Renew Extra Weekly

A new optimistic Nature paper from the LUT University in Finland looks to a key role being played by renewables for rapid transitioning of the power sector across states in India. Progress has been uneven at times, but LUT says that a renewables-based power system by 2050 could be ‘lower in cost than the current  coal dominated system’ and have ‘zero greenhouse gas emissions’ while providing ‘reliable electricity to around 1.7 billion people’.  Electricity generation would be based on solar PV, wind energy, and hydropower, while batteries and multi-fuel reciprocating internal combustion engines based on synthetic fuels provide the required flexibility to the power system. This transition, it says, would ‘address  multiple imperatives: affordability, accessibility, and sustainability without compromising economic growth’. Solar PV capacity increases in all the states during the transition, and from 2030 onwards, PV has a steady average annual growth rate of 35% across th...

The UK may currently be going through a very erratic time politically, but a recent Oxford-based study suggests there may be some clarity ahead when it comes to energy issues. It asks ‘Is there a path forward that can get us to net-zero emissions cheaply and quickly?’ and its answer is: ‘Very likely, and the savings are probably quite large.’ Indeed, the savings could be very large, mainly since, the team says ‘its analysis supports other recent efforts using up-to-date data and technology assumptions that conclude that the green energy transition may be cheap’.   It notes that the 2022 IPCC AR6 estimates that the additional cost of decarbonizing the energy system in order to have a greater than 67% chance of keeping warming below 2°C corresponds to a GDP loss in 2050 of 1.3%–2.7%. But the Oxford team study suggests that  ‘there is likely no cost at all—the transition is expected to be a net economic benefit, raising future GDP’.  Is this credible? The teams ‘empiri...

 Renewables met 100% of global electricity demand growth during the first half of 2022. So says the ‘Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2022’ from Ember , a global energy think tank. In fact, it says there was a 389 TWh increase in the demand for electricity in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021, whereas the rise in renewables supply was actually a  bit more – 416TWh. That’s not surprising given that renewables are getting so cheap- including in the UK, with wind and solar the most prolificate new sources across world. However, that in turn may create a bit of a problem for older renewables, set up under quite lucrative subsidy schemes, based on now high gas prices, like the Renewables Obligation in the UK. As I have noted in earlier posts, there is pressure on them to switch to the more competitive CfD system.   Certainly the RO system is based on adding a subsidy to wholesale gas prices, so something has to change, since gas prices are now so hi...

In my old age, heading for 80 next year, and with recent health worries, it is maybe timely for me to look back at the past and at how I managed to end up as an emeritus University professor, focusing on renewable energy. So, fresh from a holiday in Spain, as something of change from my usual current energy policy posts, here’s a brief bio- a version of what I have recently written for my old school magazine, Oak Leaves. It may be of interests to those contemplating a career in the renewable energy area. Going back to 1954, when I was living on a council estate in Mitcheldean, on the edge of the, by then, mostly-closed Forest of Dean coal field, I had failed the 11 plus exam, and was destined for a secondary modern school, but had been given a second chance via an interview for marginal cases. So I had ended up at East Dean Grammar School in Cinderford, in the center of the Forest, in effect by the back door.  A lot of my life has been similar- taking indirect routes. Though I did ...

Simon Michaux, Associate Research Professor of Geometallurgy, Geological Survey of Finland, says that we do not have enough metals and materials to build the new sustainable energy system needed to replace fossil fuel use. ‘The quantity of metal required to make just one generation of renewable tech units to replace fossil fuels is much larger than first thought. Current mining production of these metals is not even close to meeting demand. Current reported mineral reserves are also not enough in size. Most concerning is copper as one of the flagged shortfalls. Exploration for more at required volumes will be difficult.’  So overall he doesn’t think we can make the transition, certainly not fast . We have built ‘an industrial ecosystem of unprecedented size and complexity, that took more than a century to build with the support of the highest calorifically dense source of cheap energy the world has ever known (oil) in abundant quantities, with easily available credit, and unlimite...

The 6 reactor Zaporizhia nuclear complex (‘Zap’) in Ukraine, which has been occupied by Russian troops since March, has come under repeated shellfire attack, sparking fears of a major nuclear accident.  The main reactor buildings are relatively robust, but no one designs nuclear plants to resists concerted artillery fire. And although the spent fuel cooling ponds are protected in the main complex, the solid waste storage area is outside the main building and less unprotected. So there are risks , and given that grid links in, as well as out, are also vulnerable, power cut off is a key one. Then the reactor core and spent fuel cooling systems would have to rely on diesel back up pumps, and their fuel stocks may be limited. We could be headed for a Fukushima-like melt down situation.   Given terrifying prospects like this, and with lurid reports of possibly  imminent disaster in the press, at the end of August, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director G...

Power prices have roared ahead in the UK, much more so that almost anywhere else in Europe and they look like accelerating further- some said overall domestic energy prices could reach £6000 p.a. or more next spring. Something obviously had to be done. But despite the clear indication from Carbon Brief that green energy support schemes added only a very small amount to consumer bills, the governments new energy crisis plan included cuts to green levies, in support of its price freeze. It also included expansion of fossil fuel extraction, with shale fracking now to be allowed, this inevitably adding to emissions.   Liz Truss made clear in her launch speech that there here will be no windfall tax on power producers/suppliers, but prices would be held at £2,500 for 2 years. So she claimed domestic consumers will in effect, get £1000 on average off their annual bills and ‘vulnerable sectors’ in industry will get support too. Borrowing and financing cost details for all this wil...