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UtILItY WEEK | 28th NovEmbER - 4th DECEmbER 2014 | 5 Welsh Water has won its appeal to place a wind tur- bine on its wastewater treat- ment works in Swansea. The water company had its initial plan to place a tur- bine at the Fabian Way site turned down by city planners in July 2012, and the revised plans turned down in Octo- ber last year. Following a successful appeal, Welsh Water will now develop a 79m, 500kW turbine which is expected to contribute more than a quarter of the total electric- ity consumed at the works. Welsh Water's head of energy, Mike Pedley, said: "We are delighted that we have now been granted permission to erect a wind turbine at our wastewater treatment works on Fabian Way. "We believe that our green energy scheme is right for the area and in designing the project we worked hard to ensure that the location and size of the turbine complied with the local authority's own plan- ning guidelines on turbine developments." Work is due to start in late 2015, with the turbine expected to be operational during 2016. WatER Welsh Water wins appeal for wind turbine at works $60/barrel Fund manager Daniel Bathe of Lupus Alpha Commodity Invest Fund told Reuters the price of crude could plummet if Opec talks in Venice this week fail to bring a significant production cut ➟ Wessex Water subsidiary Geneco has become the first company to start injecting gas generated from sewage and food waste into the national gas grid. A total of 17 million cubic metres of biomethane will be injected into the gas grid from a facility at the company's Bristol sewage treatment works every year. The anaerobic digestion plant that produces the gas is fed by 75 million cubic metres of sewage waste, as well as 35,000 tonnes of food waste, every year. Geneco is also using the gas to fuel a 'bio-bus', which will run from Bath to Bristol airport. Geneco general manager Mohammed Saddiq said: "We're able to produce enough biomethane to provide gas to the national gas network that's capable of powering almost 8,500 homes as well as fuelling the bio-bus." 9 months The Department of Energy and Climate Change has extended the grace period to connect to the grid to 12 months for large-scale solar developments above 5MW It will be cheaper to generate electricity from solar than by burning gas by as early as 2018, according to a new report from the Solar Trade Association (STA). The report said that as long as government policy supporting solar remained stable, the cost of solar generated energy would fall faster than previously expected. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) does not expect the projected cost of solar to fall below that of gas until 2022. The STA report is based on a survey of its members' cost forecasts until 2030, and it said the cost of building large-scale solar would fall faster than Decc thought because of the growing supply chain in the UK and falling global prices for solar panels and inverters. Its report also said solar would be cheaper than the wholesale price of electricity between 2025 and 2028. The cost of generating from gas is forecast to increase in real terms and always be more expensive than wholesale power. STA says solar will be cheaper than gas by 2018 Source: STA Cost of solar and gas generation to 2030 Photo: Wessex Water / Julian James 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levelised cost of energy (£/MWh) Solar PV, Decc Solar PV, STA Gas (CCGT), Decc Wholesale electricity price, Decc