Yesterday U.K. wholesale electricity prices were at 414 euros a MW hour . In Germany, France and Italy they hit Euros 465 a ME hour. This  is a tenfold rise on a year ago.
The U.K. has been linked into the European market by interconnectors and is often a net importer thanks to the policy of keeping us short of capacity. This summer we have a small surplus to export but the winter may well prove more difficult.
The  continent is facing a damaging storm of problems. The wind often does not blow much, hobbling  the windfarms when we have high pressure and no westerly winds. The low level of water in reservoirs and rivers has hit renewable  power from hydro in Norway, Italy, Spain and elsewhere . The French nuclear fleet has maintenance issues at several plants and is short of cooling water to enable them to run at others. Germany has closed three of her remaining six nuclear stations and is still planning the closure of the rest by end year. The continent is racing to get Russian gas out of its system before Russia throttles the supply taps further.
Too little attention has been paid to security of supply and too much trust has been placed in renewables which do not always deliver. The U.K. has just shut one of its nuclear stations and plans to close all but one of the rest this decade. Even allowing for Hinckley C coming on stream we will end the decade with less nuclear than we began. That is why we need to keep all our gas plants and get more domestic gas out of the ground. On a bad day for wind the U.K. gets under 2% of its electricity and well under 1% of its energy from wind turbines.
August 17, 2022
Indeed, yet electricity can be made from coal (even at todays prices & on demand and easily stored until needed coal) for well under ÂŁ170 per MW hour. But Kwasi and this government clearly preferred blowing up coal fired power stations while muttering drivel becoming the Saudi Arabia of wind. The sad think is Kwasi is actually one of the brighter/sounder MPs but clearly rather lacking in any understanding of science, engineering, energy, energy economics…
They did this on the grounds that CO2 plant, tree and crop food is “pollution”. Taking their lead from deluded (or dishonest perhaps and already proven wrong) people like Sunak’s daughers aged 9/11, Greta, Prince Charles/Willam/Harry, David Attenborough, the dire alarmist BBC, Al Gore… Meanwhile they burn imported wood at Drax which creates more CO2 than coal does and costs far more too.
August 17, 2022
Agree the elite are resistant to coal generated electricity but don’t offer any reliable alternatives. Solar and wind are not reliable.
Electricity price forecasts have been trending up for near-on 2 years. How far has the Government got on boosting UK power capacity in that time? Scarely any progress on opening more gas fields and I see none on Small Modular Reactors, which could be a relatively quick option.
Sir J, why are the Govenment not resolving this problem of under-supply?
August 17, 2022
They are actually causing the under supply!
August 17, 2022
âToo little attention has been paid to security of supply and too much trust has been placed in renewables which do not always deliver. â
All government attention has been paid to globalists. The electorate are only considered at election time and then offered promises that are promptly broken. Boris Johnson is just one example.
August 17, 2022
All we need now is some discussion on flue gas cleaning and coal fired power stations are back on the agenda. Clean the sulphur and remove the CO2 which can be supplied to market gardeners as a growing supplement.
Look at the problems with nuclear power, then look at coal and coal looks very attractive.
Please stop burning gas to generate electricity; we need it for GCH.
August 17, 2022
Dave Andrew’s
Well said pal.
It was always a massive mistake to use natural gas for electricity generation.
More sense to use it for industrial, commercial and domestic purposes.
The decision made was to break the hold of the coal industry and the start of addressing waste gases.
August 17, 2022
The wood burned in Drax power stations is defined as zero CO2 for the UK’s calculations.
If ever there was an example of the nonsense of net zero targets this is it.
August 17, 2022
Correct…..and our conservative government just loves Drax…just look at all the subsidies
August 17, 2022
Over ÂŁ800 million a year.
Is it a price worth paying acorn and hefner?
August 17, 2022
The good news is it is fairly easy now for most people to use very little energy with LED lights, insulate the people, bathe infrequently and only heat one room. No point therefore in insulating the whole house if you cannot afford to heat it anyway. The government should however control standing charges which are often a rip off in effect another house poll tax like Rates/Council Tax. This is how most people lived until about 1970 or so anyway.
August 17, 2022
‘standing charge’ – this government doesn’t do change, unless its ‘green’, just look at the last 12 years
August 17, 2022
In the US you can still get electricity at less than ÂŁ100 per MW Hour and natural gas about 1/3 of this.
Get fracking please and ditch the deluded net zero insane religion now.
August 17, 2022
So JR in short your party and govt are a disgrace for failing the nation on energy security- as well food security, border security, critical manufacturing like steel etc etc. After 12 years the blame lies squarely at your party/Govt door. There are many on this site who voiced concern over the years, yet your party and govt steam rollered on. Johnson only recently was condemning those who voiced against greenie fantasies and the stupid wind machines.
Your party and govt have impoverished the taxpayer. As one disgruntled viewer voiced today on the news nothing more galling than going to work with a bad back on a late train with illegal migrants waving from a hotel!
August 17, 2022
By this winter most of us will have seen our living standards fall back to that of the ’70s.
The Tories are going to get all of the blame for it.
August 17, 2022
Happiness, going into autumn, is reserve power stations with full coal-yards.
August 17, 2022
what are you taking? happy pills?
August 17, 2022
LL – this might interest you? I came by chance across another project of the green religion fanatics entitled âThe Carbon Literacy Projectâ, which purports to teach people on âAn awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.â They claim that today, over 37,994 individuals from over 3,550 organisations are now Carbon Literate and asks âare youâ?
The question is, who are they, who set them up and they yet another tax-payer funded organisation leeching on teaching the CO2 religion?
August 18, 2022
Sound like indoctrination for the gullible to me. Rather like the BBC.
August 17, 2022
‘Tis not what you can produce it for though is it? It’s what you can sell it for.
August 17, 2022
When they talked about their “Green energy transition” they didn’t mention a tenfold increase in costs.
They knew the consequences, or were recklessly minded to ignore warnings.
How do we hold those responsible accountable?
August 17, 2022
+1
August 17, 2022
You can’t. Our “democracy” has been designed to protect them.
And anyway, the critical decisions have been taken at international level by people who don’t have to worry themselves about silly little distractions like elections.
August 17, 2022
Thanks John for at last addressing what I’ve been banging on about for the past 2 years.
Our electricity supply is an unholy mess brought about by spineless politicians waving the green flag.
We get what we deserve.
August 17, 2022
Interesting looking at todays renewables. We’ve gained 3.6gw on wind bit lost 4gw of solar. What a way to run a country.
August 17, 2022
They don’t care Wanderer.
They are all rich.
ÂŁ5000 a year domestic bills for gas and electricity is nothing to them.
August 17, 2022
Or put the bill on âwork from homeâ expenses
August 17, 2022
Wanderer, I’m afraid the answer is to get involved in politics. When a cabinet minister come out with nonsense about energy, security, health etc he/she has to be called to account. When your local paper is full of nonsense, when your local council proposes and forces through uncosted and unscientific nonsense you have to point out the stupidity. We have to do it. We have to do it.
Why us? There’s nobody else.
JF
August 17, 2022
The Telegraph today.
