Our routes to the future?
The UK’s first female Prime Minister, a chemistry graduate, emphasised the dangers of Global Warming a generation ago. Although one British oil company immediately developed a solar power initiative, it took 30 years for the costs of photovoltaic solar and wind power to fall below the level of power from fossil fuels. A transition to renewable energy now makes economic sense.
Both PVsolar and wind, together with energy storage (for periods of windless darkness), are needed for full transition. Storage is now the main challenge. Pumped-water storage and battery farms are solutions for power grids but with impacts on ecosystems. Smaller batteries suit individual households, which can export stored excess energy to help balance the grid during peak demand at 5-10pm. Electric vehicles (EVs) reduce air-pollution and have scope to supplement domestic storage when wind powers the grid at night. Yet although 5% of the UK’s 28 million households now have solarPV, only one in 10,000 has a battery. Addressing three current issues could greatly accelerate our transition to renewable energy.
1. District network operator bureaucracy requires pre-approval of all equipment. DNOs should require only registration online (not approval case by case) for schemes up to 16 Amp (3.68 kW), including MCS-fitted1 equipment for guaranteed maximum loads (by rapid switching to earth when power generation is high and home storage full).
2. Electricity companies pay for exports only by special contracts; some pay nothing. All should buy exports with generous standard & peak tariffs if they have removed old rotary meters. Old meters assess exports at import tariff2, so keep that meter! Households can then repay the cost of PVsolar systems in 5-10 years.
3. In UK, only Wales and Scotland require PVsolar on new build despite low cost. England subsidises expensive heat pumps, which increase grid load. PVsolar generates electricity and (with storage) can help grid load at peak. With costs of PV, batteries and electric heating (of air or water) falling faster than heat pumps, this option should be funded too.
The challenges in transition to alternative energy are mainly in terms of governance, but there is also a great deal for individuals to contribute. Does your home have as much insulation as it should? Is all your lighting LED? Are you considering an EV?
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1 Fitted by electricians with Certificates for the Microgeneration Scheme
2 Old meters with a rotating spindle can run backwards, so that energy generated on site in sunshine offsets that used at night.
Towards a Hydrogen Society?
Britain was a leading player in early work to store renewable energy as hydrogen, encouraged by about 80% of households being on mains gas, which was earlier up to 60% hydrogen. Electricity from sun or wind can produce 'green hydrogen’ by electrolysis, to be stored at community level and used in three ways:
(i) for electricity again, in fuel cells for vehicles or domestic heat-&-power;
(ii) burned in domestic gas supplies for cooking and heating;
(iii) as a feedstock for producing liquid syn-fuels (e.g. methanol).
Unfortunately, the cost of electrolysis systems has not fallen as fast as expected and must be added to the costs of storing green hydrogen, but ‘white hydrogen’ below ground in some countries may help bridge the gap. Further useful information is available in reports from the UK Hydrogen Energy Association. In the meantime, nuclear power is also available to handle intermittency issues. Indeed, Britain continues state-funded and private work on fusion reactor technology, to give nuclear power with less radioactive waste than from fission reactors. There is also encouraging smart-grid development at community level.
A wider challenge is to persuade citizens to transition globally. Countries need to be prosperous enough to make transition affordable for citizens. Wars, whether with projectiles or trade, do not help. Wealthy countries need to focus aid carefully, on providing technology affordable in poor communities, along with economic governance to support its adoption. Risks for nature of turbine impact, power lines and field-based PV need considering. Is it worth reducing food security with PVsolar and batteries on agricultural land when energy generated and stored at home can benefit energy security and encourage support for wider climate policies?