Richard Bridle

Grid-located batteries are a "new player on the block". In a National Pulse interview with @AshrafGarda, IISD's Richard Halsey discusses the value grid batteries can add & the role they can play in addressing 🇿🇦's recent energy crisis. 🎧@SAfmRadio omny.fm/shows/the-nati…

What are the challenges for 🇬🇧's nuclear power? 💷It's costly 💰Needs public funds 🔌Lacks flexibility Modern power system needs flexibility ➕ having more renewables in the system makes nuclear less appealing, says IISD's @RichBridle. 📰@FinancialReview afr.com/companies/ener…

Grid-located batteries are an under-recognized part of the solution to #SouthAfrica’s recent electricity crisis. But what needs to happen to 📈 deployment? 🚨A new @IISD_Energy paper identifies obstacles & solutions to boost #EnergyStorage. Read it now: iisd.org/publications/r…

#EnergyStorage is an essential part of 🇿🇦's future power system—but deploying it quickly & effectively will be key. On June 12, get a first look at our 🆕 energy storage report + don't miss the discussion with finance, project, & gov’t speakers. Register: iisd.org/events/superch…

🗳️ On May 29, South Africans will vote for their next gov't in a historic election—with energy topics high on the agenda. In a new interview, IISD expert Bathandwa Vazi explores the implications of the election on 🇿🇦's #EnergyTransition process. jetknowledge.org/insights/south…

📣Coming Up! Get a first look at our upcoming 🇿🇦 #EnergyStorage report! Grid batteries are an essential part of #SouthAfrica's future energy system. How can the country maximize benefits & solve deployment challenges? Register now: iisd.org/events/superch…

🚨 Despite rising energy subsidies, loadshedding in #SouthAfrica hit record highs in 2023, occurring 335 days of the year. 🚨 How can 🇿🇦 improve its energy security and hit #CleanEnergy targets? Our new report outlines a way forward 👇 iisd.org/story/south-af…

How can gov’ts 📉 fossil fuel subsidies & support the vulnerable? IISD’s @RichBridle explains proper analysis is key: “You’ve got to understand the impact, particularly on the most vulnerable groups, &—where possible—mitigate that impact”. ✍️ @joeloyo climatechangenews.com/2024/04/02/zam…

#SouthAfrica's 2024 Budget was released last week & though it highlighted the economic toll of #loadshedding, which has cost billions & left millions in the dark—it fell short with responses to lessen the burden. So where are the gaps?👇 🧵1/4 📗gov.za/news/speeches/…

"With intensifying climate and ecological crises amid rising poverty and inequalities, a new pan-African industrial policy and vision is needed; one that avoids reproducing the post-colonial industrialisation and energy traps." - @joabokanda @CAID_Kenya #Echobox=1707920306/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">african.business/2024/02/econom…

Amazing how complementary wind and solar are in Europe. Seasonal storage doesn’t seem to be needed. Storage of days and maybe weeks should be sufficient.

⚠️ Mozambique’s offshore gas plans look “increasingly risky” with #LNG deals limiting & delaying potential revenue. A 🆕 @IISD_News report breaks down the risks of LNG development for 🇲🇿 + why it's time to invest in sustainable alternatives.👇 iisd.org/publications/r…

LNG in Mozambique. Not delivering on its promises.

Int’l finance for fossil fuels in Mozambique has been far greater than 💰 for renewables.—but with the 🌍 energy transition accelerating future LNG demand & profitability is uncertain. Find out why 🇲🇿 should invest in sustainable industries: @IISD_News iisd.org/publications/r…

📽️If you haven't yet seen our impactful documentary, now is the time. Watch 'Shifting Power' and see how #fossilfuel projects are reshaping lives, landscapes and communities. It's time to amplify these voices and rethink our #energy choices. 🔗 dont-gas-africa.org/shifting-power

As part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership, 🇮🇩 has released a draft Comprehensive Investment & Policy Plan #CIPP. It shows... 📈 emissions reduction & #CleanEnergy targets ⚠️ plans to ⬆️ coal power capacity to 2040 & retire just 1.7GW by 2030 🧵1/5 jetp-id.org/cipp

