Grids & Integration

With COP24 climate change meeting looming, a German-led e-mobility and renewable energy alliance has signalled it is time for elected members to start delivering on carbon emission reductions before we pass the point of no return.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten announced the party’s ‘all of the above’ plan for Australia’s energy sector. A ramped-up National Energy Guarantee, project auctions under a CfD structure, grid infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and a boost to battery storage all feature.

The Spanish government’s zeal in reducing electricity market prices can hit investment in renewable projects, which need stability. pv magazine interviewed Antonio Delgado Rigal, a doctor in artificial intelligence and founding Partner and CEO of AleaSoft, to discuss market equilibrium, the impact on electricity prices of the measures applied and announced by the government, and the appropriate transformation of the energy model.

The U.K. is helping islands in Scotland and the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian oceans, make the switch from dirty diesel generators to renewables. In the former, community-owned renewable systems are ensuring 24 hour energy supply, while in the latter, a new renewable energy analytics platform is set to help identify the optimum energy mix for six islands.

Even in its low ball scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) imagines that installed solar PV capacity will overtake that of all other forms of energy apart from gas by 2040. Overall, it presents four scenarios in its 2018 World Energy Outlook, which show a changing energy landscape. While it finds that CO2 levels are, perversely, on the rise, and that many energy efforts in all but the most whimsical of its forecasts are far behind those needed to seriously address global warming, it still imagines coal, oil and gas playing a leading role in our energy mix going forward. It also sees “dramatic” transformation in the electricity sector. Long story short: Read something else if you want to take real climate action. We suggest The Drawdown.

The rise of batteries will attract that headline figure in investment up to 2040, say analysts, as exponential growth in EV ownership, falling stationery system costs and the needs of the world’s grid-poor regions combine to boost lithium-ion technology.

A report published today by U.K.-headquartered energy company Drax says that, for the first time ever, total generation capacity available from renewables has overtaken that of fossil fuels on Britain’s electric grid.

While the timelines for PV plant execution and completion of the manufacturing facilities required by the tender are now more realistic, production obligations – especially related to capacity utilization – need to be revisited.

At an event in London, a new tool was presented which lets the user track the UK storage landscape. The market is gaining traction amidst disfavourable policies for solar PV and other renewables from Westminster. The UK’s storage portfolio seems to be growing rapidly.

Testing lithium-ion, redox flow, and sodium-sulfur technologies, EPC provider CMI Energy wants to establish which types of system, or which combinations, are most suitable for different applications using the 4.2 MWh facility.