Archive for wind power
David Hirst Comments.
Chris,
You are quite right to separate the issues of immediate loss of generation, which needs to be covered by frequency response, and the longer term periods of scarcity that need to be covered by “reserve”.
If the reports are true What NGC seems to be seeking to cover here is the more immediate frequency response, concerning the first half hour or so after loss, rather than coverage for longer periods. The increase in costs is directly and exclusively related to the increase in scale of the nuclear generators. If they are suggesting ~1.8GW as the preferred size (and I believe this is what EDF is proposing), then this is a major increase over the previous maximum single loss of Sizewell, which was about 1.3GW. If Sizewell did not exist, the largest loss is considered to be one (of the two) cross channel DC links at 1GW. Below that, 660MW is about the largest single unit that could be lost in a single event. Other units are around 550MW. Read More→
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Greener telecom networks
Posted by: | CommentsAs an ever increasing number of people around the world become connected by mobile communications networks [the number of cell phone subscribers is set to reach 5 billion in 2010] the challenges to providing electricity to these expanding networks are becoming greater as well. In particular, developing countries are seeing unprecedented growth in wireless subscribers. However, many of the base stations in these areas are in remote locations that have limited or no access to grid power.
Renewable energy from solar panels and small wind turbines offers a viable alternative to diesel generators in these remote off-grid sites, and a new report from Pike Research forecasts that renewable energy will power 4.5% of the world’s mobile base stations by 2014, up from just 0.11% in 2010. In developing countries, the percentage will be even higher – the market intelligence firm forecasts that 8% of base stations in those regions will utilise renewable energy by 2014.
“Energy is one of the top expense items for mobile network operators,” says Pike Research’s managing director Clint Wheelock. “As solar and wind equipment become more cost-effective in the next few years, renewable energy will be an increasingly attractive option for base station power, in combination with batteries and fuel cells.” Wheelock noted that the economics of renewable energy are already favourable in remote off-grid areas where the cost of delivering diesel to generators is high.
Pike Research’s analysis also shows that mobile network infrastructure equipment is rapidly becoming more energy-efficient, owing to a series of initiatives by equipment vendors and network operators. The firm believes that lower base station power requirements will make it even easier to integrate renewable energy into mobile networks. In the process, the global wireless industry will have a significant opportunity to reduce carbon emissions associated with network operations.
Pike Research’s report, entitled: Green Telecom Networks, analyses the business opportunities, technology requirements, and environmental impacts of green telecom initiatives on a worldwide basis. The report examines the tools and practices available for fixed and mobile network operators to lower their operating expenses, reduce their carbon emissions, and improve the total cost of ownership for their networks. Detailed market forecasts include energy efficient network infrastructure capex spending, adoption of renewable energy power sources, and carbon emission reductions for fixed and mobile networks in addition to telecom data centres.
Profiles are also provided for twelve key network operators and vendors.
Nokia Siemens Networks was the first major telecoms vendor to go to market with a solar-powered base station over three years ago. They recently reported that they are actively reducing their carbon footprint – and by 2012 all their base stations will be powered by renewable energy. This has been made possible by the introduction of a range of new technologies.
Alcatel Lucent is offering developing countries a mobile phone base station that combines solar cells and a wind turbine to reduce its costs and environmental impact. Alcatel Lucent is already supplying the renewable energy-powered base stations to Vodafone in Qatar, reducing its energy requirements and contributing to Alcatel Lucent’s “Green Touch” initiative [launched in January 2010], which aims to reduce the emissions produced by the networks a thousand-fold.
Vodafone are also introducing on-site renewable energy systems as part of group’s Green Technology Programme. At one ‘green’ base station pilot in Greece, the diesel generator was replaced with solar panels and a wind turbine. A fuel cell was also installed to boost the power if there is not enough sunlight or wind. A three-month trial showed that enough power can be generated this way to run sites with low power loads in remote locations.
An Executive Summary of Green Telecom Networks is available for free download on the firm’s website: www.pikeresearch.com
Compiled by Andrew W. Cox, Energy Intelligence & Marketing Research, UK
cox.andrew421@googlemail.com
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This note argues that environmentalists will have to recognise that part (and a small price) of the price we pay for creating significant additional capacity of intermittent / variable renewables is the continued existence of coal fired plant, operating at a very low capacity factor.
(And of course it will make us less vulnerable to Vladimir Putin. The fact that we get little gas from Russia does not reduce his ability to screw up our supply. Part of the deal would be that the coal stations should keep significant coal stocks on hand.
Thus there is no need to de commission these old stations.
It matters not a jot that they are polluting for a few weeks per year, because clearly by having a massive wind component of generation, in the extreme case, you would have reduced the annual output of filth by these stations by a factor of say 3 weeks / 41 weeks (say) ie 1/13th in this high wind scenario.
Hence, the cost of back up to a very large penetration of wind is going to be very low – since you are relying on plant that would otherwise have been closed.
No one in the Claverton group, has as yet come up with any evidence or calculations to refute this line of argument.
People who used to run power stations agree with this point of view, and have pointed out that investment decisions will be taken by the owners soon as to whether or not to let them go to rack and ruin – ie do no or little maintenance so that when they are forced to close they are economic write offs.
Thus it is argued, the situations needs a clear signal from the government that these old plant will be rewarded with some form of capacity payment otherwise we will lose perfectly usable plant.
If we build enough wind, which we can do if we have some central planning and targets we can meet our carbon targets and have security of supply.
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This article originally appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Thursday, July 16th, page 5
ANALYSIS – By Dave Andrews
Wind farms as is well know only work when the wind blows. This means that a turbine will on average, produce electricity on only one day out of three. However, this is not of itself an overwhelming disadvantage – as is often claimed.
Wind farms can still compete with other forms of electricity generation because although turbines are expensive to build, they have very low running costs.
The other argument against turbines is that they require back up when the wind is not blowing. This, too, is true. However, again it is not really a problem, since the power stations needed to provide backup have already been built, and are cheap to keep on standby. Wind farms just make sure we use less of the fossil fuel than we would otherwise, therefore cutting emissions. Read More→
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Dr. Czisch gave a presentation which shows that with the large scale HVDC interconnection of Europe - the “European Supergrid” Europe can have 100% renewable energy at about the cost of today’s electricity - with all capital costs factored in – summarised here,
Rather than publish a duplicate paper on this site, Gregor has given us these links to his site where the various papers can be studied.
The most relevant one for English speakers is probably this one:
“Low Cost but Totally Renewable Electricity Supply”
http://transnational-renewables.org/Gregor_Czisch/projekte/LowCostEuropElSup_revised_for_AKE_2006.pdf
This paper, also given may interest people:
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