Great Day today for the wind farms :-) and Solar :-)

Octopus have given a free hour this week, 3 times IIRC. As demand was low, any power used - more than your norm- was free.
 
nog said:
Octopus have given a free hour this week, 3 times IIRC. As demand was low, any power used - more than your norm- was free.
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The cost to generate is so low £1.81/mwh
 
Noticed many turbines around me lately have been static, wind speed too high?
 
mj4456 said:
Noticed many turbines around me lately have been static, wind speed too high?
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i do wonder if when there is so much wind they must have to switch some turbines off , i mean you cant ramp down nuclear quickly and overseas input/output needs to be stable so maybe.
 
Decent day today but we really need those new wind farms to be springing up now !

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The United Kingdom is making waves in the offshore wind market and renewable energy goals. The country’s aim to increase the offshore wind energy capacity to 50 GW by 2030 and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is on the right track with the upcoming projects. Major projects like Hornsea 3, East Anglia Hub, Berwick Bank, West of Orkney, and Ossian can power millions of homes and contribute significantly to reducing carbon emissions. Collaboration with industry leaders and meticulous planning like strengthening the supply chain and creating job opportunities are key aspects of these upcoming offshore wind farm projects.
 
mj4456 said:
Noticed many turbines around me lately have been static, wind speed too high?
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I'm told they only generate power between about 8mph and 45mph, they disengage and feather when the wind reaches the max speed. It does vary from make to make a bit.
 
swanseamale47 said:
I'm told they only generate power between about 8mph and 45mph, they disengage and feather when the wind reaches the max speed. It does vary from make to make a bit.
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I've heard similar but I wonder if that applies to more modern turbines. I've noticed a high corelation between strong winds and free electricity here on the breezy South Coast. Far higher than the correlation with sunny days.
 
swanseamale47 said:
I'm told they only generate power between about 8mph and 45mph, they disengage and feather when the wind reaches the max speed. It does vary from make to make a bit.
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nope they have very clever gearboxes that increase/decrease gearing as the blades spins up/down so they keep the speed within a certain range, like an alternator taking on load.
not sure about stopped turbines though, maybe just not needed, or awaiting checks or service.
not all turbines run all the time it does depend on the requirements of the grid, recently we have had huge
amounts of solar. also remember we cannot throttle back nuclear it runs at a certain load all the time.
i suspect recently we may have actually been way oversubscribed with renewables.
 
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@swanseamale47 if you look back at my first post below you will see we were actually maxed out on renewables some days

23rd August 2024

Nuclear was at its standard base load
Fossil on tick over
import/exports pretty neutral
pumping water for hydro

at times like this some wind will be shut down.
our current flat out wind capacity is 28GW/H so as you can see below we were only using 14GW/H barely half as there was so much solar in use.

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Lovely windy day 50% just that alone
16.8GW/H output
seeing on our max capacity at the moment is about 28GW/H
and will rise to 50GW/H by 2030 Wind is going to get us away from carbon :)

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What a Whopping renewable day :)
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Interesting article here on the problems this causes.

Subscribe to read

www.ft.com www.ft.com

Tl;Dr: we are often generating so much green power that the generators have to pay people to take it away. This reduces people's excitement about investing......

Meanwhile it's now about 18 months since I changed my octopus DD to £5 (the lowest they will allow). 18 months of gas, electricity and motoring later and I have a higher credit balance than when I started. Houses can be net self sufficient.
 
Awesome stats, but why are the bills still so high then, it was all due to Putin and Russian gas, so what gives if it's such a small percentage of the power supplied?
 
Welshwizard said:
Awesome stats, but why are the bills still so high then, it was all due to Putin and Russian gas, so what gives if it's such a small percentage of the power supplied?
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Because Tory government.......

Somebody else will have the exact version, but it's something like no matter what energy costs, you sell it as though it were generated by burning gas. So if you make cheap solar, then when gas goes up you have to sell it for more money - making enormous profits.