Hilarious take. Presumably it’s clear to most people that you could always build several wind and solar projects. The size of the individual projects is irrelevant. Nuclear is really expensive. Maybe worth it if you value dispatchability highly, but project size doesn’t matter

Scotland blew-up its last coal fired power plant. The future is #renewable. Let's speed it up and get there. No time to wait. #ActOnClimate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #climate #energy #renewables #cleanenergy #GreenNewDeal #SDGs

Nice "new" visualization of solar growth versus predictions ;-) ht @baumanns

I was once again explaining to a reporter this week that South Africa's chronic power shortage has nothing to do with lack of power capacity. Rather, it is caused by excess capacity. As China, India, South Africa and many other countries chase the illusion of fixing their electricity shortage problems by adding more capacity to an already oversupplied grid, I think this basic insight needs to be laid out. It seems hard for both laypeople and professionals who are used to well-managed grids to understand how overcapacity leads to power shortages and power cuts. South Africa and the country's national power company Eskom are the perfect case study, so let's zoom in a bit. South Africa has been suffering from scheduled power cuts ("load-shedding") for years. It's an enormous drag on quality of life and the economy of the country. The layperson intuition goes: if the lights keep going out, it must be the case that there aren't enough power plants to supply all the power we need. Why would we be through this otherwise? Look at the numbers, and the story is completely different: the largest amount of power that South Africa has consumed from the grid during any hour of this year is 33 gigawatts. The country has 43.5 GW operating coal-fired capacity, 1.9 GW nuclear, 3.4 GW gas- and oil-fired capacity, 3.3 GW hydropower and pumped storage. So all in all, there should be 52 GW power generating capacity in South Africa with fully controllable output in a system where no more than 33 GW needs to be delivered at any given time to keep the lights on and avoid load-shedding. In the numbers above, I've excluded grid-connected wind and solar due to their variability, which means that they can't be guaranteed to be available when power demand peaks. The demand numbers are "residual demand", meaning generation from rooftop solar is subtracted. So it's not lack of capacity - something else is going on. It takes money and effort to keep power plants operating reliably. You have to carry out regular maintenance, replace parts, and operate the plant appropriately. When you have too many power plants, operating at low utilization, all of which cost money to keep running reliably, you're saddled with high costs and low revenue. You're perpetually out of money to maintain your fleet and because the overcapacity creates a very high tolerance for plant failures, your best bet is to put off maintenance and hope enough capacity stays operable. The euphemistic term "load-shedding" where cutting off electricity to paying customers is equated to shedding off a burden is in fact a perfect metaphor. The problem is that in an oversupplied system, power generators almost invariably lack the incentives to keep their plants running and meet customer demand. In short, if there are no incentives or money to keep plants operating, having more of them is more likely to make things worse than to make them better. Eskom has been running in a hamster wheel for years where everything keeps falling apart, they don't have enough operable capacity to meet demand and they don't have the money, the plan or the time to take their plants offline for proper planned refit. The details vary in the case of China and India, of course. In India's case, free electricity handouts, electricity theft and tariffs set below costs mean that generators lose money if they increase supply particularly to rural customers. Instead of fixing the incentives, regulators keep promoting the addition of more capacity to spread the misery. In China's case, government attempts to control electricity prices have led to situations where power tariffs are insufficient to cover fuel costs. This means that plants save money by not buying fuel or faking technical failures to avoid having to generate at a loss. The vast redundant capacity in China also means that there has been little incentive to fix the issue of outdated and inflexible grid operation, which is the main reason for power shortages in China. My hope for South Africa is that the debacle of continuous rolling blackouts reaches a point where a Eskom is broken apart and a plan put in place to close down a part of the fleet and refurbish the rest to high standards of reliability and at least rudimentary level of air pollutant emissions control. This is what happened in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, although it too took time. However, currently things are moving in the other direction - already scheduled decommissioning keeps getting postponed as the hamster wheel spins. Policymakers are understandably dead scared of being blamed for power shortages. Regardless of the facts, because few people understand that more capacity doesn't solve most power shortages, power plant retirements or denial of permits for new projects is a ticket for getting blamed. So that's why more coal plants get approved and decommissioning gets postponed. So for South Africa, the likely scenario is a utility death spiral where consumers vote with their feet and Eskom falls into irrelevance.