Is there anything being done on a large scale with renewable energy uk?

[MyDogLovesBiscuits]

Like solar panelling etc.

I remember a few years back solar energy was the in thing and people were being offered grants to put solar panels in but I'm talking on a large scale.

There are a handful of cities adopting the renewable energy routes and it's left me wondering a few things really.

Is it sustainable for example, could it be something that could alleviate the energy bill hike/crisis this year, and if there is anything similar planned for cities in the UK?

200+ onshore turbines either in planning or approved on the 30-mile stretch of coast I live on. DH works in the nuclear industry and reckons fusion will be working in the next 20 years.

Solar is viable here due to air clarity. It might be very sunny in Saudi Arabia or even Spain but due to the arid climate it is also very dusty and sandy. The air isn't as clear and the arrays get covered in it.

Check out the proposed Blue Eden in Swansea:

renews.biz/73113/new-tidal-lagoon-planned-for-swansea/

Large scale may not be the answer, apparently. Local sites for local needs and larger for industry might be the preferred way forward.

But then again...

Useful info here:

windeurope.org/intelligence-platform/product/

Look for Gridwatch and you can see where the energy comes from.

Tories got rid of all the schemes and replaced them largely with ones very few people qualify for or that are still very expensive after receiving a government grant

I suppose there wasn't enough firms run by their families, mates and donors to justify extending the old schemes.

I don’t understand why the building regs haven’t changed to make better insulation / heat pumps / solar panels etc compulsory on new builds.
Yes I know it will add to building costs, but it’s much cheaper to include them during a build than it is to retrofit.

@Daftasabroom, do you know of any scalable action happening on heat pumps? They have a £10k installation price, plus maintenance that is out of the reach of poorer families. I am skeptical we will be able to roll them out in time to hit net zero without a massive push to reduce costs.

Fair enough on the hydrogen - I just know it's been mentioned by industry bods as we might be able to adapt our existing network.

Where i live there is a company planning to put a solar farm on what was a landfill site, great except it will destroy wildlife habitat that is used by breeding and rare birds / bats and other wildlife. Currently in discussions with them about how to achieve it and preserve as much as possible, not going well to be honest as they obviously want to make money from it and reducing its size will mean it is not worth it financially 😟 we can only hope that keeping discussions going will allow for some sort of compromises.

@igivein

I don’t understand why the building regs haven’t changed to make better insulation / heat pumps / solar panels etc compulsory on new builds. Yes I know it will add to building costs, but it’s much cheaper to include them during a build than it is to retrofit.

Yes this. The site i was talking about is right next to a huge new build estate not a single property on it has a solar panel on its roof.

@TheABC the installed cost of heat pumps shouldn't be £10k it'll come down as they become more common. At the moment it's a niche system with niche pricing.

Up to 20% hydrogen can mixed in to the existing gas infrastructure but that's not a long term solution. Hydrogen has a very low volumetric energy density at atmospheric pressure and our existing network isn't designed to run anything like the kind of pressures required to make it feasible.

At the end of the day why would you use electricity to make hydrogen at 80% efficiency then burn it at 80% efficiency, so 64% net, when a heat pump is 300% efficient. Almost 5x as efficient.

@StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes small scale solar is incredibly inefficient, domestic grids really aren't designed to cope with incoming electricity. The installation and maintenance of small solar arrays are really expensive per kW produced.

[quote Daftasabroom]@StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes small scale solar is incredibly inefficient, domestic grids really aren't designed to cope with incoming electricity. The installation and maintenance of small solar arrays are really expensive per kW produced.[/quote]
Ah thanks, just seemed like a wasted opportunity.

If every house built from now on had to have its own solar panels and a heat pump surely the houses could be self sufficient. Even a battery or two to store its own power.

Makes sense to me anyway. All older houses should be given grants to at least install solar too. It cuts electric bills for the person in the house and is better for the environment.

@igivein Part L of the building regs is coming in for June 22 where there is a 31% reduction in carbon emissions required and a 15% uplift in fabric energy efficiency (ie the performance of the main building materials taken over the whole dwelling). In practice, this does mean all new builds will require some form of renewables. And this is just an interim step to 2025 where new dwellings will be 75-80% below today's carbon emission levels with the gap to 100% being taken up by the decarbonisation of the grid (offshore wind farms etc etc).

Stuff is being done for new builds finally. After Cameron's "greenest government ever" scrapped zero carbon targets for 2016. It's the existing stock that's the problem. Plus availability of heat pumps and installers.

@Horst see my previous post re small scale solar, it really doesn't work very well.

Yes solar power is still viable in UK winters - it doesn’t require blazing sunshine to work, just daylight.

It generates some electricity but a tiny amount in comparison to the power that blazing sunshine does.

@AyeRobot that’s encouraging news

Hello. Popping in to let you know that we're doing a Q&A with fuel poverty charity National Energy Action about these energy price hikes on Wednesday 23rd Feb at 12 noon. The thread is now open for questions here.

Severn Estuary Tidal power is a great idea but always blocked on the grounds of ecological impact to some birds and the such...