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Jason Ford
Jason Ford
News Editor
Renewable grid connections, HS2, and the rise of the apprenticeship
With wind filling the sails of Britain’s green energy revolution and manufacturing sector performing well, Briefing looks at events that address grid connectivity and skills.
By 2020 around 30 per cent of electricity generated in the UK will have to come from renewable sources, which will require roughly 16GW of offshore wind to meet that target.
Luckily, Britain is well-positioned to embrace wind and organisers of an event in Bristol this evening state that over 40GW of offshore development is already planned, representing an investment of over £120bn.
Building wind farms, however, is only part of the green energy jigsaw which is why Matthew Knight, business development manager, Siemens Energy is delivering ‘Bringing wind power ashore’.
The event’s publicity material informs us that connecting offshore wind to the onshore grid raises challenges involving planning, regulation and financing, plus the practical issues of installing electrical equipment in the sea.
Registration is required for this event (click here for more details), which takes place at the University of West England from 6-30pm.
A more holistic view of renewable connectivity kicks off tomorrow at the two-day ‘Connecting renewable energy to the Grid’ conference in London.
The organisers say the event will bring together a range of experts including transmission operators, renewable technology experts, equipment suppliers and engineers to discuss the challenges and opportunities for increasing the penetration of renewable energy into the grid.
Paul Coventry from National Grid is delivering a talk tomorrow at Cardiff University that will propose HVDC cables as the most practical option for connecting offshore wind farms to the onshore grid.
Possible development of offshore HVDC connections around the UK will be described and the challenges involved in implementing the technology in the necessary timescales will be highlighted.
Britain’s big ticket projects - such as offshore wind farms and HS2 - won’t get very far without skilled and enthusiastic employees, many of whom will have started their careers as apprentices.
National Apprentice Week, which began today, aims to highlight the benefits of apprenticeships to employers, school leavers and careers changers alike.
The government says it is committed to increase the budget for apprenticeships to over £1.4bn in 2011-12 and that it is working with business to deliver 100,000 more apprentices by 2014.
BAE Systems announced today that it will be recruiting 290 apprentices for its UK business in 2011 and Jaguar Land Rover is looking to create 1,200 apprentice positions.
According to business secretary Vince Cable, 80 per cent of firms that employ apprentices believe they make for a more productive workplace.
Finally, City University London will be hosting Prof Neville Jackson, chief technology & innovation officer at Ricardo, who will discuss the prospects for low carbon technologies in transport this Wednesday.
In the UK 23.5 per cent of total CO2 is said to be produced directly from road transport. Of that total around one third is from commercial vehicles, with heavy goods vehicle traffic forecast to grow 14 per cent by 2025.
Technology solutions have emerged to address urban and city passenger car challenges but long distance passenger and goods transport will require more innovative solutions.
Prof Jackson’s lecture will provide examples of the investigations and measurements that have been critical in developing new technologies so far, and offer a longer term roadmap illustrating how the CO2 challenge can be met.
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Readers' comments (11)
Julian | 7 Feb 2011 3:29 pm
Balderdash and Bunkum spread by the wind turbine industry.
We are an island nation and we have we have the availability of tidal flow and tidal race water turbines that guarantee predictable power generation for 85% of each 24 hour day or 20.4 hours a day at times predictable against national electric power demands for the National Grid to provide continuous power.
At best off shore wind power will give an unpredictable 25% of the day or 6 hours of power generation a day and require fossil fuel power stations steamed up to provide dependable power generation to provide 24 hour cover for the National Grid to guarantee continuous power on demand.
Why the obsession with wind and subsidising German businesses like Siemens - The twin facts that German Greens closed down the German Nuclear Energy whereas France has over 90% Nuclear Power combined with the fact that Germany has a small coast line and most of that the Baltic Sea coast RENOWNED FOR IT'S LACK OF TIDES AND TIDAL FLOWS. and hence unable to generate tidal power and HENCE have to go for wind.
Wind power turbines need massive concrete foundations and hence the manufacture of Wind Turbines massively contributes to Global Warming with the up front CO2 generation for making and setting concrete. The Concrete industry is the main industry contributing to global warning!!
The low percentage time that wind power turbines can turn under load means that in some countries (where they have thopught out the problems of continuous power supply) will only indirect power generation from windpower turbines. The solution is to use the wind turbines to pump water uphill as stored potential energy and flow the water through water turbines when the National Grid of those countries requires it. One such country demanding this is Canada for inland power generation - They use water turbines on the coasts and rivers and are the home of Alstom's Nyerpic factory a world leader in water turbines including reversable flow tidal water turbines.
