UK Energy

England could produce 13 times more renewable energy than it does now, while using less than 3% of its land, analysis has found.

Onshore wind and solar projects could provide enough electricity to power all the households in England two and a half times over, the research by Exeter University, commissioned by Friends of the Earth (FoE), suggested.

Currently, about 17 terawatt hours of electricity a year comes from homegrown renewables on land. But there is potential for 130TWh to come from solar panels, and 96TWh from onshore wind.

These figures are reached by only taking into account the most suitable sites, excluding national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, higher grade agricultural land and heritage sites.

Some commentators have argued that solar farms will reduce the UK’s ability to grow its own food, but the new analysis suggests there is plenty of land that can be used without impairing agricultural production. More land is now taken up by golf courses than solar farms, and developers can be required to enhance biodiversity through simple measures such as maintaining hedgerows and ponds.

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The calculations of the land needed exclude rooftop solar panels. Ministers have resisted calls for solar panels to be made mandatory on new-build housing. Kitting out a new-build home with renewables, high-grade insulation and other low-carbon features costs less than £5,000 for a housing developer, but retrofitting it to the same standard costs about £20,000, with the cost borne by the householder. Housing developers are among the largest donors to the Conservative party.

Energy companies have allegedly accrued over £420 billion in profits since the beginning of the current energy crisis, according to a report by researchers affiliated with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

This analysis examined financial reports from various entities in the energy sector, including oil and gas generators, suppliers and energy neworks.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition allege that approximately £30 billion of these profits come from the entities responsible for transmitting and distributing electricity and gas, known as “network costs,” which are covered by standing charges on consumers’ energy bills.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in electricity standing charges, with a projected 147% rise starting 1st April.

This increase is driven by various fees, including 14 charges within each bill for network costs.

Gas standing charges have also risen by 15% since 2021.

Researchers estimate that the average household’s contribution to gas network costs has increased from £118.53 annually in 2021 to £163.69 as of April 1st, 2024, marking a significant 38% rise.

Simon Francis, Co ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “As standing charges go up today, households will have to cut back on their energy use just to keep their bills the same.

“This means households continue to suffer as a few energy firms make billions in profits from running the electricity and gas networks.

“These numbers may look like fantastic amounts to shareholders, but the reality is that these profits have caused pain and suffering among people living in fuel poverty for the last few years.”

Onshore wind farms are not being built across England due to “unworkable” planning rules that can favour fossil fuel projects, ministers have been warned.

In a joint letter, shared with i, a group of environmental organisations and energy companies said the Government is placing “unworkable restrictions” on the development of onshore wind despite repeated pledges to boost the renewable energy sector.

They said wind turbines are being “unfairly singled out” in planning rules that do not place the same levels of restrictions on other energy projects, such as coal mines or nuclear power stations. Despite the UK’s target to hit net zero by 2050, very few onshore wind projects have been built in England since former Prime Minister David Cameron brought in strict planning rules in 2015, which effectively led to a de facto ban on land-based turbines.

Last year Rishi Sunak vowed to reverse this ban by removing a planning rule that said an objection from a single person could prevent a wind farm from being built.

One renewable energy company told i it is planning to submit planning applications for new onshore wind farms following this relaxation of the rules, but others are warning that the planning rules remain too restrictive for them to consider investing in a new project.

No new applications for onshore wind projects had been submitted as of February this year despite the relaxation of the rules, according to The Guardian. The Government said it would take time for new projects to come through.

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See also: UK scheme to spur take-up of heat pumps delayed after gas lobby pressure

Proposals for a massive solar farm near Coylton are a step closer after South Ayrshire Council offered no objection to the plan.

Objectors had slammed the plans for 100,000 solar panels, which will generate 85 megawatts of electricity and fill an area the equivalent of 15 football pitches, claiming it would damage the protected ecology of the area close to Martnaham Loch.

But councillors on the Regulatory Panel were concerned that the amount of cash being proposed for community benefit was just a tenth of that agreed with wind farms in the area.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit makes the final decision on the application, with the council a statutory consultee.

Independent councillor Alec Clark asked an agent for the applicant Locogen for the amount of community money being put up by the company for each megawatt of electricity generated.

