Industry news

South West England’s grid goes 100% green over the weekend

28 April | grid

South West England’s electricity grid became 100% green at times over the past weekend, thanks to nuclear power contributions from Hinkley Point B and strong solar output.

The carbon intensity of electricity, the measure of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity consumed, dropped to 0g CO₂/kWh on Sunday, and averaged 22g CO₂/kWh over Saturday and Sunday, the lowest figure in 15 months.

Over the four days between Thursday 22 April and Sunday 25 April, the region had the cleanest power in Britain, according to data from the National Grid ESO Control Room.

Nuclear Industry Association chief executive Tom Greatrex said: “This performance shows that nuclear power, in partnership with renewables, is essential to reaching net-zero. To do that, we need to build new nuclear power stations urgently alongside renewable capacity.

"Hinkley Point C should represent just the beginning of a programme of nuclear construction to realise the net-zero vision set out in the Energy White Paper and the Ten Point Plan.

“Nuclear investment delivers major emission reductions and secures tens of thousands of skilled, high-quality jobs across the supply chain: that is what we need to kickstart a green recovery and our transition to a green economy.”

The South West has long been relying on nuclear power-generated electricity and Hinkley Point B has also saved more emissions, 227 million tonnes to be precise, than any other single power station in Britain so far.

The station will begin decommissioning in 2022 after 46 years of service, having outperformed its original expected lifetime by at least 20 years. The new addition, Hinkley Point C, is expected to save nine million tonnes of emissions per year, with 3.2GWe, providing reliable power for six million homes across the country.

Real-time carbon intensity of UK electricity supply for the past 24 hours, excluding embedded generation, stands at 229g CO₂/kWh.

28 april| coal

Kansai Electric and Marubeni drop coal power plant plans

Kansai Electric Power and Marubeni have reportedly scrapped their plans for a 1.3GW coal-fired power plant in Japan.

Reuters reported that the plan had been dropped after it became difficult to assess project feasibility.

After Japan-based Electric Power Development dropped its plan to build a 1.2GW coal-fired power plant this month, a worldwide trend towards decarbonisation has gathered pace.

A Kansai Electric spokesman was quoted by Reuters as saying: “The decision reflected the Japanese government’s policy to advance decarbonisation and banks’ move to stop financing coal power projects.”

The spokesperson said that the two companies have instead made plans for a biomass power plant in the northern region of Akita.

In a separate development, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group announced that it would stop financing the expansion of existing coal-fired power plants.

Exceptions were limited to plants equipped with carbon capture, utilisation, and storage capacities, mixed combustion, and other technologies needed to achieve the carbon reduction targets set out in the Paris Agreement.

In another development, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have unveiled plans to invest in sustainable energy and infrastructure.

28 april | financing

US DOE promises loans for electric infrastructure projects

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced loans of up to $8.25bn to support projects for expanding and improving the country’s electricity grid.

The move will support President Joe Biden’s commitment to upgrading the country’s power grid and infrastructure for supplying clean energy to businesses and homeowners by 2035.

The loans will be made available from the DOE’s Loan Programmes Office (LPO), which will offer loan guarantees of up to $5bn, and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA).

Under the LPO’s Title 17 Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee Programme and Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Programme, the DOE will support innovative power transmission projects.

The DOE will also support transmission projects owned by federally recognised tribal nations or Alaska Native Corporations.

These include high-voltage direct current systems, transmission systems to connect offshore wind, and facilities located along rail and highway routes.

Through its Transmission Infrastructure Programme, the WAPA will offer loans of up to $3.25bn.

This federal debt financing programme will support transmission and related infrastructure projects to deliver reliable clean power in the Western US.

27 april | wind

Vertical turbines to boost the efficiency of wind farms

New research from Oxford Brookes University has found that vertical turbine design is more efficient than traditional turbines in large-scale wind farms. When set in pairs, vertical turbines increase each other’s performance by up to 15%.

The research team from the School of Engineering, Computing, and Mathematics, led by Professor Iakovos Tzanakis, conducted an in-depth study with more than 11,500 hours of computer simulation.

It has shown that wind farms can perform better when substituting traditional propeller type Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), for compact Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs).

When VAWTs spin around an axis vertical to the ground, they exhibit the opposite behaviour of the well-known propeller design. The research has also found that VAWTs increase each other’s performance when arranged in grid formations, so positioning wind turbines to maximise outputs is critical to wind farm design.

Professor Tzanakis said: “This study evidences that the future of wind farms should be vertical. VAWTs can be designed to be much closer together, increasing their efficiency and ultimately lowering the price of electricity. In the long run, VAWTs can help accelerate the green transition of our energy systems, so that more clean and sustainable energy comes from renewable sources.”

With the UK’s wind energy capacity expected to almost double by 2030, the findings that large-scale VAWTs might outcompete current HAWTs for the first time are crucial to improving renewable energy prospects.

According to the ‘Global Wind Report 2021’, countries need to be installing wind power three times faster over the next 10 years to meet net-zero targets and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Joachim Toftegaard Hansen, lead author of the report, said: “Modern wind farms are one of the most efficient ways to generate green energy; however, they have one major flaw – as the wind approaches the front row of turbines, turbulence will be generated downstream. The turbulence is detrimental to the performance of the subsequent rows.

