But I’m a little confused as a lot of the anti-Tory brigade tell me the government aren’t doing anything to help us move to clean energy?
main question for most people is the cost. green isn’t on everyones mind, cost is.
It’s behind a paywall by the looks of things so if anyone is curious I’ll C+P it here (you can often use way back machine to bypass a paywall if that helps anyone else)
New ECIU analysis shows how record generation from renewables meant UK was able to avoid 78 LNG tankers worth of gas imports
Renewables has overtaken gas to become the biggest single source of power on the UK grid so far this winter, with power generated by wind, hydro and solar reaching a record 34TWh from 1 October 2022 to 13 January 2023.
That is the headline finding from the latest edition of the Energy Climate and Intelligence Unit’s (ECIU) Winter Power Tracker, which found that renewables have produced 2TWh more electricity than gas over the winter months to date.
According to the analysis, generating the same amount of power using gas power stations alone would have required an additional 68TWh of gas, which is equivalent to 7.4 million homes’ gas use for the entire winter, or 78 tankers of liquified natural gas (LNG).
The figures also showed that during winter so far renewables have displaced the equivalent of a quarter of UK annual gas demand for power, 16 per cent of UK net gas imports, and a fifth of what the country imports via pipelines.
The ECIU’s findings mirror similar reports earlier this month from National Grid, which confirmed more than half the UK’s electricity came from zero carbon sources across five months last year.
The data further underscores how renewables have played a critical role in bolstering UK energy security and curbing energy bills at a time when wholesale gas prices have hit record highs and governments across Europe have had to rush to secure gas imports to replace imports from Russia.
“Wind has chosen a good year to overtake gas given how expensive gas has become and questions around its security of supply,” said Jess Ralston, head of energy at ECIU. “As the wind industry expands alongside the rapid growth of battery storage, ever more of the electricity we use is homegrown but also plentiful enough to export. Speeding up investment in our power grid will enable more of this cheap, natural energy to flow to homes, so bringing down bills.”
The ECIU report also found that other sources of low carbon generation, such as nuclear and biomass, generated 20TWh over the winter period where using gas power plants instead would require 39TWh more gas – equivalent to 15 per cent of annual UK gas demand for power.
In addition, the report confirmed that battery storage capacity was up five-fold from last winter and currently stands at 2.5GW. The report estimated that the UK’s grid battery capacity is now sufficient to provide support to the grid during times of tight supply equivalent to around two nuclear power stations.
The pipeline of battery storage projects in the UK has doubled between 2021 and 2022 according to figures from RenewableUK, meaning the sector is already set to exceed the National Grid’s expectations for 2035. According to research from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy the UK’s pumped hydro storage capacity is also set to rise by 130 per cent to 6.6GW.
ECIU’s Winter Power Tracker also highlighted how the UK still uses gas for around 40 per cent of its power generation and 85 per cent of home heating and as a result has a higher level of gas dependency than any other country in Europe. According to the International Monetary Fund, the UK’s high level of gas dependency combined with the fact the country has some of the least efficient housing stock in Europe has meant that UK households have faced some of the worst energy bill increases.
However, the increase in renewables generation has also been found to limit wholesale electricity costs, partly by displacing expensive gas power plants that would otherwise set higher prices and partly through the use of Contracts for Difference (CfDs) that have capped the price of renewable power even as wholesale prices have risen sharply.
The CfD regime is returning around £65 per household this winter, which the ECIU said equates to around £1.9bn in total, of which £1.1bn is paid directly to households with a further £800m helping to curb the cost to the Treasury of its price freeze package.
And yet we still pay for ALL our electricity at the most expensive rate…
So… shouldn’t that result in a cheaper energy cost?
There are multiple reasons why renewables are not a simple panacea for electricity supply around the world:
* the weather-dependence problem,
* the energy storage problem,
* the end-of-life replacement and recycling problem,
* the land-area problem,
* the materials-of-construction and scarcity problem,
Over the last few weeks, wind has been supplying a pretty consistent 16-20GW toward the total ~35GW demand.
Unfortunately with the start of the current cold snap, demand went up to 40-45GW for extra heating while at the same time wind output dropped down to ~10GW.
Its still good that we were able to displace so much FF usage this winter, but the variability needs to be addressed.
imagine what we could have done if either:
a) boomers hadn’t cried about wind farms
b) we harnessed the monumental energy of Brexit into something else actually productive, like sorting out clean energy (or literally anything)
thanks boomers.
Good thing we’re only responsible for 2% of global greenhouse emissions.
Great to see so many people forced into heat poverty so we could get that to 1.9998% ! Excellent trade.
Renewables aren’t always productive they might be doing well now but when they’re not we end up burning more to stabilise the supply.
10 comments
Great news!
