I was pleased to hear that the government is about to order or plan more nuclear power capacity. They need to. The UK currently generates around 15% of the power we need and around 17% of what we produce at home fromĀ some old nuclear plants. Four of the sevenĀ have to close by 2024 and two moreĀ by 2030. The very least the government needs to do is to replace these. Only Hinckley C is currently going ahead and will be producing 3GW in a few years time. None of the smaller Rolls Royce plants nor the other large plants now being considered are likely toĀ be available prior to 2030, so we face a drop off in the next few years which should cause concern..
The UK relies on imports for 10% of the electricity we need. We buy imports most days including when demand is well below our domestic capacity. Given the growing tightness of energy supply on the continent, their ambitious decarbonisation plans which could leave them wind dependent and short of power and French threats we should wish to end our reliance on this source of power.
Wind power last year suppliedĀ under 16% of our needs and solar under 4%. The aim is to push this higher and more capacity is beingĀ added. However, as we have just witnessed, you can have a period of little wind and below average sun, leaving you very short of electricity. There needs to beĀ more back up or allowance for underperformance of these renewables.
Last year biomass added 6% of our needs and gas 36%. Recently three old coal stations have had to be brought back into use and have provided around 4% of our power.
The total demand last year averaged 33.8GW. Peak demand can reach 45GW on a busy cold day. The system has enough power currently for peaks assuming the renewables work well. However, with nuclear about to declineĀ and with domestic demands about to rise a lot were people to buy electric cars and electric heating systems we are going to need an additional 10.4GW of usable capacity. This would take care of the netĀ 2GW loss of nuclear, the 3.4GW imports, andĀ 5.0 GW to allow for a substantial rise in domestic demand for the planned electrical revolution.
The immediate task should be to keep all old power stations available on care and maintenance to be brought on if wind and solar let us down. The government should examine what are theĀ best and cheapest forms of renewables that are not wind or sun dependent, given the priority they accord to decarbonisation. They needĀ to see if expanding biomass makes sense. It may be that for a transition period the UK simply needs more combined cycle gas as the cheapest option.
Energy policy needs to keep enough capacity available to keep the lights on at all times, and needs to worry about the level of bills.
September 27, 2021
The UK could have been a world leader in Nuclear Power- 70% of French electricity comes form Nuclear anmd its clean secure and plentiful .It is not not cheap though. Before HS2 Hinkley Point was the most expensive UK construction project ever (Ā£20bn. ) EDF needed a guarantee from the Government that it would get over double the current rate – for 35 years, to build it
That’s one way to finance it, there are others , but its not a simple decision and thats without getting into the long term cost of decommissioning
September 27, 2021
The UK also have very large shale gas deposits and plenty of coal. Nuclear power and these have largely been killed by slow and poor planning and deluded fake āgreenā dopes. Poor government to blame. All but a tiny handful of MPs voted for Ed Millibandās insane Climate Change act and still support the absurd Net Zero lunacy.
Gas prices in the US only 1/4 of the UKās. Hard to compete in many energy intensive industries in the UK so jobs and whole industries go. What is needed is cheap, reliable on demand energy. It is needed for jobs, the economy, health and even to ensure secure defence systems.
September 27, 2021
Tim Stanley today:- Vote Tory, get Ed Milibandās policies plus chaos
As the PM embraces green socialism, the poor pick up the bill ā and Conservative activists are angry.
Indeed and wait until the vastly expensive and pointless green sh**, the high interest rates, vast tax rises and inflation all actually hits the fan.
Tim Stanley is a bit of a lefty, alarmist himself too in my book but even he is saying this.
September 27, 2021
Spot on as usual LL
September 27, 2021
+100
September 27, 2021
@Newmania; Yes the UK could and should have been world leaders in civil nuclear power, and by the early 1960s the country was on such a course, only trouble was a certain then senior Tory Minister got caught mixing with the wrong people, which no doubt helped bring about the change of govt in 1964, result being the NUM was again writing UK energy policy…
September 27, 2021
@Newmania – I like that, the French Government owned EDF demands more money than the project costs and stays in control.
The UK could have been a ‘World Leader’ in Nuclear Power – the problem, Gordon Brown sold the UK’s ability, he needed money fast, stating the UK would never need nuclear power
September 27, 2021
@Nota#; At least Brown had good reason to need fast money, HMT having had to bail out our capitalist banks etc!
As it was, Gordon Brown would have been unlikely to, indeed most likely unable to, have sold off ‘Nuclear Power’ had it not been split away from and packaged up (first as Nuclear Electric) by John Major’s govt when the CEGB was privatised -because he needed the money, fast, to fund a give away budget in the run up to the election due in either 1996 or ’97… š
September 27, 2021
Newmania, such vast expensive projects are yesterday. They are not a today or tomorrow solution.
