Tag: Wind Power

Posted on

Wind power is being wasted adding £40 to household energy bills, according to think tank

Wind turbine and battery

Wasted wind power will add £40 to the average UK household’s electricity bill in 2023, according to a think tank.

That figure could increase to £150 in 2026, Carbon Tracker has estimated.

When it is very windy, the grid cannot handle the extra power generated. So, wind farms are paid to switch off and gas-powered stations are paid to fire up. The cost is passed on to consumers.

The government said major reforms will halve the time it takes to build energy networks to cope with extra wind power. Energy regulator Ofgem announced new rules in November 2023, which it said would speed up grid connections.

Bottleneck

Most of the UK’s offshore wind farms are in England. Dogger Bank, off the coast of Yorkshire is the largest in the world. Meanwhile, around half of onshore wind farms are in Scotland but most electricity is used in south-east England.

Carbon Tracker said the main problem in getting electricity to where it is needed is a bottleneck in transmission.

Wind curtailment

The practice of switching off wind farms and ramping up power stations is known as wind curtailment. This cost is passed on to consumers, it said. Carbon Tracker researches the impact of climate change on financial markets. It said since the start of 2023, wind curtailment payments cost £590m, adding £40 to the average consumer bill.

It warned the costs were set to increase adding £180 per year to bills by 2030. Wind farms are being built faster than the power cabling needed to carry the electricity.

Cable issue

‘The problem is, there are not enough cables. The logical solution would be to build more grid infrastructure,‘ said an analyst at Carbon Tracker. ‘It’s not even that expensive,’ he added, compared with mounting wind curtailment costs.

Industry group RenewableUK reportedly said that grid constraints, ‘reflect a chronic lack of investment in the grid.’

‘We need to move from a grid which is wasteful, to one that’s fit for purpose as fast as possible.’

However, historically it has taken between 10 and 15 years for new transmission cables to be approved.

Maybe more battery storage plants around the UK would help reduce the bottlenecks? As renewable power continues to expand, this would enable the extra power to be stored to use later.

This would be better than firing up antiquated fossil fuel power plants.

Posted on

Powering the UK from energy generated in Morocco

Energy from Xlinks project

The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project is a proposal to create a large-scale renewable energy complex in Morocco and feed the electricity to the UK via a long underwater cable.

Key facts

12 million solar panels, 530 wind turbines over 62 square miles.

  • The project aims to produce 10.5 GW of clean power from solar and wind facilities in Morocco’s Guelmim Oued Noun region. This is equivalent to about 10% of the UK’s electricity demand.
  • The project also plans to build a 20 GWh/5 GW battery storage facility to ensure a stable and reliable supply of electricity.
  • The project will use proven high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector technology to transmit the electricity to the UK via a 3,800 km route under the seabed. The cable will connect to two locations in Devon and Wales, each with a capacity of 1.8 GW.
  • The project will create over 11,000 new green jobs in the UK and Morocco, and contribute to their renewable industrial ambitions. It will also diversify the UK’s energy sources and reduce its dependence on EU interconnectors, LNG imports, and biomass from North America.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-1-1024x562.png

  • The project is seeking a 25-year contract with the UK government to guarantee a fixed electricity price and secure financing for the £20 billion investment. 
  • It hopes to start construction in 2024 and deliver power to the UK by 2028.

Entirely powered by sun and wind

The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project will be a new electricity generation facility entirely powered by solar and wind energy combined with a battery storage facility. Located in Morocco’s renewable energy rich region of Guelmim Oued Noun, it will be connected exclusively to Great Britain via 3,800km HVDC sub-sea cables.

Zero carbon power generation

When domestic renewable energy generation in the United Kingdom drops due to low winds and short periods of sun, the project will harvest the benefits of long hours of sun in Morocco alongside the consistency of its convection Trade Winds, to provide a firm but flexible source of zero-carbon electricity.