THERESA MAYâS modern slavery law has become one of the biggest loopholes allowing illegal migrants to escape deportation, a former immigration minister says today.
Almost no end to the damage this appalling net zero, fake Brexit, virtue signalling women did. Almost as dire and damaging as Major, Blair, Heath and Brown.
August 17, 2022
I’ve often wondered why failed asylum seekers are allowed to stay in the UK, for years and years and years. Surely they should be the easiest to deport, plus all those immigrant criminals. We have enough home grown criminals without importing more. We’ll never have enough prisons, or the funds to support them, and that’s why criminals are let off to roam the streets and ruin even more innocent lives.
August 17, 2022
Shirley, UK prison population in 1970 around 40,000 and today around 85,000.
August 17, 2022
+many, many.
August 17, 2022
And Macmillan, LL.
August 17, 2022
+1
August 17, 2022
The distress and strain in our energy system is no mere accident. It defies belief that the voter still hasn’t woken up to the destructive arrogance and rank stupidity of the main parties and the deceitful bureaucrats they endorse
The greatest threat to this nation’s future is the electorate’s sheer naivety and gullibility induced by their endless thirst for free lunch politics. This cancerous ideological politics ensures the status quo is maintained.
Can I walk into Tesco, fill up my basket with produce and walk out without paying? Of course not. So why does the electorate vote for politicians who argue that they can?
August 17, 2022
Well you almost certainly will never be prosecuted by our current police if you do steal from Tesco. The police even announced that under ÂŁ100 they would do nothing so as to encourage more shoplifting I assume. So honest shoppers pay a shoplifting tax too on top of all the other taxes.
August 17, 2022
One wonders how the meetings went….
“Let’s move towards generating electricity by wind and solar and stop relying on gas and coal”
“Yes, let’s decommission all the old power stations which will force the issue”
“Rah, rah rah, yes I agree” (ad nauseum).
Was there no one in the room with the cohones to point out that renewable energy is intermittent or is reality a pale, male and stale trait that will get you cancelled and lose your job. It certainly explains why some of these green and diversity initiatives take hold – rainbow trains, police cars and pronouns!
August 17, 2022
Narrow Shoulders
Initiatives take hold
Too #####ing true.in Scotland millions
spent on police cars but with no charging facilities. That’s how rampant this green cancer is destroying this country.
August 17, 2022
Crikey Dom! A comment of yours I actually agree with. Hit the streets and demand a proper General Election? No chance; the UK has a population permanently suffering from the “boiling frog syndrome”.
August 17, 2022
Because they can’t recognise a liar when he’s promising free stuff?
August 17, 2022
+many
I didnât really believe in the âbread and circusâ theory.
But now I can see just how very clever âtheyâ ( the parasite class) have been.
Dumb down education and give free stuff.
Then âtheyâ can do exactly as they please and no one ( bar a few) will notice what they are up to.
How could they not have known what they were doing?
Thee d of civilisation as we believed it to be.
August 17, 2022
*the end
August 18, 2022
That requires the government to be able to get hold of stuff free to be able to hand it out for free.
As Rome found out when the Vandals overran the grain producing provinces of North Africa and demanded payment in gold for continued supply.The bread dole that kept the plebs pacified had to stop.
August 17, 2022
Dom,
You can if in San Francisco or New York! The nutters there have decriminalised anything below a certain amount so criminals steal to their maximum without being arrested. Cautions automatically given for low amounts of theft varies among forces. So principle applies here as well. Hampshire, until recently, giving courses to people who think the wrong way for non hate crime on social media!
Look at the state of law and order here, 70% of met officers not making an arrest, do not turn for burglaries yet thought crime given the priority. This is the Tory party no ifs or buts about it. The govt using their proxy inspectorate bodies to set the priorities for the public sector bodies, it is a culturally Marxist pro woke ideology.
August 17, 2022
Yes, you can. Allegedly.
JF
August 17, 2022
Nor do you walk into Tesco’s and get mugged for an entrance fee whether you buy or not or even just one small item. This is what the power companies do with their daily charge, egged on by the government through the ‘Regulator’ (i.e. Power Industry Representative).
August 17, 2022
“Nor do you walk into Tescoâs and get mugged for an entrance fee whether you buy or not or even just one small item”
That’s because Tesco’s (and virtually all other retailers) build their store & distribution costs into the price of every item they sell. However, if you are unfortunate enough to be a customer of British Oxygen you’ll be hit with a “Collection Fee” every time you exchange a gas cylinder – and it’s the same regardless of what size, or how many you collect. For DIY & hobby users (like me) this is greater than the cost of the gas refill. Utility standing charges are rather like the situation with mobile phone service. “PAYG” generally suits the occasional user who has to pay higher call charges, while monthly rental usually has lower charges and/or so-called “Free” minutes & texts. The network providers have to install and maintain their cell towers regardless of how much (or how little) they are used.
What I WOULD like to see is gas & electricity bills explaining that the recent, considerable, increase in standing charges is to pay for the grid reinforcement necessary to connect (mainly) offshore wind farms to to the rest of the network. These cables have to be sized to cope with peak output, even though most of the time well under 50% of that figure is being produced. Of course, this explanation will never be seen, because it would blow the lid off the entire scam…
August 17, 2022
Well said. Voters still seem to believe that if they vote for one of the other main parties things will improve. They wonât.
We are heading in only one direction â energy rationing, a state-controlled digital currency, and finally a social credit system. Have no doubt politics has been taken over by globalists who only have their own selfish aims in mind.
August 17, 2022
But if you suggest voting for one of the right-wing minor parties, the defeatests say it’s a wasted vote, “Never happen”. Of course it will never happen if you don’t vote for it.
August 18, 2022
Exactly. This is just a stitch-up by the main parties to keep the smaller parties out.
August 17, 2022
The moderator is unaware that shoplifting below a certain limit does not attract sanction.
JF
August 17, 2022
and you must not manhandle to restrain them either. Just hope for the stolen items to be given back.
August 17, 2022
For similar reasons to why they voted Leave, perhaps?
August 17, 2022
Both main parties are doing their best to ignore that referendum result NHL.
August 17, 2022
Good Morning,
We are now in a more weakened state as a nation, than at any time since the disaster caused by the Labour administrations of the 70’s. We have been weakened by our dependence on the EU/Europe, by the export of manufacturing capacity and intellectual competence, by grossly incompetent energy and food production policies, by covid, by boom and bust housing policies, but most of all by naive, lazy and imcompetent politicians. Our national debt stands at near wartime levels, and now we face threats from a major foreign power; China.
How much leverage does China have over us? We need to look at all aspects of our security, economy and essential social structures to see how much damage China could do us, if we do not ‘kow-tow’ to their demands.
UK politicians, GET A GRIP and grow up.
August 17, 2022
Exactly what threats does Britain face from China, Peter? And what are they ‘demanding’ of us?
To do business with us? Sounds terrifying.
August 17, 2022
I rather hope China denies us imports – we will suffer for a while and then produce or buy from elsewhere.
Sounds good to me.
August 17, 2022
WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT?
