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New deal announced to use British steel in local wind farms

RenewableUK and Scottish Renewables are today welcoming the announcement by Liberty House Group that it has bought a British plant to make wind turbine towers using local steel.

The plant’s equipment will be used in a new British manufacturing centre to supply the country’s leading offshore wind market and in the emerging tidal lagoon power industry.

The news is the latest in Liberty House’s ‘Green Steel’ initiative. Recently, it announced it will restart production at two Scottish steel plants, Dalzell and Clydebridge, to make onshore and offshore wind turbine towers.

RenewableUK’s Chief Executive, Hugh McNeal said “This is great news and shows how the renewable industry can provide a market for steel produced in Britain. The growth of renewables in the UK is a huge opportunity for British businesses, as high demand for quality steel has increased.”

Jenny Hogan, Director of Policy at Scottish Renewables added “Renewable energy already supports 21,000 Scottish jobs, and it’s good news that a number of those employed at steel-works in Motherwell and Cambuslang could soon be joining the industry’s supply chain.”

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“Government will drive renewables sector off cliff” warns CECA

A stark warning has been issued by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) that unless the Government amends its current approach towards the renewables sector, the industry will “fall off a cliff”, resulting in job loss and lack of growth.

The warning came as a response to the Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry into renewable energy.

CECA say that renewables play a vital role in industry growth, and that there is currently over £300m of civil engineering activity per annum in the Scottish renewable energy sector alone, which is responsible for directly employing 3,000+ workers and supporting over 11,000 jobs. Backing up this statement, recent research published by the Scottish Government indicated that renewable energy generation alone in Scotland produces enough power to supply the equivalent of every household in the country.

CECA Chief Executive, Alasdair Reisner said “CECA has long argued that the UK Government must commit to a long-term energy strategy based on a diverse energy mix that does not deter badly-needed investment to enable a safe and secure energy supply.”

“The UK Government’s policy of removing support for the renewables sector is extremely disappointing, as the sector had been making substantial progress towards cost efficiency during the lifetime of this Parliament.”

“Policy changes to date will lead to substantial job losses within the industry and its supply chains. If those skills are lost, the challenge of rapidly reskilling the sector will be extremely costly.”

“We call on the UK Government to reassess its approach to the renewables sector, adopt an evidence-based approach to renewables policy, and recognise the role it must play in providing the diverse energy portfolio the country needs.”

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Construction begins on Europe’s largest floating solar farm

Construction work has started on what will be the largest floating solar farm in Europe. Located at the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near London, the project is part of a greater effort by Thames Water to source a third of its energy from renewable methods by 2020.

Once completed in March, the floating array will boast the impressive accolade of being the second largest of its kind in the world.

In excess of 23,000 panels will be floated on the surface of the reservoir water, generating enough electricity per year to power the equivalent of around 1,800 homes. Once complete, the finished array will cover around a 10th of the reservoir’s surface area – roughly the same area as eight Wembley-sized football pitches.

Thames Water has confirmed that the renewable electricity produced by the 6.3MW floating array will be used to power a water treatment centre nearby.

Energy Manager, Angus Berry said “Becoming a more sustainable business is integral to our long term strategy and this innovative new project brings us one step closer to achieving our goal – this is the right thing for our customers, the right thing for our stakeholders and most importantly the right thing for the environment.”

The installation will require over 61,000 floats and 177 anchors to keep the array above water and in situ, and is been delivered by solar energy company Lightsource.

Chief Executive at Lightsource, Nick Boyle commented that as an increasing number of industries quite rightly turn their attention to lowering their carbon footprint, the solar industry will need to develop new skills in order to ensure that future projects deliver maximum efficiency.

“There is a great need from energy intensive industries to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as the amount they are spending on electricity and solar can be the perfect solution. Therefore, constantly evolving new skill sets to ensure that all of our projects deliver maximum energy generation over the lifetime of the installation” said Nick.

