Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to natural gas supplies from Turkey to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez and Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov on Tuesday.
The new 85-kilometer-long gas pipeline will run from Igdir in Turkey's eastern Anatolia to Sederek in western Azerbaijan, with an annual capacity of 500 million cubic meters (mcm) and 1.5 mcm daily. The project will be realized through a partnership between Turkey’s crude oil and natural gas pipeline trading company (BOTAS) and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR.
"With this pipeline, we will be able to meet the current total gas demand of Nakhchivan," Donmez said at the signing ceremony in the capital Ankara. With a population of 500,000 and natural gas consumption of 500 mcm, Donmez said that Nakhchivan would be supplied with as much reliable natural gas as before the Karabakh occupation.
In total, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory -- including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions -- has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.
Shahbazov said the new MoU would play a crucial role in developing and expanding the already-strong relationship between the two countries.
He reiterated that natural gas is already being supplied to Nakhchivan through Iran. However, he said now thanks to the new pipeline, Azerbaijan's gas will be directly transmitted to the region.
Source: Anadolu Agency
Turkey's Sabanci Holding will invest $450 million in wind power by creating an additional 565 MegaWatts (MW) to generate electricity by 2023, Kivanc Zaimler, energy group president at the conglomerate told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. The additional MegaWatts will come from new plant installations in Turkey's Aegean cities of Aydin and Canakkale totaling 500 MW with the remaining 65 MW from a new plant in Kayseri in Central Anatolia.
"Currently, we are working on project development. Our target is to start power generation from the plants by 2023. With this capacity increase, our total power generation capacity will reach 4,150 MW," Zaimler said. Sustainability and new technologies are at the heart of the company’s investment plans, including Sabanci Holding's energy companies - Enerjisa Enerji and Enerjisa Uretim (Enerjisa Production), which operate in power distribution and generation, respectively.
While Enerjisa Uretim will carry out the new wind plant investments, its sister company, Enerjisa Enerji, has already completed investments totaling 1.3 billion Turkish liras in the first nine months of this year.Speaking on the impacts of COVID-19 on Turkey's power demand and company operations, Zaimler said the country's power demand showed a fluctuating trend, especially in the second quarter of this year due to the pandemic.
"But it started to normalize in August and Turkey's power consumption seems to have mounted slightly on last year's levels. In this regard, Turkey showed a positive difference compared to developed European nations," he said. Zaimler said that despite uncertainties due to the COVID-19, the consolidated income of the Sabanci energy companies in the nine months of this year increased by 22% to reach 23.6 billion liras.
"Our operating margin and net profit grew by 17% and 32% in this period. Our year-end expectation is that this trend will continue in the same way," he said.
Zaimler hailed renewables as a source that will be important for Turkey’s energy future by generating cheaper electricity in the long term, thanks to a decrease in equipment costs particularly for solar and wind, which he said, in turn, would enhance the country’s renewables competitiveness.
He expects that renewables will account for the majority of the new investments in the country supported by definitive new plant investments that will expand business for local equipment manufacturers while also greatly contributing to equipment localization.
Turkey's renewable energy capacity has reached over 48,500 MW, accounting for half of the total installed power. Over the next 10 years, the country plans to create 10,000 MW of additional solar and wind capacity.
Zaimler envisages natural gas-powered plants playing a big role in conjunction with renewables to offer flexible electricity generation.
“Currently, Turkey needs these gas-powered plants in the coming 10 years to meet demand because storage technologies are not yet mature enough to store renewable electricity," he said.
Although he does not see any new natural gas plant investments in Turkey, he advised the sustainable and efficient use of the country’s current gas capacity given their critical role in energy security. As natural gas is a high-cost import, Turkey wants to keep the share of natural gas plants for electricity generation below 20%. In the first half of this year, Turkey's power generation from natural gas plants dropped dramatically with falling demand from COVID-19 and high generation from renewables.
However, as output from renewables, particularly hydro plants, started to fall while power demand increased, the share of natural gas plants in electricity generation also began to grow. According to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) latest Electricity Market Report, the largest contributor to additional gas burn in the European power sector was Turkey, where gas-fired generation grew 11% year-over-year.
The IEA said this was primarily driven by lower output from lignite-fired plants from which power generation dropped by 20%, as some plants were halted for not complying with environmental regulations by Jan. 1, 2020.
