Wind Turbines

[Rob Lister]

Give me the number.

[robinson]

Nonsense question

Try harder

[Witness]

Solar meets 100 per cent of South Australia demand for first time

The combination of rooftop and utility scale solar met 100 per cent of demand in South Australia for the first time on Sunday, reaching a milestone that will surely be repeated many times over – and for longer periods – in the future.

The milestone was reached at 12.05pm grid time (Australian eastern standard time), with rooftop solar providing 992MW, or 76.3 per cent of state demand, and utility scale solar providing a further 315MW – meaning all three of the state’s big solar farms, Bungala 1m Bungala 2 and Tailem Bend were operating at full capacity.

The new record came just weeks after solar set a previous milestone of 94 per cent of state demand and rooftop solar output reached 900MW for the first time. On Sunday, that level (94 per cent) was beaten for more than two and a half hours. The combination of sunny weather, mild temperatures and relatively low weekend demand is sure to see more records fall.

The state’s generators were producing more than they needed and exporting most of the surplus to Victoria with some going into the state’s big batteries.

South Australia is currently required to run a minimum amount of gas-fired generation to provide grid services such as inertia and system strength, but the need for this will be reduced when four new synchronous condensers are switched on over the next 12 month, and as battery storage begins to provide “synthetic” inertia services.

The expanded Hornsdale big battery is trialling those inertia services, and has the capacity to meet half the state’s inertia requirements. The construction of a new link to NSW will also further reduce the need for local gas fired generators, and will accelerate the shift towards the state Liberal government’s target of net 100 per cent renewables (averaged over a year).

The continued surged in rooftop solar installations means that South Australia is also likely to reach a new milestone of having rooftop solar alone meet 100 per cent of its demand needs.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-meets ... ime-78279/

[Rob Lister]

Solar meets 100 per cent of South Australia demand for first time
...
ten for more than two and a half hours. The combination of sunny weather, mild temperatures and relatively low weekend demand is sure to see more records fall.

The state’s generators were producing more than they needed and exporting most of the surplus to Victoria with some going into the state’s big batteries.

What is the $/kwh of that battery?

South Australia is currently required to run a minimum amount of gas-fired generation to provide grid services such as inertia and system strength, but the need for this will be reduced when four new synchronous condensers are switched on over the next 12 month, and as battery storage begins to provide “synthetic” inertia services.

I guess I could google 'synchronous condensers' and "synthetic inertia services" but it sounds like battery.

The expanded Hornsdale big battery is trialing those inertia services,

I envision a day when a battery technology exists that can compete. I know it is out there.

I'm so tired. I try to always respond to BS solar news. I never get debate. I should stop. I don't think I excelled in this debunking but nobody is likely to respond.

I am bullish on batteries. The $/kwh will someday make sense. I don't see that happening in my very short life.

[sparks]

Batteries are essentially chemical in nature. No Rob. They will never compete. It's better nukes or nothing.

[Rob Lister]

Batteries are essentially chemical in nature. No Rob. They will never compete. It's better nukes or nothing.

I'm not going to be it's bitch, but I think it will compete in certain markets.
The car market is certainly one that competes, thus far, when few have it. When more millions have it, the true cost will emerge.

The home market eludes, even with huge subsidies and buzzwords like inertia.

[Witness]

I'm so tired. I try to always respond to BS solar news. I never get debate. I should stop. I don't think I excelled in this debunking but nobody is likely to respond.

Rest assured I always appreciate your comments/criticisms.

Rest also assured that just being read is already high praise in this epoch of immediate/visual content, even if the praise isn't explicit.

As for the debate you crave, (sadly?) I don't necessarily endorse the stuff I post – being aware it's somewhere between wishful thinking/vaporware and early results – and so have little motivation to fight your criticism. But I think these are interesting data points, even when stripped of excessive optimism, seeing it as a movement in a direction I approve.


