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Germany: wind installation growth beset by legal challenges

February 5, 2019 by Express Editor

Germany: wind installation growth beset by legal challenges

Quick reads

February 5, 2019

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2017 anti-wind turbine campaign sticker

According to the German wind industry, new installations have ground to a halt due to a combination of red-tape holding up licences and because “almost every authorisation is sued”.

A joint statement by the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and VDMA Power Systems (the trade association for power systems) has called on the government to streamline licensing procedures and eliminate administrative barriers to new turbines, otherwise the number of new installations will continue to drop. Already, Germany’s target of 65% of electricity generated by renewables is now in danger, they say.

According to figures provided by Deutsche WindGuard, the gross addition of wind turbines over the full 2018 year have virtually collapsed. At only 2,402 MW and 743 units, the number of new builds is still behind the level of 2013. It is also a decline of 55% compared to the full 2017 year. It is therefore well below the industry’s target of 3,300 MW for the year. This is despite demand for renewable electricity increasing in the future.

“The stop-and-go must be ended” – Matthias Zelinger, MD, VDMA Power Systems

Wind is essential for the new 2030 targets

The industry points out the contradictions between Germany’s exit from lignite and hard coal. “The stable expansion [of wind] over the years 2013 to 2017 has supported the German government’s climate protection goals and the expansion targets for renewable energies in the federal states,” said Matthias Zelinger, MD of VDMA Power Systems. Referring to the country’s new 65% target for renewable electricity by 2030, he added: “It is self-explanatory that the Federal Government’s 65% target cannot be achieved by continuing the currently foreseeable annual expansion by 2030.”

Legal challenges to turbines are growing

BWE says one main reason for the low expansion is the high surcharges for projects that get stuck after receiving a permit. Why the delays? Because “almost every authorisation is sued,” says the press release. These persistent legal challenges, along with the administrative hurdles, mean projects are taking more and more time to implement. This lack of certainty is scaring off suppliers.

Not enough permits

The Wind Energy Association also calls out some federal states for not issuing enough permits anyway. They named Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, the Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. “In order to ensure sufficient competition, the licensing backlog in the countries must be reduced. All participants must create the conditions for more permits,” said Wolfram Axthelm, MD of the Wind Energy Association.

What’s the answer?

The industry wants the permit process simplified, and some form of legal guarantee that all obstacles to installation are cleared before suppliers commit to new wind installations. Otherwise Germany will not hit its renewables targets, and also lose its place as a leader in the wind turbine export markets.

Background: Germany wants to lead Europe in wind power

Germany has led Europe for many years in this sector. The CLEW factsheet says its gross expansion was about 5,300 MW up to 2017. That year, onshore wind power fed about 85 TWh of electricity into the grid. By mid-2018, about 29,070 onshore turbines were in operation across the country. Onshore wind turbines generated about 15% of Germany’s power mix in the first half of 2018, making them the single most important renewable energy source by far.

Technological progress

Due to the high concentration of wind power in northern states, Germany’s Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) rated the country’s coastal regions and hinterland as the ideal place for turbines. However, growing turbine efficiency has allowed regions with weaker average wind conditions further inland to catch-up, especially in central western and eastern German states.

The turbines’ average size has also grown considerably over time. With a diameter of almost 110 metres, the typical modern onshore wind turbine rotor in Germany is nearly twice as big as it was at the beginning of the century, rests on a 130 metre high tower and pours out 2.8 kW. At the same time, new installations can produce more energy at lower rotation speeds, making them less noisy. That’s why replacing old with new is part of the installation strategy: about 15% of wind power capacity added in 2016 was “re-powering”, where more efficient installations replaced older models at the same location.

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Filed Under: locked, Renewables Tagged With: germany, legal challenges, permits, Wind

VIDEO: What’s inside a Tesla battery

December 20, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #5 - December 20, 2018

VIDEO: What's inside a Tesla battery?

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Lincoln Markham’s dad gets ready to throw his Tesla battery off the roof - picture: What's Inside

In last week’s EPW we ran an article by entrepreneur Frits Muller. In the course of our correspondence he sent me a link to this video from the US youtube channel “What’s Inside”. I found it so entertaining I thought I’d share it with you – and you can share it too as there’s no paywall on this article! enjoy…

Thanks to Lincoln Markham and his dad for this one. You can subscribe to their youtube channel here

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Filed Under: Energy Post Express Tagged With: battery, tesla, video, what's inside

Offshore Wind bidding war: $405m licence smashes US record

December 20, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #1 - December 20, 2018

Offshore Wind bidding war: $405m licence smashes US record

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Great news for the offshore wind turbine industry comes from the US. An offshore wind lease auction for three blocks off the coast of Massachusetts has brought in a record-shattering $405m. It followed an amazing 32 rounds of bidding that lasted from Thursday morning until midday on Friday 14th Dec.