You could argue this has been a very effective way of incentivising investment in renewables (and look how well it has worked!) - you could also argue it's an extremely immoral way of keeping millions in fuel poverty.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Because Tory government.......

Somebody else will have the exact version, but it's something like no matter what energy costs, you sell it as though it were generated by burning gas. So if you make cheap solar, then when gas goes up you have to sell it for more money - making enormous profits.

You could argue this has been a very effective way of incentivising investment in renewables (and look how well it has worked!) - you could also argue it's an extremely immoral way of keeping millions in fuel poverty.
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Ah yes I remember reading that now. Yes, an investment in renewables, and to be fair, it is increasing rapidly and with labour removing the planning blocks about to accelerate again. But then other countries are achieving similar without huge rises in bills due to government price caps....
 
The main reasons above are accurate we keep the costs of renewable higher than it should be to encourage investment which is what is driving the country forward.
solar farms and wind farms are expensive to build just like gas powered generators and lets not talk about the most expensive power ever nuclear.

once we are over the "hump" of major investment we should start seeing reductions and also of course cleaner air.
One of the biggest problem that has set us behind was the Tory ban on wind farms from 2015 that had only been lifted, this seriously impacted the ability for growth.

They set rules where even a single person objecting could cause an entire farm to be refused, this has now been overturned.
 
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Power Behemoths Come Online
The flagship achievement this year was the start of the electricity production from the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank wind farm off the Yorkshire coast following the installation of an industry-first Haliade-X 13MW turbine, which was tested at our world leading specialist facility in Blyth, Northumberland. At 1.2 GW per phase, each of Dogger Bank’s three phases currently represents the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The first power milestone marks the first of what will eventually be 277 turbines powered-up across the project. Each of these turbines will be progressively commissioned between now and full commercial operation due in 2026. When complete, Dogger Bank will be more than two and a half times the size of the largest offshore wind farm currently in operation. 2023 also saw Scotland turning-on one of its largest, and world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm to date, the 1.1GW Seagreen offshore wind farm.
 
who doesn't love epic wind at night :)
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Another lovely "windy" night for renewable :)

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Welshwizard said:
Awesome stats, but why are the bills still so high then, it was all due to Putin and Russian gas, so what gives if it's such a small percentage of the power supplied?
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It's the way the wholesale market works. Generation capacity is bought in holf hour chunks a day in advance, Each generator bids in with the price they will accept in that 30 minute segment and the demand is filled from cheapest first, with all being paid the highest price needed to fill demand.

So if a nuclear power plant bids in at £-100/MWh for 500MWh (because it can't just be stopped and started on a whim so it wants to always have its power taken), a solar farm at £40/MWh for 300MWh and a hydroelectric plant at £5000/MWh for 100MWh and the forecast idemand is 850MWh, then all three are needed and all three are paid £5000/MWh.

If however the demand in a different time period is completely filled by suppliers that bid in negative then you get the situation where people are paid to take power from the grid as there is too much.

The wholesale market has worked this was at least since the early 1990s. There's a better explanation here which includes why reform isn't as easy as some commentators on forums make out.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Electricity market | Institute for Government

The price of natural gas continues to largely determine the price that consumers pay for electricity.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
 
wow go Wind and Solar !!!!!

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Another super windy night :)
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JonathanRyan said:
Well, quite.

There's a belief that nuclear is clean power. Which it kind of is as long as it doesn't blow up and you think very short term.
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One wonders what the carbon budget is of building something so large and technologically advanced. But I would grudgingly admit that nuclear MAY be necessary to get us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves.
 
Coal is finally gone !!!

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jerry12953 said:
One wonders what the carbon budget is of building something so large and technologically advanced. But I would grudgingly admit that nuclear MAY be necessary to get us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves.
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Nuclear is horrifically expensive to build EDF is in a lot of trouble in France as well with corrosion and has closed quite a few reactors down.
we in the UK were stupid to be building more reactors we could have used that money for so much renewable energy
 
Pulling ahead as well, go renewable !

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