The two announcements are the study on locations for future offshore energy developments, which identified scope for between 5,000 and 7,000 more offshore wind turbines, and the study on the Severn Barrage, which shortlisted 5 projects with the potential to supply up to 5% of UK’s electricity consumption. The conclusion of the UK Offshore […]
Read MoreEuropean Super Grid – "Wrong to suggest this would make Europe more vulnerable than importing Russian Gas and Middle East fossil fuels" – ?
The above slide from Czisch (“An affordable renewable power system for Europe”) shows that Europe is unlikely to be vulnerable to sudden disconnection / sabotage of say a single or several, North African regions since there is considerable redundancy in connection and diversity of supply areas, and European grids of necessity already have existing sophisticated […]
Read MoreMechanical power station master clocks.
Power stations used to have two of these pendulum master clocks (one duty, one standby). A series of mercury switches were used to send 30 second interval pulses to various measurement and control equipment. For example typically there would be two rooms (duty / standby) filled with various meters and the pules instructed the meters […]
Read MoreTim Burr, National Audit Office, "England is at risk of missing the 2013 EU landfill reduction target"
This press release is basically saying the UK is at risk of not achieving its Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) landfill diversion target for 2013. This means that energy from waste plants (using anaerobic digestion) are too slow and difficult to procure even with government support for the PFI credits and with the risk of massive fines […]
Read MoreASA bans renewable fuels ad
The ad which claimed that biofuels were a sustainable answer to OPECs oil, was found to have breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 3.2 (Division of informed opinion), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 49.1, 49.2 and 49.3 (Environmental claims). The ASA said that the the ad must not appear again in its current form. ASA told RFA to remove […]
Read MoreToyota announced that it plans to start selling fuel cell vehicles in 2015
13th January. Toyota announced that it plans to start selling fuel cell vehicles in 2015. They also announced they will release a plug-in hybrid later this year and an all-electric two seater in 2012. Speaking at the North American International Auto Show Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president of research and development, said […]
Read MoreUK Gas Storage Fiasco Illustrates Folly of Assuming That Markets Can Substitute for Strategic Planning
Headline in the Guardian article covering this, Jan 12th says it all “Plans to Increase Britain’s gas storage capacity left in tatters by credit crunch” What did the economists at Ofgem expect? Only an economist would have any faith in the Market’s ability to replace central planning. Having bemoaned the fact that UK only has […]
Read MoreNew Study Puts The Generation Costs For Power From New Nuclear Plants Triple Current U.S. Electricity Rates
A new study puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour — triple current U.S. electricity rates.
see: http://climateprogress.org/2009/01/05/study-cost-risks-new-nuclear-power-plants/ rel=no follow
Current CSP costs (still substantially less than nuclear):
Vinod Khosla gives current CSP at 16 cents kWh (and note PV far higher at 22.4 cents kW/hr – see slide 124 onwards at http://www.slideshare.net/guest76ed37/khosla92507 rel=no follow
Also, good summary of costs can be found here: puts current CSP at 13 – 17 cents kWh: http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/04/concentrating-on-important-things-solar.html/ rel=no follow
Makes CSP look very attractive indeed at 11 cents per kWh by 2011 (cf Ausra & Bright Source CSP plants signed up with PG&E in South West America) – compatible with gas prices, and estimated to reduce to 4-6 cents per kWhr by 2020. Nuclear costs unlikely to reduce, but instead are on an upward trajectory.
First Section Of The 11 MWe 'Abengoa' Concentrating Solar Power Plant
This is the first 11 MWe operating module of three towers currently being built to constitute what will be soon a 50 MWe concentrated solar power (CSP) facility that is sited a few kms west of Seville in Spain near a place called Sanlúcar la Mayor. It works, as most will know, by reflecting solar […]
Read MoreDECC Updates Its Generation Cost Database, But Misses the Cheapest – CHP DH and Micro CHP
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had a meeting to discuss the generation costs of energy technologies in November last year. This exercise happens every so often and its objective is to update inputs that might be used in any energy-related modelling work carried out by the department. The link represent DECC’s initial […]
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