Renew Extra Weekly

There has of late been a lot of promotion of the idea of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) of a few tens or hundreds of megawatts, which it is claimed will be cheaper than conventional gigawatt scaled plants since they can benefit from economies of mass production in factories. Much has been promised for SMRs, including the delivery of power at £40-60/MWh , but there is still some way to go before any project actually goes ahead and we can see if the promises hold up in practice.    In the past, the nuclear industry had tried to improve the economics of nuclear plants by going for larger plants, without too much success: the on-site construction costs have escalated. However, it is not clear if small plants will have any more success. Scaling down does not necessarily reduce complexity, and, given the need to ensure safety, it is that which may drive costs most. Nevertheless, developers are trying their luck, with many proposals for devices emerging around the world.  In fact, few are act

A report by the Tyndall centre says that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology cannot meet the urgent need to reduce climate emissions - it is not a viable option for the rapid emissions cuts required in energy over the crucial years to 2030. It notes that there are no operational CCS plants in the UK today and significant deployment is not expected until at least the next decade. The report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth Scotland and Global Witness, notes that globally, there are just 26 CCS plants in operation, with 81% of carbon captured globally to date being used to extract more oil via the process of Enhanced Oil Recovery(EOR).  So that is adding to emissions. Overall it says the technology has in any case consistently failed to deliver on projections, with several schemes initiated and ultimately abandoned: the two £1bn CCS competitions run by successive UK Governments over a period of 8 years failed to produce a demonstration scheme.  In the UK Governments’ recent

The European Commission has approved €2.9 billion (£2.5bn) of public investment in a research project for batteries. The so-called European Battery Innovation project will cover the whole batteries’ ecosystem from the extraction of raw materials, design and manufacturing of battery cells and packs and the recycling and disposal in a circular economy.  It is clear that batteries are going to be in increasing demand, for power system backup and also vehicle use, so it is good to see that the environmental and resource implications are being looked at. But they can be severe and may constrain the extent to which electric vehicle use can expand.  For example, in terms of resources, it has been claimed that to replace all UK-based vehicles with electric vehicles (LGVs & HGVs excluded), even using the most resource-frugal batteries, ‘would take 207,900 tonnes cobalt, 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate, at least 7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium, in addition to 2,362,500 tonnes

The wind power story gets better and better, with more and more capacity being installed around the world, costs continuing to fall and larger more efficient and powerful turbines being developed. GE claims that a single spin of its giant 13 MW Haliade-X turbine could power a typical home for two days. And a new wind analysis raises power density estimates- there’s more power available from wind turbines than we thought for both on shore and offshore machines.  On shore wind has its attractions (it’s nearer loads and easier to install), and there is now over 620 GW of on-shore capacity in use globally, but offshore wind-speeds are usually higher and more consistent, so that capacity factors can reach 50% or more. With visual intrusion issues avoided, going offshore also means that larger turbines are possible, with 13- 14MW units soon and then maybe moving up to vast 20MW units.  Offshore is clearly where the big wind resource is, and it is being exploited rapidly, with over 2,300 ma