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Author Topic: Renewable Energy  (Read 1518451 times)

bluice

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4850 on: July 03, 2020, 11:17:49 AM »
How do you heat a city without carbon emissions, using as little biomass as possible? Those of us with expertise in energy technology can go and solve the Helsinki Energy Challenge and have a chance of winning the 1 MEUR prize.


https://energychallenge.hel.fi/

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Helsinki Energy Challenge
The climate crisis is the most crucial challenge of our time, and cities have a key role in driving the shift to a low-carbon economy. Helsinki is one of the leading cities in the transition towards a sustainable future, with the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2035. But there is an issue to overcome. Currently, more than half of the city’s heat is produced with coal. In order to achieve carbon-neutrality, we need radically new solutions to meet Helsinki’s heat demand. And we are not alone. To fight climate change, sustainable heating solutions are needed in cities all over the world. Heating not just beyond coal, but also beyond burning biomass.   

That is why we are launching the Helsinki Energy Challenge.

A global one-million-euro challenge competition to answer the question: How can we decarbonise the heating of Helsinki, using as little biomass as possible?

KiwiGriff

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4851 on: July 03, 2020, 12:32:27 PM »
Helen, the city utility of Helsinki, the Capital of Finland, is launching exploration work to study the potential of geothermal energy utilisation for the heating needs of the city.
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Earlier this week, Helsinki, the Capital of Finland, announced an ambitious commitment to carbon-neutrality of buildings. Now, the city utility Helen Ltd. has announced efforts to investigate the possibilities for utilising geothermal heat. Central Park (Keskuspuisto) is one of the areas where geological explorations will be carried out jointly with GTK. This is the first time a geological survey is conducted in an urban area to such depth.

Helen is charting potential areas that are geologically suitable for extracting geothermal heat and lend themselves to possible deep drilling. Helen is starting the geophysical exploration of the bedrock in the Central Park area jointly with Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)in early December. The aim is to investigate the bedrock structure to the depth of about 5-8 kilometres.

Such a deep geological survey has never been conducted in urban areas in Finland, and the survey is an important step in making geothermal energy a possibility.

The exploration method applied at Central Park is reflection seismology. The seismic waves for measuring are produced by two specially equipped trucks vibrating the ground. The vibration creates seismic waves, and their reflection from the bedrock structures is recorded by receivers, geophones, installed on the ground. The field explorations will take a few weeks, and the results will be available in the early part of 2020.
https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/city-of-helsinki-capital-of-finland-exploring-potential-for-utilising-geothermal-for-heating/

Geothermal is not often mentioned as a renewable resource.
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Geothermal power in New Zealand is a small but significant part of the energy generation capacity of the country, providing approximately 17% of the country's electricity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_New_Zealand
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Five major geothermal power plants exist in Iceland, which produce approximately 26.2% (2010)[2] of the nation's electricity. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland

It helps if you have lots of volcanic activity but more work is being done on the potential of  low temperature geo thermal.
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
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bluice

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4852 on: July 03, 2020, 01:44:39 PM »
There is a pilot geothermal project being built at Otaniemi, just outside Helsinki.

https://www.st1.com/geothermal-heat

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The process to harvest and utilise geothermal heat is quite simple. First, two boreholes/wells of around 6.5 kilometres are drilled into the ground. One of the holes pumps water down to the bedrock in order to heat it as a result of the warmth in the earth’s crust. The hot water is pumped up via the other hole, and the produced heat is captured with a heat exchanger and fed into the district heating network. Once completed, the plant will produce up to 40 MW of energy. The heat produced by the geothermal heat plant will be purchased by Fortum for its district heating network.

Sciguy

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4853 on: July 06, 2020, 08:38:02 PM »
China's renewable energy investment is shifting from hydropower to solar.

https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/china-mega-dams-giving-cheaper-renewable-energy-200706024235308.html

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China's mega-dams are giving way to cheaper renewable energy
China switched on its latest large-scale hydropower plant last week with another due to come online next year.
Bloomberg
15 hours ago

It's the beginning of the end for the era of mega-dam building in China.

China Three Gorges Corp. last week turned on the first set of generators at the massive Wudongde hydropower plant, deep in the mountains of Yunnan province. About 170 kilometers (106 miles) downstream on the Jinsha River sits Baihetan, the last of its kind, scheduled to go into operation next year.

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Now, China's hydro industry is down-shifting toward smaller projects and pumped storage. Engineers have run out of the easiest locations to power massive sets of turbines and the falling cost of rival energy sources such as solar mean it isn't worth moving on to more challenging locations.

Sciguy

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4854 on: July 06, 2020, 08:51:42 PM »
A Florida utility, Duke Energy, is doubling their solar power capacity.  They are using an innovative approach to finance the project.  The financing method will allow apartment renters and low income homeowners to participate.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2020/07/01/duke-energy-to-double-solar-energy-capacity/

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Duke Energy proposes $1 billion solar expansion to double its capacity
Duke Energy Florida announced plans late Wednesday afternoon to double its current solar energy capacity.
By Malena Carollo
Published Jul. 1

Duke Energy Florida announced plans late Wednesday to double its solar energy capacity.

The utility, which serves much of Pinellas County, said Wednesday is asking for permission from the Florida Public Service Commission to build 750 megawatts of new solar energy installations through its “Clean Energy Connection Program.” It is currently in the process of completing 700 megawatts of solar capacity from a plan announced in 2017.

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Customers, Gibbs said, would be charged for the $1 billion project if it is approved and built. What’s different about this round is that the amount they will be charged depends on how many customers opt into the plan, which will offset what customers who aren’t participating pay. Because of this structure, the utility doesn’t yet have an estimate for how bills would be affected.

Customers can purchase a block of solar power for $8.35 per kilowatt. In exchange for the addition to their monthly bill, customers will receive a credit back that will grow each year they participate. After about five years, Duke Energy said, the credit will be greater than the amount a customer pays to participate in the program.

This is meant to allow customers who don’t have access to rooftop solar, such as those in apartments or for whom the cost is prohibitive, to participate in clean energy savings.

Duke Energy said 26 megawatts are set aside for low-income customers.
A quarter of the project is slated for residential subscriptions and three-quarters will go to commercial and industrial customers, including local governments.

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Currently, Duke Energy is courting a round of early subscribers to help cover a majority of the cost of the project. One such subscriber is the city of St. Petersburg, which asked for 28.3 megawatts in the program, just under 4 percent of the project’s total.

