Renew Extra Weekly

With the energy policy debate churning on, I thought I would look back at what has sometimes been seen as useful metric for comparison of energy options - Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI). That’s a measure of how much energy you have to use to build (and where relevant, run) an energy supply system, compared with how much energy you get out of it over its lifetime of operation. For example, as fossil fuel resources get scarcer and harder to extract, the EROEI ratios for their use are falling (e.g. from 44:1 in 1950, to 8:1 in 2020 for oil) this being one more reason why they are on the way out .  In terms of the non-fossil energy options, in some (but not all) studies I have seen, renewables generally do much better than nuclear, their only supply side rival, which should be no surprise, since (bio energy systems apart) renewables do not need any fuel to run. With nuclear, energy has to be used to mine, mill and process uranium ore into fuel, and the amount of energy needed...

 ‘I am determined that we meet the commitment on which Labour was elected and reach net zero by 2050.’ So said UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham - although still not coming off the fence on the oil and gas issue (see my last post ). But he was adamant that ‘the climate crisis presents us with an enormous challenge and possibility. In the coming years, we need to change the way we travel, the way we build homes and the way we produce energy. I have long seen the green transition as the best chance we will ever have to reindustrialise Britain.’  However, he said, ‘I believe there are two routes we can follow. There’s the traditional Whitehall way: make people pay for the change with more regulation and higher costs, and allow private companies to reap the rewards. Or we can pursue a different route: help people make the change by creating jobs, lowering bills and bringing power back to them’.  And he strongly backed the community energy ‘peoples power’ approach being develope...

Renewables now supply over 52% of UK power, and are booming.  For example, onshore wind power capacity entering the planning system ‘has more than tripled since Labour dropped the blocks on onshore developments within days of coming to power just over two years ago’ according to the Guardian , and its onward development could save UK £3bn a year. Offshore wind and solar are booming too and can make further major contributions. Biomass is also making a contribution and more is possible. Although there are concerns about the sustainability of using imported forestry products, biogas produced from food and farm waste is a locally sourced option , with room for growth in AD generally.  Tidal energy is also under development with projects in Scotland and Wales, and there’s a new geothermal project in Cornwall. All in all, renewables seem to be doing quite well, and expansion is planned so that they supply the bulk of UK power by 2030, with 77-82% of power coming just from wind ...

This summer has seen nuclear power facing some big climate problems. Six of the seventeen reactors that have been out of service due to the heat wave in Europe are on the Danube – four in Hungary two in Romania. The river levels began to fall. In France , EDF temporarily shut down units on the banks of the Rhône, Meuse & Garonne rivers, to comply with regulations on the release of cooling water. Eight other reactors operated at reduced capacity. In all 6.4GW was lost in France , with jelly fish adding to the problem.  To add to EDFs ongoing cash issues, the almost new Flamanville 3 EPR is now to shut for a year for a refit of the reactor containment vessel- a new lid has to be installed. None of this make nuclear look very robust- or economic. No wonder then that Greenpeace Spain says it would be cheaper to shut the Almaraz n-plant than to continue its operation, although it’s been allowed to run to 2030. However, it’s not all bad news for nuclear. On the political front, th...

 The UK energy policy debate seems to reaching some sort of political break point. The Labour government is continuing to push net zero, but the right of centre view is that it, and renewables, are undermining the UK economy by pushing up energy costs.  And, instead,  coal, gas & nuclear are favoured, as in a new report from Tory-leaning think tank Onward, backed by shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho . But there were bitter green responses. And the Onward report was challenged by Carbon Brief - gas won’t be cheap. Neither will new nuclear.  However, Labour also has another, slightly separate, problem. It is under pressure from industry and some unions to support more gas drilling, even though few see new drilling as very helpful economically, and some say it could be disastrous in climate terms.  Or would it?  Some say not, if carbon capture and storage (CCS) was backed as a compensatory measures .   But CCS is still unproven at scale an...

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is booming, but it’s still not clear what its net impacts will be in energy/carbon terms- views differ. However, it is clear that there is a growing drive to use it more and more- with big profits to be made by whoever powers the growth. Not surprising then that all the usual suspects have turned up for a share in the proceeds – most obviously power plants powered by fossil gas, but also nuclear and renewable energy.   AI data centres are not exactly popular, since, ideally, they need to be near centres of population, where data processing demand is large. Although AC power can transmitted over long distances (a few hundred miles) without too much energy loss, digital data info is more sensitive - there are latency (delay) effects over long distance.   And rather than the use local mains grid power, it’s common for AI centres to set up their own local dedicated power units.  Such is the scale of the AI boom that all ...