Floating solar farms are considered an efficient way to maximise renewable energy generation in areas where land is scarce, by using the normally redundant surface area on reservoirs and lakes.

The largest floating solar array is currently under construction on a reservoir in Japan. Once completed, it will provide enough clean electricity to power nearly 5,000 households.

Advocates of the approach argue it can also reduce evaporation from reservoirs, while the cooling effect of the water is said to help improve output from solar PV cells.

News of the floating array follows the recent announcement that wind turbine towers are set to reach heights of up to 170m – almost as high as the Gherkin in London, in the near future. This shows that in the world of energy, renewables continue to power ahead in terms of growth and innovation.

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Rinnai + Renewables = boosted DHW efficiency and legionella compliance

According to Chris Goggin – associate director of Rinnai UK – renewables technology paired with a continuous flow hot water heating unit can affect major efficiencies in domestic hot water provision.

We need to find ways of using current renewables technology, be it solar thermal, solar PV or heat pump technology, in a practical manner maximised by traditional fuel sources. One of the most ecological and economical methods is to design a system with primary renewable sources and supported by secondary sources such as continuous flow hot water heating.

There has been pioneering products in this category – this includes solar thermal store of hot water and both flat plate and evacuated tube collectors, each with specific benefits to suit the differing design aspects and building envelope needs. Either option will provide years of low-maintenance, low-cost energy for heating water during the summer months – and beyond.

Water heated by the solar panels is stored and technologically this is unlikely to come up to a workable temperature all year round, so the boosting of the pre-heated water to the required temperature by a secondary heat source will be a requirement. With this system it will guarantee maximum solar gain whilst optimizing gas input.

In this scenario a continuous flow water heater can be utilised as the secondary heat source to give the solar heated water the required boost.

These are hot water heating products which are intelligent, fully modulating units, giving an output range from 56kW down to 2.27kW, and only use as much gas as is needed to bring the required volume of water to temperature. For example, if the solar panel array can only achieve a temperature of 40°C within the stored water instead of the required 60°C, and there is a demand on the system of 15 litres a minute, the fully modulating intelligent Rinnai unit will increase the temperature by the required 20°C (±1°C) whilst only using the required 21kW. If the demand drops to say 5l/min the heater will modulate down accordingly to an output 7kW.

As can be seen a Rinnai unit used as a gas booster for solar systems will not only maximize solar gain, it will only use the correct amount of energy for the particular demand at the time. The rest of the time the unit is inactive. It is this, the booster, that ensures never-ending hot water – no matter the demand so people can shower or bath any time of the day or night or whatever the weather conditions. Fossil fuel is only used when the renewable thermal energy store is below its set-point, thus reducing the dependency on fossil fuel and reducing CO2 emissions.

This system is a blueprint for maximizing renewables gain. If you want to make it even more so, opt for one of Rinnai’s condensing water heaters and push the efficiencies envelope even further.

Another technological advantage in using a continuous flow water heat as a booster is that you can wipe out any worries about legionella being a problem with stored water.

If the store is below 60°C the Rinnai Continuous Flow Water heater always ensures that the 60°C minimum is always met, so the system will always comply with Building Regulation L8. If a secondary return system is used again there is a guarantee that the return will always be at 50° again in compliance of L8.

For all-year round domestic hot water, Rinnai Infinity HE gas fired condensing continuous flow water heaters are supplied renewables-ready and are also easily retrofitable with current renewable technology.

Both flat plate and evacuated tubes collectors work best when facing due south. However, evacuated tube collectors will outperform their flat plate counterparts in situations where only east/west facing options are available.

Evacuated tube collectors have multiple glass tubes that heat up by absorbing the sun’s energy. The vacuum insulated tube retains most of this heat and the constant profile of the round tube means that the collector is always perpendicular to the sun’s rays. The energy absorbed is therefore approximately constant over the course of the day.