Inflation running at 10%, an horrendous balance of payments because we import too much (we purchase foreign currency, mainly US$, just to keep the lights on), and you want to spend and borrow more? You may not like it, but you’re going to have to defend ÂŁ with much higher interest rates, cut government spending drastically or see a run on the ÂŁ.
August 17, 2022
either mentally on holiday or really on holiday.
August 17, 2022
PW,
No that cannot be right. The Tories were in government under Thatcher and Major from 1979-97. Then in power from 2010 until today. Tories have had the last 12 years to set their agenda and bring about change. They CHOSE not to.
May openly stated in parliament she wanted to implement and build on Red Edâs Marxist energy policy- Cameronâs terms for him and his policy to get elected and then went along with it. Johnson recently publicly advocating green ideology with a neutral gender woman dominated world, condemning those who think differently. Lock down used as an authoritarian dictorial way to run the country while he pissed it up at No. 10. Experts and the people Not allowed to speak out against vaccines, not allowed to protest against them. No dissent clamped down by the police. BLM eco loons allowed to r7n riot and cause economic harm was condoned and allowed by govt and the police. Typical socialist thinking- do as your told not follow what I do.
This is not an accident. It was deliberate Tory policy. May closed gas storage, May and co stopped production of oil, gas and coal. Tories closed perfectly good coal fired power stations. Tories import wood chip from felled trees in the US to burn here and think it helps the world! Perfectly happy to import all fuels but not produce here!
This is Tory not Labour. Although I accept anyone could be forgiven for thinking these policies are of the far left following a socialist agenda. No this is JRs party and govt. – accept being poor this is the Tories levelling up policy at work.
August 18, 2022
No party elected to Parliament has offered a sensible energy policy since before the Climate Change Act. That includes Labour, SNP, Lib Dem, Green, DUP (remember cash for ash? and dependence on the South for adequate dispatchable generation) and Sinn Fein. It has been left to a relative handful of MPs with a better understanding of reality to try to inject common sense. Include Labour’s Graham Stringer. Sir John’s blogs have shown that he has a good understanding of what we now need to do to sort out supply.
You should be equally worried by the lack of any common sense among civil servants at BEIS and OFGEM, as well as the members of the CCC, and at the narrow spectrum of external consultants they employ to justify their policy positions.
August 17, 2022
I learned yesterday that the big company maintaining and repairing our electricity infrastructure is Chinese owned. Asking for trouble?
August 17, 2022
pre-installed failures?
August 17, 2022
Good morning.
Let us see if this will get past moderation ?
First, you need to untangle yourself from all that legislation and international agreements you have so foolishly made. That, as they say, is the enviroMENTAL elephant in the room.
That bed you politicians have made for all of us ? Ity is looking increasingly uncomfortable.
August 17, 2022
+many
Ah but they still have cards up their sleeves.
Theyâve had a little practice with locking up political opponents ( dissidents)âŠprobably the purpose of various ( obviously) fake or manufactured opposition characters.
Have they fired a shot like in Holland? Not yet I donât think.
They have however had a HUGE rehearsal for locking us in our houses and curtailing our movements.
Are they gradually beavering away at food availability? Yes, I think soâŠ
When I recall all the bullsh*t spouted regarding various foreign regimes past and presentâŠ.the utter hypocrisy!
August 17, 2022
Mark, how is the UK going to do that under EU level playing field rules? One is environment. The UK is still in EU orbit.
August 18, 2022
Hope
I know đ
The Tories have, as I said, made this bed and now a lot of them are going to regret it.
August 17, 2022
A mess made entirely by the Governments of the day. The LabCON Party. Ecoloons one and all and now we will pay the price.
August 18, 2022
But they intend to sign even more international agreements, against the will of the British people, like the proposed WHO treaty. Liz Truss says no more lockdowns yet gives the decision away to a corrupt foreign organisation. it’s utter nonsense and a betrayal of our sovereignty.
August 17, 2022
Yet another murder in London – if you live your life of three score and ten in London your chances of death by being murdered is now nearly one in a thousand. Of being stabbed, shot or attacked far higher still. Well done Mayor Kahn, social services, the mental health services that keep very dangerous people in the community, the open door immigration for all and our fairly useless & totally misdirected police and criminal justice system.
August 17, 2022
Let’s not forget decades of extreme glamorisation of violence, illegal drugs and pornography in the entertainment industry and lately on social media.
August 17, 2022
The same for 70 years in many places. Jamaica for example is 40 times worse at 40 in 1000.
To increase productivity Liz just get the government out of the way and get some decent gap between what you get actually working (after all the many non tax deductible costs of working) and benefit levels. People are behaving rationally given the daft system government have created. Not helped by Sunakâs vast tax increases.
Inflation at 10.1% (higher really) thanks Sunak for your idiotic extended lock down, the net zero lunacy and your money printing currency debasement!
August 17, 2022
I’d say that was a bit unfair, LL, about Sunak and the extended lockdown (to July 2021, I guess?). He didn’t want it, and in October stood up to media jackals demanding another lockdown in the autumn. He also resisted demands in December from the IMF, no less, for a new furlough scheme to cover the lockdown they expected then. I think he found himself in the middle of an insane destructive campaign of Covid panic kept going by certain Cabinet colleagues, and tried to do his best to mitigate the appalling effects on the economy he knew it would have. I’m less impressed with his tax-raising performance this year, though.
August 17, 2022
A little fear mongering @LL. If you do not mix in gangs or certain postcodes your chances of living your four score and ten are reasonable.
There is a certain demographic at greatest risk, but the Mayor and his acolytes won’t let us say that.
August 17, 2022
True.
August 17, 2022
80-year-old in a mobility scooter stabbed to death in Ealing.
Doubtless by a man-child whom he’d ‘dissed’ by holding him up in his car.
August 17, 2022
I went through my long Sea Warrior career without being taught, or bothering to learn, self-defence. But after retirement I found myself getting into London more often and, having seen CCTV recordings of macheteists at work in the city, I found myself buying ‘The Commando Pocket Book 1940-1945’, by Westhorp. I would suggest that anyone worried about the violence on our streets does the same; the good news is that the criminals seldom have anything like good technique. Not convinced? When seconds count, the police will be only minutes away – or investigating ‘hate-crimes’.
August 17, 2022
Find a class teaching ‘Ju Jitsu’ or, failing that ‘Aikido’. They are effective, good fun and get you fit. I have no interest to declare apart from experience 25 years ago.
August 17, 2022
LL, they used to tell us rats become aggressive when overcrowded but for some reason they don’t tell us any more.
August 17, 2022
+1
August 17, 2022
Lack of proper policing is now one of the most serious problems in Britain. Here’s a recent news report: the police “have failed to solve a single theft in some 84 per cent of neighbourhoods in the last three years”. I have previously written here that one of the most effective ways of ‘levelling up’ the country would be to get the police in poorer neighbouhoods to clamp down on street crime, burglaries and anti-social behaviour. And boy, would the locals reward you in the ballot box! Instead, the police – encouraged by this so-called ‘Conservative’ government of traitors – criminalise internet speech and keep records of ‘non-crime hate incidents’. Will Truss BAN the recording of ‘non-crime hate incidents’? Will she liberalise free speech on the internet? And will she order the police to focus on solving REAL crimes and clamping down on anti-social behaviour? Will she ****! She’ll do bugger-all to solve this problem, I’m afraid.