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Gibbs said that 12 commercial and industrial customers have reserved 540 megawatts of capacity thus far — a little more than 70 percent of the project — and local governments will have until the end of August to enroll.

gerontocrat

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4855 on: July 06, 2020, 10:30:55 PM »
Now this has the hallmark of simplicity approaching genius...

Note that the UK National Grid has the ambition to be able to operate the GB electricity system carbon-free by 2025. If the UK can do it, anywhere can do it.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/06/giant-flywheel-project-in-scotland-could-prevent-uk-blackouts-energy
Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts.
Trailblazing system would help to stabilise the energy grid’s electrical frequency.

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A giant flywheel in north-east Scotland could soon help to prevent blackouts across Britain by mimicking the effect of a power station but without using fossil fuels.

The trailblazing project near Keith in Moray, thought to cost about £25m, will not generate electricity or produce carbon emissions – but it could help keep the lights on by stabilising the energy grid’s electrical frequency.

The Norwegian energy company Statkraft hopes that from next winter the new flywheel, designed by a division of General Electric, will be able to mimic the spinning turbines of a traditional power station, which have helped to balance the grid’s frequency at about 50 hertz for decades.

Currently, the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) is forced to shut down windfarms and run gas power stations even when there is more than enough renewable energy to meet Britain’s electricity demand, in order to keep the grid’s frequency steady.

By simulating the spinning metal mass of a power station turbine without producing emissions, Statkraft should be able to help ESO rely less on fossil fuels and use renewable energy more.

This is the first time a project of this kind will be used anywhere in the world and ESO believes it could be a “huge step forward” in running a zero-carbon electricity grid.

The task of keeping the electrical frequency of the grid steady is becoming more challenging because Britain’s growing stable of renewable energy projects do not use the same giant spinning turbines that typically help to keep frequency stable.

In August last year more than a million people across the UK were plunged into darkness during one of the worst power blackouts in more than a decade after the frequency of the grid fell to 48.88Hz.

Since then, National Grid ESO has accelerated plans for new blackout safeguards to avoid another energy system shock, including schemes and new technologies that can help protect the grid’s frequency without increasing its carbon footprint.

“This approach is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and is a huge step forward in our ambition to be able to operate the GB electricity system carbon-free by 2025.”
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Phoenix

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4856 on: July 06, 2020, 11:01:51 PM »
Now this has the hallmark of simplicity approaching genius...

Note that the UK National Grid has the ambition to be able to operate the GB electricity system carbon-free by 2025. If the UK can do it, anywhere can do it.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/06/giant-flywheel-project-in-scotland-could-prevent-uk-blackouts-energy
Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts.
Trailblazing system would help to stabilise the energy grid’s electrical frequency.

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I'm not an EE, so I don't understand how this works. If someone can ELI5 this, I'd appreciate it.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 01:16:22 AM by Phoenix »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4857 on: July 07, 2020, 01:02:59 AM »
I am not an EE either but I will attempt to explain it someone will correct me if I am wrong. The frequency of power must be maintained when large loads or generation turn on and off. The small inverters and generators would burn up if they tried to resist frequency changes. Large rotating masses have significant inertia that resists speed changes when large load and generation are turned on or off and they are less likely to burn up.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 01:08:40 AM by interstitial »

Phoenix

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4858 on: July 07, 2020, 01:21:51 AM »
I appreciate the attempt to explain interstitial. I guess I would need to see some kind of scheme to see how this additional flywheel is connected to the other working parts in order to maintain the frequency.




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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4859 on: July 07, 2020, 03:49:26 AM »
I will try again.


Overall the load and generation of the electric grid balance nearly instantaneously. After all energy in = energy out. It does this by changing frequency. Add load or decrease generation and the frequency slows. Subtract load or increase generation and the frequency increases. the spinning flywheel acts as a reservoir of kinetic energy that can add or subtract electrical energy from the grid to resist changes

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4860 on: July 07, 2020, 04:53:09 AM »
By giving or accepting power as needed, a spinning flywheel acts like a spinning generator turbine.  It responds much faster than a power plant — but much slower than batteries. 

One benefit of flywheels over batteries may be the lack of degradation.  The system described in the article below may handle “6000 cycles of full charge and discharge or more per year and are designed to withstand that abuse for 20 years, with minimal maintenance or performance degradation.”

This article is from 2011, so before “big batteries” became a thing.

Flywheels Keep the Grid in Tune
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AC frequency fluctuates from second to second as generators turn on and off and consumer demand varies. When demand exceeds supply, the extra load slows down power plant turbines, thus depressing frequency. Meanwhile, the turbines accelerate whenever supply is in excess. Frequency regulators add or remove power to restore balance.

Beacon's flywheels can regulate frequency with superior speed relative to the dominant method today—throttling power generators up and down. And grid operators are changing outdated rules to favor faster-acting regulators, including flywheels and grid-scale batteries.

In contrast, the Stephentown flywheels can switch from full output to full absorption in just a few seconds. Such flexibility means the flywheels can deliver at least twice as much frequency regulation from each megawatt of capacity as a typical natural-gas-fired power plant while cutting carbon emissions in half, according to Hawkins.

But he says that another threat looms, one that could eviscerate the market for frequency regulation: millions of electric vehicles. Plugged in to the grid, they could respond to frequency deviations at the local level.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy, proved a similar concept a few years ago, showing that electric water heaters and dryers could correct frequency dips by temporarily turning off their heating elements. In March, PNNL licensed the concept to Texas-based semiconductor start-up Encryptor, which hopes to make chips for appliances.
So in the future, the frequency regulator could be you.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/flywheels-keep-the-grid-in-tune
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

blumenkraft

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4861 on: July 07, 2020, 11:44:09 AM »
When it comes to electrical grids, you need physically spinning objects somehow to maintain the 50hz frequency. Nothing in a battery spins though. So i imagine that flywheels do have a future even in a world where most energy storage is battery-based.