Specifically for Australia, they seem to believe in Photo Voltaic:



But the batteries you despise are only a small part of it (yet there is a market for home installations, at 10,000 - 20,000 Au$), e. g. Tesla's Hornsdale Power Reserve now upgraded to 150 MW.

All BS?

[ceptimus]

I still find it difficult to imagine having enough battery storage to cope with a few weeks of dark, cold, windless, winter weather.

Presumably, a country will still need to maintain lots of conventional generating capacity, even though those generators may then sit idle for much of the time?

But capitalism won't want to do that - so there will be power shortages during periods of bad weather.

[Rob Lister]

But the batteries you despise are only a small part of it (yet there is a market for home installations, at 10,000 - 20,000 Au$), e. g. Tesla's Hornsdale Power Reserve now upgraded to 150 MW.

All BS?

Lister loves batteries, does not despise. It's BS because it leaves out the costs.

Even though the price of the solar kWh is practically free, the storage is stupid expensive. And solar without storage is worthless for 16 hours in 24.

South Australia tops the list with just under A$0.50 per kWh, with New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria also represented in the world’s top 10 highest electricity prices. As a comparison point, the European Union average is just over A$0.30 per kWh, while US consumers, benefiting from a glut of cheap gas, pay between A$0.10 and A$0.20. A report published in June by the Grattan Institute found that wholesale electricity prices increased by 130% in the NEM between 2015 and 2017.

https://www.power-technology.com/featur ... gy-prices/

I bitch about my peak summer electric bill of $100 (.11/kWh)¹. They pay four times that for the same kWh. I'm guessing swamp coolers are popular there.

On the bright side, there's a lot of theoretical room for improvement in battery technology; 5 times li-ion is doable.


1. We really need to move. I'm heating and cooling 3200 square feet of house and we use maybe, maybe 1000 square feet of that; den, kitchen, mast bed and bath. The wife won't even entertain the notion. "What if the kids need to move back in!?" I say, move and don't tell them the new address!

[Rob Lister]

I still find it difficult to imagine having enough battery storage to cope with a few weeks of dark, cold, windless, winter weather.

Presumably, a country will still need to maintain lots of conventional generating capacity, even though those generators may then sit idle for much of the time?

But capitalism won't want to do that - so there will be power shortages during periods of bad weather.

I agree with everything but the last sentence. Capitalism demands the meter never stops turning. That's what lobbyists are for, I suppose. Brownouts will not be tolerated long, for real.

Nuclear as a base load and
natural gas for peaks and
wind to make environmentalists feel better
is the way to go right now.

I hate coal. I hate coal with all my manly firmness. I couldn't give less of a shit about global warming, but coal is dirty, nasty and stinky.

But damn, where would we be without it! Abject poverty. It fueled our first-world wealth. I don't think a sane man would disagree.

It's good to be in a situation where we can move away from it. But solar isn't the answer. Solar isn't a panel, it's a system. The most expensive system that exists.

[Anaxagoras]

[Witness]

I agree that batteries aren't that great (for now). One of the quirks of 'tricity is that it's difficult to store.

In some places (including Australia) solar (or wind) is used to drive pumping stations, that's not bad. As I hinted there is also a market for home solar which doesn't necessarily need batteries, just a variable connection to the grid. In summer you can run your AC all day long practically for free.

And an article:

Solar power is now “cheapest electricity in history”, says IEA

The International Energy Agency has often been mocked for its poor assessment of the potential of solar power, both in terms of deployment and cost reductions, and it is still is. But now, even the IEA has conceded that solar power is low cost, in fact it is now “the cheapest electricity in history.”

This extraordinary admission was included in the 2020 version of its annual reference tome, the World Energy Outlook – a must read for energy wonks and the energy industry, even if its interpretation of industry trends, and its promotion of “business as usual” over climate targets frustrates many.

The WEO2020 includes, for the first time, a scenario that is broadly consistent with what might be needed to try and cap average global warming to a maximum 1.5°C, rather than the second prize of 2.0°C previously modelled under its Sustainable Development Scenarios.

