.4GW to Denmark (actually in construction)
1.4GW to Germany
1.4GW to Belgium
1.6GW to the Netherlands
0.5GW to Ireland

And the "will it/won't it" 1GW connector to Iceland.

But of all of those surely only the Icelandic output is likely to have enough surplus carbon-free energy to supply us reliably? It's taking a big chance that the other countries (or enough of them) will be sure to have it available when we need it...

If it is viable I would like to see the Icelandic link done (and more power stations built there,) maybe ahead of the others. I still really want UK storage increased anyway.
A

[Adokforme]

Don't know if the technology announced last week below will eventually come to fruition or meet with expectations. I struggled to visualise its operation from the description but fortunately there's a short video for numpties like me.

Utility scale ocean battery, a bedfellow for floating PV

Dutch start-up Ocean Grazer grabbed the limelight at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022) in Las Vegas last week, where its new design for an offshore energy storage system based on hydro dam technology garnered the “Best of Innovation” award.

The Ocean Battery is a pumped hydro system in a box. Buried in the seabed, the battery provides storage up to the gigawatt-hour scale by connecting rigid reservoir elements, each with a storage volume of 10MWh. The system can be adapted to various forms of renewable power generation such as floating PV, offshore wind, tidal and wave energy.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/01/12/ ... oating-pv/

[Ken]

Below is a graph I have just made from downloading from Gridwatch the last months UK Demand v Wind v Solar generation with data points of 5 mins. Obviously its the worst time of year but if we truly want to rid ourselves of FF (and maybe even Nuclear) generation, it illustrates the mountain of renewables and storage capacity that needs to be added.

Just look at the week from the 16th to the 21st of Dec 2021, if you cannot read the bottom scale its bit were wind is down to about an average of 2 GW.

My wet finger in the air guess is we'd need about 5x Wind and 10x Solar and 1 week's worth of storage capacity just to deal with that 1 low renewable week at current demand levels.

Good work.
We are NOT committed to zero CO2 24/7 . We are comitted to NET Zero CO2. This is a huge difference.

[dan_b]

Been reading a bit more about IceLink - it's been on the menu for quite a few years now (references to it go back to 2015), initially the most bullish proposal would have seen it connected and working by 2023. The proposal was also to build a cable factory in the UK to make it, and that it would have required no new additional power generation in Iceland.

It seems one of the biggest hurdles has actually been that last one - the developers claimed that the 6000GWh of electricity it would need from the Icelandic grid could be met easily. Iceland's power company essentially disagreed. Their annual electricity consumption is about 19,000GWh, so would have represented a 30% increase in total electricity demand - and it seems they weren't that keen on that part of the equation!