KiwiGriff

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4862 on: July 07, 2020, 12:16:50 PM »
Battery's and inverters  can also do frequency control .
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70MW of output is reserved for maintenance of grid stability. Power grids require careful management of their many connected generators, in order to make sure that the voltage and frequency of the grid remain in acceptable bounds. This is achieved through maintaining a balance between the supply and demand of electricity across the entire grid. Sudden changes in either supply or demand require quick reactions from attached generators in order to avoid major excursions that can risk taking the grid offline, or lead to rolling blackouts. Commonly, this happens when a major generator such as a coal plant has a fault, or when a soap opera ends in England and thousands of households all switch on the kettle at the same time. This is referred to as Frequency Control and Ancilliary Services (FCAS) in the local market, and is typically handled by gas-powered generators, which can respond on timescales of seconds to minutes.The Hornsdale battery, however, is capable of much faster response times. On December 14th, 2017, the Loy Yang A coal generator tripped, causing the sudden loss of 560 MW of generation from the grid. Upon the main frequency dropping to 49.8 Hz, in mere milliseconds, the Hornsdale installation delivered 7.3 MW to the grid to prop up the frequency over a period of several minutes, while other infrastructure was brought online. This fast-discharge capability has allowed the battery to beat other generators to the punch. This has brought the battery’s owners, Nueon, significant profits from the provision of FCAS services to the grid, taking 55% of the market from existing operators. There have been complaints that the existing billing system is not actually fast enough to properly compensate the battery’s owners for its output, as the system was originally designed around conventional generation which is slower to respond.
https://hackaday.com/2019/12/16/the-hornsdale-power-reserve-and-what-it-means-for-grid-battery-storage/
Even my off grid inverter can frequency match generator or grid input. Any distributed battery inverter virtual power plant like Tesla is building in AU can also do frequency support.

On must ask how much power can you store in this flywheel ?
I have googled and looked around for details but nowhere is quoting a capacity in kw.
This makes me think its being overhyped .
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 12:30:15 PM by KiwiGriff »
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blumenkraft

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4863 on: July 07, 2020, 12:34:28 PM »
Battery's and inverters  can also do frequency control .

That's right, but they are doing it by connecting/disconnecting from the grid.

But how do you jumpstart a grid after a blackout? Where do you get your 50hz?

KiwiGriff

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4864 on: July 07, 2020, 01:08:20 PM »
Inverter systems can frequency match or if they are large enough make the frequency.
Even  my off grid  inverter can match output frequency to a generator or the grid when its connected to another power source.
A previous Now twenty year old one I had could load share with the grid.
It is not much of a leap for a grid tye  type inverter system that has sufficient capacity to control the grids frequency as   horsdale power reserve does with Tesla's battery's and inverters. Tesla is building a virtual power plant in Au based on distributed inverters and storage that can do grid scale frequency modulation just as the hornsdale power reserve  does .
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-power-plant-propped-up-grid-during-coal-outage/568812/
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The 50,000-home virtual power plant (VPP) Tesla is developing in South Australia helped maintain grid stability when a coal-fired unit in Queensland tripped offline and reduced system supply by 748 MW in October.
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, the outage caused power system frequency to drop below normal levels but Tesla's VPP was able to inject power from hundreds of individual residential batteries to help return the system frequency back to stable levels.
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
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blumenkraft

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4865 on: July 07, 2020, 02:39:16 PM »
I think we are talking past each other Griff.

You are talking about balancing frequency as a function of what you are putting into the grid.

You are right in a way that batteries can be switched on and off very fast and precisely, which gives you a great tool for balancing the grid frequency. You are reducing the need for inertia in the grid.

I'm talking about what gives you the frequency in the first place.

And for how i understand it, you can't get rid of all the inertia (correct me if i'm wrong).

gerontocrat

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4866 on: July 07, 2020, 02:54:19 PM »
Inverter systems can frequency match or if they are large enough make the frequency.
Even  my off grid  inverter can match output frequency to a generator or the grid when its connected to another power source.
A previous Now twenty year old one I had could load share with the grid.
It is not much of a leap for a grid tye  type inverter system that has sufficient capacity to control the grids frequency as   horsdale power reserve does with Tesla's battery's and inverters. Tesla is building a virtual power plant in Au based on distributed inverters and storage that can do grid scale frequency modulation just as the hornsdale power reserve  does .
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-power-plant-propped-up-grid-during-coal-outage/568812/
Quote
The 50,000-home virtual power plant (VPP) Tesla is developing in South Australia helped maintain grid stability when a coal-fired unit in Queensland tripped offline and reduced system supply by 748 MW in October.
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, the outage caused power system frequency to drop below normal levels but Tesla's VPP was able to inject power from hundreds of individual residential batteries to help return the system frequency back to stable levels.
The flywheel is kept going all the time and improves frequency control all the time. It needs little power to maintain its rotation until the grid demands energy. And of course items such as the bearings will need replacing from time to time. A maintenance free system does not exist.

A mixture of large-scale batteries, large numbers of small batteries in home systems/EVs, and flywheels installed according to need would provide additional system resilience - belt & braces. They are not mutually exclusive, though some of the reaction to my post seems to imply otherwise.





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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4867 on: July 07, 2020, 04:34:28 PM »
...

On must ask how much power can you store in this flywheel ?
I have googled and looked around for details but nowhere is quoting a capacity in kw.
This makes me think its being overhyped .

The article I quoted from 2011 says, “Stephentown, which started up in January with 8 megawatts of flywheel capacity and was scheduled to reach its full 20-MW design capacity in June.”

Critics scoff at the limited time a battery could supply ‘power to the people’ when a big battery is said to be able to power “X-thousand homes for 3 hours,” but that’s not the important metric for balancing the grid.  (I don’t know what metric is important for flywheels. ;))
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4868 on: July 07, 2020, 09:16:20 PM »
I agree that all forms should be explored.
 I was  pointing out inverters can do frequency control.
A flywheel is just an energy storage device like a battery.
Some sort of generator and inverters will convert the stored energy in the flywheel to what is required to control frequency on the grid.
Hornsdale has 70 MW dedicated to frequency control.
Note power MW is not the same as capacity MWH.
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4869 on: July 07, 2020, 11:13:15 PM »

a flywheel is not for storage in this application its not used as a battery. Its used to resist sudden changes in frequency.


virtual power plants (networked batteries and inverters) can tune/change the frequency of the grid with high speed switching but they don't resist sudden changes.   



A spike will hit each component in order as it goes down the line. Small equipment like inverters will either go offline or burn up when hit with a sufficiently energetic spike. That doesn't stabilize the grid frequency it makes the problem worse.
 
On the other hand a flywheel won't tune the grid frequency.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4870 on: July 09, 2020, 06:39:03 PM »
The Washington DC transit system just sold the air space above its parking lots to solar developers.  The deal will generate funds for public transit and allow for 12.8 MW of solar power capacity in an urban environment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2020/07/08/metro-agrees-solar-power-deal-worth-50-million/

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Metro agrees to solar power deal worth $50 million
By
Justin George
July 8, 2020 at 4:12 p.m. PDT

Metro has sold 13 football fields’ worth of space at its parking lots and garages in the District and Prince George’s County for a solar power project worth up to $50 million over 25 years, the transit agency said Wednesday.