He was told that, over the 40 year operation of the facility, £500 would be given per megawatt. This totals around £22,500 each year.

Cllr Clark was not impressed by the figures and said: “I would suggest that that is a very low level of community benefit. I am quite acquainted with the many wind farms we have around South Ayrshire, especially in the Carrick district, and the minimum community benefit there is £5000 per megawatt.”

The visit to Holyhead, which also involved Jo Stevens, the shadow Wales secretary, was to promote a remaining element of the scaled-back green plan, GB Energy, a publicly owned sustainable energy company.

Part of this would involve floating offshore windfarms, which Starmer said would not just make energy more sustainable but would also bring down bills.

“Floating offshore wind is going to be a gamechanger when it comes to energy,” he told BBC Wales. “Some country in the world is going to be the leader, and I want that to be the UK. What we can do is have the Westminster government, and the Labour government here in Wales, working on the next generation of energy.”

Speaking to ITV Wales, Starmer said last month’s decision to slash the pledge to invest £28bn a year in green policies to under £15bn still left “a huge difference” with government policy over renewables.

Interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s World at One, Miliband, who has been largely quiet since the change of policy, said there were “huge opportunities” for jobs from renewable energy, and that the floating windfarm plan was a major policy.

“It’s going to be the first priority of GB Energy’s £5bn investment,” he said. “It will partner with the private sector in places like north Wales so that we can get the jobs that floating wind can bring and, indeed, the lower energy bills.”

Are 200,000 jobs really supported by the oil and gas industry in the North Sea? Campaigners and MPs are questioning the longstanding government claim.

Ministers have repeatedly used the 200,000 jobs figure as justification for pushing ahead with more fossil fuel developments despite the escalating climate crisis and widespread opposition from scientists and energy experts.

But campaigners say the figure, which includes indirect employment and comes from the oil and gas industry, has not been scrutinised by the government. They point out that the most recent Office for National Statistics data suggests 27,600 people are directly employed.

The Green MP Caroline Lucas has submitted three parliamentary questions asking for clarification on how the 200,000 figure was calculated.

In response, the energy minister Graham Stuart said it came from the industry body Offshore Energies UK and referred to direct, indirect and induced jobs supported by the sector. He did not explain how the 200,000 figure was calculated.

Plans for a £200m green energy park, which could create 4,500 jobs, have been given the green light.

Yorkshire Energy Park, on the site of the former Hedon Aerodrome, to the east of Hull, is set to focus on renewable energy, battery storage, state-of-the-art digital infrastructure and research and development. The proposal, for land allocated to the wider Humber Freeport scheme, was approved by Hull City Council's ruling cabinet.

A £58bn plan to rewire Great Britain’s electricity grid to connect up new windfarms off the coast of Scotland is expected to trigger tensions with communities along the route.

National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) has mapped out power “motorways” across Great Britain to allow for the biggest investment since the 1960s.

The new “blueprint” recommends a “high-capacity electrical spine” running onshore from the north-east of Scotland through to the north-west of England, alongside a complex collection of cables stretching along coastlines.

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Policymakers are attempting to revamp the grid in the face of long-term shifts in where power is generated in Great Britain. The grid was formed in 1935 around a coal-focused system centred on industrial powerhouses in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and the north-east, with nuclear later playing a significant part.

A drive towards low carbon power and the growth of the offshore wind industry have necessitated greater need for strong connections between the east coast of Scotland and the urban centres of England, where demand is greatest.

Scotland already generates nearly 15GW of renewable power, far outstripping the peak winter Scottish demand of 5GW, and the government has suggested offering reduced bills to areas where demand is lower than supply.

Late last year, the government said properties closest to new transmission infrastructure could receive up to £1,000 a year off electricity bills over 10 years.

The ESO welcomed government plans to allow communities hosting energy projects to have “financial incentives”. However, there are questions over whether this would quell local opposition.

The network revamp threatens to have political ramifications. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has vowed to “get tough” on local people who oppose onshore wind turbines, while Labour’s goal to decarbonise the grid by 2030 relies on projects being connected swiftly. The government hopes to hit the same target by 2035.

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The Guardian revealed last month that the ESO was working on the blueprint, which also suggests a “connections hub” off the coast of Lincolnshire to reduce the impact on protected marine areas off East Anglia, where opposition to electricity projects has been vociferous.

The ESO said three times as much undersea cabling would be laid than onshore infrastructure by 2035 and estimated its blueprint would add £15bn to the economy, creating 20,000 jobs a year.

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There is growing debate over the cost of decarbonising the grid and reaching net zero, as the renewables industry faces supply chain upheaval and rising costs.

The energy regulator, Ofgem, last week voiced concern that the costs associated with achieving net zero would hit lower-income households hardest.

Buckland said any future government would have to decide how the costs of large infrastructure investment would be met, whether through taxes or consumer bills, and whether “protection” would be given to vulnerable households. Between £20 and £30 a year is now spent on network costs through consumer bills.

Burke added: “If you do smart things – like prioritising insulating homes, community schemes and embracing battery technology – then bills go up a bit. If you do stupid things, like focusing on delayed nuclear power projects, then they go up more.”

The government has delayed by a year its scheme for spurring the take-up of heat pumps, under pressure from the gas boiler industry.

The clean heat market mechanism is intended to force heating installers to fit more low-carbon heat pumps, to meet the UK’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions target and save energy.

But the scheme – which requires companies to install a gradually increasing proportion of heat pumps compared with the number of gas boiler installations or face a financial penalty – was inaccurately described as a “boiler tax” by gas heating companies and their lobbyists. Some boiler companies put their prices up by £120, which they said was in reaction to the potential scheme, but which one government insider told the Guardian was unfair price “gouging”.

The mechanism was due to come in this April but has been delayed to April 2025, the government said on Thursday. The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, has also asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the boiler market.

Reforms to the boiler upgrade scheme also announced on Thursday will mean households no longer need to upgrade their insulation to take advantage of government heat pump grants. Removing the requirement for cavity wall and loft insulation should save consumers about £2,500 on a heat pump installation, for which the government is offering a £7,500 grant.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/9089792

The City of Liverpool, England, has unveiled advanced proposals to build the world’s largest tidal power generator on the River Mersey.

If it’s built, Mersey Tidal Power would become the largest tidal range scheme in the world. It would power more than 1 million homes for more than 120 years.

The dam-like Mersey Tidal Power would be a barrier between the Irish Sea and a tidal basin. It would be fitted with turbines and tap into one of the UK’s largest tidal ranges to generate power with two-way generation.

It would connect Liverpool and the Wirral peninsula and could become a pedestrian and cycling link across the Mersey. It could also provide future flood defense.

Wind power and heat pumps are obvious assets in the fight against fossil-fuelled climate change. But have you ever considered how well the two might work together?

A new report from UK climate action charity Possible has done exactly that - and found they’re not only a match, but one capable of cutting energy bills by a third.

With 3,700 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England located within 1km of onshore wind resources, there’s big potential for alleviating fuel poverty while tackling emissions.

“Replacing gas boilers with clean home heating will be vital to protect the climate. At the moment, one seventh of the UK’s emissions come from home heating,” says Possible.

“And a lack of clean, affordable heat is harming people too - not to mention costing the NHS [National Health Service] hundreds of millions of pounds each year to treat the health problems that come from living in cold, damp homes.”

So how can these two clean technologies be linked up? And what’s holding the UK and other European countries back?

Britain’s under-pressure green power industry has received a surprise fillip after a renewables developer pledged to plough £10bn into what would become the largest portfolio of battery storage projects in the country.

NatPower, a UK startup that is part of a larger European energy group, is poised to submit planning applications for three “gigaparks”, with a further 10 to follow next year.

Battery storage projects are seen as a key part of the jigsaw to decarbonise Britain’s power grid, allowing electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels to be stored for use when weather conditions are still or not sunny.

The NatPower investment would lead to the construction of 60 gigawatt hours of battery storage, with solar and wind projects also in the pipeline

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NatPower, which plans to finance, own and in some cases operate its projects, said it had also set aside £600m to invest in new substations.

