Solar Figures

[cleantechnica.com]

IceWind – Small Scale Wind Power

Important Step Taken Towards Energy Hub North Sea

TenneT TSO B.V. (Netherlands), Energinet (Denmark) and TenneT TSO GmbH (Germany) today signed a trilateral agreement for the development of a large renewable European electricity system in the North Sea. This so-called ‘North Sea Wind Power Hub’ has the potential to supply 70 to 100 million Europeans with renewable energy by 2050.

This important step towards a broad consortium was taken in the presence of the European Commissioner for an Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič. Mel Kroon, CEO of TenneT, and Torben Glar Nielsen, CTO of Energinet, signed an agreement aimed at investigating the feasibility of one or more ‘Power Link Islands’.

dogger island map north sea

[tennet.eu] – Three TSOs sign agreement on North Sea Wind Power Hub
[tennet.eu] – Cooperation European Transmission System Operators to develop North Sea Wind Power Hub
[offshorewind.biz] – TSOs Sign North Sea Wind Power Hub Deal

TenneT and Energinet, as well as any other parties that want to join, will spend a few years on investigating the details and potential of one or more Power Link Islands. If the TSOs decide to go ahead with the project, a Power Link Island could be developed by approximately 2035

Estimated size: 6.5 km2
Estimated cost: 1.25 billion euro

[cphpost.dk] – Denmark looking into building North Sea wind energy island

[greentechmedia.com] – Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands Want to Build an Island Hub to Support 100GW of Offshore Wind

The island might feature power-to-gas as a storage technique to utilize high volumes of wind generation, said Rasmussen. The North Sea is home to a sophisticated network of gas pipelines, which could help bring wind-generated gas to countries around Europe.

“A part of this work will be to include power-to-gas technology and other storage technologies,” he said. “What, when [and] how much is what we will look into further. It is too early to go into details.”

The Netherlands Fossil Free in 2030

“A new world”. Dutch economist and politician Herman Wijffels about the necessity of a global sustainable transition.

There is pressure mounting in the Netherlands that the country should speed up the implementation of the Paris accords and EU energy policy of “Europe fossil free by 2050” and get the country largely fossil-free as early as 2030. The public financial position of the Netherlands is good (surplus) and there is broad popular support for the 2030 policy objective. And last but not least: there is a large commercial advantage if you are able to offer energy services to the rest of a world-in-transition. The idea is to influence the program of the new government, the formation of which is yet underway.

[en.wikipedia.org] – Herman Wijffels
[energiecommissie.nl] – Sign the petition for The Netherlands fossil free by 2030.
[drift.eur.nl] – Oproep aan nieuw kabinet: Nederland fossielvrij in 2030
[deepresource] – Netherlands Sustainable by 2030
[gewoon-duurzaam.nl] – Manifest Jan Terlouw voor een duurzamer Nederland

[gewoon-duurzaam.nl] – New Dutch national energy commissioner Ruud Koornstra.
[duurzaam-ondernemen.nl] – Ruud Koornstra eerste Energiecommissaris van Nederland

Tennet Installs ‘Sockets’ at Sea

[source] Dutch grid provider Tennet wants to install 5 of these able to convert 3.5 GW wind AC into DC in order to connect planned offshore wind parks to the Dutch grid.

[source] Dolwin “socket” already installed at German part of the Northsea by Tennet.

[nltimes.nl] – Dutch Grid Operator to Invest €25 Billion in North Sea Wind Energy
[trouw.nl] – Tennet gaat het ‘stopcontact op zee’ beheren

Dutch Island Ameland Energy Independent in 2020

Ferry to Ameland. Every Dutchman has positive associations with the island of Ameland. Ameland: that’s beaches, dunes, birds, holiday, cycling trips.

The ambitious mayor of Ameland wants to bring his island energy independence with solar panels, fuel cells, heat pumps, energy storage and bio gas. No wind turbines.

[en.wikipedia.org] – Ameland
[duurzaamameland.nl]

[source]

MegaWindForce Turbine

A rotating ring containing many generators rather than a traditional axis and single generator plus gear box. Turbine can be constructed with low weight carbon fiber, low maintenance and long life span.