Source: Anadolu Agency
After experiencing its biggest decline in decades, global electricity demand is expected to only show a modest rebound in 2021. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects growth will be led by growth in China, India and other emerging economies.
The historic shock of the COVID-10 crises will result in a 2% decline in global electricity demand, according to the IEA’s first-ever Electricity Market Report. It forecasts electricity demand will grow by about 3% in 2021. This will be significantly weaker than the rebound of the electricity demand of more than 7% in 2010, the year after the global financial crisis.
China will be the only major economy to experience higher electricity demand in 2020. But, its expected growth of about 2% is well below its recent average of 6.5%. Other big electricity consumers including the United States, India, Europe, Japan, Korea and South East Asia are all set to experiences declines in average demand for 2020.
Electricity from renewable energy such as hydropower, wind and solar are however forecast to grow by almost 7% in 2020, squeezing conventional power sources. Coal-fired generation in 2020 is predicted to fall by 5%, the largest decrease on record. Nuclear power generation is set to fall by around 4% and fas-fired electricity generation by 2%. This means that overall CO2 emissions from electricity generation should decrease by 5% in 2020.
IE executive director, Dr Fatih Birol: “Based on the very latest data available the IEA’s new Electricity Market Report provides fresh insight on this critical sector. Starting next year, we will publish a new edition of the report on a half-yearly basis.” Falling demand, lower fuel prices and the increase in renewable generation have dragged down wholesale electricity prices in 2020. The IEA’s wholesale electricity market price index tracks price movements in major advanced economies. It shows an average price decline of 28% in 2020, as opposed to 12% in 2019.
The growth of renewable power generation is forecast to continue in 2021 with an increase of more than 6%, expanding the share of renewables in the global power mix by 1% to 29% in 2020. Nuclear power is predicted to grow by 2.5% next year thanks to rebounds in France and Japan and new plants coming online in China and the United Arab Emirates.
In advanced economies, the growth of renewables and nuclear power will continue to shrink the space remaining for fossil fuel generation. Natural gas is likely to be impacted more than coal as a result of an expected rise in natural gas prices.
In emerging and developing economies, demand growth is forecast to outpace increases in renewable and nuclear power. This leaves some room for coal and gas generation to expand.
The expected net result globally is that coal-fired generation will increase by about 3% in 2021, while gas-fired plants will increase output by around 1%. This would mean a rise in CO2 emissions from the power sector of around 2% in 2021.
Source: Power Engineering
Scientists and researchers from three UK institutions have joined forces in a bid to strengthen the competitiveness of energy storage businesses in northwest Europe.
The Faraday Institution, Cambridge Cleantech and Harwell Science & Innovation Campus are leading the delivery of a European programme called STEPS.
Two testbeds will allow small and medium-sized enterprises to demonstrate new technologies and put them on the journey to bring innovative energy storage products to market. Sam Goodall, International Programme Manager at Cambridge Cleantech, said: “As the transition from fossil fuels to renewables continues to accelerate, we are proud to be part of this innovative project to commercialise game-changing energy storage solutions.
“Our goal is to facilitate innovation partnerships and technology commercialisation in the energy sector.”
The Interreg North-West Europe STEPS programme offers support to 40 businesses through a product enhancement voucher programme valued at €12,500 each. Additionally, 20 of these companies will receive expert support worth €50,000 each to demonstrate their technology at regional testbeds throughout northwest Europe. The programme will provide additional support through business partners and knowledge partners from Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the UK.
For the UK, the Faraday Institution will serve as the STEPS knowledge partner and Cambridge Cleantech as the STEPS business support partner. Together they will offer SMEs a user-centric, demand-driven approach to bring their products closer to the market through tailored testing. Specifically, knowledge and business partners will advise e-storage SMEs on entering new markets in northwest Europe, engage with potential end-users, and increase the awareness of solution providers.
STEPS will also connect end-users with providers of new e-storage solutions via a business support programme to increase their technological readiness level through real-life testing.
Ian Ellerington, Head of Technology Transfer at the Faraday Institution, said: “We welcome the opportunity to assist growing businesses realise their commercial ambitions. “Our links into the UK’s battery research and innovation network mean we are well placed to provide technical advice to businesses innovating in e-storage and help supercharge their route to market.
