A few developments of interest on the renewables front this month: first of all, engineers at Highview Power Storage demonstrated their long-awaited and smaller-scale Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) technology. Then, the Co-operative edged closer to its aim of bringing a clean energy revolution to communities across the UK  by pledging funding and support and Tim Yeo, chairman of the Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Committee, called on the Government to work towards reinstating the UK’s pole position as an exporter of wave and tidal power.

Is liquid air storage the answer to unreliable wind energy?

Earlier this month, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Imeche) became the platform for the launch of the UK’s first demonstrable LAES technology, hailed as the answer to the highlighted weaknesses of wind energy. The fact that turbines produce too much energy when there is heavy much wind and not enough on still days renders them highly inefficient and expensive to operate. Wind farm producers are compensated for switching off turbines in high wind conditions and this is said to have cost the UK consumer £24 million in 2011.

How the technology works is that LAES takes electricity from the grid at peak times, such as on windy days, and uses it to cool air until it liquefies at 196 degrees Celsius. The liquid air is then stored, cheaply and safely, under pressure until it is needed and when brought back to normal temperature it turns back into gas, expands by 700 times and is rushed through a turbine. This then creates electricity, which can be fed into the grid.

UK company Highview Power Storage has been developing the technology in association with Imeche for the past five years and recently completed a successful year-long pilot – the first LAES plant in the world – connected to the National Grid and hosted by Scottish and Southern Energy in Slough, Berkshire, UK.

The energy storage market is said to be worth some $100 billion over the next ten years and could create 100,000 jobs.

Other companies have focused on Battery energy storage using Lithium Ion batteries, which although quick and viable, have been found to be limited and unable to scale to the degree required. Other technologies such as pumped hydro need green belt space and billions of litres of water.

Co-op gives to community renewable energy projects

The Co-operative has pledged £1 million to renewable energy projects run by local communities.

The Community Energy Challenge is an initiative that has set out to summon local community energy co-operatives to come up with ideas for renewable generation. It will offer six to eight of the most ambitious finance and support to get them off the ground.

UK could be the world-leading exporter of wave and tidal power

So say MPs on the Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Committee. It makes sense, as we are and island nation, that the UK could take the lead when it comes to exploiting the power of the sea but is being number one in the world enough of an incentive to get Government and industry backing?

Earlier this month, the Government was called to increase its support for wave and tidal power in a new report from MPs warning that the country is at risk of repeating mistakes, which allowed it to lose its early lead in the development of the wind power industry.

Currently, seven out of eight full-scale prototype marine energy installations worldwide are in UK waters, making us the current world leader in the development of wave and tidal energy technologies.

Marine power could provide as much as 27GW of capacity in the UK by 2050.

An over cautious approach by the Government, say MPs, may allow other, less risk averse countries to steal the UK’s lead. The industry is worried that Government plans for subsidies for marine and tidal only extend to 2017, thus leaving them vulnerable in the future.

According to The Carbon Trust, the first commercial wave farms are likely to deliver energy costing 38-48p/kWh and the first tidal farms 29-33p/kWh, which will require a subsidy if anyone is to be persuaded to pay the premium tariff required to fund investment payback. Obviously, costs will fall as the technology matures but even so, at those prices it will take a while for this to happen.

Whatever form of power generation your supply is made up of, and if you rely on electrical equipment for your very commercial survival, you will need adequate and reliable power protection and that means a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and generator, or some form of protection and back up system (flywheel UPS, fuel cell, batteries, capacitor). To found out more and view our full range of products and systems, visit Riello UPS’s website.

Supergrid Across Europe Needed to Revolutionise Renewable Energy

Europe is the world leader in renewable energy generation but to overcome the problem of supply reliability, without having to resort to traditional fossil fuelled power stations, a Europe-wide supergrid is required to link several diverse sources of renewable energy onto one electrical grid. When a wind farm cannot supply power on a windless day, a solar farm might be able to compensate, for example. It would also reduce power prices for consumers and make supplies more secure.

Such a grid, however, requires long-term thinking, joined up international politics and huge investment, which is unlikely in the current economic climate.

Security of electricity supply can be mitigated by installing UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and an alternative source of onsite standby power, such as a diesel generator. There are many different types of system to suit every different sort of application, criticality of load and financial budget. More information is available on Riello’s website.