The Americans have always had showbiz in their blood. But here’s the headline direct from the U.S. Department of the Interior, responsible for the bidding process: “BIDDING BONANZA! Trump Administration Smashes Record for Offshore Wind Auction with $405 Million in Winning Bids.”

The three winners are Equinor Wind (formerly Statoil ASA), Mayflower Wind Energy (a joint venture of EDPR Offshore North America LLC and Shell New Energies US LLC), and Vineyard Wind (a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners). Each won with a bid of $135m, for roughly the same area of 130,000 acres (approx. 500 sq km).

The total area of 390,000 acres, if fully developed, could support approximately 4.1 gigawatts of commercial wind generation, enough electricity to power nearly 1.5 million homes.

https://www.boem.gov/uploadedImages/BOEM/Renewable_Energy_Program/State_Activities/MA/RI_MA_Lease_Areas_FSN_Color_9_4_2018.jpg

“To anyone who doubted that our ambitious vision for energy dominance would not include renewables, today we put that rumor to rest,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. “With bold leadership, faster, streamlined environmental reviews, and a lot of hard work with our states and fishermen, we’ve given the wind industry the confidence to think and bid big.”

From $1.5 per acre to $1,000

Until now, the highest grossing offshore wind lease sale was held in December 2016 for the lease area off New York, which received a winning bid of only $42 million.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) now has a total of 15 active wind leases in federal waters for nearly two million acres (8m sq km). This latest auction, spanning almost 390,000 acres, has therefore generated a majority of the $473 million of revenue brought in by the offshore wind lease sales. It’s a clear sign that interest in U.S. offshore wind development is on the rise.

Although the US currently has only one operating offshore wind farm — Deepwater Wind’s 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island state waters — interest in the industry has come a long way. Three years ago, a federal auction for this same area off Massachusetts failed to attract much interest. Back then, two of the four parcels on offer drew no bids at all. The remaining two parcels were won with bids of around $1.50 an acre or less.

But this latest auction saw the winning bids paying more than $1,000 per acre. Compare that to the latest offshore drilling lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico held in August, which yielded about $222 per acre for over 800,000 acres.

“These lease prices and the fact that we had 19 companies eligible to bid on these leases is great news for the overall U.S. offshore wind marketplace,” comments Liz Burdock, president and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “Remember that just three years ago, these lease areas had no bidders at all. This strong interest from the offshore wind marketplace demonstrates the economic potential of the offshore wind industry.”

The site is a little under 40km from the Martha’s Vineyard, where Steven Spielberg filmed Jaws. So in a few years, while you are scanning the waters for great white sharks, try not to get distracted by the wind farms.

[Consultancy 4C Offshore has a fascinating interactive map of offshore wind farms across the globe here]

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Filed Under: Energy Post Express, locked Tagged With: Electricity, Offshore wind, US, Wind

Marine fuel sulphur limits: turbulent times ahead for shipping

December 20, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #4 - December 20, 2018

Marine fuel sulphur limits: turbulent times ahead for shipping

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Picture: IMO

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN agency that sets standards for shipping, has reduced the maximum amount of sulphur content allowed in marine fuels used on the open seas from 3.5% to 0.5%. The new rule comes in to force in 2020. These regulations are intended to reduce sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants from global ship exhaust. It will shake up all aspects of the sector: the refineries, the ship owners, and the bankers.

The upcoming 2020 rules apply to fuels used in the open ocean, representing the largest portion of the approximately 3.9 million barrel per day global marine fuel market, according to the International Energy Agency. The 2020 reduction in sulphur limits follows a series of similar reductions in marine fuel sulphur limits, such as those that reduced sulphur content of marine fuels in IMO-designated Emission Control Areas from 1.0% to 0.1% in 2015. Other areas around ports in Europe and parts of China have adopted similar sulphur restrictions.

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ed58b19f2b88e4a743b950765/images/b876ec1a-aa42-4e33-963d-c958b68e5fd3.jpg

Refineries have to invest

The new sulphur limits raises one big question for the refineries: how are they going to increase the supply of compliant marine fuels. If refineries don’t increase the supply of low sulphur distillate fuel, ocean-going ships will simply have to compete with trucks, heavy equipment, trains and planes for supplies of distillate fuels at a time when global demand for distillate is already high. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has given a stark answer: Either refineries increase the rate they process crude oil and/or invest and build more refinery capacity to produce the distillate fuels. (Editor: how this might be financed will be covered by EPW in the new year).

Ships must change fuels, or scrub

For vessel operators, it raises not one, but two big questions. The first is whether to switch to a lower-sulphur fuel compliant with the new rules. If not, the alternative is to utilize scrubbers to remove pollutants from ships’ exhaust, allowing them to continue to use higher-sulphur fuels. In fact, 2018 saw a boom in scrubber orders, which may continue.

Fitting a scrubber will allow vessels to continue burning fuel oil when the 0.5% sulphur limit comes into force, and this year saw a steady procession of shipping companies announcing investments in the exhaust cleaning systems. S&P Global Platts Analytics forecasts as many as 2,200 vessels may have scrubbers installed by the start of 2020, with that total rising to as many as 3,000 by the end of the year.

However, that is a very small portion of the total marine vessels out there, and that portion is not expected to increase greatly before 2020 because of time constraints and limited installation capacity. Also, the process of installing scrubbers can be costly and can increase a ship’s operating costs. Even if scrubbers become widely adopted, which would allow the continued use of fuels with higher-sulfur content, the price and availability of higher-sulphur fuels after 2020 remains uncertain, says the EIA.

Financing the ship fuel

The second big question for vessel operators in 2020 will be whether credit availability will be sufficient. The bunker (ship fuel) industry runs on credit, as shipowners typically pay for their fuel several weeks after delivery, and the amount of credit available will need to be increased dramatically from the end of 2019 onwards to cover the new requirement for more expensive fuels. But the banking industry has regarded bunker traders with suspicion since the surprise collapse of OW Bunker in 2014, and may struggle to accommodate a large increase in their demands.

Non-fossil ship fuels still not widely available

Of course, ships have the option to get out of the bunker market and switch to nonpetroleum-based fuels. But that all depends on progress with renewable fuels appropriate for large ocean-going shipping and the infrastructure that needs to go with it, as we reported on recently. Some newer ships and some currently being built have dual-fuel engines that would allow them to use nonpetroleum-based fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) after minimal modifications. However, the EIA warns that the infrastructure to support use of LNG as a shipping fuel is currently limited in both scale and availability.

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Filed Under: Energy Post Express, locked Tagged With: bunker fuel, emissions, fossil fuels, IMO, scrubber, shipping, sulphur

Floating reactors: nuclear energy of the future? Yes, says Russia

December 13, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #1 - December 13, 2018

Floating reactors: nuclear energy of the future? Yes, says Russia

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The world’s only floating nuclear power unit (FPU), the 70MW Akademik Lomonosov

Russia’s state-owned Rosatom announced the switch-on of the world’s only floating nuclear power unit (FPU), called the Akademik Lomonosov. A 70MW plant, it was turned up to 10% of its capacity during initial tests. All comprehensive tests and preparatory procedures are expected to be completed by March 2019, while the FPU is moored at its base in Murmansk. If successful, it provides an ideal answer for power generation to supply remote regions.

Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said: “The floating nuclear power plant is an ideal solution to power remote areas. We consider this project as a new product, which is of interest not only for the grid-isolated Russian Arctic regions but also for a number of countries around the world.” Rosatom claims significant interest has come from the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia. Rosatom has a US$133 billion 10-years export order book, though it’s not known if this includes any firm orders for the FPU.

The FPUs can operate in regions with extended coastlines, power supply shortages, and limited access to electrical grids. The plant can be delivered to any point along a coast and connected to existing electrical grids.

Regardless of foreign sales, the FPU was designed to make it possible to supply electricity to hard-to-reach areas of the Russian Federation, at lower cost than the alternatives. Rosatom says: “Up to 40% of the cost of fossil fuel-based electricity generation is attributed to the price of coal, oil or gas, as well as to the cost of their delivery. This figure is even higher for especially remote locations. The small size, light weight, and fixed cost of the FPU eliminate many such challenges. These small nuclear reactors can operate non-stop without the need for refuelling for three to five years, thereby considerably reducing the cost of electricity generation“.

