Renewables

The Environmental Audit Committee examines the merits of tidal power and considers whether it can play a role in the UK’s commitment to be net-zero by 2050.

House of Commons 21st Jan 2021 read more »

The UK’s nascent hydrogen economy celebrated a major milestone this week, when a 1MW boiler was fired up with the low carbon fuel at a test centre in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The pilot project is expected to provide evidence for how carbon-intensive industrial plants around the UK can be converted from fossil fuels to hydrogen, marking a major milestone in the UK’s pursuit of net zero emissions, according to project lead Progressive Energy.

Business Green 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Britain’s natural gas network operators set out a strategy for delivering the U.K.’s first hydrogen-heated town by 2030. The Hydrogen Network Plan published Thursday follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s commitment to harnessing the clean fuel’s potential in his November 10-point plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution.” Enthusiasm for hydrogen is booming, with many countries seeing it key to decarbonizing some of the most polluting sectors.

Energy Voice 21st Jan 2021 read more »

UK added 545 MW of solar last year to hit 13.9 GW. The news comes on the day a private equity investor in the English North East announced plans to jointly develop a 1.4 GWp solar portfolio with Canadian Solar. With the rebranded trade body for U.K. solar today revealing the country added 545 MW of generation capacity last year, there were fresh announcements of plans for a further 1.6 GWp of project capacity in the former EU member state. The biggest statement of intent this morning was made by Newcastle-based private equity group Windel Capital, which said it had signed a deal with Sino-Canadian manufacturer Canadian Solar to “co-develop” a 1.4 GWp solar portfolio in the U.K., with the first sites to be ready to install in the second half of the year.

PV Magazine 21st Jan 2021 read more »

IMech 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Solar cheapest form of new power in major markets as new tech drives costs lower, states WoodMac.

PV Tech 21st Jan 2021 read more »

The government has restated its commitment to heat pumps following the most recent Future Homes Standard consultation. It investigated changes to Part L of the standard within which there were two key options, whether to target a 20% carbon emissions reduction in homes through “very high” fabric standards, or whether to target a 31% reduction through both fabrics standards and carbon-saving technology. On Tuesday, the results were published with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which opted for the higher target, a move welcomed by groups including the Ground Source Heat Pump Association and Heat Pump Federation.

Current 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Solar power now cheapest way to add electricity in many markets – and getting cheaper. The cost of solar power has dropped 90% over the last two decades, and will likely fall another 15% to 25% in the decade to come, says Wood Mackenzie. By 2030, solar will become the cheapest source of new power in every US state, plus Canada, China, and 14 other nations. Wood Mackenzie’s latest report Total eclipse: How falling costs will secure solar’s dominance in power calls the solar power industry “highly investible” due to its growing ability to meet both economic and policy goals.

Wood Mackenzie 21st Jan 2021 read more »

The solar sector has welcomed the UK government’s 31% home carbon emissions reduction target as part of the long-awaited Future Homes Standard update. According to Solar Energy UK, this target could lead to a five-fold increase in new homes built with solar technologies as home builders opt for the low-carbon technology to help meet reduction targets. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has detailed plans to radically improve the energy performance of new homes. It is targeting a 75-80% reduction in carbon emissions compared to current levels by 2025, and as such is aiming for an interim 31% reduction by June 2022.

Solar Power Portal 20th Jan 2021 read more »

Ambitious plans to harness offshore wind power to produce green hydrogen took a major step forward today, as leading renewables developer Ørsted confirmed a final investment decision to proceed with its high profile H2RES demonstration project. The development, located at Avedøre Holme in Copenhagen, Denmark, will see the clean energy giant harness power from its offshore wind turbines to produce hydrogen for the first time. The H2RES project will have a capacity of 2 MW and the facility will produce up to around 1,000kg of renewable hydrogen daily, with the first shipments of the clean gas slated for later this year. The gas will then be used to fuel road transport in Greater Copenhagen and on Zealand.

