LEC. 282

• Key considerations when analysing energy systems


  • Affordable & fair
  • Secure
  • Environmental impacts
  • Politics
  • Other comments
• UK climate change act pledged to be net zero by 2050
• Reducing energy demand to meet social goals


  1. Reduce demand

  2. Switch from fossil fuels to renewables

  3. Electrify vehicles, shift mode and reduce demand

  4. Shift from using gas and oil heating systems to electricity
• Energy affordability


  Everyone should have access to electricity-not all can afford it. Poorest households spend largest % of their income on bills. Higher energy prices= higher inequality
• Energy is an important political issue
• Current UK energy mix


  • Nuclear 19.5%
  • Gas 39.5%
  • Coal 5.1%
  • Renewables 33%
  • Imports 5%
• Environmental impacts of energy systems


  • Land take, visual impact biodiversity and habitats, resource use and pollution/contamination. Differs by technology. NIMBYism
• Energy governance


  The policies, institutions, rules and incentives related to the energy system, and the underlying decision-making process which establishes those rules and incentives
• Aims of energy governance


  • Co-ordination of different actors
  • Achieving social and benefits, social aims eg protecting, vulnerable households, carbon reduction, environmental protection
  • Aligning value with system outcomes
  • Transition over time
• Electrification of heating and vehicles is key to decarbonisation
• Energy demand needs to be reduced to ensure net zero delivery
• Benefits of reducing energy demand


  • Makes energy more affordable, have more options (more flexible and adaptable decarbonisation pathways), less risky and deeper and quicker decarbonisation
• Renewables do not naturally follow the demand profile
• Timing of demand should reflect social organisation of everyday life
• Flexible electricity demand helps reduce peaks
• Co-benefits of reducing energy demand


  • Energy security
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Greater energy equity
• Wind energy


  • No fuel combustion
  • Naturally replenishes over time
  • Manufacture, installation and decommissioning do produce some emissions however they are much lower compared with fossil fuel plants over the same lifetime
• Onshore wind has huge potential to accelerate the UK's progress towards net-zero target
• Onshore wind


  • Mature technology with costs of initial setup still falling
  • Wind resource is geographically variable. Average wind speeds matter
  • Wind speeds are consistently higher offshore
• Advances in technologies and supportive governmental policies have helped reduce cost of wind energy
• Benefits of wind energy


  • Diversifies energy portfolios and reduces reliance on more expensive or volatile energy sources
  • Promotes energy equity by decentralising power generation. Empowers local communities to participate in energy production and benefit economically. Addresses poverty and creates opportunities for marginalised
• Payback period


  Onshore turbines= 6-15 years. Offshore= 8-20 years
• Wind energy can be fed into the grid. It is flexible and scalable (huge farms or individual turbines)
• We can only harvest a small proportion of the wind energy due to frictional losses from the blade roughness and mechanical imperfections
• Wind energy


  • Wind resources are abundant in many regions, providing a domestic and reliable source of energy production
  • Consistently higher wind speeds offshore
  • Reduces vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions and prices fluctuations in global energy markets
• Factors affecting wind energy output


  • Wind consistency, wind speed and pacing of turbines in the array, size of turbine, area of land used for array
• Environmental impacts of wind energy


  • Reduced air pollution
  • Reduced water use
  • No wastage
  • Accidents have little impact
  • Possible impact on evapotranspiration and ecosystems
  • Habitat destruction
  • Bird/bat deaths
  • Noise pollution
• Wind energy has relatively low land use requirements per unit of electricity generated
• Challenges for wind energy


  • Noise and visual intrusion
  • NIMBYism
  • Property value fears, health impact claims
  • Requires extensive clearance due to laws
• Policies regarding subsidies and regulatory frameworks can significantly influence the growth and development of wind energy markets
• Factors to consider for onshore vs offshore wind


  • Wind resource (power and reliability)
  • Costs and embodied energy
  • Visual impacts
  • Transmission requirements
  • Access and construction
  • Just transition for offshore workers?
• Causes of wind


  Temperature gradients cause convection and pressure changes. Leads to shifting of air masses and therefore wind. Solar radiation also heats up the poles and the equator differently leading to an imbalance of air temperature globally. Land and sea have different heat capabilities
• Germany proposing a new wind turbine twice the height of the shard at 365 metres tall as the winds are more consistent at this altitude
• Solar energy


  • Very clean source. Low carbon energy. Pollution during production. Energy needed to produce the materials in solar panels
• A fivefold increase in solar arrays on roofs and fields is being targeted by 2035 in an effort to break British dependence on foreign energy
• Benefits of solar energy

  • Cheap and accessible to most people. Rapidly falling costs and improving efficiencies. A very flexible source of energy. Good for remove and off-grid applications. Diverse options- integrated into buildings. Ground mounted in solar farms. Can be floating- cooling effect benefits
• Cost of solar energy has decreased dramatically over the past decade, driven by technological advancements, economies of scale and supportive government policies
• Solar energy and energy equity


  • Promotes energy equity by democratizing energy access and ownership. Reduce reliance on centralised utility grids. Policies such as net metering, feed-in-tariffs and community solar programs can facilitate equity access to solar energy benefits, particularly for LIH and poorer communities
• Payback period


  Residential solar system around 5-12 years and commercial systems, 4-10 years
• Limitations of solar energy


  • Not the most reliable due to UK weather patterns particularly in the winter. Sunlight varies with location/latitude, time of day, season, local landscape and local weather