Power April 2022 Intl - 10

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generation, enabling the utility to be net
zero by 2035.
The Greens, a political party that
supports ecological stability among its
principles, recently proposed a $19 billion
plan to diversify the economy of
towns that have relied on fossil fuels,
specifically coal mining (Figure 2). The
party said government should subsidize
the wages of coal workers who transition
into new jobs, and said coal miners
could stay in mining but begin harvesting
cleaner metals, or critical minerals.
The Greens said government could pay
half the wage of a new job in a " nonpolluting
industry, " outside the coal, or
oil and gas, sector.
Adam Bandt, leader of the Greens,
in a statement said, " Australia is sleepwalking
into the closure of the coal industry,
but every single worker is being
told by the Liberal and Labor parties that
they have nothing to worry about. We
owe coal workers a debt of thanks for
powering our country. We don't need to
choose between taking urgent climate
action and supporting coal communities.
We can do both. " Bandt continued,
" There are enormous opportunities in
developing critical minerals and green
metal processing. Australia doesn't
need to shut down the mining industry,
we've just got to get out of coal. "
Waite said maintaining a reliable supply
of electricity, while recognizing the
need for more renewable energy, is
driving Babcock & Wilcox's efforts in
Australia. " One of the big issues Babcock
& Wilcox is working on is how to
help redesign and upgrade the remaining
coal fleet to manage ramping up and
down more efficiently to act as backup
to renewables like wind and solar, which
have been growing tremendously, "
Waite said. " The renewable and thermal
power capacity are there to meet energy
demand ... [but] until energy storage
systems such as batteries are able to
meet demand when solar or wind are
unavailable, coal and gas will play an
important role. We're focused on helping
our customers in Australia with upgrades
and replacement parts to keep
their plants running, reduce emissions
like NOx
, and make them better able to
cycle in response to the load demand. "
Didem Cataloglu, CEO at DIREXYON
Technologies, a Montreal, Canada-
based financial modeling group, told
POWER: " The accelerated closures of
several coal plants in Australia are creating
a significant gap of nearly 5,000
MW of reliable generation in the Nation10
al
Electricity Market (NEM), according
to Angus Taylor, Australian Minister for
Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction.
While this gap is considerable, it
is also creating a comparable window
of opportunity to boost the country's
renewable energy transition in the
coming years and to [reach] reduced
carbon emissions targets by 2030. Energy
supply requirements are already
being diligently forecasted. This gap is,
therefore, already well on the way to
being successfully bridged, judging by
the growing pace of Australia's renewable
installations so far. The closures
will be revving up government action
on funding additional renewable energy
projects, as well as garnering sufficient
resources [skilled labor and materials
amid supply chain disruptions] to complete
these projects. "
The NEM, for its part, is preparing for
more change in Australia's power generation
market, as political leaders debate
what that should entail. " In October
2021, the NEM shifted from 30-minute
to 5-minute settlement, which provides
strong price signals for faster-responding,
flexible technologies, " said Panjkov.
" Flexible resources, like battery-based
energy storage, are key enablers of the
renewable energy transition as they help
make the grid more reliable and secure.
Storage is already playing a major role of
managing grid frequency via Frequency
Control Ancillary Service markets. Two
new Fast Frequency Response markets,
commencing in October 2023, will unlock
even more value for grid stability.
As coal plants retire, it will be increasingly
vital to store electricity and then
shift it to when it's most needed. And
finally, more advanced applications of
storage are emerging, such as providing
synthetic inertia, a service once only
thought to be provided by large rotating
machines-like coal plants. "
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER.
Norway Setting Strategy for
Offshore Wind
Offshore wind is big business in the
North Sea, with dozens of wind power
installations commissioned in the region
over the past two decades. Norway,
a country that gets 98% of its power
from renewable energy, primarily hydropower,
in February announced plans for
its first auction for offshore wind. The
tender, scheduled in the second half
of this year, at first would look for bids
to develop at least 1.5 GW of offshore
www.powermag.com
3. Norway's government has identified two
areas in the North Sea-Utsira Nord and
Sørlige Nordsjø II-for offshore wind development.
Courtesy: Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum
and Energy
wind capacity to supply the country,
with subsequent tenders designed to
provide an economic boost by providing
more electricity for export to Europe.
Several companies already are lining up
to participate in Norway's effort, looking
to expand their own offshore wind ambitions
and showcase new technology
that draws on some groups' experience
with the oil and gas exploration industry.
Shell and BP are among the companies
with interest in the Norwegian installations,
along with Eni, Equinor, and
Orsted. Vattenfall and Norway's Seagust
also said they have formed a joint venture
to bid in the auction; EDF Renewables
in December said it had partnered
with Deep Wind Offshore, a Norwegian
independent power producer, to participate
in the process.
Norway's government had earlier
identified two North Sea areas (Figure
3)-Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II-
for development of as much as 4.5 GW
of fixed-bottom and floating offshore
wind, and immediately gained interest
from both domestic and international
investors. Sørlige Nordsjø II will house
two or three fixed-bottom wind farms,
while Utsira Nord could have three
500-MW sites for floating turbines, according
to the Norwegian Ministry of
Petroleum and Energy. Government officials
said the two sites will be tendered
as separate processes with different
timelines and tender rules.
Public support in Norway for offshore
POWER | April 2022
http://www.powermag.com
Power April 2022 Intl

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