ITES 2017

Busy this week attending the International Tidal Energy Summit. Ambitious title, but legitimate, because there are developers here from Scotland , Spain, United States and Wales.

There’s lots of discussion about how to reduce levelised cost of energy and whether it’s best to start small and innovate quickly or go large soon. 

What do you think?

Scotrenewables update

A tweet from Scotrenewables claims 20MW output over 24 hours.  With a 2MW device, that equates to a capacity factor of 20/(24*2) = 41.7% over the period.

The period was September 21/22, when the moon was new and tides were therefore at their springiest - especially as it's around the autumn equinox, when springs are at their springiest.

But either way, a capacity factor of better than 40% is comparable with offshore wind.

CfD Wow!

The results of the 2021/22 and 2022/23 CfD auctions are out this morning and they show an amazing reduction in the strike price for new offshore wind projects.

Triton Knoll, a Round 2 project of 860 MW has a strike price of £74.75/MWh for 2021/22 start up, and the Round 3 projects of Hornsea 2 (1.4 GW) and Moray Firth East (1 GW) have both got strike prices of £57.70/MWh for 2022/23 start.

This is almost half the level in the first auction in 2015, and well below the level of strike price for the controversial Hinckley Point nuclear contracts.  These contracts are also shorter term, representing much better value for consumers.  The prices for offshore wind appear to be in free fall.

As seemed likely, there's no wave or tidal in the auction, as these technologies weren't allocated their own funding pot, and they really aren't ready to compete with offshore wind at this stage.