A company in Winschoten, the Netherlands, patented a new wind turbine design, with which it claims it can generate the same amount of electricity with lighter wind turbines with a rotating ring rather than an axis, causing enormous wind forces to be absorbed by a larger surface, enabling lighter design. Under offshore conditions a Megawindforce turbine of 135 m tip height would generate the same power as a conventional 200 m turbine. Additionally the new turbine design is supposed to begin to generate energy at lower wind speeds by gradually switching on ever more generators inside the ring with increasing wind speed. Because of this variable load principle the turbine can operate at lower rotational speeds which lowers the forces, enabling a staggering 80% reduction of the overall weight and proportional lower cost.

Cost claim: 3 cent per kWh.

A prototype is being built in the Groningen province this year, financially supported by Groningen authorities.

[megawindforce.com]
[twitter.com] – Mega Windforce

[deingenieur.nl] – Windturbine met Bladen op een Ring
[trouw.nl] – Nederlandse megamolen mooi klein voor Hollandse kust

German Voice Against Energy Wende

Youtube text:

Published 3 nov. 2014

Universitätsöffentlicher Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Werner Sinn, Präsident des ifo Instituts, 16. Dezember 2013

[ifo.de] – Energiewende ins Nichts

Wir haben ein Klimaproblem: 85 Prozent des Endenergiebedarfs der OECD-Länder und auch der Bundesrepublik Deutschland werden aus fossilen Brennstoffen gewonnen. Davon müssen wir weg. Bislang schien die Atomkraft den Weg in eine klimaneutrale Energieversorgung zu ermöglichen. Mit der Energiewende und ihrem Ausstieg aus der Atomkraft und den fossilen Energien steht man nun mit ziemlich leeren Händen da. Die Vorstellung, die Energieversorgung Deutschlands mit Wind- und Sonnenstrom aus heimischen Quellen zu sichern, ist eine Illusion. Die unsichere Versorgungssituation ist Gift für die Investitionsplanung der deutschen Industriefirmen. Die deutsche Politik sollte umsteuern und ihren nationalen Alleingang aufgeben. Professor Hans-Werner Sinn erläutert in einem universitätsöffentlichen Vortrag in der Großen Aula der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität die Konsequenzen der aktuellen Energiepolitik.

[de.wikipedia.org] – Hans-Werner_Sinn

2016 Was a Bad Onshore Wind Energy Year

The windindex (windex) of Yard Energy Group.

Wind parks in the Dutch province of Gelderland didn’t do very well in 2016 as there was 20% less wind in the province, the 3rd or 4th worst wind year in a century. And the first months of 2017 weren’t very good either. On a positive note 2015 was a good year.

Solution: go offshore.

[gelderlander.nl] – Windmolens draaien verlies door gebrek aan wind
[yardenergy] – Origin Windex wind energy index
[deepresource] – Gold Mine North Sea

Storage Breakthrough – $100/kWh has been achieved

Cheap storage to counter the intermittent supply of renewable electricity is the missing link en route towards the desired renewable energy base of the future, but that problem could now have been solved. Technology has developed so rapidly in recent years that cost of electricity storage has been brought down from $1000 to $100 per kWh.

City College NY has improved an old concept of mangandioxide-zinc batteries. Result: 6000 charge-cycles for less than $100/kwh.
Price storage of a single kWh: 1.67 dollar cent or say 8 cent per day per 5 kWh/day household. Peanuts.
Can also be used for cars: 40 kWh battery for $4000. Bye-bye gasoline.

Mangan-Oxid is abundant and non-toxic.
This NYC startup is going to produce the batteries first:

[urbanelectricpower.com]

[sciencedaily.com] – Sustainable, high energy density battery created
[nature.com] – Regenerable Cu-intercalated MnO2 layered cathode for highly cyclable energy dense batteries
[pnnl.gov] – Unexpected discovery leads to a better battery
[newatlas.com] – Power dense zinc-manganese power unit as cheap as a car battery
[wikipedia.org] – Manganese
[wikipedia.org] – Zinc
[trouw.nl] – Batterijdoorbraak: magische grens van 100 dollar is geslecht