Source: Smart Energy International
The US brought live 3.8 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in the third quarter of 2020 and is seen to reach 19 GW of annual installations. The quarterly figure rose by 9% sequentially as the market started to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, Wood Mackenzie says in its latest US Solar Market Insight report, compiled together with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
“This report points to the incredible resilience of our companies and workers in the face of the pandemic and continued demand for clean, affordable electricity sources,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. The authors of the report expect that solar capacity additions in 2020 will be up by 43% on the previous year.
Taking into account the zooming utility-scale project pipeline, which has reached the record-high 69.2 GW, the country is set to achieve 100 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity by mid-2021, SEIA and Wood estimate. Around 70% of the installations in July-September came from the utility-scale market, where 2.7 GW of solar parks went online. The residential segment, the one hit the most by the pandemic, grew by 14% in quarterly terms and thus beat recovery expectations. Still, the additions of residential solar capacity were lower than those in the first quarter.
The states with the biggest installation declines in the second quarter, such as New York and New Jersey, witnessed the biggest recoveries in the third trimester, noted Michelle Davis, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie. Texas and Florida together were responsible for over 2 GW of the third-quarter additions.
Source: Renewables Now
Bitcoin reached new highs at the end of November 2020, and with many analysts expecting the price to continue soaring, digital currency and blockchain are back in the news. Blockchain technology still finds itself in a situation of unclear utility—similar to the internet when it was relatively new. As a cryptographic, peer-to-peer ledger system for the reliable recording of information without centralized authority, blockchain holds promise for sectors like energy that are trending toward decentralization. Guidehouse Insights examines how industry players across energy and technology spaces use the technology in its report, Energy Blockchain Vendor and Deployment Tracker 3Q20.
Smart energy communities have experimentally used blockchain as a way of facilitating and recording energy transactions with mixed results. While the technology holds promise for energy consumers, many startups attempting to develop blockchain products based on the technology have struggled to make headway in existing regulatory environments. Still, the ability of a blockchain record-keeping system has value in a smart energy future. It could reduce transaction costs, potentially aid in automation, and create new revenue streams for owners of distributed energy technologies.
One of the key theoretical features of smart energy communities that appeals to consumers is the ability to generate, store, and use energy locally. With distributed energy generation, battery storage, and smart meters situated within a microgrid, it’s technically possible for neighbors to trade electrons back and forth within their own miniature marketplace. While such a relationship is difficult to achieve for regulatory and market reasons, blockchain would prove a particularly useful application for tracking the flow of energy between neighbors.
A solar energy trading project in Brooklyn, New York, attempted this sort of system using blockchain, although the and product ultimately had to scale back its local marketplace elements. A similar solar energy trading project using blockchain kicked off in 2018 in London, UK, which also ran into regulatory difficulty. Smart energy communities and blockchain are situated in a complementary way because they take a more decentralized view of their respective subjects. It’s an ethos that runs counter to the predominant market models used until now.
Utilities and grid operators have always been both the suppliers of power and the trusted authorities for tracking consumption. Existing energy market players have enjoyed a long period of control with relatively little disruption. As that era ends, tension builds between old business models and the new demands of both energy consumers and governments. How that tension resolves is an ongoing area of interest, but utilities have shown they are not categorically opposed to blockchain. In fact, roughly one-third of energy blockchain trials have involved utilities.
A transition to a blockchain-based smarter energy system likely means a decentralization of supply and administration. Market and regulatory inertia represent the largest impediment in this shift. How exactly blockchain may find itself integrated into the energy world is only just being discovered as startups and long-standing companies examine the technology. What is clear is that there is synergy between the decentralized nature of smart energy communities and blockchain recordkeeping.
Source: Forbes
Distribution Grids in Europe
According to Eurelectric’s latest study, DSOs have access to new tools to manage their grids more efficiently and to integrate increasing amounts of variable renewables in the system. Interactions between intelligent appliances, smart grids and home platforms–mediated by or on behalf of customers– will usher in a new era. Europe’s distribution system will need to adapt its role to keep pace with the transformation of the energy world and with changing customer needs. Undoubtedly, DSOs are central in the energy transition and they are moving towards a decentralised management of their grids.
Please click here to read the full report.
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