August 17, 2022
Well, I suppose we’ll have to fire up the coal power stations.
What? You blew them up? Alok Sharma CELEBRATED blowing one up just a year ago?
Then I guess we’ll have to use the nuclear power stations.
What? You didn’t build any. 12 years in Government and you haven’t built a single one. AND you let EDF close a functioning one down just two weeks ago!
Well, at least we have ample supplies of gas so we can run the gas power stations full-time.
Really? You closed down the Rough gas storage facility and chose not to invest in another one on the Cumbrian coast/under the Irish sea ….. so we’ve only got around 2 days’ storage capacity.
I guess it’s just as well the shale gas is there.
Oh ….. you’ve not made a decision about that yet.
But I thought we were going to get free electricity from the windmills blighting our countryside and coastline and the solar panels covering fields which could be used for growing food?
Oh ….. that was a unicorn dream.
Can I ask a question Sir John? Why do we seem to have complete morons running this country.
Meanwhile …. and off topic (quotes I cannot verify Ed)
August 18, 2022
+1
August 17, 2022
On the basis of long lead in times we needed to do this years ago. A typical Boris legacy. Chaotic. Not thought through.
August 17, 2022
Is anyone in government going to allow fracking? Mmm. Deathly silence. Their failure to govern and act when necessary ia disgrace. We are facing a crisis and we have no government. You will go down in history for all the wrong reasons.
August 18, 2022
They’ve now built houses on many of the fracking sites.
August 17, 2022
Every day I follow our electricity production here (https://gridwatch.org.uk/) and it shows me that renewables are fickle. It shows me that nuclear is dependable and necessary. It shows me that oil is the one provider which is reliable. Wind comes and goes. Solar in this country is simply not there in winter or at night.
Foreign imports and exports are negligible.
I should have thought that the government would know that. Silly me!
August 17, 2022
we used to have a contributor that insisted solar still worked at night and in winter….go on laugh it helps when feeling miserable.
August 17, 2022
And the bands play on.
You and few of the realistic other members, people on this site and others all labelled deniers are now seeing the pigeons coming home to roost.
For years the incompetence, ignorance, arrogance and climate fear factors have created this out of control religion that has begun to destroy Europe and this country. This has allowed the unelected UN in its new world order mission to be more credible than it really is.
Will these people ever stand up with their hands in the air and admit they have got it so wrong?
August 17, 2022
‘Russia throttles gas supplies’, Sir John? According to the FT in March,
https://www.ft.com/content/eac9498f-6a36-41a9-b577-fa37c0eeab76
the EU put forward a plan to reduce Russian gas supplies to Europe by two-thirds by the end of this year. That’s quite a bit of throttling there, I’d have thought.
August 18, 2022
Russian supply has now been reduced rather more than 2/3rds. It is down 100% on pipelines to Finland and across Belarus to the EU, as well as across the Black Sea to the Balkans. It is down 80% on Nordstream I, and about 60% on EUstream via Baumgarten. Europe has been fortunate that this year Arctic ice levels have remained high, forcing LNG to Europe rather that going via the Bering Strait to Asia until relatively recently, and the Arctic shipping season will likely be short for the same reason. Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium have seen the benefit, but it has not offset the loss of pipeline volumes.
August 19, 2022
Er,no.Supply to the Balkans across the Black sea continues(there was just a few days break for maintenance on the Turkstream a while back).Both Hungary and Serbia have asked for -and been given -greater volumes by Gazprom.
Hungary is a favoured location for “nearshoring” by German manufacturers.
August 20, 2022
Not Bulgaria and Romainia.
August 17, 2022
Good to see Sir John, unlike I think any other politician, consistently draw a distinction these days between electricity and total energy consumption. Electricity – where on a given day renewables supply between 2% and 40% depending on the weather – accounts for just 20% of total energy consumption. Almost all the 80% of the rest is fossil fuels. We need to get the public to understand these basic numbers in order to allow politicians to move away from the catastrophic net zero policies which have landed us where we are.
Hereâs a question: how come we have an energy crisis at all when we spend ÂŁ10bn pa on renewables subsidies and must now have spent in aggregate to date, what, ÂŁ100bn in all? We are constantly told how âcheapâ renewables are and how efficient, so how come they appear to have made no discernible difference at all to our current predicament? (Also whereâs all the money gone – in who’s pocket(s) does it now sit?)
The only possible zero or low(er) carbon sources of energy in serious volumes on current technology are nuclear and natural gas. We need a big expansion of nuclear, immediate increase in North Sea production and an urgent start to fracking. Otherwise we need to accept net zero is completely unobtainable. And will do huge economic and societal damage in the meantime.
August 17, 2022
None of these problems happened by themselves — The level of political scheming incompetence is astounding and beyond rationality.
We keep on getting the story of a hard winter to come, giving hope that this is all there will be to these problems. THAT is a totally wrong concept. THIS is just the start, and it will only get worse as the globalists continue with their great reset.
Just looking at the contingency measures from HMG should be enough to see exactly where they are taking us.
August 17, 2022
Common-sense sacrificed by Politicians of all colours on the alter of net Zero !
The simple fact is a minority of climate change zealots are running the show at the expense of the majority, because they have simply avoided being honest about the cost and chaos of their policies.
Science, engineering, and commercial expediency has been completely ignored in the rush to fantasy alternative energy production.
August 17, 2022
Great. I keep reading stuff like this. Can anyone explain WHY it costs 10 times more today than it did 365 days ago? What has changed?
August 17, 2022
it is a dripping elongated war on the british.
August 17, 2022
its called competition
August 17, 2022
various forms of blackmail being perfected!
August 17, 2022
The costs of net-zero are kicking in
August 18, 2022
Many items are sold on the world stage in Dollars. The value of the Sterling has fallen due in part to QE and a loss in confidence in it. ie To pay our bills.
August 18, 2022
We have lost several GW of dispatchable coal and nuclear capacity to closure, and much more has been lost on the Continent. Last year was a very poor year for renewables output across Europe, which led to lots of extra gas use that eroded buffer stocks. Demand also increased substantially in a rebound to global lockdowns, and because China started importing a lot more LNG through its new terminals – built as a homage to climate policy, it also as a way to squeeze global supply for gas while China continues to get most of its energy from much cheaper coal, thus ensuring competitive advantage.
Supply of gas has been constrained by the need for catch-up drilling and maintenance activity, which was reduced by lockdowns, financial losses and more fundamentally by insufficient new permits and project finance in countries that follow the new ESG fashion aimed at preventing more development, so we are a long way behind on replacing declining production from older fields. Then add supply disruption caused by Russia cutting pipeline volumes into Europe from Finland to Bulgaria, even though most of the cuts do not involve pipelines that cross Ukraine (which still operate).
We now have a global shortage of gas for the winter, yet it is the only fuel that has the flexibility to cope with balancing intermittent renewables and providing sustained output through periods of Dunkelflaute. As the only medicine that works, everybody dependent on renewables wants it. Because it is now expensive it has become the marginal, price setting fuel for electricity generation, at least until electricity demand outstrips generating capacity, when shortage pricing to induce demand destruction takes over.
