Flexible technologies are securing energy supply
and supporting a greener future
When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine: the challenges of renewables
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High goals: Britain has set ambitious targets for renewables
A similar argument can be made for hydrogen, which offers the potential for power stations as large as any others – with zero carbon emissions. In the medium term, it can – and should – replace natural gas as the fuel for flexible thermal power stations. It can also play an important role in areas like heating and heavy industry. Additionally, hydrogen is easy to store, allowing for low-carbon energy to be accessed and deployed whenever it’s needed. As such, hydrogen is an exciting field in which the UK has the opportunity to lead.
“It’s a no-regret policy for the government to be incentivising investment here,” says Pibworth. “It would send signals to the OEMs that it’s worth continuing their research and development on hydrogen. You’re not going to have ten hydrogen power stations in use by 2030. But if you have one or two by then, you may have ten by the mid-2030s.”
Keadby Hydrogen, SSE’s first hydrogen-fired power station, is currently in early development and planning, as part of a collaboration with Equinor. With the right policy and infrastructure in place now, it could be up and running within around eight years. Just 40 miles away at Aldbrough on the East Yorkshire coast, SSE and Equinor are also planning a world-leading hydrogen storage facility, which could provide hydrogen for the power station, as well as balancing demand in the wider region.
Investing in these flexible energy solutions will bring a slew of benefits to the UK. First, there’s a compelling economic boost. When a country leads on new technologies, it’s building valuable experience it can then export. A good example is wind power: European companies that got ahead on that technology are now deploying wind power solutions across the world.
Such developments would also generate opportunities for high-quality, high-skilled jobs in the UK. And, ultimately, the more the UK decarbonises its system, the less reliant it will be on gas imports from other countries.
he UK’s commitment to hitting net zero greenhouse gas
emissions by 2050 means we can expect some huge shifts in our energy infrastructure. For example, a 2019 report from the Climate Change Committee stated the UK needs to achieve 75GW of operating offshore wind capacity to help reach net zero. And the government recently set out its aspiration to reach 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 – a fivefold increase on current levels.
Through its Net Zero Acceleration Programme, low-carbon infrastructure company SSE is investing £12.5 billion in the critical low-carbon infrastructure needed to help the country reach that goal. That’s around £7 million a day to 2026. In doing so, SSE expects to double its renewables capacity in that period and, by the end of the decade, increase its renewable energy output by around five times.
But the transition involves far more than merely generating and transporting energy generated from the wind. As the wind doesn’t blow all the time, if the government’s bold ambitions are to be met then investments in other innovative flexible solutions must be made too, to ensure energy supplies remain secure and reliable.
“When we built our first offshore wind farm, we could assume a load factor, the amount of time the turbines were actually running, of perhaps 40 per cent,” says Martin Pibworth, group energy and commercial director at SSE. “The latest ones have far bigger turbines, and much better technology, so load factors have improved by, perhaps, 15 per cent. But you still have 45 per cent of the time when there isn’t any wind – and even times of low demand when there’s too much wind and we can’t harness it all. That’s when flexibility becomes really important, and various assets are dispatched to take up the slack or the excess.”
With wind variable and other technologies like nuclear highly inflexible (turning a nuclear power station on and off is not a quick or easy thing to do), we need flexible technologies. And there is an important role here for gas in plugging the gaps – as long as that gas supply is made as low carbon as possible. Which is where the innovation comes in, in the form of carbon capture and hydrogen solutions.
In carbon capture, the flue gas generated in a typical gas power station is caught before it escapes the stack, and is mixed with a solvent that absorbs the carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide is then removed, compressed and exported away. The UK plans to inject it into permanent storage sites under the North Sea.
Carbon capture has never been fitted at scale on combined cycle gas turbines, but the technology has been proven in other forms of power generation, as well as hydrogen production and heavy industry. SSE is planning to develop two new power stations equipped with carbon capture technology – Keadby 3, a 910MW plant in the Humber region, and another at Peterhead, in the northeast of Scotland. Those projects are currently going through a government approval process, with the results due in May.
“If we get the nod, we’d be happy to deploy that very quickly, and we’d have it up and running within four or five years,” says Pibworth. “Our engineers, who are naturally cautious people, are telling me it’s all very doable.”