In the summer months, the flat plate option will be close to that of an evacuated tube unit when facing south. However, evacuated tube collectors have better overall results in both the early and late seasons and are not affected by adverse weather conditions, producing impressive temperatures even on cloudy days. However, flat plate collectors are perhaps more suited to vulnerable locations because of their exceptionally sturdy and durable build.

Rinnai’s award-winning renewable water heating solutions are designed to offer a perfect blend of eco-friendly technologies, guaranteed to provide a constant flow of hot water 365 days of the year. The pairing of a Rinnai Infinity unit with renewables technology really is the perfect fit for a never ending DHW supply.

Rinnai’s expert team is available to help with the design, specification and installation of a renewables heating system.

For more information on the RINNAI product range visit www.rinnaiuk.com.

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Celebs call to make renewables cheaper than fossil fuels

Climate change is arguably the biggest threat to stability and prosperity around the world. Experts agree that by 2035 the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will exceed the critical level consistent with a temperature rise of less than 2˚C.

Did you know that the sun delivers 5000 times more power to the surface of Earth than we could ever need? With the cost of renewables slowly but surely falling, something must be done to improve developmental knowledge of renewable energy, which currently recieves less than 2% of the world’s publicly funded research, development and demonstration.

The Global Apollo Program’s website says that their “aim is to accelerate the decarbonisation of the world economy through more rapid technical progress, achieved through an internationally-coordinated program of research and development over a 10-year period.”

An open letter has now been signed by several high profile scientists, businessmen and public figures urging world leaders and citizens of the Earth alike to back the principles of the Global Apollo Program ahead of the UN climate change conference talks which will take place in Paris at the end of 2015.

The letter reads as follows:

We the undersigned believe that global warming can be addressed without adding significant economic costs or burdening taxpayers with more debt.

A sensible approach to tackling climate change will not only pay for itself but provide economic benefits to the nations of the world.

The aspiration of the Global Apollo Program is to make renewable energy cheaper than coal within 10 years. We urge the leading nations of the world to commit to this positive, practical initiative by the Paris climate conference in December.

The plan requires leading governments to invest a total of $15 billion a year in research, development and demonstration of clean energy.

That compares to the $100 billion currently invested in defence R&D globally each year.

Public investment now will save governments huge sums in the future.

What is more, a coordinated R&D plan can help bring energy bills down for billions of consumers.

Renewable energy gets less than 2% of publicly funded R&D. The private sector spends relatively small sums on clean energy research and development.

Just as with the Apollo space missions of the 1960s, great scientific minds must now be assembled to find a solution to one of the biggest challenges we face.

Please support the Global Apollo Program – the world’s 10 year plan for cheaper, cleaner energy.

Signed:
– Sir David Attenborough
– Professor Brian Cox
– Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
– Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy Environment and Water
– Ed Davey, Former UK Energy Secretary
– Bill Hare, Founder and CEO, Climate Analytics
– Nilesh Y. Jadhav, Program Director, Energy Research Institute @NTU, Singapore
– Niall Dunne, Chief Sustainability Officer, BT
– Carlo Carraro, Director, International Centre for Climate Governance
– Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Chair, Grantham Institute
– Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group
– Ben Goldsmith, Founder, Menhaden Capital
– Sabina Ratti, Executive Director, FEEM – Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
– Lord Browne, Chairman L1 Energy
– Zac Goldsmith MP
– Professor Martin Siegert, Co-Director Grantham Institute
– Professor Joanna Haigh CBE, Co-Director, Grantham Institute and Vice President of Royal Meteorological Society
– Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
– Dr Fatima Denton, African Climate Policy Centre
– Denys Shortt, CEO, DCS Group
– Lord Turner, Former Chairman, Financial Services Authority
– Lord O’Donnell, Former Cabinet Secretary
– Lord Layard, London School of Economics
– Professor John Shepherd CBE FRS
– Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

Watch the video below to find out more about the Global Apollo Program – a 10 year project that aims to coordinate international research and development and discover breakthrough clean technologies to tackle climate change.

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