World’s first all-electric commercial aircraft takes flight in Canada

Source: MIT Technology Review

The world’s first electric commercial aircraft, a seaplane, flew for a 15 minute test flight in Vancouver, Canada recently. It is owned by Harbour Air which ferries half a million passengers a year between Vancouver, Whistler ski resort and nearby islands and coastal resorts.

Harbour Air worked alongside the Australian engineering firm MagniX (which makes high-power-density electric motors for aircraft) to retrofit the seaplane with a 750 hp electric motor. The CEO of Harbour Air, Greg McDougall, says they hope to electrify their entire fleet of more than 40 seaplanes. Mr McDougall predicts the company will save millions in maintenance costs because electric motors require “drastically” less in upkeep.

Read more:
- World’s first fully electric commercial aircraft takes flight in Canada. The Guardian, December 11, 2019.
- A fully electric aircraft has just made its first commercial flight. MIT Technology Review, December 11, 2019.

Australia's main grid 50% clean for first time and supplies 30% renewable energy for a week

Source: RenewEconomy

The growth in wind, solar and battery additions to the main grid, called the National Energy Market (NEM), in eastern Australia has grown rapidly this year, particularly rooftop and large scale solar. So much so that on November 6, 2019, in one trading period, the grid had just over 50 percent of demand as renewable electricity for the first time. This was mostly solar and wind power.

Then just a few days later from November 11-17 this large NEM, ranging from Queensland to Tasmania and South Australia, produced at least 30 percent renewable energy for the entire week. This included mostly solar, wind and hydro power.

I am assuming wind and hydro supplied 30% of the demand at night as it was a windy week and hydro is big in some states. Tasmania and South Australia reach at least 30% renewables most of the time and did export to the other states during this period and on November 6.

Read More:
- Australia’s main grid reaches 50 per cent renewables for the first time. RenewEconomy, November 6, 2019.
- Renewable energy supplies more than half of Australia’s national energy market for first time. ABC News, November 8, 2019.
- Renewables supply 30% of NEM demand over an entire week for first time. Renew Economy, November 20, 2019.

UNSW student-designed solar freezer installed on a Fiji island

Source: One Step off the Grid

Engineering students from the University of New South Wales, Australia, were given a task to come up with a solution that will both empower the Fiji community and allow them to be self-sufficient. After much community consultation, they designed and installed a solar powered freezer in a remote village on Viwa Island.

“The Najia village on Viwa Island, on the outermost of the Yasawa Island group, is renowned for its fishing culture. So the students focused on creating a sustainable way for the villagers to freeze their daily catch and sell it on the mainland for more money.”

The other challenge for the students was to make sure that the project was easily maintained by the locals. Therefore the locals were trained to do the maintenance so that the freezer did not fall into disuse. Altogether the whole task was a valuable learning experience for the students and of great self-sufficient benefit to the community.

Read More:
- UNSW student-designed solar freezer installed on remote Fiji island. One Step off the Grid, November 28, 2019.
- A solar-powered freezer for today's catch: UNSW Engineering makes an impact in Fiji. UNSW Newsroom, November 27, 2019.

UK solar farm's inverter provides an overnight reactive power service

Source: NS Energy

Lightsource BP in the UK has been trialling the first night-time reactive power from a solar farm. This was achieved by using: “Specially modified electrical inverters installed at the solar facility [which] were able to transform power taken from the grid overnight – while not in use for their usual purpose of generating power from sunlight – and then feeding back optimised voltage to the grid.”

It is a way of providing a network service and in this case it is network voltage. It is also a way of adapting to a fast changing electricity network that now has a lot of solar power in the daytime. It is calculated that such an innovation will contribute to significant cost savings and additional grid capacity. Infact, Lightsource BP says reactive power could lead to £400m in customer savings by 2050.

Read more: Lightsource BP trials UK’s first night-time reactive power from a solar farm. NS Energy, November 27, 2019.