"Electric power from offshore wind via synoptic-scale interconnection" – using HVDC interconnectors to smooth intermittent power

Abstract World wind power resources are abundant, but their utilization could be limited because wind fluctuates rather than providing steady power. We hypothesize that wind power output could be stabilized if wind generators were located in a meteorologically designed configuration and electrically connected. Based on 5 yr of wind data from 11 meteorological stations, distributed […]

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The Cogeneration or CHP Directive

This refers to the ”’Directive on the promotion of cogeneration based on a useful heat demand in the internal energy market and amending Directive  92/62/EEC”’, officially 2004/8/EC and popularly better known as the ‘CHP Directive’ It is a European Union directive for promoting the use of cogeneration in order to increase the energy efficiency and […]

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What happens to wind power when there is no wind? Why it makes perfect sense that old, polluting and inefficient coal fired power stations should be retained and receive a capacity payment

This note argues that environmentalists will have to recognise that part (and a small price) of the price we pay for creating significant additional capacity of intermittent / variable renewables is the continued existence of coal fired plant, operating at a very low capacity factor. (And of course it will make us less vulnerable to […]

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OFGEM report on problematic future energy supplies – admission of market failure in electricty supplies

The report is at: http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/WhlMkts/Discovery/Documents1/Project_Discove ry_FebConDoc_FINAL.pdf News articles at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494899.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household- bills/7144386/British-households-risk-unaffordable-energy-bills-Ofgem- warns.html http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/sse-says-customers-using-less-gas-electricity-reuters_molt-20a544628846.html A little interpretation: Quote: “There is a need for unprecedented levels of investment to be sustained over many years in difficult financial conditions and against a background of increased risk and uncertainty.” To translate, “the fat cats and their shareholders have […]

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Hydrogen – the green currency of the future

All governments have pledged to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions; this effectively means that the world must move to:

Electricity from nuclear, renewable or decarbonised sources
Hydrogen from renewable or decarbonised sources
biomass derived methane gas or hydrocarbon liquids or
heat as a by-product, or from biomass, solar or geothermal sources.

Of these electricity and hydrogen are purely manufactured energy vectors competing as intermediaries between energy sources and final consumers. In recent years the tide seems to have moved to electricity as the ultimate solution, but this article will take issue with this. This is principally because of the severe cost implications associated with either electricity storage or its corollary – demand side management.

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