Solar Power Record–But What About The Winter?
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By Paul Homewood
We’ll no doubt see many headlines like this, every day we get a bit of sunshine this summer:
A record amount of solar power was generated on Friday as Britain basked in sunshine and temperatures of up to 28C, the National Grid has said.
It said 8.7 gigawatts (GW) had been generated at lunchtime, representing 24.3% of total generation across the UK.
The level tops the previous record of 8.48GW set on 10 May.
Duncan Burt, head of control room operations at National Grid, called it the "beginning of a new era".
"We now have significant volumes of renewable energy on the system," he said. "We also have the tools available to ensure we can balance supply and demand."
Alongside the contribution from solar, 23% of power came from nuclear sources, 30% from natural gas and just 1.4% from coal.
Wind, hydro power and biomass were also used.
A National Grid spokeswoman said the record level of solar power was achieved largely because of to the clear and sunny weather on Friday.
She added that it would have been significantly harder to reach if it had been cloudy.
Britain has been getting more of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar, as it seeks to meet European Union targets and phase out coal power plants.
However, environmentalists have criticised the government’s decision to cut subsidies to the solar power industry in 2015.
Hannah Martin, head of energy for Greenpeace in the UK, said: "Today’s new record is a reminder of what the UK could achieve if our government reversed its cuts to support for solar.
"All around the world, solar power keeps beating new records as costs come down and power generation goes up."
As usual with the BBC, they don’t tell you the full story. Although solar power peaked at 12.30, it quickly fell away, and by 5pm was only generating 4GW.
To make up for this variability, CCGT had to be ramped up and down.
Interestingly, according to the PV_Live website run by Sheffield University, installed capacity is 12.06 GW, so even the record peak yesterday only generated at 74% of capacity.
As for cloudy days, the chart below shows how irregular daily peak generation has been over the last month.
But the real story with solar power is that it produces virtually nothing during winter months, when power is most required.
Solar rarely got above 10 GWh/day during last December and January, averaging 8.6 GHW/day.
According to BEIS data, demand in Q1 averaged 1.03 TWh/day ( and doubtlessly would have peaked higher in January). In other words, solar power, at best, contributes 0.8% of demand in the depths of winter.
Given that no practical technology exists to store enough surplus solar power in summer months for use in winter, solar remains no more than an expensive irrelevance.
SOURCE
All charts from Sheffield Solar:
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May 27, 2017 at 12:18AM
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