Gavin Mooney

The Al Dhafra #solar project in the UAE is now live. At 2 GW this is the largest single-site solar farm in the world.

Located 35 km from Abu Dhabi, the project consists of nearly 4 million solar panels, covering 21 km² of desert. The panels are bifacial, which means they capture sunlight on both sides of the panel to maximise the electricity generated.

Al Dhafra is expected to reduce the UAE's carbon emissions by 2.4 million tonnes per year, equivalent to removing nearly half a million cars from the road.

There are some other nifty things about this project too:

➡️ During construction, a record-breaking 10 MW of solar panels were installed on average per day.

➡️ The project achieved one of the most competitive tariffs for solar power in the world at just USD 1.32 cents/kWh - this was a new world record when it was signed back in 2020.

➡️ And in case you thought those 4 million panels might get a bit dusty, the project employs a fleet of cleaning robots to keep the panels free from sand and dust.

The UAE is one of the sunniest countries in the world and with vast swathes of largely empty desert, so there will be more to come. One example is Masdar's 1 GW 24/7 solar and battery project that was announced recently.

Onwards and upwards!

#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition

#Batteries are starting to flex their muscles in California's grid, becoming the largest source of supply for the first time ever during the evening peak earlier this week.

And it didn't stop there. They continued to be the largest source of supply for over two hours. And this is on one of the world's largest grids.

The output from batteries also went above 6 GW for the first time, peaking at 6.18 GW at 8:10pm. The pace of change is extremely fast. Five years ago, the record output for battery storage was just 120 MW.

California currently has nearly 7 GW of installed battery capacity and another 1.9 GW is in the process of being commissioned. That may sound like a lot, but the California Energy Commission estimates the state will need around 52 GW of battery storage to meet it's 2045 target of getting all its power from carbon-free sources.

Batteries will play an important role in the decarbonised grid of the future, but are yet to make significant inroads into the mix in most places. In Australia we have just over 2 GW of battery capacity, and they still represent only a small (but growing) fraction of the mix.

With continued improvements in battery energy density and cost, as well as new chemistries, more and more batteries will be deployed to support the grid, whether as stationary storage or as EV batteries via V2X. We are just on the cusp of much more widespread adoption.

Onwards and upwards!

#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition

Batteries in California have just broken another record, discharging 29.52 GWh of energy into the grid on Monday. They were the largest source of supply for two hours with output peaking at over 7 GW.

Output records have been tumbling in California the last couple of months, where batteries have emerged as the dominant source during the evening peak. They are flattening the duck curve and reducing the need for gas. The contribution of gas to the evening peak has on average been halved compared to the same period last year.

Their advance has been rapid - five years ago the record was just 120 MW.

California currently has over 10.3 GW of installed battery capacity, with another 3.8 GW planned to come online by the end of 2024. That may sound like a lot, but the California Energy Commission estimates the state will need around 52 GW of battery storage to meet it's 2045 target of getting all its power from carbon-free sources.

Batteries will play an important role in the decarbonised grid of the future, but are yet to make significant inroads into the mix in most places. In Australia we have just over 2 GW of battery capacity, and they still represent only a small (but growing) fraction of the mix.

With continued improvements in battery energy density and cost, as well as new chemistries, more and more batteries will be deployed to support the grid, whether as stationary storage or as EV batteries via V2X. We are just on the cusp of much more widespread adoption.

Onwards and upwards!

#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition

“The transition to #renewableenergy and #batteries isn't clean at all because it means #mining millions of tonnes of minerals like copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt.“

Let's unpack that.

Currently, we mine about 7 million tonnes of minerals for clean energy technologies per year. In the IEA's Sustainable Development Scenario, by 2040 this needs to increase to 28 million tonnes per year.

Does that sound like a lot? Maybe. But what are we transitioning away from? Fossil fuels!

By transitioning to clean energy, we will no longer have to mine and extract such vast quantities of #fossilfuels.

Each year, the world mines the equivalent of 15 BILLION tonnes of fossil fuels. Yes, that's 535x more than the 28 million tonnes of clean energy minerals we need.

➡️ Coal - 8 billion tonnes
➡️ Oil - 4 billion tonnes
➡️ Natural gas - 3 billion tonnes

This is only a comparison on quantity. Environmental and social impacts of different extraction techniques vary.

But there is another important point.

These quantities of fossil fuels are like running costs. They are consumed (mostly burned) - so these volumes need to be mined and extracted EVERY YEAR.

But the minerals for low-carbon energy are not consumed in the same way. They are like upfront capital costs and are used in devices that last for decades. Even then, it's likely that large quantities of these will be recycled, so we won't be mining 28 million tonnes a year forever, far from it.

Links to sources below.

#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition

The energy transition is at a global tipping point, driven by the exponential growth of renewable energy. This decade will be disruptive, as renewable technology sales race up the S-curve.

Linear is often the default perception, but the reality is renewable technologies are still growing exponentially.

Take #solar capacity. It took 22 years for the first terawatt to be installed, the second and third combined will take just 5 years.

These technologies have been growing exponentially for some years, but it is only now that volumes are becoming high enough to start making a meaningful difference as we transition away from fossil fuels.

#Wind and solar will start to rapidly replace coal and gas this decade, and #EVs will displace millions of barrels of oil a day.

This is just the beginning.

#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition