The importance of renewable energy waxes and wanes with the tide of opinion.
In the UK and across much of Europe, there is a moral and ethical investment in clean energy which is an important factor in slowing – and hopefully reducing – the increase in the world’s temperature.
Investment is being made in the hopes this green energy will also lead to energy security, free from the dependence on supplies from other countries. The war in Ukraine, and now the Middle East, have provided a stark insight into the danger of too much reliance on other territories.
But the commitment to green energy is not shared by all nations. US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his lack of belief in the need for green energy and that has filtered through to other countries.
And the new CEO of BP, Meg O’Neill, signals a potential return to a stronger focus on oil and gas, potentially reversing the company’s previous, faster pivot towards renewables.
And while the UK government is committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, there are still needs to be some finessing.
Socky Maila, Managing Director of Energypeople Ltd, has strong credentials in delivering high-profile projects in the renewables business and power sector, with a background in power system design as well as transmission and distribution network planning. He said while the UK is moving towards a greener energy landscape, there is still work to be done in making the country’s green energy sector more secure…
“The grid can only take on so much energy,” he said. “As such, a number of renewable energy sites are being paid not to export energy to the network.
“In the summer and other periods, some solar and wind farms are instructed to curtail generation because the electricity grid can’t cope. This is where battery energy storage becomes essential.”
More than £343 million was paid in so-called constraint payments to Scottish wind farms last year to stop them generating electricity. Not that the energy was not wanted but because the grid bottlenecks prevented transmitting and distributing excess power to high demand areas.
These payments, funded by consumer bills, compensate generators when the transmission network, designed for traditional power, lacks capacity, leading to substantial energy wastage.
Socky said if this practice is continued, it will damage confidence in the green energy industry, so more focus needs to go on energy storage and distribution.
Consultant Simon Faiers added: “The system needs to work in a linear way and more coherently.
“There are a lot more players in the industry providing solar and wind energy and EV charging and there are all sorts of new initiatives with green energy.
“However, the importance of infrastructure is only now reaching people’s attention. This is combined with a real shortage of skills.”
Energypeople Ltd is not new to the game; far from it. The company is a trusted leader with a strong and continually expanding legacy of expertise. Our team brings deep technical knowledge in the safe and efficient planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of electricity plant, transmission infrastructure, and distribution networks. . Its experts advise owners, investors and regulators and bring solutions to problems.
Socky said: “There is no doubt renewable sources of energy present technical challenges and there is so much to do before any wind or solar farm can be successfully connected to the grid. However, these challenges should not distract from the critical importance of renewable energy and its essential role in the future energy mix.”
“When you have so many of these, they present so many challenges.”