The deal provides SunPower Corporation and Goldman Sachs Renewable Power space on Metro’s surface parking lots and above its parking garages to install solar-paneled carports or canopies at four rail stations. Metro said the four sites will have the capacity to generate 12.8 megawatts, making it “the largest community solar project” in the Washington region.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4871 on: July 10, 2020, 11:34:06 AM »
Room for improvement but not terrible.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4872 on: July 10, 2020, 02:11:22 PM »
a flywheel is not for storage in this application its not used as a battery. Its used to resist sudden changes in frequency.

virtual power plants (networked batteries and inverters) can tune/change the frequency of the grid with high speed switching but they don't resist sudden changes.   

A spike will hit each component in order as it goes down the line. Small equipment like inverters will either go offline or burn up when hit with a sufficiently energetic spike. That doesn't stabilize the grid frequency it makes the problem worse.
 
On the other hand a flywheel won't tune the grid frequency.
Twenty/thirty years ago I lived in a town with a major insurance company HQ. They'd installed a flywheel in their basement. It was constantly powered from the grid, and constantly generating very smooth power for all the computers in the building. They had two sets of wiring - one for clean power, another for the rest. Not only did it iron out the spikes; in the event of a power cut, the flywheel would give at least 15 minutes of power to give an orderly shutdown of computers. I don't know how much the installation cost, but the company obviously thought it worthwhile.
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4873 on: July 11, 2020, 12:25:45 AM »
The US EIA is reporting that the share of non-hydro renewables in electricity generation is expected to increase from 11% last year to 13% this year.  Due to higher precipitation in the Pacific Northwest, hydropower will increase by 1%, from 7% to 8%.

https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/electricity.php

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EIA also expects generation from renewable energy sources will increase in 2020. Slightly higher precipitation levels in the Pacific Northwest drive EIA’s forecast that conventional hydroelectric generation will provide 8% of total U.S. generation in 2020, compared with 7% last year. Most of the expected increase in generation from renewables is a result of new solar and wind generation capacity additions. EIA expects the generation share from renewable energy sources other than hydropower will increase to 13% in 2020 compared with 11% in 2019.



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Renewables Capacity. After adding 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in 2019, EIA forecasts 13 GW of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity will be added in 2020 and 11 GW more will be added in 2021. Fewer capacity additions in 2021 takes into consideration some effects of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) phase-down. Based on the latest available data that EIA has received, the impact of COVID-19 on PV capacity in development is limited; therefore, the forecast for utility-scale PV capacity additions in 2020 and 2021 is only slightly lower than the forecast in the January STEO.

EIA also expects a total of 9 GW of small-scale solar PV capacity will be installed during 2020 and 2021, mostly in the residential sector. EIA expects small-scale solar to continue to grow, although at a slower pace than the level forecasted in the January STEO. Various state and federal policies support EIA’s forecast solar capacity growth, including California’s requirement that all new home construction has rooftop solar panels beginning this year. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that 15% of detached single-family homes in California currently have solar PV systems.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4874 on: July 13, 2020, 10:32:47 PM »
Investment in offshore wind farms has quadrupled globally in the first half of this year. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/13/offshore-wind-energy-investment-quadruples-despite-covid-19-slump

Quote
Offshore wind energy investment quadruples despite Covid-19 slump
Investors give greenlight to $35bn worth of projects worldwide in first half of 2020

Jillian Ambrose
Mon 13 Jul 2020

Global offshore wind investment more than quadrupled in the first half of the year even as the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented economic shock.

A report has found that investors gave the greenlight to 28 new offshore windfarms worth a total of $35bn (£28bn) this year, four times more than in the first half of 2019 and well above the total for last year as a whole.

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The growth in offshore wind powered a 5% jump in total renewable energy investment to $132.4bn despite a slump for onshore wind and solar power projects. Onshore wind investment for the first half of the year fell by a fifth to $37.5bn, while solar investment slipped 12% to $54.7bn.

Keep in mind that the cost of renewables has been declining every year (in every country of the world), so this means that much more capacity is being installed (globally) for a given amount invested (in any country).

Edit:  Modified to clarify that this applies in every country in the world.

« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 07:18:19 PM by Ken Feldman »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4875 on: July 14, 2020, 12:03:42 AM »
The Biden campaign (for US President) has released their climate change plan, which includes policies that would lead to a huge expansion of renewable energy.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/13/biden-sanders-task-force-calls-for-500m-solar-panels-in-five-years/

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Biden-Sanders task force calls for 500m solar panels in five years

A wide-ranging joint report published by the Democratic presidential candidate and his former rival includes the section: ‘Undoing the harms of the Trump administration and righting the wrongs.’
July 13, 2020 Eric Wesoff

On renewables, the task force aims to:

    Dramatically expand solar and wind energy deployment through community-based and utility scale systems. Within five years, states the report, “we will install 500 million solar panels, including eight million solar roofs and community solar energy systems and 60,000 made-in-America onshore and offshore wind turbines”
    Cut red tape, by promoting fast and easy permitting for rooftop solar and energy retrofits
    Launch a battery storage and clean energy transmission line moonshot to super-charge investment in innovation and the deployment of American-made battery technology and clean energy transmission lines
    Improve transmission planning by increasing transparency and fairness in the power markets for clean energy generators. The report also aims to develop and implement a long-term transmission plan to deliver more renewables
    Adopt scaled-up tax credits for renewable energy projects that meet labor standards

Edit: Modified to clarify that Biden is running for President of the United States and that these are policy proposals, not politics.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 07:16:35 PM by Ken Feldman »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4876 on: July 14, 2020, 12:21:31 AM »
New solar farms in Texas (a large state in the United States) will result in the idling of the remaining coal-fired power plants supplying the state grid (abbreviated ERCOT in the story).

https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Solar-Set-to-Drive-Much-Remaining-TX-Coal-Fired-Fleet-Offline_July-2020.pdf

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Solar Surge Set to Drive Much of Remaining Texas Coal-Fired Fleet Offline Growth in Utility-Scale PV Production Is Rapidly Changing the ERCOT Market

Executive Summary

Coal-fired power generation in Texas, pummelled by clean, no-fuel-cost wind over the past 10 years, is about to be hit by a second wave of competition from renewables as utility-scale solar power, which is still only a small component of the state’s generation mix, stands to gain significant market share over the next few years.

While installed solar power capacity in the U.S. has grown by almost 4,000% over the past 10 years, its growth rate in Texas—specifically across the vast footprint of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has been even faster, with installed capacity increasing from just 15 megawatts (MW) in 2010 to 2,281MW at the end of 2019,a 15,107% increase. ERCOT’s installed capacity could climb at a comparable annual rate this year, with current projections showing solar topping 5,800MW by the end of 2020.

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Even though solar is still a small percentage of ERCOT’s overall numbers, both in terms of generation and installed capacity, it is beginning to have a noticeable impact. This June, for example, solar generation supplied 4-5% of daytime electricity demand on many occasions. Given its low cost, and given the Texas grid’s energy-only business model, which pays for electricity produced rather than mere generation capacity, solar is gaining—and will continue to gain—market share. This will come at the expense of more costly generation, most likely coal-fired, which will be backed out of the ERCOT generation mix by a comparable amount.

This is clear in ERCOT’s generation figures from this year through the end of June. Overall, ERCOT demand has increased slightly since last year, even with the pandemic and the oil price collapse. But there is a much bigger story behind these grid-wide totals. So far this year, coal-fired generation has fallen across ERCOT by more than 8.6 million megawatt-hours (MWh), while solar and wind generation has increased by just over 8.5 million MWh, an increase of almost 21%.

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Coupled with expected continued increases in wind capacity, which totalled just under 24,000MW at the end of 2019 across ERCOT and is projected to top 34,000MW by the end of2021, IEEFA sees a number of the 11 remaining ERCOT coal plants likely retiring by 2025. The economic competitiveness of the ERCOT market makes such closures a near certainty.

Edit: Modified to clarify that this applies to a state in the United States.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 07:20:18 PM by Ken Feldman »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4877 on: July 14, 2020, 01:06:28 AM »
Utility scale solar installations in the US were up 65.5% from 2019 in the first quarter of 2020.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/070620-us-utility-scale-solar-installations-accelerate-with-1962-mw-of-new-capacity-in-q120

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US utility-scale solar installations accelerate with 1,962 MW of new capacity in Q1'20
06 Jul 2020
Gaurang Dholakia

New York — Utility-scale solar installations in the U.S. totaled 1,962 MW of new capacity in the first quarter of 2020, which was 65.5% higher than the total installed in the first quarter of last year and the strongest first quarter in the last five years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

The analysis aligns with data from the Solar Energy Industries Association Inc., which said that the first three months of 2020 was the strongest first quarter on record with new additions, including residential solar, totaling 3.6 GW.

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Cumulative installed utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. as of March 31 reached 40,652 MW, up 18.4% from 12 months prior.

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As of June 8, the amount of capacity scheduled to come online in the next five years is expected to peak in 2021, with 28,172 MW planned. Most planned capacity over the five-year period is in early development.

Edit:  Modified to make clear that this is in the US.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 07:14:10 PM by Ken Feldman »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4878 on: July 14, 2020, 05:16:59 AM »
Ken, could you please state the country where your post is about? And another please: No politics, yes policies.
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4879 on: July 14, 2020, 08:14:35 AM »
Our expedition hosts the KATABATA project, a scientific project set up by researchers from the University of Liège (Belgium), which aims to measure for the first time the potential of the katabatic winds in the south of Groenland with the aim of being able to set up large wind farms there. This project, which is anchored in the energy transition, consists of the installation of 3 meteorological stations which will allow, during three years, to model and analyse the power of the winds recorded in the south of the country.

https://www.unumondo.org/

Unu Mondo is a 4 months sailing expedition into the Arctic aimed to gather scientific data and testimonies from local communities to better anticipate climate change and promote concrete actions.
90% of the world is religious, but somehow "love thy neighbour" became "fuck thy neighbours", if they don't agree with your point of view.

WTF happened?

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4880 on: July 14, 2020, 02:57:27 PM »
Ken, could you please state the country where your post is about? And another please: No politics, yes policies.

Basically if it´s not in the text body it is visible in the quotes.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4881 on: July 14, 2020, 07:18:55 PM »
Ken, could you please state the country where your post is about? And another please: No politics, yes policies.

Basically if it´s not in the text body it is visible in the quotes.

No problem.  I modified my posts to make them clearer for non-English readers.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4882 on: July 15, 2020, 09:02:12 AM »
I (occasionally) report on US stuff because this is where I live and what I know about.  As I said before if you want stuff from other countries here please go ahead and add it. The more the better. Seriously if you want coverage from other areas please add it. I would like to read more about other places. I do unfortunately live in a US bubble.  No sarcasm or hostility intended on my part.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4883 on: July 15, 2020, 11:24:17 AM »
Nanning, let's be reasonable. Is there really value in mentioning "USA" on top of every post? Surely we all know what is being posted and from where. American posters tend to post news from their country and I personally don't see it creating any sort of bubble.

When you think their posts don't reflect the situation elsewhere you can defend your point by posting data from other countries.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4884 on: July 15, 2020, 07:21:36 PM »
How not to have a "green recovery"....

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/15/governments-put-green-recovery-on-the-backburner
Governments put 'green recovery' on the backburner
G20 countries aim their pandemic bailout spending at fossil fuel industries, leaving Paris climate change targets in doubt

Quote
Governments are spending vastly more in support of fossil fuels than on low-carbon energy in rescue packages triggered by the coronavirus crisis, new data has shown, despite rhetoric from many countries in support of a “green recovery”.

Data from the Energy Policy Tracker, a new research effort by several civil society groups, shows that at least $151bn (£120bn) of bailout cash has been spent or earmarked so far to support fossil fuels by the G20 group of large economies. Only about a fifth of this spending is conditional on environmental requirements such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions or cleaning up pollution.

The G20 countries are directing about $89bn (£71bn) in stimulus spending to clean energy, despite most of those governments being publicly committed to the Paris agreement on climate change.

In the US alone, at least $58bn (£46bn) of stimulus spending is going to the fossil fuel industry, equivalent to about $177 (£141) per capita. Clean energy spending stands at less than half that amount, about $25bn (£20bn) or $76.50 (£61) per capita.

The findings come ahead of a vital meeting of G20 finance ministers this weekend when countries are likely to discuss how to alleviate the global recession resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the spending on fossil fuels is likely to be designed to quickly stabilise hard-hit industries, preserving jobs and preventing a worse recession. For instance, the figures include spending on airlines that have had fleets grounded or their flights drastically curtailed, and the plummeting oil price has threatened millions of jobs.

However, green campaigners are concerned that so much of the money is flowing to companies with no conditions to force them to take even basic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or other pollution.

Some countries have attached “green strings” to their bailout packages, including France and Austria on airlines. Canada has required some of its fossil fuel companies to clean up oil pollution or reduce leaks of methane as a condition of receiving bailout funds.
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4885 on: July 15, 2020, 08:51:07 PM »
The European Union is reviewing its policies on bioenergy in recognition that much of it is not sustainable.

https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/07/14/not-biomass-carbon-neutral-industry-admits-eu-reviews-policy/

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Not all biomass is carbon neutral, industry admits as EU reviews policy
Published on 14/07/2020, 11:51am

The EU is working on stricter sustainability criteria for bioenergy, posing a challenge for the industry and several member states

By Frédéric Simon for Euractiv

Leading industry figures acknowledge that not all biomass brings benefits to the climate, insisting that only low-value wood and forest residues should make the cut under EU law.

“Not all biomass is good biomass,” says Jennifer Jenkins, chief sustainability officer at Enviva, a US-based company which is the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets used for electricity and heat production.

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To bring climate benefits, biomass needs to come from low-value wood residues or smaller trees coming from timber harvests – not from high-value trees that could be used in products like furniture or construction material, Jenkins said.

The question now facing policymakers in Brussels is how to ensure EU energy policies do not encourage the wrong sort of biomass, even inadvertently.

Biomass currently represents almost 60% of the EU’s renewable energy, more than solar and wind power combined, according to the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat.

And even though wind and solar are growing fast, countries such as Austria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Sweden would be unable to achieve their 2020 renewable energy targets without biomass, experts say.

Quote
Earlier this year, the European Commission announced it would perform a comprehensive assessment of biomass supply and demand in Europe and globally with a view to “ensure that EU biomass-related policies are sustainable”.

“The overall objective is to ensure that EU regulatory framework on bioenergy is in line with the increased ambition set out in the European Green Deal,” the Commission said in its biodiversity strategy, published on 20 May.

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But sorting out “good” from “bad” biomass is notoriously tricky.

Last year, a group of climate activists filed a lawsuit against the European Union to challenge the notion that forest biomass is carbon neutral, a principle which is currently enshrined in the bloc’s renewable energy directive.

“The treatment of biomass as carbon neutral runs counter to scientific findings” showing that burning wood for energy typically emits 1.5 times more CO2 than coal and 3 times more than natural gas, the plaintiffs claimed.

Quote
So how could policymakers distinguish “good” from “bad” biomass? According to some experts, one way could be to contrast the impact of biomass on global carbon stocks in the short and long term.

“If you burn biomass, then of course there is CO2 being emitted,” said Junginger, adding that from that point of view, biomass “critics have a point” and that climate scientists are concerned about the immediate CO2 emissions, which can be “up to twice more than natural gas”.

However, what critics fail to acknowledge is the long-term positive effects of biomass on the climate, Junginger added, saying bioenergy from sustainably managed forests is carbon neutral in the long run because trees re-absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.

Ultimately within two or three decades, even the less sustainable kinds of biomass will have repaid their carbon debt and perform better than fossil fuels,” he argued.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4886 on: July 15, 2020, 08:59:00 PM »
The UK is relaxing planning rules related to energy storage projects (excluding pumped hydro) to spur the installation of more utility scale battery storage.  And construction began on a cable to link the UK grid to Denmark's, a project that will be completed in 2023.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/uk-loosens-planning-rules-to-ramp-up-storage-and-boost-renewables.html

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UK hopes to ramp up battery storage and boost renewables by loosening planning rules
Published Wed, Jul 15 2020
Anmar Frangoul

The U.K. government is to relax planning rules to make the development of large battery storage systems easier.

In an announcement Tuesday, authorities said secondary legislation would be introduced to get rid of “barriers for storage projects above 50 MW (megawatts) in England and 350 MW in Wales.”

In simple terms, the change will be a technical one related to who has the authority to grant permission to a project. At the moment, if a facility is 50 MW or less in England or 350 MW or less in Wales, planning permission is needed from a local planning authority.

Larger projects are deemed to be “nationally significant” and need consent from the secretary of state under something called the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, or NSIP, regime. Under the plans, legislation will be introduced to remove electricity storage, excluding pumped hydro, from the NSIP regime in England and Wales.

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The government explained that while the U.K. was home to the “largest installed capacity of offshore wind in the world” the fact that “the availability and speed of wind” was not constant meant energy could “sometimes be produced when it is not needed and then lost.” It added that 1 gigawatt (GW) of battery storage was currently in operation, with 4 GW of projects being planned.

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The battery storage news comes in the same week that construction on Viking Link, a major energy infrastructure project, began.

On Monday, National Grid said that work on a 2.4 kilometer access road to a converter station site in Bicker Fen, Lincolnshire, had started.

The Viking Link Interconnector project is a subsea, high-voltage direct-current link between Denmark and the U.K. that will be 765 kilometers long once completed.

The 2 billion euro ($2.29 billion) scheme, which will enable the two countries to share clean energy, is a joint venture between National Grid Ventures and Denmark’s Energinet. Siemens Energy is undertaking construction work on the project’s converter stations. The cable is slated for completion at the end of 2023.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4887 on: July 16, 2020, 01:18:51 AM »
The Netherlands is going to pay Denmark 100 million Euro to count some of Denmark's renewable energy generation toward their goal.

https://renewablesnow.com/news/netherlands-to-pay-eur-100m-to-count-danish-renewables-towards-2020-goal-703888/

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Netherlands to pay EUR 100m to count Danish renewables towards 2020 goal
June 24 (Renewables Now) - The Dutch State will pay EUR 100 million (USD 113m) to Denmark under an agreement for statistical transfer so as to be able to count 8 TWh of Danish green power towards the Netherlands’ binding 2020 renewable energy target.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4888 on: July 16, 2020, 01:29:52 AM »
In the US, a seven year-old financial technology startup raised $100 million to invest in 300 solar power companies.

https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2020/07/15/solar-energy-startups-fintech-wunder-capital.html

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Boulder solar industry fintech company raises more than $100 million
By Greg Avery
July 15, 2020

Solar financing company Wunder Capital raised a fresh $100 million fund from which it will help finance commercial and industrial-scale solar power projects around the U.S.

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The money will go to solar project loans that Boulder-based Wunder Capital arranges with its network of more than 300 solar project installers and developers.

Wunder Capital assembles funds from credentialled investors and then finances the commercial and local government solar power projects that property owners and investors build at malls, factories, warehouses, libraries and other places. Its goal is to eliminate bottlenecks that have traditionally limited investment in solar power projects.

The 24-employee startup formed in 2013 and later graduated from the Boulder startup accelerator Techstars. It built financing software designed to match solar projects with funding, and its loans have financed solar projects with a total generating capacity of 185 megawatts of electricity.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4889 on: July 16, 2020, 03:14:06 AM »
<Removed long post which looked like some pm discussion. metadiscussions on the forum are not renewable energy. kassy>
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 02:31:01 PM by kassy »

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4890 on: July 16, 2020, 10:24:38 AM »
Sounds good Nanning. Copy paste always seems to take me longer than it seems it should. Though it is not nearly as much work as a well reasoned argument with supporting information. It saves me some time on surfing the web.  It has similar dynamics to a volunteer organization in my opinion. I will try to get back on topic as well.


Renewables could (and should) have been adopted much earlier but much lower costs mean the BAU case will lead to much faster adoption globally than has happened in the past. Not as fast as it should happen but much faster. I like to focus on one of the few areas were some progress is being made. We are finally building more renewable power than fossil fuel plants in the US. I suspect that is true or almost true globally. I like to see that progress in those small changes even if it is BAU.





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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4891 on: July 16, 2020, 10:24:10 PM »
China will subsidize 434 solar power projects with a capacity of almost 26 GW this year.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-29/china-boosts-subsidy-eligible-solar-projects-by-13-in-2020?cmpid=BBD062920_GREENDAILY&utm_medium=emai

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China Boosts Subsidy-Eligible Solar Projects by 13% in 2020
Bloomberg News
June 28, 2020

China, the world’s biggest solar market, plans to subsidize 434 photovoltaic power projects with a combined capacity of almost 26 gigawatts of this year.

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The projects, located in 15 regions, include 25.6 gigawatts of utility-scale ground-mounted plants, with the rest for smaller projects at industrial and commercial sites, the NEA said in a statement dated June 23 and posted online Sunday.

The scale is “within expectations” after the nation announced earlier this year it will allocate 1 billion yuan ($141 million) of financial support for large solar projects, according to Jonathan Luan, a Beijing-based analyst at BloombergNEF. He expects China to add about 37 gigawatts of solar power in 2020, including some zero-subsidy projects and plants that were approved but not commissioned last year.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4892 on: July 16, 2020, 10:27:39 PM »
India's share of electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel is planned to grow from 36.5% in 2019 to 64% in 2030.

https://www.energyinfrapost.com/india-to-overachieve-unfccc-2030-target-share-of-non-fossil-fuels-to-increase-to-64-per-cent-by-2030/

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India to overachieve UNFCCC 2030 target, share of non-fossil fuels to increase to 64 per cent by 2030

The percentage of non-fossil fuel in India’s electric power installed capacity is estimated to increase to 64 per cent in March 2030, according to a recent report by the Central Electricity Agency.

The report on optimal generation capacity mix for 2029-30 added that the percentage of non-fossil fuel in installed capacity stood at 49 per cent and 36.5 per cent in March 2022 and March 2019, respectively.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4893 on: July 20, 2020, 05:28:19 PM »
The scum are still peddling their vileness when & where they can....

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/20/africa-can-become-a-renewable-energy-superpower-if-climate-deniers-are-kept-at-bay
Africa can become a renewable energy superpower – if climate deniers are kept at bay

Nigel Lawson’s thinktank is pushing dirty energy on the continent with the greatest capacity for creating clean fuel
Quote
The power of climate science denial in the UK, thankfully, has been in retreat over the past decade. Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) may still boast a prime Westminster address, but its influence has waned.

With countries rightly phasing coal out of their energy mix, the GWPF has turned its sights on Africa to peddle its misinformation about the merits of burning fossil fuels. It has published a new report, derisively titled Heart of Darkness: Why Electricity for Africa is a Security Issue, and launched a glossy website for “energy justice”, which uses the language of climate justice campaigners to try to undermine renewable energy.

 No continent suffers more from global heating than Africa, yet nowhere has done less to cause it
As an African from a pastoralist community in northern Kenya, I have seen the suffering that coal-fuelled climate breakdown has wrought on my people. The anti-climate policies that the GWPF has pushed for years have contributed to the droughts, storms and surging temperatures that have killed people and destroyed livelihoods. Yet now they pretend to be Africa’s saviours, seeking out new markets for the ever more desperate coal industry. And coal barons are not alone: European-produced petrol, so dirty and polluting that it can’t be sold there, is being dumped on to the Nigerian market.

The GWPF report was written by Geoff Hill, a Zimbabwean journalist who spent much of his early career working for Rupert Murdoch’s the Australian, a newspaper known to spread misinformation about the climate crisis. Hill does not seem to have an academic background in climate science or energy policy. The report cites three academics who appear to have a vested interest in the solutions proposed: Dr Rosemary Falcon, Dr Samson Bada and Dr Jacob Masiala are all connected to the Clean Coal Technology Research group at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

African prosperity will not come by it being shackled to the outdated dirty energy infrastructure of the past. Rather than trudging behind in the 50-year-old footsteps of European countries, Africa needs to leapfrog to the clean, cheap and renewable technologies of the future. This is how Africa will catch up with its global neighbours. Africa is blessed with more sun, wind and geothermal energy than anywhere else on the planet, but that fact does not help the GWPF or the coal industry.

Not only are wind and solar increasingly becoming the cheapest forms of new electricity across the globe, but they are also inherently more agile and versatile than grid-reliant fossil fuels.
Pastoralists in remote parts of Africa in need of electricity will not be served waiting for hulking great power grids to be built, cutting a swathe across Africa’s precious natural landscape. They would be better off with solar mini-grids and wind turbines supplying energy exactly where it is needed most.
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4894 on: July 21, 2020, 06:48:41 PM »
In Australia, emissions from coal are down and renewables are replacing coal.  Natural gas is also down, despite very low prices.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/grid-emissions-hit-record-low-as-both-coal-output-and-prices-plunge-13548/

Quote
Grid emissions hit record low, as both coal output and prices plunge
Giles Parkinson 22 July 2020

Australia’s main electricity grid achieved a remarkable trifecta in the last three months: The level of greenhouse gas emissions fell to a record low in the June quarter, even as the level of both coal production and wholesale market prices plunged at the same time.



Quote
This next graph shows th inexorable trend. Black coal proaction down significantly, gas also falling, brown coal increasing slightly (only because the previous corresponding quarter featured many outages), and growth in wind, solar, and rooftop solar. Good recent rains meant that hydro generation was also up.

