Either it rains too much and too often, or the wind blows too much or too little. The weather always causes problems for the British. Now it is the sun that shines too much, so that the solar panels, which the British also receive support to install, do not work properly. Whoops, then the British fire up the good, old coal-fired power plants!
While the rain poured down on Erling Braut Haaland and the other Champions League champions’ victory parade through Manchester on Monday evening, the British fired up the coal-fired power plant nine miles away, in Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.
Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently.
One unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in Nottinghamshire started producing electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-powered plant was warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon.
Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work effectively.
A unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire began generating electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-fired plant was being warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon. (The Telegraph)
As if the sun didn’t cause problems for the British power needs, the wind also failed the otherwise windswept island kingdom:
Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut down for maintenance. (The Telegraph)
A professor tells The Telegraph that the solar panels actually perform up to 25 percent worse in strong sunshine than in cloudy weather:
Alastair Buckley, professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Both days were largely sunny in the morning, so a good part of the reduction in output will be due to the efficiency reduction from higher temperatures on Saturday compared to Friday.
“Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.” (The Telegraph)
Perhaps something to think about for all Norwegians who are now installing a record number of solar systems on their private homes:
So far this year, almost as many solar systems have been installed each month as there were in the whole of 2018.
New figures from the state energy conversion company Enova, which provides support for installing solar cells on residential roofs, show that the number of homeowners installing solar cells on their roofs has increased sixfold in recent years.
In 2018, Enova gave support to 837 private households who installed solar systems. In 2022, the number increased to a record 5,291.
That record will be broken this year, writes Klassekampen. By the end of May this year, 3,974 new systems had been installed on private roofs. That is an average of 795 installations each month.
We see that the growth is closely related to the fact that electricity prices went up a lot, says Tor Brekke, senior adviser at Enova.
He believes that many people who wanted solar cells to contribute to the green shift took the step when increased electricity prices made it economically sensible.
Last year, the support homeowners could get for solar installations increased from NOK 27,500 to NOK 47,500. The support scheme has also been made rights-based. As long as the facility is built within Enova’s requirements, you do not need to apply for signoff, you just need to register the completed facility. The money will then be credited to your account. (NTB)
Whether it is electricity prices or a desire to “contribute to the green shift” that leads Britons and Norwegians to buy solar panels is left to the readers to decide.
Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather (The Telegraph).