POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022 - 9

SEPTEMBER 2022 | WWW.POWERMAG.COM
meter in Morocco than you could ever
do in the UK, " Lewis told Britain's ITV
News last fall when the project was
first announced. " Whilst we can and
we should go faster in the removal of
emissions from fossil fuels, progress is
being made. The technology exists to
replace that with renewable energy but
we need to invest and probably invest
quicker. The idea that we can lower the
price of electricity in a renewable, sustainable
way-we absolutely have got
to be doing that. "
British
officials in recent
weeks
have looked at the cost of importing
energy, including from renewable resources,
to end reliance on energy
from Russia. A recent report from industry
association Offshore Energies
UK (OEUK), formerly Oil and Gas UK,
said the country needs about£60 billion
($79 billion) simply to achieve its
goal of quadrupling its offshore wind
power capacity to 40 GW by 2030.
OEUK CEO Deirdre Michie in discussing
the report said, " Energy security is
now a matter of national security. Our
policymakers need to plan not just for
the coming elections but the coming
decades. Offshore wind, the most successful
form of renewable energy to
date... requires significant investment
if its expansion is to continue. "
Toby Gill, CEO of IPG, a British
cleantech company working to help
industry transition to alternative fuels
and end reliance on diesel-powered
generators, told POWER, " It's great
that companies are innovating, and to
see that HVDC interconnectors are being
used to address the challenge of
transporting renewable energy across
large distances. But the question is:
Can we usefully use this energy to
provide renewable power when and
where we need it? " Gill said the UK's
energy grid and geography is such
that renewable energy can proliferate
in some areas, while thermal generation
remains the leading electricity
source elsewhere.
Said Gill: " The flow of power across
our electricity network from over 2,000
generating stations through more
than 25,000 kilometers of high-voltage
cables [let alone the distribution
networks] is unsurprisingly a complex
phenomenon. The counterintuitive
fact though is that not all parts of
our network are equal. At the time of
writing, the carbon intensity of power
in Devon is 122 gCO 2 /kWh and the
energy mix in that region from highest
to lowest is nuclear [39.6%], gas
[28.5%], solar [28.2%], and wind [3.8%].
At the same time in the north of Scotland,
carbon intensity is 320 gCO 2 /
kWh, with an energy mix of 81.2%
gas, 12.1% wind, and 6.7% hydro. This
shows that right now, Devon is very
green and Scotland is very dirty. Often,
with the abundance of wind power in
Scotland, this is the other way around.
But, either way, the fact that Devon is
running on green power clearly does
not mean that Scotland is able to, and
vice versa. "
Gill noted that the 3.6-GW HVDC
interconnect at Alverdiscott " is an
enormous connection, " equivalent
to 4.7% of current UK generation capacity.
He said the southwestern part
of the country " can certainly benefit
from access to a renewables-driven interconnect,
similarly to the North Sea
Link [that connects the northeast part
of England to Norway]. However, just
as we can't distribute renewable electricity
from wind turbines in Scotland
to provide green power for London,
building this interconnector from Morocco
to Devon does not mean we will
be able to distribute this power further
into the UK. "
Gill said the UK's drive to phase out
thermal generation in favor of renewable
energy does not have a simple
solution. " Beyond the challenges in
generation, it is in the distribution of
renewable power to where it's needed,
where we face restrictions. The
question is, then, whether the electricity
network is the best way of getting
that energy to the end point of use.
With the upgrade of our National Grid
projected to cost up to£50bn [$62.9
www.re-plus.com
billion] to enable better distribution of
renewable electricity, we must look to
whole system approaches that unlock
bottlenecks in our energy system and
open new opportunities. "
Gill said that could involve better utilization
of the country's system of natural
gas pipelines. " An often-forgotten
aspect of our energy infrastructure in
the UK is the fact that we have a secondary
nationwide energy distribution
network, in the form of the gas system.
Where this interconnector could be interesting
is from the point of view of
using that electricity to produce green
hydrogen in Devon, which can then be
distributed through the gas network.
This could have a profound impact on
the aspects of our energy system that
are most difficult to decarbonize. "
Gill, whose company is developing
a clean, fuel-flexible alternative
to the diesel generator for industry,
using flameless combustion technology
to accelerate the transition to
renewable fuels, said interconnects
such as the one at Devon provide not
only increased access to renewable
energy, but can support hydrogen
production as part of the UK's climate
and hydrogen economy strategy. " For
businesses to transition, they need an
alternative that can offer the same level
of energy security as diesel, " said
Gill. " That is why we believe using
these interconnects to enable the domestic
production of green fuels such
as hydrogen, as an alternative to shipping
renewable fuels across the globe,
offers a more intriguing solution for
an aggressive decarbonization of industries
that rely on distributed power,
and are looking to transition away
from diesel. Given that the distribution
of electricity through our network
is complex, perhaps this approach
makes better use of these innovations
than bolstering the green credentials
of just one region of our electricity network. "
n
-Darrell Proctor is a senior
associate editor for POWER
(@POWERmagazine).
9
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POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022

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