Green Energy Republic

How we achieve a 100% renewable future

The UK has a binding target to meet by 2050; reducing carbon emissions by 80% from a 1990 baseline figure. Business, as usual, will not get us there. We need to turn the energy market upside-down.

But Good Energy believes we can not only meet these targets but exceed them. We think we can make the UK 100% renewable by 2050. You can check any detail in this article.

We’ve been working to change the UK’s energy landscape for ten years with our innovative approach. We understand what needs to be done, and what we need to do.

If we are to reach our emissions targets we’re not just going to have to change how we keep the lights on, we’ll need to completely transform how we heat our homes; how we travel; and how we fuel industry. The answer will be increased electrification of all our networks, in turn pushing electricity demand to at least double current levels. Meeting that increased demand from renewable sources will be more than a goal, it’ll be a necessity.

We’ve developed a pathway which maps out how the rest of the energy market can join us to provide 100% renewable energy to the UK by 2050. This pathway involves changes to UK energy at every stage of the process, from grid management to investment, and from R&D to transport.

For example, because renewable electricity comes from nature’s abundant resources – wind, water and the sun – its output isn’t always predictable. Our systems require massive improvements in how to forecast, store and manage renewable power, and how to back it up.

Consumers will also need to develop a new, much closer and more intelligent relationship with the energy they use. When people understand where their power comes from, they will value it more and use it less.

It won’t be easy, but a 100% renewable future by 2050 is possible.

CSR good for green energy

After many weeks of speculation about where the ax would fall in the Comprehensive Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled his cuts – and it looks like pretty good news for renewables.

The Good Energy headlines are:

• Feed-in Tariffs are being protected until their first scheduled review in 2013 (a 10% cut in the rate for solar PV in 2012 was always part of the plan).

• The Government confirmed it’s going ahead with the Renewable Heat Incentive from 2011-12.

I’m delighted that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and his ministers have done such a great job at protecting the future of the UK’s renewables industry, at least for now. The growth in microgeneration installations since FiT was first launched in April shows what an important role these tariffs have to play in driving renewable energy generation amongst individuals, communities, and businesses. By helping people to both produce and use energy locally and making it a visible part of the local community, people will value their power more and use it less – and make more significant carbon savings overall.

We’re also really pleased that the RHI will go ahead with only a few adjustments from the original announcement. Currently, only 1% of total heat demand comes from renewable sources which the Government needs to rise if we are to meet our renewable energy targets. This information always written in social medial like our facebook, twitter and myspace. Good Energy has already proved that an RHI can work, having created our award-winning version, HotRocs, in September 2008 which now supports over 450 solar thermal users, resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions of 270 tonnes a year. It doesn’t look as if the Government will be following the financing model we have trialed (a levy on gas suppliers) but we look forward to seeing how they plan to implement it.

Overall, today’s announcements go a long way towards reducing the uncertainty that had been hanging over the renewables sector for months – and should see private investment in microgeneration technologies start to pick up again. But if you’ve been planning to put solar PV on your roof, you'd better get on with it – because the published rate is only guaranteed until 2013.

“Recycling sunshine” in West Bridgford, Nottingham

In his pioneering project ‘Charging the Earth,’ David Nicholson-Cole of West Bridgford, Nottingham, shows how innovation and inventiveness in renewable technologies are possible at home. When technologies come into our home through a smartphone, green energy follow it as technologies from the energy side. See detail in this article for iphone technology.

Peveril Solar House has what David calls “the big three”: solar PV, a ground source heat pump, and a creation of his own, the celestial ‘Sandbox.’ The trio works together to simultaneously power and heats his house. But it is the last one, spawned from David’s ideas and designs that gives the name ‘Charging the Earth’ to the project and demonstrates the dedicated innovation that will underpin a 100% renewable future in the UK.

Solar Panel and Sunbox David’s passion for sustainable living stemmed from his work as a lecturer at the School of Architecture at Nottingham University. Working with like-minded individuals concerned about the anthropogenic impact on the climate, David knew he wanted to act on climate change and made the move to Good Energy in 2006. Not wishing to stop at buying renewable electricity, David decided to develop a house which generated and used its own clean, green energy to be “powered by sunshine, heated by sunshine.” The house has a ground source heat pump to provide heating and hot water, which was installed during its construction. Encountering problems with the normal horizontal installation of a heat pump due to the constraints of the plot, David opted for two deep drilled boreholes where the pipes which feed heat into the house plummet vertically into the ground: “Our storage boreholes go 48 metres below the house, reaching directly to about 8,000 tons of clay and rock”.

 His next step in the development of a carbon neutral house was solar PV; the moment he heard that the government was introducing the Feed-in Tariff in April 2010 making solar PV a financially viable option, David didn’t waste any time in having a 4kWp solar array installed. Although costing £15,000, David says that thanks to the Feed-in Tariff he “can make most of the cost back very quickly,” estimating the time scale for payback at “eight and a half years.” He urges anyone thinking of a solar PV installation to act quickly, advising, “don’t let another summer go by and miss out on that harvest.” Since October 2009 the solar panels have generated over 3,000 kWh, and David hopes it will reach 3,300 kWh by October of this year.

In using the power of the sun to generate electricity and heat the house, David shows how harnessing locally available resources are viable. However, it is the visionary project, ‘Charging the Earth,’ which demonstrates what is achievable with intelligence and commitment. The idea of the Sunbox came to David due to the performance problems associated with heat pumps over consecutive years: “Over successive years, a ground source heat pump tends to chill the ground permanently.