September 27, 2021
The current fully indexed value of the Hinkley Point CFD is Ā£106.12/MWh. That is quite some way below the average offshore wind CFD payout currently, which is around 145/MWh. It does have the honour of being the most expensive nuclear power station in the world though.
Electricity from the original French fleet of reactors built in the 1970s and 1980s has been consistently cheap. It is only the new EPR design that has turned out to be enormously costly and unreliable, and difficult to construct. We should avoid it for the new reactor at Sizewell. The Chinese have cancelled their EPR building programme for additional reactors beyond the 2 already built and now shut down at Taishan. So should we. There are better alternatives from Japan and Korea that cost half as much, and are known to work reliably, and can be constructed on time and on budget – at least so long as the ONR doesn’t try to prevent that.
September 27, 2021
The Chinese have also started construction of four Russian-designed reactors.
September 27, 2021
I hope it has better sensors and trained staff than at Chernobyl.
September 27, 2021
It is unnerving and troubling for all concerned that British government energy policy is determined not by the daily needs and requirements of the British people but by political activists both in the UK and abroad and now by international organisations and foreign governments.
Both parties when they have their tainted mitts on the levers of power will tend to exercise that power that protects and promotes their party. Inevitably this betrayal of the electorate and the wider population can lead to dysfunction and breakdown simply because government chooses to act according to ideology rather than acting pragmatically.
A Tory government is much more prone to pander to activists of all kinds with such political spinelessness exposing the population to harm but protecting the party from injury
Again, the population and the taxpayer must pick up the cost of two party parasitism
And again, nuclear should not be back-up to wind, wind should be a back-up to nuclear. Here again, a Tory MP panders to green activism. They just cannot help themselves. It’s a disease, an illness
Reply I am not pandering but describing government policy
September 27, 2021
Reply to reply
Being in the party is pandering to the policy.
Parliament is a national menace. And lockdown and greenism has obviously lethal consequences but they didn’t tell us.
September 27, 2021
DOM & NLA, +1
September 28, 2021
“Parliament is a national menace”
So what would you put in its place? Nothing, one assumes, we’d just have an elected absolute dictatorship with as little as 25% of as many of the electorate as actually voted under FPTP.
It’s quite clear what you are.
September 27, 2021
I read that the Dutch PM is considering reopening the Groningen gas fields to counter gas/energy shortages, rising prices and to avoid shutdown of key steel and fertilizer industries. He seems to have realised that hydrocarbons actually matter, not just for energy supply but for the food chain too.
September 27, 2021
@JR reply; Whilst I hate to agree with DOM, he does have a point, whilst you might be “describing government policy” of late you do not appear ready to challenge or oppose such policy, the UK needs another sort of Brexit, this time to break free of the ‘Climate crisis’ mentality – hats off to the first Conservative politico, MP or activist, who stands up to
Carrie…sorry, Boris’s climate nonsense – the King has no cloths on!September 27, 2021
I recognise that Sir John is one of the few MPs who have grasped the issues and is prepared to put his head above the parapet in questioning government policy. You should celebrate that. You may not always like his style and judgements of how to best go about influencing government policy, but he is closer to the scene than we are, so perhaps understands something of how that is best tackled. He may be wrong of course, or it may be that ministers and ill informed MPs are so set in their ways that reform is impossible until we vote them out. But he is unlikely to get a hearing if he simply jumps ship unless there is a well established, plausible alternative with a leading position in the polls.
September 27, 2021
I always bear in mind John’s past observation that politics is the art of the possible – you need to pick battles that you can win and tactics that work.
September 27, 2021
An astute comment.
September 27, 2021
Apart from voting against these things, which Sir John regularly does, what additional thingswould you suggest he does Jerry?
One vote is not a majority.
September 27, 2021
@Peter2 (and @Mark); Our host did far more than simply vote against EU directives etc. to help force Brexit, heck at one point he even stood again his then party leader (and PM), resigning from cabinet to do so. Such action is far more important than filling through the opposite lobby when ‘green crap’ policies will likely be carried by the govt due to opposition votes.
September 27, 2021
I asked what more should Sir John do.
Your response just told me what I already knew what he did.
September 28, 2021
@Peter2; Is this the short troll or the long troll, to miss quote Monty Python?
What ever, but just to indulge you further, I was suggesting our host acts as he did whilst fighting for Brexit, actually oppose by way of criticism, not just act as the Govt Press Office in effect, unless of course he actually believes in climate change of course, in which case he needs to better nail his colours to the mast!
September 28, 2021
No need to be all sarky and abusive Jerry .
It was a simple question.
Which you haven’t really answered.
Sir John is one of the most critical Conservatives on the back benches.
