Welcome to Green Energy International’s new addition to its website, a regular blog where a couple of times a month, the team at GEI will provide updates on what is happening in the renewable energy world, as well as keeping tabs on GEI’s business also.

One of the biggest stories to come out of early 2022 was the meteoric rise of UK household energy bills, proposed to begin in April, where households could be seeing a price rise of up to 54% in energy bills. This is due to the volatility surrounding oil and gas supply, alongside the tense political situation ongoing between Europe and Russia. Whilst renewable energy supply continues to grow around the world, many energy companies are still increasing prices in order to secure and guarantee supply. Meanwhile, it was announced that both BP and Shell made record profits in 2021. Further calls have been made for a tax to be introduced in the UK for these companies to pay towards people’s household bills during this price hike. However, as expected, they are not in favour of this.

As it appears that energy prices regarding oil and gas continue to rise, the presence of renewable energy as a viable alternative source becomes ever more prominent. The industry has continued to grow despite the obstacles of the pandemic, and even in some instances, has accelerated progress into some of these projects. At the beginning of February, the UK government announced it was accelerating the roll out of auctions for clean energy power contracts which would give a guaranteed price for the energy generated. These auctions help attract investors to the developers of renewable energy projects and has caused the price of some renewable energy sources to fall, the most notable being offshore wind. The UK government is aware that it has renewable targets to meet, and this may well provide the incentive to encourage more developers to take the leap into renewable energy development.

Other developments from across the world have caught the attention of media, including the mainstream press, One of these stories comes from the USA, where the state of Georgia, which is home to 10 million people, has planned to retire all of its coal-fired power plants by 2035. The company responsible for the plants wants to ramp up it’s use of renewables and natural gas as part of a transition to cleaner sources of energy. As part of these plans, they want to secure more than 2,300MW of natural gas-generated electricity from 2022-2028, as well as adding 2,300MW of renewable energy by 2025 and up to 6,000MW of renewables by 2035. This is still short of what is ultimately required for the location, and the use of natural gas is not renewable but are steps into the right direction. In addition to these plans, a request has been submitted to approve, own and operate a 1,000MW energy storage facility. This is in order to reliably power homes with solar power during high levels of demand and when there is no sun to generate. However, it is not stated where the source of the solar is being generated and to what level.

Another story which has made it into mainstream media outside of its nation, comes from Australia, and is related to the world’s largest coal port. The port of Newcastle on the New South Wales coast is the world’s largest coal seaport. Stories were published in 2021 stating that it was planned for the port to become 100% powered by renewable energy. As of February 2022, it is now entirely powered by 100% renewable energy. As a result, this site which is of great importance to the global coal industry, has placed itself at the forefront of the growth of renewable energy. This switch has reduced carbon emissions from its industry, by taking away almost 5,000 cubic tons, the equivalent to taking 1,000 cars off the road. Plans in the future are now in place for the development of a 40MW green hydrogen hub at the port, although this is still in the feasibility study stage. The power for the port will be sourced by Iberdrola, with power generated from the 113MW Bodangora Wind Farm. With Australia leading much of the world in its development of renewable energy sources, it is still a prominent player in the coal industry and does not appear to be slowing down much in its production. Hopefully Australia’s actions in developing mass renewable projects and utilising them to power nationally significant infrastructure. It will need to be replicated by other nations for any real impact begin to be felt but this is still a step in the right direction.

That’s all for the main stories to come out of the renewable energy sector in the early parts of 2022. We will be back with another blog entry in the coming weeks with further news stories and analysis of progress of renewable energy projects from around the world, as well as updates on the progress of GEI’s current developments.

Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/08/business/bp-shell-profit-windfall-tax/index.html
https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4044681/government-moves-turbocharge-renewables-roll-annual-auctions
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/energy/592308-georgia-power-plans-to-retire-all-coal-fired-power