August 17, 2022
Surely anyone with an ounce of common sense would not shut any nuclear power stations until Hinckley C is reliably working. Assuming this untested, unproven design does actually work.
Why on earth is it SOOOO expensive? 26 thousand, million pounds. Wow. That is a lot of money.
August 17, 2022
small compared to that tunnel between London and Birmingham. About one fifth, maybe nearer one quarter of the cost. Ask yourself what would you rather have a tunnel for some businessmen to travel in, or 4 times the power output of Hinckley?
August 17, 2022
As I read the other comments posted it’s clear people are realising our government (past and present for decades) have not been doing the job they were installed to do.
They most certainly have not been working for the people they are supposed to be working for.
Ah but, you’ll say, politics and particularly International politics are far more complicated than the little man in the street can imagine, and we have always had the public’s best interests at heart.
No, you haven’t, not now and not for a very long time. Some public somewhere I’m sure, but not this one here.
Greed, poncing around on the world stage, ego’s, the desire to be seen as a world policeman (yes that’s right policeman , not police person because all that baloney is taking us to hell in a hand cart) the desire to be seen as world’s most benevolent.
All the while the real business governments have been put in place for such as our security in all things and that includes energy, is left to lunatic ideologists, and people with the ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ signs in their eyes.
The public will be expected to put up and shut up and be bamboozled with more excuses and utter nonsense buzz words and phrases.
Let’s hope this winter is a very rude awakening for many who as they can’t afford to heat or eat (and it is going to be across the socio/economic board,) eventually realise the establishment parties haven’t been doing their jobs.
It may also stop more people hanging on the words of a Swedish school girl with Aspergers ( now Sunak’s children too!!!) and a little rock star in sunglasses, as the propaganda poster cool dudes of the climate alarmist army.
August 17, 2022
It is easy to blame government and politicians for their incompetence but that would be inappropriate. This is far worse than that. It is the result of deliberate actions directed by globalists in furtherance of their man-made climate change scam. Is there no one in politics prepared to call this out for what it really is or are they all complicit and benefitting from it?
August 17, 2022
It looks to me like, for the past decade, we have been undergoing what was supposed to be a controlled demolition of our economy, energy and food security …. which has suddenly turned into an uncontrolled demolition because of Putin’s attack on Ukraine and NATO’s response.
You only have to read the UN’s Agenda 2030 and the WEF’s plans for us to understand that, Ukraine excepted, none of this was a mistake. And that includes the Covid plandemic.
August 17, 2022
Donna
On the money.
Very good post
August 17, 2022
Death! Where is thy sting?
August 17, 2022
It has been a virus, but now building momentum in winter for starvation or hypothermia, possibly both.
August 17, 2022
Dounreay – 30 million
Hinckley C – 26 thousand million
Just 866 times more. A new family saloon in 1966 was about ÂŁ750. If it had inflated at the same rate as nuclear power stations something like. Ford Mondeo should now cost ÂŁ650,000.
A pint of beer in 1966 was about half a crown – or 12.5 pence. If it had suffered nuclear inflation it would now cost ÂŁ110 a pint.
I think weâve been well and truly had over. That said the strike price of ÂŁ92.50 per MW hour suddenly looks like a bargain
Reply Hinckley is a lot bigger but still a good point
August 17, 2022
Off topic, the Tory leadership contest moves to Belfast today and the pro-Union News Letter is inclined to trust Rishi Sunak slightly more than Liz Truss:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/rishi-sunak-gives-stronger-answers-on-northern-ireland-protocol-than-liz-truss-does-3808553
“Rishi Sunak gives stronger answers on Northern Ireland Protocol than Liz Truss does”
However when I read Rishi Sunak quoted as follows:
“On possible unilateral British action to change the protocol, he said: âI would call an urgent summit with EU leaders to seek a negotiated outcome, but no option is off the table if they do not see sense and change their position.â”
I come back to the same old point that it should be easier to persuade the EU – and before them, the House of Lords – that the protocol could and should be changed if an alternative system to protect the EU Single Market had already been put in place, and the UK could unilaterally set up a system of export controls without needing the agreement of the EU or the Irish government and without infringing the existing protocol.
This is so obvious, and moreover in line with proposals contained in the July 2021 Command Paper, that I can only harbour dark suspicions why it has not already been done. By now the UK government could have proved in practice over nearly a year that UK export controls could provide an adequate, workable alternative to the EU import controls mandated by the protocol.
August 17, 2022
Hinkley Point ! When its completed can we be sure that we can afford the prices it will charge?
August 17, 2022
As I understand it the strike price agreed of ÂŁ92.50 per MW hr means that, when operating, if the current price of electricity is below ÂŁ92.50, Hinckley will be paid ÂŁ92.50. But (and who could have foreseen this?) if the price is above ÂŁ93.50 – as it is at the moment at ÂŁ350 a MW hr, Hinckley has to repay the difference between the current price and the strike price. This will be a nice little earner for the government. We pay ÂŁ350 per MW hr and Hinckley pays the government ÂŁ350 minus ÂŁ92.50 = ÂŁ257.50 per MW hr. So, weâre all broke paying a fortune for electricity but most of what we pay for Hinckleyâs electricity will go back to the government to spend putting up people who arrive here illegally and who refuse to say who they are or where theyâre from.
August 18, 2022
The current value of the Hinkley CFD is ÂŁ113.83/MWh and that will get a big boost from RPI inflation in October.
August 17, 2022
Meanwhile the Captain has been partying on board for a couple of years and is now on shore leave with no replacement. The crew have steered the ship into a storm because they had no idea what they were doing.
The passengers will soon be asked “Will you sail again with the White Star Line”?
August 17, 2022
The ones that made it to New York would have said âyesâ. Just like many people will vote Tory in the next election, despite daily collisions with icebergs while the. Sprain is not on the bridge.
August 17, 2022
Renewable energy using voltaic solar panels as a source have their output lowered considerably when the weather is hot. The heat creates thermal agitation in the light sensitive substrate which in turn reduces electron flow by increasing resistance. My own solar panels produce most energy in the spring and autumn
On sunny but cooler days.
August 17, 2022
any guidance for us as to at what temperature we get diminishing returns?
August 17, 2022
This is like no other time in our entire history.
Every single method of survival has been taken awayâŠso stealthily over centuries and âfor our own goodâ.
Government control of everything has stripped us of our ability to clothe and feed ourselves let along warm our houses.
Will they send round Covid Marshalls on their bikes every night ( batteries for lights still available? Or pedalling madly to keep the dynamo going?) to stop us burning chair legs. Will they be armedâŠ..
August 17, 2022
It was and is government policy to economically penalise the use of carbon-based fuels thus reducing their use and so helping to meet the Net Zero target which was passed into *law* by the Conservative government. So surely you should be celebrating the obvious great success of this policy ? What is happening today is exactly what you wanted. And this is confirmed by your refusal to approve fracking and coal mining/burning and new North Sea gas field development.
Wholesale electricity in Europe is 414 Euro/MWh. In USA it is around $100 /MWh albeit with variations between different states. They must be doing something different to us. I wonder what ?
