summary of meetings

8/8/2019 Summary of meetings

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STIG (Solar Trading Interest Group)Davis Langdons interest group on Concentrated Solar Power and

the HVDC Supergrid

David Weight initiated and has arranged a series of monthly meetings at Davis

Langdons Head office in London.

David was already a member of Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation

- UK (TREC-UK) and set up the group as an alliance of leading members of TREC,

and engineers and consultants from various companies involved with energy

generation.

This group started up with two objectives in mind:

1. To promote a very important technology in the strategy to combat globalwarming and replace fossil fuels as their supply goes into decline.

2. To further the knowledge of consultants and help their chances of winningwork in an expanding and ethical area of work.

The meetings have been typically on a monthly basis, taking a two-hour at lunchtime,

usually with a guest speaker, and are summarised below:

1. 16th December 08. General get together and knowledge exchange.2. 20th January 09. General discussion, particularly discussing the initiative

lead by President Sarcozy for a Mediterranean Solar Plan. This would

include an HVDC ring main around the Mediterranean, linking and

distributing various energy types, but especially PV and CSP.

3. 26th February 09. This meeting commenced with a presentation by Leon diMarco, following his recent attendance at a conference in Brussels on the

planned Mediterranean supergrid. The gap between the European

(particularly German and French) planned approach to trading energy via the

grid, and the British intransigence and reliance on private sector funding and

resulting piece meal links, was very apparent. The main item for this

meeting was a presentation by Peter Jones, Head of Technology at ABB Ltd.

ABB and Siemens are the only companies worldwide with the patents and

ability to build HVDC lines and associated transformer stations. The talk

was fascinating, though much of it was challenging to those of us who dont

have degree in physics! Peter advised that the development of the grid

should be managed and should not be left to the private sector to evolve in a

piecemeal fashion.

4. 26th March 2009. The main speaker was Graham Ford, MD of Helio-Dynamics of Cambridge. Most of Grahams presentation was about his

companys very refined technology for concentrated solar PV. The

sophistication of the optics and tracking systems was impressive, but real

data on costs and performance in the field is still awaited. We wish them

well.

5. 23rd April 2009. Leon diMarco gave a short presentation on various PVtechnologies, noting performance, costs and trends. The main speaker was

Carlos Mrquez, Research Manager of CSP Today. CSP Today are

based in London, run a web-site, newsletters and organise international


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conferences. The presentation was a very good overview of the various CSP

technologies, and status of development world-wide, and politics, especially

the strong influence of feed-in tariffs or other such financial incentives

which are still needed. Cost guidance was given as e3,000 to e6,000kWe

peak power, with 7 hour storage adding about another 50%. However, they

acknowledged that (as DL have found), developers are very guarded aboutgiving guidance on costs.

6. 25th June 2009. The main speaker was Jeff Hardy of the UK EnergyResearch Centre. This is run from the University College of London and is

funded by the Energy Research Council. Jeff outlined how research is

encouraged, funded and managed. Jeff illustrated the results of a very

sophisticated computer model. This model may be calibrated according to

data on supply capability/ constraints, costs, population growth, average

personal consumption, efficiency savings etc, etc, computes the lowest cost

means of achieving a desired performance, which was specified as 80%

CO2e savings by 2050. The results were interesting and the modelling was

clearly impressive. However, a number of us were concerned and expresseddoubts about a number of underlying assumptions, especially the availability

of oil for decades into the future. Recent reports about oil decline and

dissent with in the IEA have increased these doubts. See:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency and http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/12/oil-shortage-uppsala-

aleklett. The modelling showed a tension between economic optimisation,

which could be summarised as as little as possible as late as possible, and

environmental need, which is the reverse. Jeff acknowledged that solar

energy from abroad was not factored in at all, and that the research so far,

was weak on the prospect of international renewable energy trading!

7. 24th September 09. Leon diMarco gave an update on relevant politicaldevelopments and knowledge gained from recent meetings such as the

conference in July at the Italian embassy. This was followed by a

presentation by Charlie Paton of Seawater Greenhouses. This is a very far-

sighted idea to grow food using solar powered greenhouses and minimum

water consumption. So far, schemes have been fairly small demonstrators,

but at scale, the effect of such houses on surrounding air could be linked to

reforestation and improve the climate of the area. Our third speaker was

Ralf Wiesen of Estela. ESTELA is a European Industry Association created

to support the emerging European solar thermal electricity industry for the

generation of green power in Europe and abroad, mainly in the

Mediterranean region. Estela are based in Brussels although Ralf is based in

Madrid. Ralf said that 40 CSP plants are under construction around the

world, mostly in Spain. Ralf made a strong case for regarding CSP as

proven and low risk, so meriting financing over 40 years, rather than 20 or

25 years. Ralf stressed that good widespread grid connections were

imperative.

8. 19th November 09. Again, Leon diMarco gave an update on relevantpolitical developments. Our main speaker was Dr Till Stenzel of Nur

Energie. They already have small CSP plants under development in Crete

and Rhodes, Greece, both using the tower system, but the focus was on a

very exciting plan for a 2,000MW scheme to import energy from a CSP

plant in Tunisia into Italy. This would be the first scheme exporting


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renewable energy from North Africa to Europe. Till emphasised the

problem of water consumption for cooling of turbines in chosing a site and

selection of technology. Water consumption can be a very constraining

issue and we expect to see more development of dry-cooling or hybrid

systems to reduce water needs. Till explained that whilst CSP can lend itself

to sea water desalination, coastal areas of deserts usually have onshorewinds during the day, which makes the air more hazy, and so reducing the

received energy and efficiency of the plant.