This requires reaching net zero emissions by 2050, rather than 2070, and includes significant emissions reductions over the next decade, driven mostly by a vast increase in wind and solar production, a shift to electric vehicles, and “behavioural changes” that could reduce demand.

The IEA appears ready to embrace this because it has discovered that solar is much cheaper than it thought – in fact, up to 50 per cent cheaper than its estimates of just two years ago, in WEO2018. And it’s not the market that’s changed, so much as IEA’s interpretation of the facts.

The key to the IEA’s re-assessment is the cost of capital of wind and solar, which it now admits is as low as 2.6 per cent in Europe and the US, and far below its previously assumed range of 7-8 per cent.

That means that solar can now be produced “at or below” $US20 a megawatt hour, as has been delivered in auctions in Portugal ($US13/MWh) and the Middle East. It is now so cheap that the IEA says: “For projects with low-cost financing that tap high-quality resources, solar PV is now the cheapest source of electricity in history.”

Even on the IEA’s modified “value adjusted levellised cost of electricity” (VALCOE), which includes the simulated value of three system services: energy, flexibility and capacity, solar still beats coal and gas in all continents, and is beaten only by onshore wind in Europe.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-power ... iea-39195/ with some graphs.

[Witness]

I'll put that strange article here.

Iron Powder Passes First Industrial Test as Renewable, Carbon Dioxide-Free Fuel

Oxidizing and reducing powdered iron has the potential to provide clean power on an industrial scale

Simple question: What if we could curb this whole fossil fuel-fed climate change nightmare and burn something else as an energy source instead? As a bonus, what if that something else is one of the most common elements on Earth?

Simple answer: Let’s burn iron.

While setting fire to an iron ingot is probably more trouble than it’s worth, fine iron powder mixed with air is highly combustible. When you burn this mixture, you’re oxidizing the iron. Whereas a carbon fuel oxidizes into CO2, an iron fuel oxidizes into Fe2O3, which is just rust. The nice thing about rust is that it’s a solid which can be captured post-combustion. And that’s the only byproduct of the entire business—in goes the iron powder, and out comes energy in the form of heat and rust powder. Iron has an energy density of about 11.3 kWh/L, which is better than gasoline. Although its specific energy is a relatively poor 1.4 kWh/kg, meaning that for a given amount of energy, iron powder will take up a little bit less space than gasoline but it’ll be almost ten times heavier.

It might not be suitable for powering your car, in other words. It probably won’t heat your house either. But it could be ideal for industry, which is where it’s being tested right now.

Researchers from TU Eindhoven have been developing iron powder as a practical fuel for the past several years, and last month they installed an iron powder heating system at a brewery in the Netherlands, which is turning all that stored up energy into beer. Since electricity can’t efficiently produce the kind of heat required for many industrial applications (brewing included), iron powder is a viable zero-carbon option, with only rust left over.

So what happens to all that rust? This is where things get clever, because the iron isn’t just a fuel that’s consumed— it’s energy storage that can be recharged. And to recharge it, you take all that Fe2O3, strip out the oxygen, and turn it back into Fe, ready to be burned again. It’s not easy to do this, but much of the energy and work that it takes to pry those Os away from the Fes get returned to you when you burn the Fe the next time. The idea is that you can use the same iron over and over again, discharging it and recharging it just like you would a battery.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/en ... 2free-fuel for the technical details.

[Witness]

EU plans to increase offshore windfarm capacity by 250%

Proposal would create 62,000 jobs and help towards carbon neutrality, says commission


[Nice pic.]

The capacity of the EU’s offshore windfarms in the North Sea, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea will be increased by 250%, under a draft plan drawn up by the European commission.

The move follows Boris Johnson’s announcement this year of his intention to generate enough electricity to power every home in the UK within a decade from the country’s offshore sites.

Both the UK and the EU are seeking to make progress on the target of carbon emission neutrality by 2050 and pioneer potentially rival innovations that will put its industry at the forefront of the growing sector.

