Your tech and how it works for you

Hey ​@Peter E & ​@Nukecad, 

Some tech works better in certain places. Think solar panels in Glasgow – not much sun there, but wind power? Huge potential! I'm guessing these location factors are a big deal when they're planning where to put turbines or panels.

Near me, about a 25-minute drive, is the awesome Whitelee Windfarm. I think what they've done there is pretty smart. They've got a visitor center and tons of walking and cycling paths that go right around and through all 215 turbines. It's cool because you can get some exercise, see the turbines up close, and learn how they fit into the energy system. Plus, they've got the UK's biggest Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) there, which is seriously impressive.

​@Chris_OVO surprisingly solar panels work well in Scotland even though you are a few degrees north than me on the south coast and the east coast is a lot better than the west because of cloud cover and you have a surpising advantage.

If you have bi-facial vertical panels aligned north-south then you will capture the early morning and evening peaks when a time of use SEG will give you a higher rate without resorting to batteries. Batteries don't really help a financial case. Midday solar production will eventually have much lower rates because everyone is in on that game, especially solar farms. The trick is to join the part of the market with fewer competitors. In other words, being agile / adaptive when other people / companies aren't. In the land of thistles and kilts (not a good combination imo) you have very early morning and very late evening sun in the summer at low angles which vertical panels will capture well. You can also mount single sided panels on the walls of your house instead of the roof.

Peter

Despite the French ATC strike Jet2 got us back home from Madeira by avoiding French ATC controlled airspace by flying back north over the Atlantic/Cornwall/Devon/Dorset and avoiding Spain and the Channel whereas Ryanair and easyJet cancelled their flights. Thank you Jet2 (other airlines are available but may leave you stranded).

I'm back here to give you some links to some web pages I find useful.

Watt-Logic: Basically a running commentary on power generation and supply and how the government / Ofgem are failing customers by not regulating the industry properly. People think high prices are related to high gas prices but it's not so. High prices are related to Net Zero costs and the rush that the UK has has in reducing fossil fuel use. Obviously this is not a bad idea but in the UK we seem to be thrashing the poorest because those with money can afford EVs / Heat Pumps / Solar Panels and can get much better deals. Also has a commentary on the Spanish power failure and recently the Heathrow power failure and why it could affect all of us.

https://watt-logic.com/

GB Renewables Map:

Just info on where wind renewables are being generated. From a Net Zero perspective go and click on a windfarm north of the Scottish border and look for any ‘sand’ coloured sections. That is curtailment. There are not enough power links to England (yet) to transmit the power from where it is generated to where it can be used so the excess power has to be curtailed which is logical. The problem with that is that we all have to pay for the curtailment under Net Zero. So not only do we pay more because the electricity would have been cheaper we also have to pay yet more because the windfarms are contracted to be paid for not generating it.

https://renewables-map.robinhawkes.com/#4.96/53.43/-1.11

When Dogger Bank comes on with 3.6GW of power over the next two years it could reduce prices because they do have an adequate connection to the grid. It might not because gas sets the marginal price for anyone not on wholesale or tracker pricing even if the renewables generation price is zero or negative.

Solar output forecast from Terravolt (via Sheffield University):

There is about 16GW of solar power installed and about 12GW max is available on any particular day. About 8GW is solar farms and 4GW from domestic rooftops. If I'm looking to charge my EV on wholesale I can look to see if there is a lot of solar coming up in the next 48 hours. If there is and the car is at home during the day then prices are likely to drop to a low value from 11am to 4pm on a weekday or zero to negative values on a weekend. Sometimes data is not available so I go with my normal 24hr advance prices instead. When we have wind as well then prices can be zero during a weekday.

https://terravolt.co.uk/uk-grid/forecasts/solar/solar-output-forecasts/

BMRS ELEXON Wind generation forecast:

There is 30GW of wind generation capacity now installed with a lot more to come on line as I have indicated in a previous post. Of that, the record usage at one time was nearly 22GW. Some of it would have been curtailed as per a previous post. Again, wholesale prices can drop to very low values when it's windy which can happen in the winter as well. January tends to be a very windless month (dunkleflaute - dark windless days) and, depending upon demand and possible power generation failures the wholesale prices can reach the eye-watering levels of 99.99p/unit. I avoid charging then for obvious reasons. 25p/unit is looking very cheap in comparison but the situation usually resolves often enough to charge the car at a more reasonable rate. Dunkleflaute is also the reason why I keep our gas hob, gas central heating (instead of our heat pump) and use of a wood burner.

As a separate note, long periods of dunkleflaute are the reason why we will have to keep our fleet of gas turbine power stations for when renewables fail for up to 10 days in a row. Battery storage (BESS) will never be anywhere near big enough to tide us over. Nuclear power plants will help on the non CO2 side. We will have to continue to pay for the renewal and maintenance of the gas fleet even though we don't use it very often despite what the Net Zero cheerleaders will have you believe. Long term reduction in energy prices? I'm not putting any money on that.

https://bmrs.elexon.co.uk/wind-generation

Last contribution Energy Dashboard:

I just use this to see the contributions to the energy demand. Very satisfying to see the wind and solar generation far outstrip the last 3GW of gas powered generation. The reason for keeping that is ‘rotating inertia’ and it is the inertia that keeps the grid stable. The inertia is the huge amount of energy contained in rotating turbines so a very sudden load on the grid (unexpected power station failure) that keeps the frequency and voltage stable long enough for other generation to come on line to take over. Without it the grid would be unstable to sudden outages or trips like the cascade failure in Spain not so long ago. Sometimes we don't get things right in the UK but the policy for grid stability is generally fit for purpose and we have very few outages. To cut the last gas turbines out, the grid is providing more artificial inertia from BESS units (also capable of Black Start) and rotating condensers. These are AC motors with a large flywheel that can instantly become generators on demand. They can also do power factor correction (part of the mains cycle they are a motor and part of the cycle they are a generator) which is important for the efficiency of the grid.

https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/live

Thank you ​@Peter E for sharing all of those, and I really love them having a separate comment each - so easy to read and differentiate between each one!

Thank you as always😊

​@Chris_OVO I was keen to follow up on my statement that solar panel farms can increase biodiversity and the effects are not all negative. I’ve just came across this report from 2019 on that.

https://bsg-ecology.com/impacts-of-operational-solar-farms-on-biodiversity/

It's a relatively short report contained in that link and the conclusions are in section 3 if you want to skip straight to that. It does give some hope that we are doing something that both generates carbon free power and has a positive effect on the environment although I can understand people's wishes not to be living next to one of these sites.

Peter

​@Peter E “it is estimated that 70-95% of ground remains available, and that this has the potential to support wildlife” 

Thank you for sharing the article! I’ve only had a brief scan through it but i’ll take some time to give it a proper reading. It’s great to hear that these sites could benefit from such minimal human intervention over countless years.