| World news Wales Consortium unveils plans for £1.7 billion lagoon project in Wales
Plans for a £1.7 billion project in Swansea, Wales, that will include a newly-designed tidal lagoon, featuring state-of-the-art underwater turbines generating 320MW of renewable energy from the 9.5km structure, have been unveiled by an international consortium. The Blue Eden project – which will be delivered in three phases
over 12 years – is being led by Bridgend-based DST Innovations and a number of business partners, with support from Swansea Council and Associated British Ports. The project will include a number of facilities, including a 60,000
square metre manufacturing plant to make high-tech batteries for renewable energy storage and a battery facility that will store the renewable energy produced at Blue Eden and power the site. If constructed now, it would be the world’s largest facility of its kind The project would also include a 72,000 square metre floating solar array anchored in the Queen’s dock area; a 94,000 square metre data centre; an oceanic and climate change research centre; residential waterfront homes for 5,000 people; and approximately 150 floating, highly energy-efficient eco-homes anchored in the water Blue Eden will be sited along an extensive area of land and water,
to the south of the Prince of Wales Dock in the SA1 area of Swansea. All the project’s buildings and facilities, including the eco-homes, will be situated alongside the lagoon and will utilise and enhance the existing land in the area. Blue Eden will create over 2,500 permanent jobs and support a further 16,000 jobs across Wales and the UK, while creating additional jobs during its construction. Renewable energy produced on site will power the entire Blue Eden
development, including businesses and a mixed development of affordable housing, assisted living areas and luxury apartments. Due to the innovation on-site, each home will have up to 20 years’ renewable energy and heat provision included with the sale of the properties. “Blue Eden is an opportunity to create a template for the world
to follow - utilising renewable energy and maximising new technologies and thinking to develop not only a place to live and work, but also to thrive,” commented Tony Miles, Co-founder and Chief Executive of DST Innovations. Subject to planning consent, Blue Eden work on site could start by early 2023.
Sweden
Uniper installs battery systems at hydro plants Uniper is to install two new battery systems with a total capacity of 12MW at the Bodum and Fjällsjö hydropower plants in Jämtland, Sweden The new installations follow the commissioning earlier this year of two battery systems at the Edsele power plant in Ångermanland and the Lövön power plant in Jämtland, with a total installed capacity of approximately 21MW. Shareholder Fortum has similar installations at Forshuvudforsen and Landaforsen with a total capacity of 6 MW. In a statement, the firms said these investments make Uniper and Fortum the leading players in innovative hybrid systems with the combination of batteries and hydropower. This combination prevents poorer electricity quality and, in the worst case, extensive power outages. Hydropower is responsible for electricity storage, and the battery for rapid frequency adjustment. Thanks to hydropower, the battery doesn´t need to have such a large storage capacity. “As weather-dependent electricity production
is expanded, the need to utilize hydropower’s regulatory capacity also increases. With our battery system in Sweden, we can make better use of the flexibility of hydropower and thus increase the stability of the electricity system”, said David Bryson, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Uniper.
Johan Svenningsson, CEO of Uniper Sweden, addeds: “So far, the battery technology has shown great potential and our first operating season has more than met our expectations. Now we are anxious to continue the expansion. We will start the installations at Bodum and
Fjällsjö already in October, in order to be able to use the batteries fully in connection with the spring flood next year.”
Uniper said it is not only in Sweden that it sees
a market for the new battery system. The plan is a broader implementation in Europe where Uniper and Fortum are operating power plants. The battery system will be delivered by the engineering and technology company Nidec Industrial Solutions (NIS), which is part of the Nidec Group.
Global
COP26: a pledge to cut global methane emissions
Leaders of 103 countries have signed a deal brokered by the EU and USA to reduce methane emissions by 30 % by the end of the decade. If fully implemented, the pledge could limit global warming by about 0.2 – 0.3 degC by 2050. The agreement was initiated by the USA and the EU, which announced an international partnership, the Global Methane Pledge, to cut emissions of the GHG methane by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and responsible for a third of current warming from human activities. There has been a growing focus on tackling methane as a way of buying extra time to tackle climate change. “We cannot wait for 2050,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the summit. “We have to cut emissions fast.” The pledge covers countries which emit nearly half of all methane, and make up 70% of global GDP. The main focus in the short-term will be the fossil fuel industry, because most of the curbs can be achieved at little or no cost. And the
potential benefits are huge - scientists believe it could help the world avoid 0.3 degC of warming by 2040. The agreement is seen as very encouraging, and a sign of increasingly serious commitment to the cause globally. But there are some significant barriers to full implementation. Major emitters Russia, China and India have so far declined to take part. And all the commitments are voluntary.
US Black & Veatch named Owner’s Engineer on Hawaiian pumped storage project AES Clean Energy (AES) has selected Black & Veatch as owner’s engineer for the pumped storage and hydropower portion of the West Kaua‘i Energy Project. Located on the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i,
the West Kaua‘i Energy Project (WKEP) is an integrated renewable energy and irrigation project that includes energy production with pumped storage hydropower, conventional hydropower, solar photovoltaic generation and battery energy storage. WKEP is a key component in the state’s decarbonization plans, as it will move Kaua‘i to more than 80% renewable generation and fulfill up to 25% of the island’s energy needs. The pumped storage portion of the project will pump water from the lower Mana Reservoir to the upper Pu‘u ‘Opae Reservoir using energy production from the solar PV portion of the project. During the evening peak, nighttime and morning peak hours (as well as during periods of rainy or cloudy weather), water will be sent back to the lower reservoir via gravity penstock
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