But I’m a little confused as a lot of the anti-Tory brigade tell me the government aren’t doing anything to help us move to clean energy?
main question for most people is the cost. green isn’t on everyones mind, cost is.
It’s behind a paywall by the looks of things so if anyone is curious I’ll C+P it here (you can often use way back machine to bypass a paywall if that helps anyone else)
New ECIU analysis shows how record generation from renewables meant UK was able to avoid 78 LNG tankers worth of gas imports
Renewables has overtaken gas to become the biggest single source of power on the UK grid so far this winter, with power generated by wind, hydro and solar reaching a record 34TWh from 1 October 2022 to 13 January 2023.
That is the headline finding from the latest edition of the Energy Climate and Intelligence Unit’s (ECIU) Winter Power Tracker, which found that renewables have produced 2TWh more electricity than gas over the winter months to date.
According to the analysis, generating the same amount of power using gas power stations alone would have required an additional 68TWh of gas, which is equivalent to 7.4 million homes’ gas use for the entire winter, or 78 tankers of liquified natural gas (LNG).
The figures also showed that during winter so far renewables have displaced the equivalent of a quarter of UK annual gas demand for power, 16 per cent of UK net gas imports, and a fifth of what the country imports via pipelines.
The ECIU’s findings mirror similar reports earlier this month from National Grid, which confirmed more than half the UK’s electricity came from zero carbon sources across five months last year.
The data further underscores how renewables have played a critical role in bolstering UK energy security and curbing energy bills at a time when wholesale gas prices have hit record highs and governments across Europe have had to rush to secure gas imports to replace imports from Russia.
“Wind has chosen a good year to overtake gas given how expensive gas has become and questions around its security of supply,” said Jess Ralston, head of energy at ECIU. “As the wind industry expands alongside the rapid growth of battery storage, ever more of the electricity we use is homegrown but also plentiful enough to export. Speeding up investment in our power grid will enable more of this cheap, natural energy to flow to homes, so bringing down bills.”
The ECIU report also found that other sources of low carbon generation, such as nuclear and biomass, generated 20TWh over the winter period where using gas power plants instead would require 39TWh more gas – equivalent to 15 per cent of annual UK gas demand for power.
In addition, the report confirmed that battery storage capacity was up five-fold from last winter and currently stands at 2.5GW. The report estimated that the UK’s grid battery capacity is now sufficient to provide support to the grid during times of tight supply equivalent to around two nuclear power stations.
The pipeline of battery storage projects in the UK has doubled between 2021 and 2022 according to figures from RenewableUK, meaning the sector is already set to exceed the National Grid’s expectations for 2035. According to research from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy the UK’s pumped hydro storage capacity is also set to rise by 130 per cent to 6.6GW.
ECIU’s Winter Power Tracker also highlighted how the UK still uses gas for around 40 per cent of its power generation and 85 per cent of home heating and as a result has a higher level of gas dependency than any other country in Europe. According to the International Monetary Fund, the UK’s high level of gas dependency combined with the fact the country has some of the least efficient housing stock in Europe has meant that UK households have faced some of the worst energy bill increases.
However, the increase in renewables generation has also been found to limit wholesale electricity costs, partly by displacing expensive gas power plants that would otherwise set higher prices and partly through the use of Contracts for Difference (CfDs) that have capped the price of renewable power even as wholesale prices have risen sharply.
The CfD regime is returning around £65 per household this winter, which the ECIU said equates to around £1.9bn in total, of which £1.1bn is paid directly to households with a further £800m helping to curb the cost to the Treasury of its price freeze package.
And yet we still pay for ALL our electricity at the most expensive rate…
So… shouldn’t that result in a cheaper energy cost?
There are multiple reasons why renewables are not a simple panacea for electricity supply around the world:
* the weather-dependence problem,
* the energy storage problem,
* the end-of-life replacement and recycling problem,
* the land-area problem,
* the materials-of-construction and scarcity problem,
* Frequency problem
You can see how much of the national demand is being met by the various different sources here: https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/homepage?&_k=ldqgo7
Over the last few weeks, wind has been supplying a pretty consistent 16-20GW toward the total ~35GW demand.
Unfortunately with the start of the current cold snap, demand went up to 40-45GW for extra heating while at the same time wind output dropped down to ~10GW.
Its still good that we were able to displace so much FF usage this winter, but the variability needs to be addressed.
imagine what we could have done if either:
a) boomers hadn’t cried about wind farms
b) we harnessed the monumental energy of Brexit into something else actually productive, like sorting out clean energy (or literally anything)
thanks boomers.
Good thing we’re only responsible for 2% of global greenhouse emissions.
Great to see so many people forced into heat poverty so we could get that to 1.9998% ! Excellent trade.
Renewables aren’t always productive they might be doing well now but when they’re not we end up burning more to stabilise the supply.