9. 15th December 2009. The meeting started with feedback by Gus Schellekinsof PWC, recently back from COP15, of the political situation and the

evolution of policy which is needed to implement the development of an

HVDC grid and the renewable technologies which will link to this and trade

through it. This meeting was set up to understand the wind energy

generation sector better and to see where there are synergies where various

renewable energy technologies should work together. The second speaker

was Frank Beibor of Metoc. Metoc are Marine consultants and project

managers working on various marine renewable energy schemes, mainlyaround the UK, but also further afield, such as the Eastern seaboard of the

U.S. Frank introduced the next two speakers, being Peter Madigan,

Offshore Wind Development Manager of the British Wind Energy

Association, and Chris Veal, Managing Director of Transmission Capital

Ltd. They are aiming to increase the peak energy supply from 4GW, or just

3% of the electrical load, up to 34GW, or 29% of the electrical load, with the

bulk coming from offshore wind. Grid links are evolving and will including

an energy hub sited in Dogger Bank in the North Sea. Encouragingly, such

a node could enable linking to other energy sources such as solar in the

future. However, a number of us felt disappointed that grid development is

currently seen as following rather than leading plant development, despitethe relatively low cost of grids versus plants. There does not even seem to

be a long enough view, even with the UK, to include the future, potentially

massive tidal and waves resources off the Scottish and Irish coasts.

(Development in these industries is constrained by lack of grid connectivity,

although not just that). The group felt that there is a need to get decision

makers to support a more holistic vision of renewable energy development

and not rely upon piecemeal proposals from the private sector.

10.In early February, a small meeting was arranged at short notice, to receive apresentation from Prof Derek Abbot, of the University of Adelaide followed

by discussion. Dereks was a very Gods eye view of how the planet might

power itself. An extremely interesting and concerning aspect of his researchwas the problems of pollution, and shortages of rare earths and metals for

catalysts, permanent magnets, batteries and the like that are needed for

alternative renewable technologies. Also, a very critical analysis of various

nuclear technologies. Dereks work was very strong on the potential

synergy with hydrogen-based technologies and use for transport. His paper,

Keeping the Energy Debate Clean: How Do We Supply the Worlds

Energy Needs? is well worth reading.

11.On 26th March, we received a presentation from Gus Shellekins on theirrecommended Policy Roadmap to 2050 Linking Renewables with a

Supersmart Grid. PWC have collaborated with the Potsdam Institute and

the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis to produce a very


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pragmatic study showing how a vision on similar lines to Desertec may be

achieved through a series of steps. It deals with a number of hurdles,

including:

government policy and regulatory issues,

infrastructure and associated technical protocols to achieve integration

and trading opportunities, and financial hurdles and incentives.There was some debate about whether technical standards will be set by the

EEC at some point, or whether, (like Betamax versus VHS or IBM versus

Windows) private operators will fight it out to see who emerges as setting

the standard. While there were minor reservations about some numbers like

estimates of future demand, the initiative as a whole was strongly supported

by the group.

Leon diMarco gave an update on the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP). 65

large projects are in the pipeline, of which 13 are CSP. They have the

support of the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. It is looking

as if the Southern (mainly solar) grid, will one day link with the Northern(North-Sea based and mainly wind) grid to enable trading to the advantage

of all linked countries.12.2nd July 2010. This was a fairly informal meeting , starting with a talk by

Graham Watson MEP. Graham led the liberal group and supergrid initiative

in the EEC, and you can read the excellent report from the group Graham led

, 'Making the Green Energy Switch at a Time of Crisis' " at

http://www.grahamwatsonmep.org/resources/sites/82.165.40.25-

4176318e5862b2.86801678/Graham's%20Publications/Making+the+Green+

Energy+Switch+at+a+Time+of+Crisis.pdf

Graham said that the EU had lost its focus on the subject because of theneed to save money on embassies, regulate the banks and other financial

problems. He thought that Germany and Denmark were the countries most

in favour of the European-wide grid. He referred to www.Roadmap.eu

which is similar to, but not the same as PWCs 100% renewable electricity

A roadmap to 2050 for Europe and North Africa

http://www.pwc.co.uk/pdf/100_percent_renewable_electricity.pdf

Governments look at and price various fuel mixes of renewables, fossil fuels

and nuclear. The assumption is that fossil fuel prices will not rise more than

general inflation, or that the risk of this is listed separately user Risks.

Some of us feared that risks would be overlooked and decisions based on anarrow economics assessment which excluded the risks of peak oil and the

like.

Davis Langdon would like to thank all our guest speakers, but especially those expert

members of TREC: Robert Palgrave, Hywel Roberts, and Leon diMarco, who give

their time freely for a good cause. Special mention must be given to Leon, a

physicist who runs FSK Technology, has carried out a lot of research, helped to

recruit speakers and has given short presentations at a number of meetings now.

David Weight. Editor, Davis Langdon.

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