But is it safe?

There are pros and cons of floating your nuclear plant. The access to water makes cooling the plant much easier. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s TEPCO Jacopo Buongiorno (professor and associate department head, nuclear science and engineering) says: “One can use the ocean as the ‘heat sink’ for cooling the reactor under all circumstances via heat exchangers that allow removal of the reactor energy using seawater. You’re not going to run out of seawater.”

But can it withstand the harsh environment of the ocean, even close to shore? “There are ways to design the platform to minimise motion caused by waves and storms but, in principle, the fact that the platform moves means the reactor inside moves, so there are some technical questions related to support of components or even performance of components undergoing oscillatory motion,” says Buongiorno.

The Russians are never keen on too much scrutiny, but in October Rosatom invited the Norway’s Bellona to be the first foreign environmental group to inspect the Akademik Lomonosov on site. Despite the welcome, Bellona criticised the project at many levels. In the worst-case scenario of a tsunami, “the plant might not ride out the waves, but instead be torn from its moorings to barrel inland through buildings and towns until it lands, battered and breached, with two active nuclear reactors on board – well away from its source of emergency coolant.”

It looks like the fortunes of nuclear power will continue to swing in wildly different directions. While Germany is planning to decommission all of its 22 plants, and France has announced the decommissioning of 14 of its 58 plants, the Russians will keep on sailing on.

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Filed Under: Energy Post Express, locked Tagged With: FPU, nuclear, power generation, Rosatom, Russia

We Have Lift Off! Using satellite technology to optimise the power grid

December 13, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #2 - December 13, 2018

We Have Lift Off! Using satellite technology to optimise the power grid

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Ever dreamed of being an astronaut? Energy sector workers are one step closer to that childhood ambition. The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it is teaming up with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids (EDSO) to identify ways to use their satellites to benefit the energy sector.

The ESA Business Applications programme exists to support the development of new services that make use of data from space assets to support a wide range of sectors and communities – in this case the European power system operators.

Ideas include: asset management; two‐way communication between smart meters and grid operators; prediction of consumption or generation peaks; developing Internet of Things services for smart homes and electric vehicles; and the use of virtual power plants.

Roberto Zangrandi, Secretary General of EDSO, says: “The future of grids is based on the development of technology and applications that allow integration of renewable generation into distribution grids and for active consumers to manage energy responsibly.”

Nick Appleyard, Head of ESA’s Business Applications Department, commented: “ESA wants to support the industry to refine these methods and broaden out from individual trials, making the resulting knowledge available to the entire European network of transmission system operators.”

As part of this cooperation, ESA has published an invitation to tender. The purpose is to investigate the technical feasibility and economic viability of space-based applications for smart grids, and of defining a roadmap for services implementation and demonstration.

The tender cites the following Key Focus Areas:

Smart Grid:

  • Demand and response management, energy load and demand forecasting, automatic load balancing/self-healing of the electricity grid;
  • Integration of electric vehicles into the electricity grid;
  • Smart factories & smart buildings;
  • Advanced metering infrastructure and smart meter enabled services, home automation, predictive maintenance; and
  • Virtual power plants and commercial/industrial microgrids management.

Electricity grid maintenance:

  • Conductivity and hot spot measurements;
  • Vegetation and infrastructure monitoring;
  • Impact of weather events on energy infrastructure and supply;
  • Assessment of buildings’ electrical consumption; and
  • Satellite communication as back-up for terrestrial communication systems.

Technology enablers & space technology:

  • Data analytics & big data;
  • Internet of (nano-) things; Artificial intelligence;
  • Cybersecurity; and
  • Satellite for 5G.

The ESA will look to the following organisations for feedback on the tender and inputs towards potential follow-on demonstration projects: ENTSO-E; EDSO; Enel Group; Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF); Friends of the Supergrid.

The ESA tender closes on 1st March 2019. So get your exercise bike out, practise sitting for weeks in a small box with your colleages, recite your 13-times-table, and go fill out that tender. Who knows…

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Filed Under: Energy Post Express, locked Tagged With: EDSO, electric power, ENTSO-E, ESA, European Space Agency, smart grid, space

Carbon emissions ranking of top 200 airlines reveals the industry is still not heading for a safe landing

December 13, 2018 by Express Editor

EXPRESS #3 - December 13, 2018

Carbon emissions ranking of top 200 airlines reveals the industry is still not heading for a safe landing

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