The total energy generating capacity in Europe’s seas stands at 23 gigawatts (GW), from 5,047 grid-connected wind turbines across 12 countries, including the UK.

Under a European commission strategy, the 27 EU member states alone would achieve a capacity of 60GW by 2030 and 300GW by 2050, with Germany set to hugely increase its investment in the sector.

According to the leaked paper, the commission “estimates that an installed capacity of 300GW of offshore wind [and around 60GW of ocean energies] by 2050 would be needed in the integrated, greener and climate neutral energy system of 2050.”

The commission writes: “This is feasible for a sector where Europe has gained unrivalled technological, scientific and industrial experience and where strong capacity exists already across the supply chain, from manufacturing to shipping and installation. Nonetheless, it is a very challenging horizon. It means that offshore renewable energy capacity should be multiplied by 25 times by 2050. The investment needed is estimated up to €789bn.” [25 times = 250% increase? Hmmm…]

The UK, which left the EU in January, has the largest amount of offshore wind capacity in Europe, with 45% of all installations. Germany is second with 34%, followed by Denmark (8%), Belgium (7%) and the Netherlands (5%).

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... city#img-1

[Witness]

Australia’s Ambitious $16 Billion Solar Project Will Be The World’s Biggest

The world’s most ambitious renewable energy project to date is the proposed Australia–ASEAN Power Link. This project would combine the world’s largest solar farm, the largest battery, and the longest undersea electricity cable. The 10 gigawatt (GW) solar farm would cover 30,000 acres in Australia’s sunny Northern Territory. That is about the equivalent of 9 million rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The solar farm would be paired with a 30 gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery storage facility to enable round-the-clock dispatch of renewable power. It’s not enough to build a solar farm in the middle of nowhere if you can’t get the power out. The project currently envisions an 800-kilometer high-voltage overhead power line to transmit 3 GW to Darwin on the northern coast of Australia’s Northern Territory. From there, it would transfer to a 3,700 km 2.2 GW undersea power line to Singapore. Sun Cable, a Singapore-based company founded in 2018, is behind the proposed $16 billion project.

For perspective, this undersea line would be five times longer than the world’s longest so long — the 720 km Norway-to-Britain North Sea Link that is scheduled to be online in 2021. The storage facility would be 155 times larger than Australia’s 193.5 megawatt-hours (MWh) Hornsdale Power Reserve, currently the world’s largest operational lithium-ion battery. And it would also be 100 times larger than the world’s largest utility-scale battery, the 300 MWh sodium-sulfur battery at Japan’s Buzen Substation.

The Australia-ASEAN project is scheduled to come online by the end of 2027. The project’s developers expect it to create up to 1,500 jobs during the construction phase, and up to 350 jobs during operations. Given the interest in these types of projects, it is important to understand the challenges and ultimate cost of transporting renewable energy over long distances. The ability to do this economically has important ramifications from the Sahara Desert to the American Midwest to the Arctic.

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy ... ggest.html

[Witness]

Scottish homes to be first in world to use 100% green hydrogen

Some 300 homes in Fife to be fitted with free boilers, heaters and cooking appliances

Some 300 homes in Fife will be fitted with free hydrogen boilers, heaters and cooking appliances to be used for more than four years in the largest test of whether zero carbon hydrogen, made using renewable energy and water, could help meet Britain’s climate goals.

They will begin to receive green gas from the end of 2022, at no extra charge, and up to 1,000 homes could be included if the first phase of the trial is completed successfully.

The trial has the backing of the energy regulator, Ofgem, which has awarded £18m to SGN to develop the pioneering project. The grant is part of a funding competition which supports innovation to help prepare Britain’s energy grids for a low-carbon future. The Scottish government will support the project with a grant of £6.9m.

Ofgem’s £56m funding pot will also support a £12.7m project from National Grid to carry out “offline” hydrogen trials, using old gas grid pipes, to test the safety of transporting hydrogen gas across the country.

