The Sun and the Power !

Solar outstrips coal in past six months of UK electricity generation.

Electricity generated by solar panels on fields and homes outstripped Britain’s ageing coal power stations over the past six months in a historic first.

Climate change analysts Carbon Brief found more electricity came from the sun than coal from April to the end of September, in a report that highlighted the two technologies’ changing fortunes.

Solar had already eclipsed coal for a day in April and then for the whole month of May, with coal providing zero power for the first time in more than 100 years for several days in May. The latest milestone saw an estimated 6,964 gigawatt hours (GWh) generated by solar over the half-year, or 5.4% of the UK’s electricity demand. Coal produced 6,342GWh, or 4.7%.

The trend will not continue into winter because of solar’s seasonal nature, but the symbolic records reveal the dramatic impacts solar subsidies and environmental penalties for coal have wrought.

Increases in the carbon floor price last year have driven three major coal power plants - Longannet, Ferrybridge C and Rugeley – to close earlier this year. That came on top of a similar amount of coal power being closed between 2012 and 2014 because upgrading the stations to meet higher air pollution standards was deemed uneconomic.

A fourth coal plant, Eggborough near Selby in North Yorkshire, was expected to close in February but won a reprieve after it signed a 12-month contract to provide backup capacity to the grid. But the power station’s future after that contract is unclear, and its owners are now consulting on whether to demolish it and build a gas-fired one in its place.

According to trade body Energy UK, there are 10 coal power plants left in the UK. One is currently closed for conversion to biomass, one only operates in winter and another (Eggborough) only provides reserve power when needed.

Solar has grown rapidly in the last six years, though figures published last week by the Office for National Statistics showed installations had crashed after the government came to power and cut the industry’s subsidies.

A spokeswoman for the Solar Trade Association (STA) said: “This is a valuable milestone on the road to renewables overtaking fossil fuels. It is a testament to just how effective the British solar industry has been at installing clean and reliable power and at bringing down costs.”

The government said last week that solar power could produce electricity more cheaply than the price agreed for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, but officials suggested solar would have additional costs for the National Grid.

But a new report for the STA, published on Tuesday, concluded that integrating many more solar panels into the grid would not add excessive costs to accommodate the fact the sun doesn’t always shine and backup power is required to cover solar.

“With intermittency costs today of around £1.3/MWh for solar [with around 10-12GW of solar installed], increasing to £6.8/MWh with a substantial 40GW of solar on the system by 2030, we would suggest these costs do not provide a strong argument against the further build out of renewable generation,” said the report, by the consultancy Aurora.

Adam Vaughan - The Guardian - 4 October 2016

Solar plane makes history after completing round-the-world trip.

Solar Impulse 2 has completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane, after touching down in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday.

The final leg of the feat, aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy, was a bumpy one, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls.

The plane, which has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747 and carries more than 17,000 solar cells on its wings, began the circumnavigation in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi. It has since crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans using no fossil fuel and has spent more than 23 days in the air.

Speaking to the Guardian from the cockpit shortly before landing, Piccard said he was feeling emotional as he neared the end of the journey: “It is a very, very special moment – it has been 15 years that I am working on this goal.

“I hope people will understand that it is not just a first in the history of aviation, but also a first in the history of energy,” he said.

“All the clean technologies we use, they can be used everywhere. So we have flown 40,000km, but now it is up to other people to take it further. It is up to every person in a house to take it further, every head of state, every mayor in a city, every entrepreneur or CEO of a company.

“These technologies now can make the world much better and we have to use them, not only for the environment, but also because they are profitable and create jobs.”

During daylight, the solar panels charged the plane’s batteries, which make up a quarter of the craft’s 2.3 tonne weight. The pilot also climbed to 29,000 feet during the day and glided down to 5,000 feet at night, to conserve power. The plane flies at about 30mph, although it can go faster if the sun is bright.

The plane could fly almost perpetually but the pilots cannot, due to the gruelling conditions aboard.

Bertrand alternated with André Borschberg to fly the 16 legs of the journey, spending up to five days in the unheated and unpressurised cabin, taking only short naps and with the single seat doubling up as a toilet. Borschberg flew the longest leg, 4,000 miles over the Pacific from Japan to Hawaii, smashing the record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history.

But Bertrand said his biggest challenge was getting his pilot’s licence in the first place: “The challenge was to come from the world of ballooning and hang gliding to the world of aeroplanes and instruments and procedures. When I initiated the project, I had no aeroplane licence so I had to work for it over six years. I did hundreds of hours to be allowed to fly a prototype aeroplane.”

Piccard and Borschberg, both Swiss, are seasoned adventurers. Piccard made the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in 1999, while Borschberg, a former Swiss Air Force fighter pilot, has had brushes with death involving an avalanche and a helicopter crash.

Bertrand said the final leg from Cairo to Abu Dhabi was particularly tough, because of having to fly at high altitude to avoid the worst of the turbulence. “It is a much more demanding and exhausting flight,” he said. “It is so turbulent, there were moments in the last night that I could not rest at all, I just had to fight with my flight controls.”

He said his ground team had made the record-breaking flight possible: “I am alone in the plane but all the people who have worked on this project are people who are completely devoted and committed to success. I will give to each of them a big hug, because they made my dream possible.”

The aim of the Solar Impulse adventure was not to develop solar-powered planes for widespread use, but to show the capabilities of renewable energy.


Solar Impulse 2's flight around the world – in pictures
View gallery
“I worked for 15 years to have [this] demonstration of the improvements of these technologies, so now I really want to leverage this demonstration and create a world council for clean technologies,” Piccard said. “That will allow all these experts and specialists to advise the governments and big corporations on which types of technology to use to profitably fight climate change and profitably protect the environment.”

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said: “Solar Impulse has flown more than 40,000 kilometers without fuel, but with an inexhaustible supply of energy and inspiration. This is a historic day for Captain Piccard and the Solar Impulse team, but it is also a historic day for humanity.

“You may be ending your around the world flight today, but the journey to a more sustainable world is just beginning. The Solar Impulse team is helping to pilot us to that future.”

Solar Impulse’s journey has not been without difficulties. Crosswinds in China caused weeks of delays in 2015 and overheating batteries during the Pacific crossing forced it to spend the winter inside a Hawaiian hangar. The team also overcame financial troubles in 2015 after raising €20m from sponsors.

Damien Carrington - The Guardian - 26 July 2016

This week we will speak about new energies. Nowadays it is important to live cleanly. The new energies answer this need. We are going to dedicate this article to the solar energy.
In this purpose I selected two articles of Guardian. The first one shows the importance of the solar energy in the United Kingdom and the other one shows us what incredible things we can make with this energy.


It is historic in Great Britain because the solar power production was better than the coal power production during the summer. From an ecological point of view it is a very good thing. Nevertheless the sun does not shine every day. Thus the farms of solar panels produce some energy according to the weather report and the seasons. Technical installations are expensive and sometimes fragile but they remain attractive because they request fewer hands of work. Thus it is a real step forward. It shows that it will be possible to work without fossil power !


Our second article redraws the incredible story of a plane with solar energy. " Solar Impulse 2 " is the first plane with solar energy which realized a complete tour of the world. It shows how the technology quickly evolves. In a few decades, planes will be all propelled by environment-friendlier energies. This plane represented a real technical challenge. With a width superior to the Boeing 747's, the plane is impressive. During its world tour it also met big problems of batteries, problems of weather reports and pilot sometimes had difficulty in keeping control. This project was expensive but it is finally a success !

In conclusion the solar energies represent a close future!