The Environment Thread :-)
1 lurker |
58 watchers
Jan 2022
11:05am, 17 Jan 2022
2,814 posts
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JRitchie
Scotwind successful bidders announced. Interesting to see how much is coming to Scottish coffers in these - and how the floating wind opportunities will now be developed over the next 2 years. crownestatescotland.com |
Jan 2022
11:10am, 18 Jan 2022
41,007 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
JR, I didn't understand that full list - aren't a lot of the project partners NOT UK/Scottish companies, so actually a lot of the spending will not be helping UK/Scotland jobs and businesses? Obviously the auction brings money directly into gov so that's money in. But if it's from energy companies then effectively we pay for it through our energy bills!  G
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Jan 2022
12:56pm, 18 Jan 2022
2,818 posts
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JRitchie
The list is of the JV partners who will take forward the licence. (and the main partner). There will be a huge supply chain of companies that will feed into the development and it is their location and employees which is important for Scottish Content. What is interesting with Floating wind over fixed is that fixed a lot of the large equipment is manufactured overseas and gets floated to the UK waters on boats. Floating Wind needs much larger and heavier base structures and there is a school of thought saying that its more economic for those to be manufactures and/or fabricated and assembled in the UK or closer to home. Norway is building their floating wind structures in Norway. Project owners will need to report where jobs and services are going so that local contact targets can be measured. A foreign company setting up a UK facility creates as much local content as a UK company doing the same. Siemens Gamesa make windmill blades in Hull for example. I don't think its right to say that if its an energy company wining the bid we pay for it through energy costs. The fees will be built into the early stage economic model supporting the bid. I'll be honest and say that I have no idea how those models work - but each JV bidder has either a big corporate with deep pockets or a bank are part of the consortium to be able to settle these. John MacAskill is a local expert explains the local content opportunity and risk far better than me on his linked in. linkedin.com |
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Jan 2022
1:01pm, 18 Jan 2022
41,016 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Thanks JR - you're right, I was being a bit simplistic in saying that the green levy in our electricity bills, plus the pricing of electricity, is paying for this. There are of course banks, investors, pension schemes etc. all investing in it. Thanks for the perspective on local build. That all feels really positive. It would be great if O&G really can and do pivot their construction, engineering, infrastructure, research, production etc. skills and channel it all into renewables, and accelerate that and not hold onto O&G production any longer than necessary. . It would benefit Scottish (and northern and industrial England, NI and presumably Wales too?) industry and jobs. As well as the climate, of course! G
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Jan 2022
1:15pm, 18 Jan 2022
16,248 posts
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rf_fozzy
If all that offshore gets built, then that would take offshore wind capacity to > average demand (~35-40GW). Now obviously it's unlikely the wind will blow everywhere all at once, so it's not going to be a grid of 100% wind. However, we can do a very quick back of the envelope calculation. We currently get ~20% of our electricity from Wind. If we treble capacity, we treble the share, so ~60% of our annual generation will be wind. There's still more untapped potential too. It's just a shame we can't be bothered to do the same with solar. We could generate roughly the same capacity with solar very easily (solar That then gets us into the range where we obviously overgenerating and so can start to bring in grid storage and also allows for the "where do we get the electricty for EVs" people to see where it comes from... |
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Jan 2022
2:12pm, 18 Jan 2022
2,819 posts
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JRitchie
You are right Fozzy. I read an interesting piece which overlapped solar and wind overtime and there was a surprising degree of offsetting/smoothing, but I am not sure if we could take advantage of that over longer distances (e.g. solar I presume if more efficient in Spain, Offshore Wind in Scotland). Scotland regularly already produces 100% of its theoretical electricity from renewables. |
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Jan 2022
2:20pm, 18 Jan 2022
16,252 posts
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rf_fozzy
Solar efficiency (amount generated/capacity - as opposed to the inherent efficiency of the panels) is lower in the UK than in Spain, but that doesn't mean Solar in the UK is useless - it's still ~3/5 of the best sites in Spain. (e.g. see:https://solargis.com/maps-and-gis-data/download/europe) Scotland isn't an independent grid. Whether or not it becomes independent, it would need to stay tied into the UK grid and so it's the UK grid that matters, not specifically how much Scotland generates, despite SNP soundbites! But, yes Scotland has been better at building onshore wind (see devolution has been effective!) and that's helped! |
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Jan 2022
3:06pm, 22 Jan 2022
744 posts
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fuzzyduck79
Has anyone installed solar panels/home battery in the last few years? Am considering it as I can access cheaper electric rates overnight, might be hamstrung getting solar panels as I live in a conservation area. If allowed I'd probably have space for ~5-6kW array. For home batteries, it looks like GivEnergy are a popular brand (their products are imported from a Chinese parent company) Using them I'd be looking to put in two 8.2kWh batteries, and either one 3kW inverter or preferably two if DNO gave permission. The other battery possibility is Tesla Powerwall, costs more but inverter is integrated, one installer thinks they are worth the extra, more reliable etc. That would allow faster charge/discharge rate than one 3kW inverter, more practical. |
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Jan 2022
8:54pm, 22 Jan 2022
16,312 posts
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rf_fozzy
Not yet FD, although I am now actively considering it in the next 12months. I probably can't afford solar + battery all at once, so probably panels first and add battery when possible. As such, I'd be interested in hearing costs and other details from people who are installing. |
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Jan 2022
10:24pm, 22 Jan 2022
747 posts
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fuzzyduck79
Battery costs inc installation look very roughly: £9.5k Powerwall 2 (13.5kWh) vs £8k GivEnergy (2x8.2kWh plus 2x3kW inverters) My electricity tariff will probably renew around 8.25p/34p per kWh with 5 hours at the cheaper rate. I think I'd use 90% of the capacity each day (they charge/discharge fully off those figures above) Adding in some losses for inefficiency I think I'd save about £1000 over the next year with the Powerwall, £1200 with the GivEnergy setup. Not sure how much solar panels will cost, whether they will work well on my property and if I would get permission to have them. Also considering a hybrid air source heat pump, but am not sure if property would benefit (old/poorly insulated, would likely have to swap out some radiators and take up floors to lag all pipework) The battery looks the most likely option, also quite portable on the offchance we needed to move. |
Useful Links
FE accepts no responsibility for external links. Or anything, really.- why Kodak completely missed the boat when it came to digital cameras
- rf_fozzy: This is quite a good article about how disruptive technology work
- run free's Grand Designs example Ben Laws is a man who built his dream
- Carbon Commentary carboncommentary.com
- UK ombudsman for problems with electricity or gas
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