“In other words, the front row will convert about half the kinetic energy of the wind into electricity, whereas for the back row, that number is down to 25%-30%. Each turbine costs more than £2 million/MW. As an engineer, it naturally occurred to me that there must be a more cost-effective way.”

27 april | regulation

BP seeks regulatory approval to create US retail power business

BP has reportedly filed an application with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish a retail power business in the country.

Though BP is one of the largest power traders in North America, it has no retail energy trading business.

The firm intends to supply residential customers with energy generated from wind, solar, and natural gas via the new business.

Citing the filing with the FERC, Reuters reported that the British company intends to supply electricity in California, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

According to the plan, the company will form a new retail energy marketing company BP Retail Energy.

In its filing with FERC, BP said: “BP Energy Retail is a retail energy marketing company that intends to sell electricity products directly to commercial and industrial customers, and residential customers.”

The filing also included the sources of electricity generation with which BP Retail Energy is affiliated, which included the company’s onshore wind farms, solar power plants, and a natural gas plant in Whiting, Indiana.

26 april | solar

Samsung C&T to build solar plants in Texas

Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation (Samsung C&T) is reportedly planning to build solar power plants in Texas with a $673m investment.

According to documents reviewed by Reuters, the company aims to sell the clean energy generated by the power plants from December 2023.

The facilities will be developed in Milam County, Texas, at a site close to a chip factory operated by the company’s affiliate, Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics is reportedly considering building another chip factory at its site for $17bn.

Construction works for the new solar facilities, whose combined capacity will be almost 700MW, are due to begin next June.

A Samsung C&T official told Reuters that Samsung Renewable Energy is ‘proceeding with approval procedures with the state’.

They added that there are currently no discussions with Samsung Electronics about the project, for which C&T aims to attract investment.

In October, Samsung C&T’s board of directors said the company would stop all new coal-related investments and projects.

In brief

Ørsted and Enefit partner to build Baltic Sea offshore wind projects

Ørsted has partnered with Estonia-based wind energy company Enefit to develop offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea. The companies will build the first offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Riga by 2030.

Atlas and Hitachi to develop energy storage systems for renewable projects

Atlas Renewable Energy has teamed up with Hitachi ABB Power Grids to develop and execute utility scale level battery energy storage systems for its renewable projects.

EDF and Uzbekhydroenergo to develop pumped hydro and floating PV

French power generation company EDF and Uzbekistan’s state hydropower producer, Uzbekhydroenergo, are planning to sign a formal memorandum of understanding and create a 200MW pumped-hydro facility along with floating PV plants in Uzbekistan.

Acciona approved to build wind farm in Australia

Spain-based energy company Acciona has received approval from the State Assessment and Referral Agency in Queensland, Australia, to build a 923MW wind project.

Stone City Energy to build power plant in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has signed a $1.2bn deal with Dutch-registered company Stone City Energy for a gas turbine power plant.

26 april | deal

Brookfield considering selling Westinghouse Electric stake

Brookfield Business Partners is reportedly exploring options to divest a certain stake in US-based nuclear power company Westinghouse Electric.

According to anonymous sources, the deal could value Westinghouse at around $10bn, including debt.

The plan to sell the stake comes after US President Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target to address climate change, which could benefit the nuclear power sector.

President Biden has set a target to cut America’s carbon emissions to 50% of their 2005 levels by 2030, and included nuclear power in the potential energy mix to achieve this goal.

Brookfield has reportedly hired investment banks to engage potential buyers for a minority stake in Westinghouse. Both companies have declined to comment.

In August 2018, Brookfield acquired Westinghouse from Japan-based Toshiba Corporation.

Earlier this year, during discussions of its fourth-quarter financial results with analysts, Brookfield CEO Cyrus Madon said that the company was considering options to Westinghouse Electric Company.

Madon said: “We are sort of at a crossroads, because we could sell part of the company or all of the company if we wanted to.

“We could hold onto it and continue milking these incredible cash flows, but it will all come down to the value we can get versus what we can create by keeping it."

26 april | nuclear

EDF offers to build nuclear EPR reactors in India

French electric utility company EDF has submitted a binding techno-commercial offer to build six EPR reactors at a nuclear power plant in Maharashtra, India.

The 9.6GW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant will be able to generate up to 75TWh of electricity a year, enough to power 70 million Indian households.

The plant will also offset 80 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

In its offer to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), EDF said that it would provide engineering studies and supply equipment for six nuclear reactors, each with a 1,650MW capacity.

The project is expected to create 25,000 jobs in the construction phase of two EPR units, as well as ‘tens of thousands’ of indirect and induced jobs.

Once operational, the six EPR units are expected to create around 2,700 permanent jobs.

The project will be completed over a period of 15 years.

EDF Group chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy said: “The submission of EDF’s binding techno-commercial offer for the Jaitapur project is a major step forwards for us and for the French nuclear industry."