The biggest hurdle is perhaps appetite. Despite the views of the Climate Change Committee, who view the technology as a “necessity”, there are some who believe we shouldn’t rush into developing carbon capture as a solution for wind intermittency. Pibworth believes that the technology will play an important role, and by deploying a handful of carbon capture plants at scale now, the industry will gain shared learnings and a wealth of supply chain benefits down the line. The key, he says, is to start the technology journey as soon as we can.
“The risk is, if we wait any longer, we risk delaying a critical solution for net zero, because the supply chain and the original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] won’t invest in technology if they don’t see that government and society are willing to do so.”
“The current diesel prices are astonishing,” says Pibworth. “And it’s a reminder that global energy supply chains tend to come with vulnerability. A green energy independence feels good, but also offers strong economic insulation.”
Indeed, the ultimate advantage of wind is that it comes at zero marginal cost – once those flexible solutions to back it up are in place. And with the level of innovation in carbon capture and hydrogen already under way at companies like SSE, the UK has a strong chance not just to meet its net zero targets, but to lead in dynamic and lucrative new sectors and ways of life too.
But not all the technology solutions to the flexibility challenge will be new. Hydro power brought the first power to the north of Scotland over 75 years ago as part of a post-war construction programme. Many of these assets are still operating today, providing a highly flexible renewable energy solution. And it’s in this area that SSE is looking to develop “nature’s largest battery” at Coire Glas in the Highlands.
The project would be the first of its kind for over 30 years and utilises technology that is both ingenious and simple. When there’s lots of wind power but demand is low, the excess energy is used to pump water up a hill from a lower reservoir to a higher one. When the energy is needed because demand is higher or it’s not windy, the water is released and powers a turbine on its journey back to the lower reservoir. The importance of this “long duration energy storage” was also backed by the government in its British Energy Security Strategy, which could pave the way for a new policy mechanism later this year that would unlock this vital project. Once built, Coire Glas could provide enough energy to power three million homes for 24 hours – perfectly complementing the natural variability of renewables.
“I’ve been at SSE for 24 years, and the company has never had the opportunity to deploy so much capital across so many different solutions,” says Pibworth. “We’re doing something that’s really important for society. I feel extremely excited for the organisation, for our people, and for the solutions they’re going to provide.”
“If we wait any
longer, we risk
delaying a critical
solution for net zero”
Mind the energy gaps: gas-powered sites such as Keadby will be important in the transition to renewables, provided they can be made as low carbon as possible
Leading the way: Peterhead is one of the sites set to be equipped with carbon-capture technology
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“The current diesel prices are astonishing,” says Pibworth. “And it’s a reminder that global energy supply chains tend to come with vulnerability. A green energy independence feels good, but also offers strong economic insulation.”
Indeed, the ultimate advantage of wind is that it comes at zero marginal cost – once those flexible solutions to back it up are in place. And with the level of innovation in carbon capture and hydrogen already under way at companies like SSE, the UK has a strong chance not just to meet its net zero targets, but to lead in dynamic and lucrative new sectors and ways of life too.
But not all the technology solutions to the flexibility challenge will be new. Hydro power brought the first power to the north of Scotland over 75 years ago as part of a post-war construction programme. Many of these assets are still operating today, providing a highly flexible renewable energy solution. And it’s in this area that SSE is looking to develop “nature’s largest battery” at Coire Glas in the Highlands.
The project would be the first of its kind for over 30 years and utilises technology that is both ingenious and simple. When there’s lots of wind power but demand is low, the excess energy is used to pump water up a hill from a lower reservoir to a higher one. When the energy is needed because demand is higher or it’s not windy, the water is released and powers a turbine on its journey back to the lower reservoir. The importance of this “long duration energy storage” was also backed by the government in its British Energy Security Strategy, which could pave the way for a new policy mechanism later this year that would unlock this vital project. Once built, Coire Glas could provide enough energy to power three million homes for 24 hours – perfectly complementing the natural variability of renewables.
“I’ve been at SSE for 24 years, and the company has never had the opportunity to deploy so much capital across so many different solutions,” says Pibworth. “We’re doing something that's really important for society. I feel extremely excited for the organisation, for our people, and for the solutions they’re going to provide.”