Green hydrogen is a central part of the government’s plan to wean Britain off fossil fuels because it can be used in the same ways as fossil fuel gas but produces no carbon emissions. This is particularly important for central heating, which makes up almost a third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions because 85% of homes use a gas boiler.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rogen-fife

[Rob Lister]

Scottish homes to be first in world to use 100% green hydrogen

Some 300 homes in Fife to be fitted with free boilers, heaters and cooking appliances
...
Ofgem’s £56m funding pot will also support a £12.7m project from National Grid to carry out “offline” hydrogen trials, using old gas grid pipes, to test the safety of transporting hydrogen gas across the country.
...

Therein lies the rub. I'm guessing those old pipes are cast iron; hydrogen embrittlement yada. Maybe they could line the old pipes with some kind of fancy pvc. I'm thinking delivery by truck would be a cheaper, if not safer, option

[ed]

Why not deliver it by Zeppelin?

[Rob Lister]

oh, the humanity!

[Witness]

Therein lies the rub. I'm guessing those old pipes are cast iron; hydrogen embrittlement yada. Maybe they could line the old pipes with some kind of fancy pvc. I'm thinking delivery by truck would be a cheaper, if not safer, option

Good point. For now it's just a test/proof of concept.

And there already exists current technology for coating water pipes internally to prevent problems (has been done in my building some years ago), so that could indeed be a solution.

[Witness]

Sweden, November.

[Rob Lister]

It's just resting.

[Witness]

↑ That's the problem with erections…

---

Tasmania declares itself 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity

The Tasmania government has declared that it has become the first Australian state, and one of just a handful of jurisdictions worldwide, to be powered entirely by renewable electricity.

In a statement released on Friday, Tasmanian energy minister Guy Barnett said that state had effectively become entirely self-sufficient for supplies of renewable electricity, supplied by the state’s wind and hydroelectricity projects.

“We have reached 100 per cent thanks to our commitment to realising Tasmania’s renewable energy potential through our nation-leading energy policies and making Tasmania attractive for industry investment, which in turn is creating jobs across the State, particularly in our regions,” Barnett said.

Tasmania has long had one of the greenest supplies of electricity in Australia, with the state’s significant hydroelectricity resources supplying the bulk of the state’s power. Tasmania’s history with hydroelectricity dates back to 1895, with the Duck Reach power plant in Launceston becoming the first publicly owned hydroelectric power station in the southern hemisphere.

Tasmania had been reliant on supplementary supplies of gas generation, as well as imported supplies from coal-heavy Victoria. However, with the growth of wind power in the state, Tasmania reduced its reliance on the supplementary supplies of fossil fuel electricity, and can now meet all of its needs with renewable sources.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/tasmania-de ... ity-25119/

[Rob Lister]

Tasmania declares itself 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity

“We have reached 100 per cent thanks to our commitment to realising Tasmania’s renewable energy potential through our nation-leading energy policies and making Tasmania attractive for industry investment, which in turn is creating jobs across the State, particularly in our regions,” Barnett said.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/tasmania-de ... ity-25119/

The downside:


Tariff Type Supply charge Usage charge
Tariff 31 Light and power 95.193 ¢/day 26.587 ¢/kWh
Tariff 41 Heating and hot water 17.750 ¢/day 17.265 ¢/kWh
Tariff 93 Time of use 105.750 ¢/day Peak: 32.137 ¢/kWh
Off-Peak: 14.963 ¢/kWh
Tariff 61 Off-peak w/afternoon boost 21.937 ¢/day 13.900 ¢/kWh
Tariff 62 Off-peak (night only) 20.969 ¢/day 13.092 ¢/kWh
https://www.canstarblue.com.au/electric ... gy-market/

The tariffs make it hard to do an apples/apples comparison but I figure my average monthly bill...




... would be in the neighborhood of $million/mo

[Witness]

You run a cryptominer in your basement?

[Witness]

NJ Commits to Using Offshore Wind Energy to Power More Than 3 Million Homes

New Jersey wants to be the national leader in offshore wind energy and has already taken steps including authorizing construction of a facility to build and deploy the huge turbine blades needed to operate windmills

New Jersey formally committed itself Wednesday to using offshore wind energy to power 3.2 million homes and will study the best ways to get that electricity from ocean turbines to communities where it is needed.