Quote
Nearly all that increased competition for coal came from new wind and solar. AEMO says grid-scale VRE (variable renewable energy, or wind and solar) output increased by 454 MW on average, accounting for 13 per cent of the supply mix, up from 10 per cent in the second quarter of last year. That doesn’t include rooftop solar.

Quote
And before anyone assumes that this is the end of the road for VRE, AEMO estimates that there are several gigawatts of new capacity under construction or awaiting connection, and by 2030 the share of renewables will be 50 per cent, at least.

By 2040, it could be as high as 90 per cent, and in any case at least 70 per cent because wind, solar and storage remain the cheapest option to replace ageing coal generators. By 2035, it has suggested, the “instant” penetration of wind and solar alone could reach 75 per cent, or even higher in a faster transition.

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4895 on: July 22, 2020, 06:47:25 PM »
New York state issued a solicitation for 4GW of renewable power yesterday.

https://www.newsday.com/business/offshore-wind-lipa-nyserda-1.47154506

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State to procure 2,500 more megawatts of offshore wind power
By Mark Harrington
July 22, 2020

New York State this year will seek bids for another 2,500 megawatts of offshore wind power, along with 1,500 megawatts of land-based renewable energy projects in what the state is calling the country’s largest clean-energy solicitation of its kind.

The new plans for wind, solar and other green energy projects follow last year’s awarding of nearly 1,700 megawatts of offshore wind to two developers, Equinor of Norway and Orsted of Denmark — part of the state’s march toward some 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind for the New York grid by 2035. LIPA has contracted for another 130 megawatts.

The combined 4,000 megawatts of new green energy, if built, will be enough to power some 1.5 million homes, the state said. The plan includes $400 million in public and private investments for 11 state-selected port facilities to make or stage key wind-farm components, or operate the facilities once completed, said the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is overseeing the bids. The New York Power Authority will also administer bids for around half the land-based projects.

Sciguy

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4896 on: July 22, 2020, 07:01:48 PM »
The share of electricity generated in Europe increased from 37% last year to 44% this year during the Covid shutdowns.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-renewables-insight/green-energy-ratchets-up-power-during-coronavirus-pandemic-idUSKCN24N111

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July 22, 2020
Green energy ratchets up power during coronavirus pandemic
Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) - Renewable power has taken up a record share of global electricity production since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Reuters review of data, suggesting a transition away from polluting fossil fuels could be accelerated in the coming years.

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Most grid operators automatically turned to the cheapest energy supplies to meet the falling demand. Wind and solar power costs very little to generate once the installations are built and is often backed by government mandates and subsidies. As a result, more expensive fossil fuel sources were the first to be pulled.

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Data from Finnish energy technology group Wartsila, collated from Europe’s electricity grid operators, shows renewables generated an average of 44% of power across the 27-nation bloc and Britain from April to June, when many countries were in lockdown, against 37.2% in the same period last year. Daily peaks hit 53%.

The leading performer was Austria which saw renewables average 93% from a previous 91%, thanks largely to hydropower, the data showed. Portugal saw its share of renewable energy surge to 67% from 49%, while in Europe’s biggest economy Germany it averaged 54% up from 47.5%.



It's interesting to see that the Netherlands is lagging behind other countries.  Perhaps that's why posters from that country are so skeptical about the energy transition which is well underway in the rest of the world.

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As elsewhere in the world, the share of renewable energy in India’s electricity market climbed during the COVID-19 lockdown, hitting a record high of 30.9% in the week of June 15 from 17.9% in mid-March, the IEA said.

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The United States is a world leader when it comes to storage, notably battery technology, and some businesses are investing heavily in the sector.

Renewables, including hydro, wind and solar, provided 23% of U.S. electricity during the April lockdown, up from 17% in the same period of 2019, latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data shows. The peak share rose to almost 80% in parts of the windy interior of the country.

kassy

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4897 on: July 26, 2020, 08:26:50 AM »
New Zealand:

100% Renewable Electricity Grid Explored With Pumped Storage ‘battery’

The Government is taking a significant step toward its goal for 100% renewable electricity generation in a move that could be a game changer for consumers and the creation of a low-emissions economy, Energy & Resources Minister Megan Woods said.

The Government is investigating options to ‘green the grid’ as part of a new, transformative infrastructure plan for renewable energy to:

· enable widespread electrification of transport and industry;

· create thousands of jobs and;

· deliver more affordable power for New Zealanders.

The Government will fund a close examination of a key recommendation by the Interim Climate Change Committee; hydro schemes which pump water to manage peak demand, dry hydrological years, and the intermittency of renewable energy sources such as wind.

“If a business case stacks up pumped hydro would be a game changer for securing sustainable, cheaper, low-emissions electricity for the long term,” Megan Woods said.

“This would be transformative for our energy system, and we would no longer be reliant on fossil fuels for meeting our electricity demand.

“Pumped hydro moves water to an upper reservoir when there is surplus renewable energy generation and demand for electricity is low. It is released back down to a hydro power station to generate electricity when demand is high.

“It works like a battery because the stored energy in the water is released when it is used in the hydroelectric dam. This opens up huge possibilities for cheaper electricity and increased supply.

“The project could create thousands of jobs, make wholesale electricity cheaper in the long run, and it would decarbonise the grid as we wouldn’t have to rely on coal and gas to make electricity.

“Pumped hydro would also open up opportunities to electrify sectors across the economy, such as transport and industrial heat, as a lower electricity price would make it more competitive than fossil fuels.

...

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2007/S00253/100-renewable-electricity-grid-explored-with-pumped-storage-battery.htm
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

crandles

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4898 on: July 27, 2020, 01:10:01 PM »
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53450688

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What the heroin industry can teach us about solar power
The market I'm talking about is perhaps the purest example of capitalism on the planet.

There are no subsidies here. Nobody is thinking about climate change - or any other ethical consideration, for that matter.
...

It also proves the consequences won't always be positive.

That is true for the Afghan farmers as well as heroin addicts.

So much water is now being used that ground water levels in Helmand are estimated to be falling by 3m a year.

The fear is that pretty soon the water will simply run out.

gerontocrat

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #4899 on: July 28, 2020, 02:06:55 PM »
Electricity Production data from the IEA up to April 2020

In the OECD, coal continues to die, now Natural Gas is King.
In China & India - coal is still king.

Note how India+China produces approaching twice as much electricity as the entire OECD.

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