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Posts tagged with: National grid

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has been selected as a smart grid demonstration host site by the Electric Power Research Institute, the New Jersey utility announced Tuesday.

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Plans to connect future offshore wind energy to the UK national grid are being firmed up with proposals to create new offshore transmission licences which will be competitively tendered from June 2009.

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Glass and plastic component manufacturer, Romag who specialize in the production of units to be used in photovoltaic technology have developed a product designed to recharge electric vehicles in public spaces using solar panels. The ‘PowerPark’ facilities will be located in areas such as supermarkets, petrol stations, schools, offices and airports and will generate enough electricity via their PV canopies to both charge electric vehicles and feed energy in to the national grid.

PowerPark, which is set to be rolled out first in the North East and then the rest of the UK has already secured a contract with OneNE, a regional development agency created to help projects such as this in the North East of England. The regional development agency will also help Romag to set up the UK’s first photovoltaic training and development park, in the hope that it will see the development of other renewable projects which will help contribute to the general move away from fossil fuels in the UK.

Although as yet, electric cars have failed to enter the national consciousness the industry hopes that in the next few years, based on the provisions set out both in the Energy Bill land by the newly created Environment and Climate Change Department, they will become much more popular after 2010. Many commercial renewable manufacturers such as Romag are also hopeful that the feed-in tariff (FIT) which is to be introduced next year will help them by offering them a fixed rate for the megawatts they feed-in to the national grid via their PV canopies. As has been practiced successfully in places such as Germany, the tariff helps manufacturers and investors alike as their revenue streams are protected by the rate paid for the megawatts by the energy companies. The additional costs incurred by the power companies in purchasing the expensive renewable energy are spread across the consumers in their monthly bills.

There are hundreds of businesses in the UK which, like Romag will be hoping that the government’s feed-in tariff is sufficient to spur the renewable industry in the UK the same way it has done elsewhere, in particular in Germany where tariffs have been highly successful in promoting investment in photovoltaic plant.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Center for Alternative Technology (CAT), the majority of British households would consider adopting photovoltaic technology with 90 per cent saying that they would consider and 23 per cent saying that they would definitely adopt the technology in their homes. From the 750 homes which were surveyed, the results show a shift in general public opinion towards the practical application of renewable technology, especially if it is something which proves to be financially viable in the long term.

The long term financial viability of all small-scale renewable projects hinges largely on the upcoming Feed-in tariff, likely to be introduced in 2010. The principle of the tariff is to offset the expense of producing power by non-fossil fuel means and provide incentives to those wishing to invest in renewable plant such as photovoltaic technology. The fixed rate for megawatts fed-in to the national grid by small scale renewable power producers is paid for by existing power companies who are obliged by the government to buy the renewable megawatts, the cost of which is spread across the consumers.

The survey noted that this high potential take up of PV technology would be dependent on the feed-in tariff paying 50p per unit of energy supplied in to the grid. In Germany, this exact system of tariffs has been used successfully to make Germany one of the worlds leaders both in terms of PV technology adoption and public awareness of greener energy production.

CAT spokesman, Mark Watson commented,

“Photovoltaic systems are one of the easiest renewable energy technologies to integrate in towns and cities and as the survey results show, they are generally liked by the general public.”