Stefano Sommadossi, the chief executive of NatPower UK, said: “To solve the bottlenecks that are slowing the shift to clean energy, we will drive investment into the grid itself, collaborating with grid operators to deliver more than 20% of the new substations required.

“By investing in substations and focusing on energy storage first, we will enable the next phase of the energy transition and bring down the cost of energy for consumers.”

1. Instant heat
2. Simple to install
3. Affordable heat
4. Radiant heat is healthy and safe
5. Our homegrown future

Infrared fabric is a UK invention and it’s UK-manufactured. All we need now is for it to be UK accredited. That’s a long and expensive process, but the all important SAP Appendix Q certification is due in 2025 if not before. It already has BSEN (British Standard) approval as a large area low temperature emitter and it’s class A fire rated.

The Welsh government already funds its use in retrofit programmes following extensive trials across 270 homes. Further research is now needed to evidence the health, safety and carbon benefits that will strengthen the case even more for this form of heating.

So if you’re retrofitting an existing property as a home owner, private landlord, housing association or local authority, infrared fabric could be a low-risk, low-cost, low-carbon solution worth considering.

Households are set to learn that their energy bills will rise again from January as hopes for relief from the cost-of-living crisis are put on hold.

Ofgem will announce its latest price cap on Thursday, with energy consultancy Cornwall Insight predicting it will increase from the current £1,834 for a typical dual fuel household to £1,931 – a 5% jump to take effect from January to March.

The forecasts suggest that the typical bill will then fall to £1,853 from the start of April, but will not drop below today’s level until July next year.

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Dr Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: “An unstable wholesale energy market, coupled with the UK’s reliance on energy imports, makes it inevitable that energy bills will rise from current levels.

“This leaves households facing yet another winter with bills hundreds of pounds higher than pre-pandemic levels, and affordable fixed deals few and far between.”

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“While we continue to advocate for immediate targeted support for vulnerable consumers, it is evident that the only enduring solution lies in transitioning the UK away from the influence of global energy prices towards sustainable, domestically sourced energy.”

Other countries are using the UK as an excuse for pressing ahead with fossil fuel projects despite their climate commitments, according to Adair Turner, the first chair of the Committee on Climate Change and a former head of the CBI.

Lord Turner told the Guardian that he had “literally been involved in discussions” in China and India where UK decisions had been given as a reason for not moving faster on the climate.

“I can tell you that [the Cumbrian coalmine] was a disaster globally, and in China and India, where I was engaged in debates [on reducing greenhouse gas emissions], I have had people say ‘yeah, but you’re building a new coalmine in the UK’,” he said.

“So that was a disaster for our reputation, and it provides arguments for the people within government or within interest groups in China and India to say ‘oh look, the UK is supposedly committed to net zero, but it’s not serious, it’s building a new coalmine’. And the same occurs with new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.”

Turner is now chair of the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), a thinktank that on Thursday published a report that says the production of and demand for fossil fuels must be reduced rapidly, and that this is achievable. “Unabated” fossil fuel use must be phased out, and there is only limited scope for the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), the report finds.

Automated floating factories that manufacture green versions of petrol or diesel could soon be in operation thanks to pioneering work at the University of Cambridge. The revolutionary system would produce a net-zero fuel that would burn without creating fossil-derived emissions of carbon dioxide, say researchers.

The Cambridge project is based on a floating artificial leaf which has been developed at the university and which can turn sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into synthetic fuel. The group believe these thin, flexible devices could one day be exploited on a industrial scale.

“Solar panels are excellent at generating electricity and are making a great contribution to the world reaching its net zero aspirations,” said Erwin Reisner, the professor of energy and sustainability at Cambridge University. “But using sunlight to make non-fossil fuels that could be burned by cars or ships takes things a stage further.”

Reisner and his colleagues envisage exploiting the technology to build carpets of artificial leaves that would float on lakes and river estuaries, and use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into the components of petrol and other fuels. “The crucial point is that we are not decarbonising the economy through techniques like these,” Reisner said. “Carbon is still a key component. What we are doing is to ‘defossilise’ the economy. We will no longer be burning ancient sources of carbon – coal, oil and gas – and adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, a process that is doing so much damage at present.”