August 17, 2022
It must be silly season when Government ministers are proposing a tax on cycling and an offence called ‘Death by dangerous cycling’. Does this mean that your toddler will need a license, plates and insurance for his tricycle? Does this mean the end of Boris bikes? Why have Chief Constables been allowed to instruct their forces to ignore things like cycling on the footpath?
Taking a step back, and ignoring the increasing trivialisation of actual murder by our elites, why do we have an offence called ‘Death by dangerous driving’ in the first place? Shouldn’t it be a serious matter to cause the death of another by carelessness and stupidity regardless of the means, be it mobility scooter, kayak, hang glider, or even bicycle?
August 17, 2022
Pray tell me what is silly about taxing cyclists?
August 17, 2022
Oh dear.
RAF faces a backlash over its struggle to meet diversity targets by âpausingâ the recruitment of white men.
DO WE REALLY NEED TO WONDER WHY WE ARE WHERE WE ARE?
August 17, 2022
That’s racist itself. I think any leader that had the guts to stand up and say we’re ditching net zero, ditching woke, going to have a PROPER Brexit, control illegal immigration and get the police back to policing and use commonsense again would win an election hands down. Trouble is there’s nobody with enough passion or guts.
August 17, 2022
Cuibono – Maybe things would be better if we gave the Tories a 90 seat majority instead of 80 ! *sarc*
(The same discrimination has been operating against white boys in medical schools for some while. Where any other race and sex so absent in the graduations there would be outcry and rebalancing.)
August 17, 2022
But nice to see our wholesale prices are less than those in France, Germany and Italy – despite Brexit. I wonder if there is any scope to delay the closure of some of our nuclear plants.
August 18, 2022
That has been because we cannot export any more gas because the export pipes are full, yet we can offer LNG landing and use in power stations to provide export electricity. At least until we run out of generating capacity, as we have three times in recent weeks.
In winter things will be different. Our own demand will be much higher, and our ability to land gas to meet that will struggle in cold and low wind weather. That means we will see parity on gas prices at least: the market for December delivery already shows that along with much higher prices. In a general Europe wide shortage there will be reluctance to supply the UK with gas out of Continental storage, so we will depend on good supply from our own and Norwegian production as well as a continuous landing of LNG. We may not achieve all three.
We have less dispatchable capacity going into winter than last year because of nuclear and coal closure. Interconnectors could easily disappoint. Norway is discussing curtailing exports because of low reservoir levels. France remains very short of power, and could easily try to bid for supply from the UK. We would be faced with extremely high prices and a physical electricity shortage. That means power cuts, at least for industry, and maybe for homes too.
Very high prices will result in demand destruction: people and businesses will simply not be able to afford the cost, so will cut use voluntarily or by being disconnected for non payment. That will kill businesses and people. My hope is that it will kill the policy of failing to address dispatchable capacity shortages and of adequate fuel supply (principally the problem is gas).
August 17, 2022
Further to my earlier off topic comment, Professor Catherine Barnard has an article in CityAM today:
https://www.cityam.com/a-northern-irish-compromise-is-balancing-act-of-conflicts/
“A Northern Irish compromise is a balancing act of conflicts”
To which I have responded as follows:
“Goods which cross the land border from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic and thus the EU Single Market can be divided into two categories: those which have previously been brought into the province, from Great Britain or elsewhere, and those which have actually been produced within the province. In 2019 the division was close to equal, with about 44% of the exported goods being locally produced.
So when Professor Catherine Barnard explains (today) that because nobody wants to check goods as they cross the land border all incoming goods must instead be subject to EU checks at their points of entry into the province – “there necessarily had to be a border somewhere else”, as she puts it – she has left unexplained where the locally produced goods will be subjected to any required EU checks.
The answer, of course, is that they will not be checked at any border, neither the land border nor the sea border; instead they will be checked at sites away from both borders. And if that can be done for locally produced exports then it could equally well be done for those goods brought into the province for export to the Irish Republic – so replacing contentious EU import controls with UK export controls.”
I pointed this out to her two weeks ago, but clearly I did not explain it well enough for her to understand.
August 17, 2022
“BBC wanted my views on Treasury orthodoxy and why we ended up with high inflation and recession threat. No interruptions, no BBC corrections to my views. A wish to catch up on years of failing to listen to sensible criticism of the established errors? Will they run it?”
Which bit of the BBC was this? If they do air it, will you publish it here?
Reply Newsnight tonight
August 19, 2022
Something Cummings got dead right: don’t go on the Today Programme, Newsnight, or Channel 4 News! But I admire your tenacity in going on trying to use those media as a means of communication..
August 17, 2022
It seems nothing will change until we actually hit the problem, the old fashioned politicians way of waiting until the danger is staring us in the face. The misinterpretation of JIT just-in-time management by govt and the incompetent civil service will be a watershed moment on an epic scale.
Sadly energy is just one of the many major problems heading our way.
August 17, 2022
Sir John,
The UK should be entirely self sufficient in energy.
Unsubsidised renewables should be a supplement.
August 17, 2022
This has been a UK strategic disaster for at least the past two decades, exacerbated by the Boris/Carrie rush to nett zero. This most ill conceived national policy yet devised, with no reference to science , engineering or common sense. A wonton destruction of our energy independence all designed to make us dependant on Europe and sources beyond with no barrier against the instability of the worldwide energy market.
I question how worldly wise our political leaders are. We have the ingredients, coal, oil, gas within our own jurisdiction. We have the engineering talent to extract it at sensible prices. What possessed these political pygmies to allow our assets to be filtered through an unstable world marketing structure that ensured that the UK customers for their own fuel had to pay world market prices, that bloated the profits of that marketing structure. A question you SJR have studiously avoided answering.
Much the same can be said of water/sewage. Just another engineering challenge , but totally unsuited to the majority of your ill qualified colleagues in Westminster. Just now the UK is the very antithesis of Victorian enterprise, a country littered with anarchists, allowed free reign to block and destroy that which has led the world for many centuries.
August 17, 2022
“Too little attention has been paid to security of supply and too much trust has been placed in renewables which do not always deliver. “ – but has any attention attention at all been paid to security, and has faith in renewables been blind?
Let us hope Liz sees today’s diary before she considers deploying the BEIS ministers responsible anywhere at all.
August 17, 2022
Tories were bonkers for ousting Boris (give him a good grilling but not get rid of him).
Especially in various crisis we find ourselves in now.
Ms Truss and Sunak just don’t cut it for me.
August 17, 2022
Likewise. As long as the talking to involved following whatever libertarian instincts I hope he still has, and not letting her indoors wear the trousers.
August 17, 2022
He would be a bit big to grill over my gas-BBQ.
August 17, 2022
Is this the same Boris who gave us lockdown, high inflation, high fuel costs, high immigrant, high crime, brexit in name only and gave away our fisheries to the French and NI to the EU
August 18, 2022
+ many, Glen
August 18, 2022
Dive into the complexities of the major crises we are facing right now and you will find that Fred Scuttle has been more cause than solution. He has been hopeless in any form.of government position. Truss – and it will be Truss- might just be able to sort out some of the mess Johnson has caused before the next general election. But, quite frankly, anyone as PM would be an improvement on Scuttle.
August 17, 2022
Every time electrical power is discussed on tv or radio, you can guarantee that one eco-loon will come on and say that renewables are cheap and some even say free and all we need is more windmills. As we have many thousands of these things, plus solar arrays and even biomass and hydro, where is the cheap price? They never get asked to explain it all, and why. When will we get cheap or free electricity? Same time as they said in the 1950’s about nuclear. The twelfth of never. We are conned.
August 18, 2022
The highest bid sets the price in a supply constrained market. Unless you are on fixed contract, hit the bid or don’t.
All power generators are ‘making money’ beyond expectations. The market is failing because there is no competitive supply with permissions to sell its surplus power if its a banned source.
Supply has been purposely put beyond use and is legally constrained, see coal policy.
There is a 80 seat majority to act in the UK’s interest. When will they?
Gas/Coal is still for sale from others including Russia , but you may have to pay in roubles or $ for it.
Russia wanted security at the start of the war. They will still want that. How are the negotiations going?
August 18, 2022
What negotiations?Russia’s stance is that of it’s Mongol predecessors:”Submit or be destroyed.”
August 18, 2022
The reality is that renewables are not cheap at all. We are paying a substantial premium to market price for those renewables on ROCs. Those on CFDs contribute only 6-8% of demand, yet had been clawing in substantial subsidies until prices went up. What they have been paying back is in relative terms a pittance, as the dashboard shows
https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/dashboards/cfd/actuals-dashboards/historical-dashboard
But this ignores all the extra costs that renewables impose – for extra grid connections, and backup and grid stabilisation. Of course the newest wind farms simply aren’t commencing their CFDs, so they enjoy market prices anyway – boosted by carbon taxes on the gas fired competition.
Renewables investors know that government is going to tear up the existing arrangements, and so their low bids for future capacity will never be called on. The government will be too frightened at the thought of capacity not being built to take any kind of tough line. Moreover, we will increasingly see the problems of surplus generation when it is windy. We either pay to curtail it, or pay even more to subsidise harebrained storage schemes, or pay a lot more for what we actually use to cover for zero revenue on surpluses.
Cheap renewables are a myth.
August 17, 2022
America is introducing an emergency price stabilisation act. After reading the act myself this act looks promising. It will certainly punish companies who are price gouging.
August 18, 2022
I think it will punish consumers who find supply is diminished.
August 17, 2022
Off topic. Mr. Redwood, I read on the Guardian web site a rather disturbing article about Freeports. You have mentioned them a number of times and I have gained the impression that you think that are marvellous and an engine for regeneration and growth. What exactly is a Freeport and how does it benefit the area where it is located?
August 17, 2022
For freeports to succeed they would have to be built around industrial freeport zones- to be successful in this we should have started decades ago – but as we know from when we were members of the EU the whole country was in a freeport then to at least 27 other countries and then to half the world if you take into account the number of countries worldwide that the EU has trading agreements with – but that wouldn’t do so on the advice of the misguided ones who thought we could do better – in fact they thought we could call the shots on the rest of the trading world from outside the EU if we decided to go it alone – and now that we have got ourselves outside the EU and taken back control we have 10 per cent plus inflation and heading up to thirteen per cent – with massive labour shortages in some sectors and with millions sitting at home on benefits while the fruit and veg are in the fields – then to top it all Felixstowe port workers are about to go on strike – I’d say we are in trouble now and nothing freeporrs are going to fix.
August 18, 2022
Why is there inflation in America if Brexit is the reason Hally?
Inflation in Europe as well..
Is that due to Brexit?
August 17, 2022
This country is geographically optimally placed for ocean energy technology, most still at R&D stage, but now developing at faster speed, with increased investment and resources. It is no solution to our present or mid-term problems- for even by 2050 OET is predicted to provide only 10% of Europe’s electricity.
I strongly recommend a read of a brief but informative article on the Marks & Clerk website: “Ocean energy technologies on the rise in 2022”. M&C are naturally interested in the patents involved, but the article is wide-ranging and refreshingly politics-free.
August 18, 2022
The article is also free of engineering evaluation and economics. I have commented on those factors in recent days here for several marine technologies. They remain green toys, good for sucking in research money, and are unlikely to change status.
August 17, 2022
We are all suffering government and others incompetence and stupidity but I’ll just throw in an OT subject which is bigger than all these types of detail.
The biggest problem is that we have no nation. The UK is being broken up by Scottish and Welsh national politics which attacks the UK every day.
To add to this England’s identity is at least ignored but mostly attacked. So called English Unionist politicians always put England at the bottom and until English national pride is allowed and promoted the Union will fall. They should stop living lives of appeasement. The Scots and Welsh don’t want the Union and the English are not allowed to promote themselves.
August 17, 2022
Prang. I couldn’t agree more. We are so despised and many of us would vote for separation. England carries the weight of all 4 nations on its shoulders and what at times feels like the rest of the world.
August 17, 2022
TP :
England’s identity is disappearing – 20% of children in England do not have English as their first language.
August 18, 2022
I’m rather late with this supplement to my comment but by way of illustration Liz Truss in Belfast said she was brought up in Paisley, Scotland and Leeds, Yorkshire. Notice the difference in identity there, an unconscious attitude. Scotland mentioned, England omitted. There is no time to analyse that here but think about it. Why is it that Liz Truss and thousands of others think this way?
How can the English promote themselves in such an atmosphere?
August 17, 2022
Make no mistake, these high electricity prices have been caused deliberately by the communist fifth column in our Government, Parliament, Civil Service, quangos et al by restricting supplies of fossil fuels â cutting back on licences for oil/gas exploration and production in the North Sea and banning fracking and coal mining.
Then spending vast sums on the most ridiculous way to reduce CO2 emissions, namely expensive, intermittent, low energy density, wind and solar farms coupled with the total electrification of transport and heating and consequently forcing everyone to buy expensive/impractical/useless evs and heat pumps.
And the situation made wilfully even worse by reducing to almost zero the only low carbon energy source which is affordable and reliable, namely nuclear.
August 17, 2022
The high electricity prices are the result of a communist fifth column CO2/Net Zero scam as evidenced by the fact that unilaterally cutting our 1% contribution to global emissions will make no difference to CO2 levels and the activists have no qualms about China and India burning 5.6 billion tons of coal each year. In addition :
Historical data since the Cambrian explosion 570 million years ago shows no correlation between CO2 levels and global temperature.
CO2 levels have actually fallen continuously over this 570 million year period from 6000 ppm to a dangerously low level of 180 ppm during the last ice age which ended around 10,000 years ago. During this time temperature fluctuated wildly with temperatures much higher than today and with lows including ice ages.
CO2 levels were dangerously low because at 150 ppm plants cannot survive and this certainly would cause the end of life on our planet. Fortunately, as we came out of the last ice age CO2 levels increased to 280 ppm where it was before the Industrial Revolution.
BTW, there is no anthropological explanation for the last ice age or the sudden warming as we came out of it.
Furthermore, during the last 6000 years whilst the CO2 levels have been slowly rising the temperature has actually been falling from its high point of at least 1 degree higher than it is today. The temperature only began to rise again after the ending of the Little Ice Age (14th to 19th century). So no correlation there.
We are still in an interglacial period between ice ages and our current global temperature is almost as low as it has ever been on our planet, barring ice ages. Despite CO2 rising to 400 ppm since the 19th century the rise in global temperature is miniscule and no threat to life.
It is also insanity to believe that an increase in CO2 from 3 molecules per 10,000 (300 ppm) to 4 molecules per 10,000 (400 ppm) can cause âclimate breakdownâ, âextreme weatherâ and a âclimate crisisâ.
CO2 is plant food and rising levels bring increased food production so in fact burning fossil fuels, which are releasing back into the atmosphere sequestered or trapped CO2 is actually beneficial to life on our planet.
August 17, 2022
Both candidates, Truss and Sunak, say fracking should go ahead if locals approve.
Why should locals be able to veto the nation benefiting from fracking when locals elsewhere can’t prevent HS2 in their backyard despite HS2 benefiting the few, not the many, and especially not the many new work-from-homers?
August 17, 2022
Yes Sir John. Our energy supplies are critically low.
And that is IN SUMMER, when we certainly do not need the heating on.
But what is BEING DONE NOW To improve the situation before we go into Winter?
August 17, 2022
Nothing! It’s what we have come to expect.
August 17, 2022
EU gas storage filling is ahead of target at 80 billion cubic metres (bcm), If it gets to the max of 105 bcm it is estimated that would allow the EU to ride out a complete cut-off of Russian supplies without significant demand-rationing. The UK is has a nice little earner selling gas into EU storage. Expanding EU LNG terminals, both on shore and floating, are now taking more tanker gas from the US than Russian pipeline gas.
August 17, 2022
Storage gets you a helpful emergency stock but it has little effect on rapidly increasing prices long term.
Say you have a months storage or even several months storage acorn, if prices continue to rise the effect on stopping prices rising is minimal.
Surely you can realise this?
August 18, 2022
Another strawman reply. Did I say anything about price? This is about security of supply against a Russian threat to stop supply. This will have cost the EU 27 close to 50 billion Euro by November.
August 18, 2022
Another strawman response from you acorn.
It is obvious from what you said that if Russia restricts supply further then prices will increase.
A few days storage will have a very limited effect on that nor security of supply.
If you believe in the Net Zero policy as you plainly do acorn then reducing gas use and not having storage is all part of it.
August 18, 2022
In Q1 EU gas consumption was 131bcm, and production just 16bcm. Shortage of nuclear capacity means that they will struggle to lower gas use for generation. LNG import capacity is perhaps 60bcm if the ships line up perfectly and such supply can be found. More typical levels are half that. It will be tight, which is why we have seen gas prices over âŹ250/MWh recently for the winter.
August 17, 2022
The irony is that cheap, reliable nuclear energy produces less âcarbonâ (which is what the ignorant have decided to call CO2) than almost anything else.
August 17, 2022
+1 not that CO2 is an issue.
August 18, 2022
+1 not that co2 nor, rising sea levels nor climate change is an issue
August 17, 2022
Drill, mine, frack, store, so we are also next exporter, BUT ensure our customer KWH/BTU charges are REDUCED.
Exchequer gets the new permit fees and excise on all of it.
Huge increase in tax receipts, pay down national debt! Look at Norway!
Approve SMR design and fastrack orders to fix base load power generation needs; reducing fossil fuels (~10 years to new nuclear) with intermittants plus their energy storage via electrolysers to Hydrogen?
I do sincerely hope Sir J, that you’re appointed our next Chancellor… or BEIS Sec of State!
We need you in a leading role to get us out of this mess đ
August 18, 2022
Drill, mine, frack, store….what are we waiting for
August 17, 2022
BBC weather last week â amber weather warning â3 day heat waveâ
BBC weather this week â amber weather warning âheavy thunderstormsâ
BBC weather next week â amber weather warning ânormal weatherâ
August 18, 2022
Today’s electricity prices are even more frightening. âŹ550-560/MWh in France and Germany. French winter peak power is now over âŹ2,000/MWh. That signals shortage and enforced demand reduction aka blackouts.
August 18, 2022
We have to be honest about the cause before we can be honest about the solution………’net-zero’ and its resultant confidence in the futures energy markets
August 18, 2022
There is an option which doesnât seem to have been given attention regarding the reduced supply of renewable electricity on low wind high pressure days. During many of these days the skies are clear and solar systems will be delivering near their maximum. The rate paid to domestic solar owners to feed surplus power into the grid is pathetic – up to 7.5p per kWH (this is the situation for current installations as the generous payments from the past are no longer available). If a more competitive rate was offered, many more home owners would install solar and send surplus power to the grid, thereby increasing supply during the day.
Effectively every home could be a small privately owned solar power station and we could have several million of them. With the right financial package to support installation this could be a valid part of a solution to the problem.
August 18, 2022
Yes Thames Trader – up to a point you are right BUT:-
Not everyone owns their own home.
Not everyone could afford to fit solar panels.
The subsidies that were offered were most unfair as they gave taxpayers money to the relatively well off.
Roof tops are the obvious place to put solar panels. There they do not interfere with food production.
What the carbon neutral crazy government and local authorities should have done is put them on the roofs of properties that they owned, feeding directly into the grid.
August 19, 2022
Rooftop solar really doesn’t help us much. Output in winter is neglible, and non existent when it would be most use. Normally in summer demand is low in the middle of the day when it is sunny, so it doesn’t really solve a problem. In fact, it creates problems because other generators have to be ready to ramp production up and down to offset solar fluctuations from dawn to dusk, including from passing clouds. That generation is forced to operate less efficiently to accommodate solar output. These effects are why the solar export tariff is so low: solar imposes costs on others.
There are websites that monitor the contributions of different kinds of generation in Australia, and calculate the average value of each over various periods. Rooftop solar almost always works out to be the lowest value, and sometimes those values are even negative. If solar really were worth more competition would ensure that the export tariff would be higher.
August 23, 2022
Libraries in London often offer excellent musical services – giving emerging artists and classical artists a platform and the local retired population some very low-cost entertainment in warm venues. There is very little of this in poorer areas. The government can’t just expect people to sit in libraries to keep warm. Local cinemas are often heated and have very few clients in the Winter. I’ve always wondered why they don’t offer old feature films for retired people on their quietest days at low cost in their 90% empty facilities. What is offered by the council is usually expensive, run-down, low grade-in dilapidated buildings. The arts industry is struggling, but the feel-good factor from the arts is emotionally essential. All these people are hearing on the tv day after day is doom, we’re doomed, gloom, you won’t be able to turn a light on. If it doesn’t calm down, these people will start getting paraffin heaters and candles, which will present a real danger; the media is terrifying them.
I was reading an uplifting story in the Echo about how well the Liverpool cruise industry is doing and how much money it is bringing into the City it makes me happy; however, if they don’t get a grip on all these shootings, stabbings, thieving etc. on all the other pages who is going to want to stop over there! If I were a cruise boat I’d ship people straight into Chester instead.