It looks like controversial American entrepreneur Donald Trump’s plans for redeveloping a site on North East Scotland’s coast have been thwarted by the proposed installation of eleven wind turbines in Aberdeen Bay.

Mr Trump met with opposition from locals when he revealed plans some years ago to buy land, and a section of coastline in the area, to build a high-end, luxury golf course, grand hotel and executive housing. His plans were subsequently approved and building has started on the golf course.

BBC News Scotland reported that work has now halted on the development as Trump awaits the outcome of planning approval for the Wind Farm installation. Mr Trump has said openly and in a letter to First Minister Alex Salmond that the turbines would spoil the sea views for his customers.

The European Offshore Wind Development Centre is a £150m joint venture by utility company Vattenfall, engineering firm Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group.

The plans took a step forward this week when councillors approved the consortium’s submission to Marine Scotland.

Wind farms on land can be unpopular. Many home owners view them as ugly, a blight on the landscape, noisy and unpleasant, which is one reason why basing them out at sea makes sense. At Riello UPS, we are keeping an open mind about all manner of renewable energy sources, particularly solar, as a key part of the future of energy generation and power protection.

Scottish Wind Farms Receive Record Constraints Payments

Wind power has received mixed coverage of late. First of all, Scottish online newspaper Scotsman.com ran an article last week reporting that wind farm operators in Scotland received more than £14 million in the past two years in return for switching off their turbines at times of high power generation.

To balance things out, however, the story was brought to light by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that has publicly spoken out in the past against wind farms.

REF released information that said that since 2010, a system of ‘constraint payments’ has been operated by The National Grid to compensate wind farms if they are taken off the grid when it cannot cope with high supply.

A spokesperson from Scottish Renewables stated that constraints payments are paid to all electricity generators, including coal and gas power stations and not just wind farms. Such payments are a standard practice in that suppliers are paid not to generate at times of lower than expected demand or when there is congestion on the grid.

At Riello UPS, we see renewables, of all types, as a key part of of the future energy generation landscape and are continuing to develop products and solutions that enable customers to take full advantage of those technologies alongside ensuring power protection for critical applications.

The Confederation of British Industry worries the proposed Carbon Price Floor will drive big business out of the UK

On 12^th July, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne delivered his much-anticipated white paper on Electricity Market Reform (EMR). Setting out coalition measures to keep the lights on, consumer bills down and shift the economy away from a high-risk, high-carbon future.

Here at Riello, we feel it’s our duty to comment on energy market issues.

Key elements of the reform package, as we understand it, include:

• The introduction of a Carbon Price Floor (essentially a regulatory/taxation policy demanding polluters pay a minimum amount of money to pollute). The aim is to reduce investor uncertainty, put a fair price on carbon and provide a stronger incentive to invest in low-carbon generation.

• The introduction of new long-term contracts to provide stable, financial incentives to invest in all forms of low-carbon electricity generation.

• Introduction of an emissions performance standard (EPS) set at 450g CO2/kWh to reinforce the requirement that no new coal-fired power stations are built and to ensure the necessary investment in gas.

• Development of a capacity mechanism, which will safeguard future security of energy supply.

The Government intends to legislate for the key elements of the EMR in 2012 and for it to reach the statue book by spring 2013.

Since the reforms were announced, there has been a backlash of criticism (unsurprisingly) from the Labour party but also from the UK business sector. Research by the Federation of Small Businesses highlights that 81% of small firms are worried about the rising cost of energy and are concerned that electricity generators will pass on to them the extra costs associated with EMR.

Small businesses consume similar amounts of energy as do domestic energy users but they do not receive the same regulatory safeguards and are unable to negotiate contracts the way larger companies can.

Any investment in new technology in electricity generation and distribution infrastructure is bound to result in price increases, especially as electricity is such a necessary commodity. Some of this is unfair i.e: generators hiking up prices to capitalise on market demand, but some is necessary: we desperately need new investment in what is essentially an outdated national grid. So, in my view, businesses large and small need to put their focus on using less energy rather than hoping for prices to fall in the fulness of time.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of British Industry, which represents 240,000 businesses, is worried that the Carbon Floor Price (which puts £16 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted on to large businesses) will drive manufacturing, engineering and industry out of the UK.

There is still a lot to be decided before the new reforms start to bite but one thing is clear; energy costs will continue to rise, which is why many companies are now taking measures to reduce energy consumption and install new energy efficient technologies. Today’s UPS are highly efficient. Check out our energy efficiency figures.