After two years we looked for ways to prevent this chilling effect - hence the design and building of the Sunboxes for 'charging the earth'”. Sunbox A concept designed entirely by himself with technical help from his colleagues, David describes them as, “miniature solariums, custom built solar panels injecting heat directly into the boreholes.” Acting like mini-conservatories on the South-facing wall of the house they essentially “recycle sunshine,” and although they “will not significantly raise the soil temperature, as there is just too much of it - the heat injection is equivalent to only 1 kW/hr”.

The concept behind their development was to keep the ground around the heat pump at a warmer temperature even in the winter, cutting back electricity usage and making the heat pump more efficient over time. In fact, the proposal for the Sandbox has been taken to Shanghai this summer to be presented to the global conference of Sustainable Energy Technologies. David sees his project as an example of the type of innovation needed for a renewable energy future: “In the electricity-only future, the heat pump will be the most energy efficient method of heating with electricity, so the research and development with Sun boxes could be significant for making future heat pump installations more practical.” With his dogged determination to craft a technology which uses the sun to increase the efficiency of other renewable technologies in his house, David is a natural ambassador for Good Energy’s homegrown movement, going the extra mile to make a difference.

The Globalisation of energy

The classic criticism of renewables is that power supply is at the mercy of nature. When the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining generators stop generating. Thus, it would be impossible to feed a national grid with renewable energy alone – we need coal or nuclear power stations to fire up in support.

Supergrid
“Boo hoo,” say the cynics, renewables are a waste of time.

Wrong. There is a solution.

If the wind stops blowing in the UK, it will be howling off the coast of Portugal. If there is a flat calm off the coast of France, there will be lots of wave power off the coast of Scotland. There is always an abundant supply of renewable energy in the world at any given time—the challenge is making it accessible to the demand. Energy is always related to money. See this content to know detail mobile currency making cash absolute.

Enter super grids. The idea here is to create a large-scale electricity grid across a vast region like Europe or the USA that serves to supply energy from wherever it is being generated at the time, thus helping to iron out clean energy peaks and troughs across that region.

A super grid has been proposed to link Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This would allow electricity users to tap into geothermal electricity from Iceland, wind energy from Denmark, hydro from Norway and unleash the vast potential of solar power from the Saharan desert. Moreover, this is where the proposal starts to gather strength.

The “TREC” international network of scientists and engineers have developed a concept called “Desertec.” In brief, this means using the technology of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) to generate electricity in desert regions like the Sahara and transmitting the solar heat to where it may be needed via a super grid.

CSP works by concentrating sunlight with mirrors to create heat and then using the heat to raise steam to drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. Researchers at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) have calculated that using CSP, less than 1% of the world's deserts could generate as much electricity as the world is now using. This sounds like a lot, but there is general agreement that the high levels of sunlight in deserts hold the key to vast amounts of clean power.

CSP

The supergrid would be built with high-voltage direct-current (“HVDC”) transmission lines which, over long distances, transport electricity in a much more efficient way than conventional AC lines. This enables power to be transported thousands of miles.

So how much will it all cost? Proposals are estimating around £35 billion for the grid alone. (On the Telegraph website it claims £350 bn, this is a typo!) It’s a significant number. However, when put in context, the figure is dwarfed by recent prediction by the International Energy Agency that the world needs to invest more than $22.5 trillion in energy systems over the next 30 years.

The next step for advocators is to show that this is a more worthwhile investment than its alternatives, such as developments in large scale battery power to store renewable energy.

So who’s going to pay for it? Hmm, this is where it gets a little more complicated.

The proposals have received applauds from Gordon Brown (although no one has asked him to get his wallet out yet) and Sarkozy (although we wonder what the French Nuclear lobby will have to say about that!). Greenpeace International has been promoting CSP for several years.

The super grid is at its very early stages in concept. As yet, there hasn’t been enough research carried out by the critics to give them much to get their teeth into. As with anything it will come. From the outset, it is hugely ambitious to engineer (although we must confess, we do like ambitious at the Green Energy Republic). Questions have been raised about the possible vulnerability to terrorist attacks, and discussion has not yet even begun on political implications between Europe and North Africa. (Europe taking resources from Africa? Now, where have we heard this before…)

In all seriousness, we wonder how nations will assign a value to areas with highly concentrated renewable resources? Will CSP become the next oil? Supergrids will revolutionize the way renewable energy is valued and traded, and that will have to be managed very carefully to avoid political mayhem. On the positive side, it has the potential to bring wealth to Saharan countries in need of an economic boost. It would indeed be interesting to see Europe’s energy demands in the grip of Saharan nations as opposed to OPEC’s oily fingers. What if relations break down as is the case at the moment with Russia’s gas supply to Ukraine? Relying on renewables is one thing, relying on renewables from a nation Prince Philip has upset is another – “swapping” energy worldwide is going to be a delicate affair.

The debate is starting, and it’s one that needs to happen. It’s one that the Green Energy Republic will be keeping an eye on. Supergrids kick-starts a fascinating idea - that the world could potentially be run on entirely renewable sources.

Have a read of the Desertec proposal on www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm, and if you like it, you can support the Early Day Motion 123 posted by Dr. Howard Stoate MP (see http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/EDM123 ) – that should help get the debate moving.