Business Green 20th Jan 2021 read more »

Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted has made a final investment decision to proceed with the development of a renewable hydrogen demonstration project which will be powered by two offshore wind turbines. After years of increasing its dominance as a world leading offshore wind developer, Ørsted has lately been investigating ways in which its offshore wind assets can diversify the company and power the production of “green” or renewable hydrogen. Ørsted is already part of two consortiums which are investigating the role that renewable electricity generation, specifically offshore wind, can play in production hydrogen – known as green hydrogen.

Renew Economy 21st Jan 2021 read more »

The Cornwall Local Energy Market (LEM), one of Britain’s biggest flexibility trials, came to a close at the end of 2020. The £16.7 million project run by energy giant Centrica saw 310MWh of power traded using a purpose built flexibility platform. It included 200 homes and businesses, which provided numerous flexibility services including 100 homes fitted with solar and battery storage that aggregated together as a virtual power plant (VPP). This was then used to provide flexibility to both National Grid ESO and Western Power Distribution (WPD), with both able to simultaneously procure flexibility from the platform in what is thought to be a world first at the time. Beyond residential participants, the trial also included 5MW of low carbon technology including solar, combined heat and power, batteries and wind – the last two of which were substantially beefed up during the last year of the project. These were installed at 87 businesses, with another 26 provided with training and energy surveys to reduce energy costs. “The takeaway really is that technology is no longer a barrier to fully functional, local flexibility markets,”

Current 20th Jan 2021 read more »

The world spent a record $501.3 billion in 2020 on renewable power, electric vehicles and other technologies to cut the global energy system’s dependence on fossil fuels. The investments in the transition to a low-carbon economy marked a 9% increase over 2019 and came despite disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report out Tuesday from BloombergNEF. The growth wasn’t spread evenly across the globe. Investment in renewable power capacity, which accounted for the biggest chunk of spending tallied by BNEF, soared 52% in Europe compared to last year. But it fell 20% in the U.S. and 12% in China.

Bloomberg 19th Jan 2021 read more »

Since 2014, Portsmouth has invested more in solar than any other council in the UK according to new research. The Solar Centre utilised council data gathered through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that explored council spending on solar installations since the 2014/2015 financial year. Portsmouth came out on top, with an investment of £4,995,707 up to 2020 in the technology. Portsmouth began a solar rollout scheme worth up to £10 million for council buildings in 2016. This helped it achieve a record amount of solar generation during the first COVID-19 lockdown last year, with the council’s solar panels – which sit on schools, offices, community centres and housing sites – generating 1.3GWh of power. More recently, it has begun work on the flagship Portsmouth International Port solar and battery storage project, which is set to be the first UK port to have solar canopies and a megawatt sized battery installed as part of a renewable installation.

Solar Power Portal 19th Jan 2021 read more »

The London Borough of Merton has invested the highest proportion of council budget into solar energy since 2015, according to new analysis conducted by The Solar Centre. Using data gathered via freedom of information (FOI) requests, The Solar Centre ranked different councils according to how much they spent on solar energy between 2015 – 2020. With budget sizes varying greatly, the researchers referenced the investment against the available budget for ‘environment’ and ‘housing.’ Having conducted this analysis, the researchers found that the London Borough of Merton has spent the most on solar energy, spending over £1.4m in the past five-and-a-half years. Proportionate to budget, this was more than £130,000 per million. Overall, the city that invested the most was Portsmouth – with £4,995,707 spent in 5 years. Portsmouth has continued to invest and since this data was collected, they have built another large 250-kilowatt PV system, installed on Hilsea Industrial Estate in October 2020. Other factors that were looked at in terms of council involvement in solar projects were the number of council-owned properties fitted with solar systems and the amount of solar energy generated for council use since 2014/15. The researchers found that Newcastle has the most solar fitted buildings, with 1,032, but by far the most energy produced for council use was in Peterborough. They have generated over 295 million kilowatt-hours (kWh).

Environment Journal 19th Jan 2021 read more »