The state Board of Public Utilities voted to adopt the state’s plan to build a transmission system capable of handling 7500 megawatts of electricity by 2035. It will enter into an agreement with PJM Interconnection, a regional grid operator, to study the best ways to bring the power to shore and distribute it.
...
But a big question remains: how much will it cost to build, generate and deliver wind energy to utility customers? Board officials noted that those cost estimates have not yet been done and could vary depending on what methods of transmitting power are actually chosen.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said options include allowing individual wind farm projects to run their own cables to shore, or constructing a “backbone” running parallel to the coastline that numerous wind farms could plug into.
...
One potential connection spot that has been considered is the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township in Ocean County, which is already wired into the grid.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/n ... s/2733347/

[Witness]

[Witness]

The Danish climate minister closing down the oil industry for good

Dan Jørgensen has agreed the world’s most ambitious climate goal with a promise to cut 70% of emissions by 2030

Denmark’s climate minister is fairly certain that the deal to close down the nation’s oil industry by 2050, announced on Friday morning, marks the biggest moment in his career.

“I think this is probably going to be the biggest decision that I’m a part of in my life,” Dan Jørgensen told the Guardian hours after the announcement.

“This obviously wasn’t an easy decision. We are the biggest oil producer in the EU. We have, since the 1970s, to a large extent financed our welfare state with oil money. So to say, ‘stop’, and to pay the cost for that, is a big deal for us.”

To call it the “biggest decision” is nonetheless significant for the man who for the past year has been the public face of what many argue is the world’s most ambitious climate goal, Denmark’s plan to cut emissions by 70% by 2030.

In recent months, Jørgensen and Denmark’s prime minister have come under criticism for over-reliance on technical solutions, such as two “energy islands”, which together will generate 5GW of wind energy, and foot-dragging on issues like green tax reform.

Jørgensen said he hoped Friday’s announcement would show his government’s green promises were sincere “I think there’s an English expression ‘put your money where your mouth is’, and that is basically that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

He said the centre-right opposition Liberal party also deserved credit for backing the cancellation of the current exploration licensing round, something it had long opposed.

“This is an example of what has changed in Danish politics, that we now really do have a broad support for the green transformation,” he said. “Political parties that a decade ago would have never even have thought about this are now on board.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... y-for-good

[Witness]

New Offshore Wind Turbine to Power a House for 2 Days With a Single Spin

The 13 MW turbine could produce 312 MWh in a day.

There is no denying windmills are powerful and clean sources of energy, but there's always the naysayers that will try to convince you they can't produce enough energy to efficiently power our communities. This may all soon change with the development of the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

The project's developers just recently announced that they will be using a GE (General Electric) wind turbine known as the GE Haliade-X, possibly the largest wind turbine in the world that has a capacity of 13 MW, an impressively high amount.

“The selection of GE as our preferred turbine supplier means that a historic American company will play a vital role in the development of the first commercial scale offshore wind power in the U.S.,” said in a statement Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen. “This is a huge moment not only for the future of our project but also for the future of an industry that is poised for exponential growth in the coming decades.”

The new 13 MW turbine could soon produce 312 MWh in a day, 8% more than the previous 12-MW GE Haliade-X generated at the port of Maasvlakte-Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This turbine already set a global record by becoming the first one to ever produce 262 MWh of power in 24 hours, enough to supply 30,000 homes in the area.

https://interestingengineering.com/new- ... ingle-spin

[Anaxagoras]

Scottish homes to be first in world to use 100% green hydrogen

Some 300 homes in Fife to be fitted with free boilers, heaters and cooking appliances
...
Ofgem’s £56m funding pot will also support a £12.7m project from National Grid to carry out “offline” hydrogen trials, using old gas grid pipes, to test the safety of transporting hydrogen gas across the country.
...