UK PLC can be at the forefront of water turbine technology if we invest UK plc money in UK plc businesses to create water turbine business here. If we do we will have a thriving export market to countries with coasts world wide.
All wind power manufacture is is a partial offset of local labour for assembly with all profits remitted to Germany AND NO EXPORTS for UK plc to earn export income.
Finally - we as the UK consumers (personal and business) are being lumbered with massive surcharges on our electricty bills to subsdise inefficient win farms for 30 years when efficient water turbines would not need subsidies would both generate real and sustainable UK jobs and an export industry to pay UK plc's place in the world.
Julian
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Billy Milligan | 7 Feb 2011 3:31 pm
I hope the apprenticeships in question will align with the more traditional apprenticeships that are facing a skills shortage rather than the more 'modern' apprenticeships.
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Anonymous | 7 Feb 2011 3:59 pm
The apprenticeship position in the construction industry is at a very low figure , many of the sole traders are frightend to take on an apprentice due to the massive uncertanty in the economy .Only when this uncertain future is eased then the employer will take on apprentices. This must be lead by banks and lenders to stimulate the growth that is desperatly needed for the construction industry to begin to recover
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Ed Neale | 7 Feb 2011 4:17 pm
If only Christmas was as 'well' publicised as National Apprentice Week, I'd save a fortune...
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P Field | 7 Feb 2011 5:21 pm
Apprenticeships are a good investment. Money spent now will reap good business and profits for the future. Windfarms, at £120 billion cost are not an investment because the money is not there (it has to come from energy users pockets) and they are not cost effective so make no natural profits. Is there a word for the opposite of "investment"?
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Anonymous | 7 Feb 2011 5:39 pm
As an Apprentice myself 40 yrs ago in a time of near full employment there was a confident choice to make between staying on at school or leaving to take up an apprenticeship. When employment and the economy took a down turn a few years later, those like me were encouraged to stay on at school and those that applied for apprenticeships were seen not to be suitable. The difference now is that with the cost of University education going up apprenticeships should be more attractive but where are they and what are the entry level requirements as I have two teenage boys looking for them!
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Neil kermode | 9 Feb 2011 8:45 am
I have to challenge P. Field's comment that investing in wind is not a good idea. We have plenty of it, it is sustainable, reliability is going up and there is a market for the product.
We simply cannot keep relying on fossil fuels, we have to make the switch to 'solar' based energies and the Stern report basically said the sooner we do it the less it costs. We simply do not have enough carbon capital stored in the cellar to carry on with our lavish lifestyles, so we either cut the carbon, or cut the lifestyle. Have a look at the WWF report just out. It makes very stark reading. The highlight to me being that known oil reserves would last under 10 years if we adopted US or Singaporean lifestyles.
So whilst I sympathise with the view that offshore wind (and other sustainable technologies) are expensive, the alternative of no power is the real threat. History generally tells us that we can turn this to the uk's advantage, so I for one WOULD strongly support the investment in wind. NOW!
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Chris Tolmie | 10 Feb 2011 11:13 am
HS2 is about steel and concrete. Hardly the technologies of the future. We should be teaching apprentices about fibre optics and rural broadband installations and the knowledge economy.
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Dave MacFarlane | 10 Feb 2011 11:59 am
Anonymous | 7 Feb 2011 5:39 pm
Sorry, mate, 40 years ago was not a time of full employment or sparkling apprenticeships, on the contrary, that was the time of the 'skillcentre', 6 and 12 month government subsidised training courses, where people were launched into industry with pretty low skill levels, all because someone decided apprenticeships were 'far too long'! Thus was the demise of the crafted trade, now owned by China, presently sullied as 'not green' for following the same trail as we did, in our industrial revolution.
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Anonymous | 11 Feb 2011 2:35 pm
Julian seems to have a few of his facts incorrect. Probably worth correcting them in an Engineering forum.....
A modern offshore windfarm in the UK operates more than 80% of the time with load factors well over 40%. All offshore windfarms in the UK are on steel foundations, either monopiles or jackets.
National Grid has stated that up to 20% wind penetration is possible with no increased costs. Over 1 GW of back-up is always on-line at any one time to cover for the event that a single large power station trips (as Sizewell did in 2008). Wind is very forecastable - up to 80% precision at the 90 minute-ahead gate closure. One thing we're good at in this country is forecasting the weather!
Employment in the wind industry in the UK has grown 90%+ between 2008 and 2010, and now employs in excess of 9600 people, more than the coal industry. Not many of those 9600 are drama graduates.
All new-build generating capacity is capital-intensive, either to build or operate. Can anyone suggest a silver bullet commercial alternative to wind, nuclear and gas?
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