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/374476

Wind conclusions:

The authors give three reasons for their discrepancy with MacKay’s estimates.

• Improved fixed turbine technologies. MacKay described all waters deeper than 30 metres as “not economically feasible”. But fixed turbines could soon be commercially feasible to around 80 metres of depth.

• Floating offshore turbines. The advent of floating turbines means that these can extend into much deeper waters. Note that O’Callaghan et al. (2023) already account for many other competing uses such as fishing areas, military zones, shipping routes, and low-wind areas.

• Improved social and political support. O’Callaghan et al. (2023) assume there is less public resistance to offshore wind, which seems appropriate.

Solar conclusions:

What are the major differences to MacKay?

• Lower cost: the price of solar PV has fallen by 90% in the last decade. MacKay’s main concern was it was too expensive: this is not the case today.

• Improved cell efficiency: MacKay used a cell efficiency of 10%, and thought an efficiency of 30% would be “quite remarkable”. Last year, Fraunhofer ISE achieved 47.6%. Efficiencies greater than 30% have also been achieved using perovskite solar cells. O’Callaghan uses a cell efficiency of 25%. See the footnote for a chart showing the differences in efficiency over time.7

• Combined use with agriculture: MacKay assumed an inherent trade-off between agricultural land and solar. He thought the Brits would never give up farmland for solar panels. But this trade-off does not always exist: there are now a range of projects where solar and agriculture work in tandem (‘agrivoltaics’).

The well was drilled but never fracked - leaving the site owners, Third Energy, with a deep hole in the ground.

Tom Heap with Steve Mason and Russell Hoare at the once highly-contested proposed fracking site Its managing director, Russell Hoare, showed me the well and explained its second life. They are even re-using the two metre-high gas valve which caps the hole.

"This is the actual well that was drilled for fracking and it's about 3,000 metres deep, but the protesters were successful, and Steve was successful, in stopping that operation.

"But it's perfect for testing geothermal energy. There's hot water at the bottom. All we're doing is bringing it to the surface."

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Once commercially exploited, they reckon this well could supply 300 homes, so we would need a lot more deep drilling to keep Britain warm.

Gas to geothermal conversion company, CeraPhi, thinks there are 680 wells in the UK ripe for conversion together with millions around the world, and that new wells can be sunk cheaply enough to expand further.

Such potential provokes interest. While we are on the site, chief executive Karl Farrow is showing around a group of academics and industry players.

They've had more than 100 such visitors in the past month.

Karl told me: "Wells at the end of life can be repurposed and reused for energy.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3446966

And you can have your say via public consultation starting today

An old coal mine has been providing an English town with green energy for the last six months.

The ground-breaking project in Gateshead is using the warm water that has filled the tunnels to heat hundreds of homes and businesses in the former coalfield community.

Hailed a success, the UK’s first large-scale network shows the huge potential to be found in the nation’s sprawling warren of old mining tunnels, which sit beneath roughly a quarter of homes.

The world's largest offshore wind farm has started producing electricity for the first time.

Power from the first turbine at the Dogger Bank project, which is construction in the North Sea, is now being sent to the UK's national grid.

In total 277 turbines will be powered-up at the location, situated between 81 and 124 miles (130-200km) off the Yorkshire coast.

The wind farm is due for completion in 2026.

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Each rotation of the 107m (351ft) long blades on Dogger Bank's first operational turbine can produce enough clean energy to power an average British home for two days, SSE Renewables said.

Once complete, Dogger Bank's offshore turbines are expected to generate 3.6GW of power - enough for six million UK homes.

Rishi Sunak plans to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of English farmland, which climate campaigners say will raise bills and put the UK’s energy security at risk.

Last year, then prime minister Liz Truss attempted to block solar from most of the country’s farmland. The plans were deeply controversial and unpopular, and were dropped when she left office.

However, solar panels in the countryside are disliked by many rural Conservative MPs, and the Observer can reveal that Sunak and environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have revived plans to put new restrictions on this form of cheap renewable energy.