Therein lies the rub. I'm guessing those old pipes are cast iron; hydrogen embrittlement yada. Maybe they could line the old pipes with some kind of fancy pvc. I'm thinking delivery by truck would be a cheaper, if not safer, option

Does the methane in natural gas not cause hydrogen embrittlement? (Methane being a molecule with 1 carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms.)

[Rob Lister]

no idea

[Witness]

Why the Price of New Solar Electricity Fell an Incredible 89% in the Last Decade

The article: https://singularityhub.com/2020/12/13/w ... st-decade/

[ceptimus]

Probably not. Water, steam, and plenty of other hydrogen-containing molecules, don't cause hydrogen embrittlement: why would methane be different? Plus I think it mainly happens at higher temperatures - which shouldn't be a problem for gas distribution pipes.

[Witness]

Cut out the corporate blather.

Vestas backs wind-powered commercial-scale green ammonia plant

Power-to-X project developed by Skovgaard Invest, backed by Vestas and chemical and refining specialists Haldor Topsoe to produce ammonia for fuel and fertiliser

One of the world’s first commercial-scale green ammonia plants could be online by 2022, according to catalysts, technology, and services industries company Haldor Topsoe.

The 10MW power plant will set in Western Jutland, Denmark, and will produce more than 5,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year from renewable power, abating 8,200 tons of CO2.

The "Power-to-X" process will use 12MW of existing V80-2.0 MW Vestas wind turbines – already operating next to Haldor Topsoe's ammonia plant in Lemvig – and 50MW of new solar panels to power an electrolyser unit. This electrolyser will produce hydrogen that will subsequently be processed into ammonia.

Nitrogen – to add to the hydrogen to produce ammonia (NH3) – will be produced on site from atmospheric air using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) type nitrogen production unit, Haldor Topsoe explained.
...
Green ammonia has been highlighted as a superior green fuel for international shipping, which currently accounts for about 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, Haldor Topsoe stated.

And ammonia for fertiliser, produced from fossil fuels, accounts for about 1% of global CO2 emissions.

The ammonia plant will connect to a green hydrogen solution developed by Vestas, to integrate electrolysis with wind and solar into one smart control system.
...
The site will also be connected directly to the national grid so that surplus power can be sold on.

https://www.windpowermonthly.com/articl ... onia-plant

[Witness]

News from India:

'World's Largest Renewable Energy Park' Opens in Kutch

Modi is set to virtually lay the foundation stones for the world's largest hybrid renewable energy park at Khavda and a desalination plant in Mandvi along the Arabian Sea coast.

Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a one-day visit to Kutch in Gujarat, on Tuesday, during which he will lay the foundations stones for several projects and interact with farmers and artisans from the tent city of Dhordo in the district.

A government release on Monday said Modi will virtually lay the foundation stones for the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park at Khavda and a desalination plant in Mandvi along the Arabian Sea coast in the afternoon, in the presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

The 30,000 MW hybrid renewable energy park will be the world’s largest with both windmills and solar panels being set up to generate power, the release said.

https://thewire.in/politics/worlds-larg ... s-in-kutch

Photos: Rewa solar power project, one of India's largest

The Rewa solar project is a 750MW photovoltaic solar park located in the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.

Although partial operations of the solar project were started in July 2018, the 750MW solar park was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 10, 2020.



...

The total investment on the project is estimated to be approximately $530 million. The World Bank also approved $100m under this project to cover the financing of the shared infrastructure, including access roads, water supply, telecommunications, pooling stations inside the solar parks as well as the transmission lines connecting to the external substation for the Rewa as well as the Mandsaur solar parks.

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/rewa- ... 21611.html

[Witness]

And news from Australia:

Bluewaters coal-fired power station written off as worthless as renewables rise

• The Bluewaters coal-fired plant in Collie is barely ten years old
• Its Japanese owners have written it off as worthless
• The move is being pinned on the rise of renewable energy

The owners of Australia's newest coal-fired power station have written down the value of the asset to zero, wiping out a $1.2 billion investment in the face of an onslaught of renewable energy.

In what a financial market analyst said was a "classic example" of changes predicted in the energy industry, Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo has written off its $250 million equity stake in the Bluewaters power plant in Western Australia's south-west.

The decision was booked in Sumitomo's September accounts, in which the company acknowledged the facility was worthless despite being barely 10 years old.

It comes just nine years after Sumitomo, in a joint venture with fellow Japanese firm Kansai, bought Bluewaters for a reported $1.2 billion from the wreckage of fallen coal tycoon Ric Stowe's failed business empire.

Kansai is believed to have made similar accounting changes, meaning both companies have reduced their equity stakes to zero.

The development also coincides with growing challenges for the power station near Collie, south of Perth, where it produces up to 15 per cent of the energy used in the state's biggest grid.

Earlier this year, a syndicate of Australian and overseas banks including Westpac and ANZ apparently refused to refinance $370 million in debt owed by Bluewaters amid concerns about the facility's coal supply security and investing in the fossil fuel.

Instead, the banks sold their debt stakes at a discount to distressed debt specialists — so-called vulture funds — including Oaktree Capital and Elliot Management.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-17/ ... s/12990532

[Witness]

Windfarms in Great Britain break record for clean power generation

Forty per cent of Friday’s electricity was generated in windfarms thanks to blustery winter weather

Blustery winter weather helped Great Britain’s windfarms set a record for clean power generation, which made up more than 40% of its electricity on Friday.

Wind turbines generated 17.3GW on Friday afternoon, according to figures from the electricity system operator, narrowly beating the previous record set in early January this year.

High wind speeds across the country helped wind power’s share of the electricity mix remain above 40% through Saturday. Coal and gas plants made up less than a fifth of electricity generated.

Melanie Onn, the deputy chief executive of Renewable UK, said: “It’s great to see our onshore and offshore windfarms have smashed another record, generating more power on a cold December day than ever before, just when we need it most.”

The record follows the “greenest” year ever for the electricity system thanks to a surge in renewable energy and sharp drop in energy demand caused by the shutdown of office blocks, restaurants and schools during coronavirus restrictions.

Solar power reached a record of 9.6GW in April, which helped spur the longest coal-free streak ever, of 1,629 consecutive hours, which ended in June.

Wind power generation reached a record share of almost 60% of electricity use in August as demand for power fell by more than a fifth compared with the year before.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... generation

Multiple records?

[Rob Lister]

Wind power generation reached a record share of almost 60% of electricity use in August asdemand for powerfell by more than a fifth compared with the year before.

There's the story that needs reporting.

[Witness]

Geothermal energy, the forgotten renewable, has finally arrived

Czapla is in charge of a 7,380-acre plot owned by Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR). It’s a barren scrap of desert that ends abruptly in the great saline sea east of San Diego. For a geothermal engineer, it’s paradise.

Two kilometers below the surface lies a mineral-rich cauldron of hot water where temperatures can exceed 390°C. As the Salton Sea recedes, opportunities to turn that into energy and profits are emerging. If California approves its permit, CTR will start operating its Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power project in 2023, one of the first new US geothermal power plants in almost a decade.

And it almost certainly will not be the last. Although the shores of the Salton Sea already hosts 10 geothermal plants—most of them built in the 1980s—geology, politics, and energy demand have aligned to make Hell’s Kitchen, and projects like it, a hot investment once again.

Over the last decade, California has poured billions of dollars into its renewable energy goals. It has scaled up wind and solar power beyond expectation, while virtually ignoring geothermal plants despite possessing the most productive geothermal fields in the US. Today, wind and solar provide more than 86% of California’s renewable capacity, while geothermal sources provide virtually the same amount as two decades ago.

But in a climate constrained world, geothermal, the “forgotten renewable,” is getting a second chance.

https://qz.com/1947017/geothermal-is-th ... te-change/ for the rest.

[Witness]

67 m blade. Better avoid windy conditions, ha ha!