More and more nations, states and cities are announcing plans for the ramping up of EV adoption. Jim Conca takes a look at his home, Washington State in the U.S., where all new vehicles sold must be electric by 2030. He says the new rules imply his state will have 4 million EVs on the road by 2045, up from 52,000 today. He carefully crunches the numbers to see if this target is realistic. The good news is that grid capacity will only need to rise … [Read more...]
Pumped Storage Hydropower 2.0: steel dams, underground, or 1-10MW modular
Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) is one of the most cost-effective utility-scale options for grid energy storage. The U.S. has plants across the country, totalling over 20GW of capacity. Now the Dept of Energy (DoE) is backing four teams developing blue sky (water?!) ideas that should make the next generation of PSH even cheaper. In this article the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tracks their progress so far. They include dams made of … [Read more...]
What if Germany wasn’t shutting down Nuclear? Modelling Coal, Gas, Renewables, emissions, prices
Germany plans to shut down its entire nuclear fleet by 2022. Right now, of the original 17, only 7 are still running. The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan of 2011 was the trigger for Germany’s abandonment of emissions-free nuclear as part of its clean energy goals. Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas reviews a paper by his colleagues that has modelled the whole-system effects of the shutdowns, then compared the results with a … [Read more...]
UK to phase out petrol, diesel, hybrid car sales by 2035. Here’s how
This month the UK government promised to accelerate the phase-out of fossil-fuelled cars. From 2035 all new diesel and petrol car sales (including hybrids) are banned. Promises are one thing, realistic policies, plans and investment is another. Last year only 1.6% of new passenger vehicles sold were EVs and that has to rise to 100% in 15 years. Ashley Fly at Loughborough University sets out what needs to be done. First, skills and training; much … [Read more...]
100% renewables by 2050: a technology, market, system, business model toolset for your nation
A growing number of countries are announcing increasingly ambitious renewable energy targets. But how do you deliver the results? IRENA’s Elena Ocenic explains that they have developed a toolset for countries to plot their unique pathway to success. Those tools range widely across technology, market design and regulation, system operation practices, and business models. The article lists the tools, and runs through some notable successes. Ocenic … [Read more...]
The cost of climate inaction: putting a $ price on 4.5°C warming
Oriana Tannenbaum and Rushad Nanavatty at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have gathered data that puts a price on not making the necessary investments in tackling climate change. For the U.S., a 4.5°C warming scenario (by 2050) will cost $5.2tn. At a more drastic 6°C the cost is $17tn. These projections are hard to do when treating the climate as an “infrastructure asset”, though proven methodologies do exist for tradition assets, and the authors … [Read more...]
The EU can support Central and East Europe’s transition
Six Central and East European nations, heavily dependent on coal, have been very cautious about the pace of the EU’s transition. For them - Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - the political and economic disruption looks far harder to bear. E3G has just released a report that suggests this picture can change. The report’s authors – Felix Heilmann, Rebekka Popp and Ada Ámon – explain that coal is becoming less profitable, … [Read more...]
Modelling total costs for Onshore Wind power plants: from site prep to grid connection
The costs of wind turbines is dropping. But that means all the other capital costs - site preparation, foundations, infrastructure, tower construction – will become a bigger part of the total. In the U.S. they currently account for around 30% of the capital expenditures needed to install a land-based wind plant. To keep those costs under control the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a comprehensive open-source modelling … [Read more...]
EU pathway to 3m EV charge points by 2030
Right now the EU has around 185,000 public charge points, which is enough for today’s market (seven cars for each point). The current policy scenario targets 33m electric cars by 2030 (44m for climate neutrality). Transport & Environment’s Nico Muzi summarises their latest report that plots their ambitious pathway. It’s driven by the forceful idea of a European ‘right to plug’, and enabled by their new Public Charging Supply metric, using a … [Read more...]
Peak Energy by 2030: Efficiency gains will make the Transition affordable
We can’t afford the energy transition? Next time you hear that from someone, perhaps you can show them this. Sverre Alvik at DNV GL explains that, according to their latest Energy Transition Outlook, although annual global energy expenditure will have to increase from $4.6tn in 2017 to $5.5tn in 2050, its share of growing world GDP will almost halve from 3.6% to 1.9%. That’s because continuing energy efficiency gains are making sure that total … [Read more...]
Distributed Solar: rooftop residential, commercial systems keep getting cheaper
In the U.S., PV module efficiency (median values) rose from 12.7% in 2002 to 18.4% in 2018, much of it in the last decade and a full percentage-point increase in the last year alone. The best modules are even more efficient, says John Rogers at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Improvements have come from manufacturing processes and cell architectures, and the increasing share of more-efficient mono-crystalline technologies: up from 40% in 2016 … [Read more...]
Grid-Interactive Buildings solutions: U.S. govt is looking for you
According to U.S. figures, up to 80% of peak electricity demand comes from buildings. So designing them to be energy efficient, with their own generation (e.g. rooftop solar), storage, and load-flexibility – and making it a cost effective industry standard – would be a game changer. It’ll make the grid more resilient, and take pressure off utilities investing in expanding the underlying infrastructure. Sneha Ayyagari and Matt Jungclaus at Rocky … [Read more...]
Better grid integration beats coal plant ramping to reduce wind, solar curtailment
Wind and solar curtailment is worst where these renewables are poorly integrated into the grid. The further their energy can reach the more regions they can service, thus minimising curtailment. If they don’t reach far, local coal plants must ramp down - but only if they’ve been retrofitted to be able to do so. It’s a problem faced by many countries: spend money on the retrofits or the integration? Writing for the Regulatory Assistance Project … [Read more...]
Grid switchgear uses SF6, the world’s most potent greenhouse gas. How do we regulate it?
Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) is described as the world’s worst greenhouse gas. It’s 23,500 times more potent than CO2. Global annual emissions are 8,100 tonnes, equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 100m cars. It has an atmospheric lifetime of over 1,000 years and its installed base is expected to grow by 75% by 2030. 80% of all SF6 is used in gas insulated switchgear, a vital component of the grid (isolating and protecting different sections), so … [Read more...]
California fires and blackouts: would non-profit utilities be more reliable, safer, cheaper?
The wildfires in California ignited by poorly maintained transmission lines have themselves ignited a debate about whether the guilty - and now bankrupt - energy utility PG&E (the largest in the state) should now become publicly owned. That in turn has led Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas to consider the pros and cons of public v private in this vital activity. The first thing to note is that electricity transmission and … [Read more...]
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