06 november 2020
01:00
–
Thanks to two new offshore wind farms, Belgium will produce more renewable energy this year than ever before. With more than half of electricity from wind and sun at peak times, grid operator Elia faces the difficult challenge of preventing congestion on the grid.
–
When the wind picked up in the North Sea on Saturday, more than half of the electricity in Belgium came from windmills and solar panels in the afternoon. This is a phenomenon that is increasingly emerging, according to figures that De Tijd requested from the high-voltage grid operator Elia. The 50 percent renewable energy mark was first passed in the afternoon of June 2 last year. In the meantime, this has become a common phenomenon, with 140 hours this year in which renewable energy peaks covered more than half of the Belgian electricity demand. On April 20, during the first lockdown, a record share of more than two-thirds of green electricity was even achieved.
–
–
–
–
‘Month after month, we check the installed capacity solar panels and wind turbines are increasing‘says Elia spokeswoman Marie-Laure Vanwanseele. ‘In addition, there has been less demand for electricity since March due to corona. With the stricter corona measures, demand on the Belgian network was again 8 percent lower than normal last week. Due to a smaller total consumption, wind and sun can take up a larger share. We reached a new record in October, with an average share of 23 percent wind and solar energy in the electricity mix for the whole month. ‘
–
–
–
–
In addition to the continuous growth in the number of solar panels, the offshore wind farms in particular are putting a turbo on the green power production. With the commissioning of Norther last year and Northwester 2 in April this year, the capacity on the North Sea has increased sharply. By the end of this year, if the first wind zone at sea is ready, there should be nearly 2.3 gigawatts of wind turbines, enough to supply one-tenth of Belgian electricity.
–
‘In the past ten months we have already produced more offshore wind energy than in the whole of 2019’, says Hugo Canière, the interim top executive of the Belgian Offshore Platform sector federation. ‘Seamade is now also partly in use and should become fully operational in the course of December.’
–
Shutting down wind farms
The advance of renewable energy presents European grid operators with a major challenge. For every kilowatt hour that is injected into the grid, there must also be a consumer at the same time that uses electricity, otherwise the net will be overloaded. Certainly during the lockdown, with many companies on hold, it was extremely difficult to monitor that balance between supply and demand.
–
You can compare it to highways that are not wide enough to let all cars through, causing traffic jams.
Marie-Laure Vanwanseele
spokeswoman Elia
–
–
–
French energy expert Colette Lewiner, from the consultant Capgemini, warned this week possible power cuts in Europe. “With the increasing share of wind and solar energy, keeping the electricity grid stable is becoming more difficult and security of supply can be jeopardized,” she said during a press briefing. She was referring to recent problems in Germany and the UK, where a blackout could only be avoided at the last minute. Wind farms had to be shut down for a fee.
–
New electricity line
‘In Germany and also in the UK, the development of renewable electricity has accelerated, causing infrastructure to sometimes reach its limits and we have higher congestion costs on the grid,’ says Vanwanseele of Elia. ‘Compare it to highways that are not wide enough to allow all cars to pass, causing traffic jams. At the moment we do not see these problems in Belgium, but we have to work hard to avoid the risk of congestion in the future. It is relatively easy to build new wind turbines, but it takes a lot longer to expand the grid so that you can also distribute that power. ‘
–
It is relatively easy to build new wind turbines, but it takes a lot longer to expand the grid so that you can also get that power distributed.