September 28, 2021
@Peter2; “It was a simple question.”
No, it was an attempt by you to ask a loaded question, twice now….
“Which you havenāt really answered.”
Yes I have, you just don’t like the answer, as usual!
How can anyone give detailed suggestions to our host he should fight govt policy when even our host, a member of the govts backbench, likely doesn’t yet know what the next policy madness will be.
September 28, 2021
Loaded question means one that is a bit tricky for you Jerry.
You last paragraph is a wonderful waffle of nonsense Jerry.
September 29, 2021
@Peter2; Nonsense, of course it was a loaded question, everyone bar you Peter (it would seem) knows full well no one can be specific about how to respond to policies or circumstance as yet unknown, nor should they. The French tried that in the 1930s, it’s called the Maginot Line…
I’m flattered you think I have the ability to read our PM’s mind though!
September 27, 2021
+ many,many.
I reckon that ALL their policies have been thus determined for years ( decades? centuries?)
I mean lookā¦this country committed regicide and then took a Dutch king because one was Catholic and the other Protestant. Then it slaughtered its own young men as being surplus to requirements etc etc.
The āeliteā is wedded to, enmeshed in a global power beyond our ken!
September 27, 2021
@DOM – Oh so true
@REPLY – I don’t think @DOM was referring to your laying out of the situation, but lamenting the quality of those charged with ensuring we have the energy, are kept safe and secure – they(the Government) prefer the MsM headline grabbing world over common sense.
September 27, 2021
Dom, Government policy is the fastest route from London to Cambridge so interfered with that you have to go via the Scilly Isles. SJR we mostly accept that you are not part of it.
September 27, 2021
Right to reply – Current government policy (today) doesn’t describe any expansion of nuclear, fracking gas or coal…..our final coal fired power station is still due for decommission in September 2022, fracking gas has been suspended/banned and the nuclear power ambitions appears to be on hold
This government only has a GREEN energy policy
September 27, 2021
‘ Current government policy (today) ‘ – today sums it up.
Sir John avoids statements disagreeing with the public perception of the policy due to it being very bad, doubtful or crass. Tomorrow that might change – who knows?
Reply Try reading what I write. This proposes more gas generation for example.
September 27, 2021
ā¦.I believe its heresy to talk about coal, that clean filtered smokeless quality UK coal that we have in abundanceā¦lets get our 1.4 million unemployed digging for Britain
September 27, 2021
So is that Government policy? You are going against the Policy!
September 27, 2021
I reread it. Maybe I’m slow today but you don’t mention gas apart from would like more use of combined cycle gas- that produces electricity by using natural gas. Where do we get the gas from? Did you avoid the word Fracking?
September 27, 2021
Words to avoid include :- Fracing, Shale and Coal….all naughty words mentioned on pain of death
September 27, 2021
I may be mistaken but I don’t believe that is true, they have deployed a level of support for SMR nuclear. Whether it is at a suitable level or timely is a question for debate, I don’t think it is.
September 27, 2021
Good morning.
When a business has to plan, it usually plans ahead. ie It works out the life expectancy of all major plant and equipment, regular maintenance and repair and the associated costs. It determines through this at which point it would be cost effective to replace such item(s) and the lead time scales involved between getting funding, ordering, delivery and use. All factors that can be worked out on a simple spread sheet.
It therefore begs the question, why has the Conservative Party, which has been in government for over 11 years, FAILED to plan ahead and have such capacity ALREADY in place ? To answer my own question, because I know our kind host cannot, former Conservative Party Leader and Chief Husky Hugger, commonly know as, “Call me Dave !” wanted to have the, “Greenest Government Ever !!!. And we well might have, but at a high price. Both literally and metaphorically.
Panic !!!
I hardly call electricity revolutionary. It has been around for quite a while. What I think our kind host means is, getting rid of other forms of energy (eg gas) and so create a State created monopoly owned and run by foreign companies and governments. Competition creates innovation and low prices. This leads to to more wealth and in turn more jobs.
And
What I think our kind is saying here, is that the State should choose the least expensive of the most expensive forms of energy generation as, due to the Climate Change Act and other agreements it has stupidly adopted, we have effectively excluded ourselves from buying or extracting the cheapest forms of energy. ie Coal and gas.
September 27, 2021
Indeed but all (save a handful) of these deluded, virtue signalling, nearly all art graduate MPs voted for the moronic Climate Change Act and support net zero. They are all deluded fools, in all the parties too. JR one of the tiny few who did not vote for it.
September 27, 2021
So Socialist Sunak not content with his vast tax increases already now want to increase repayment rates on student loans it seems. These mainly loans for fairly worthless degrees too. Giving new graduates very high marginal tax rates of circa 50% if you include employers NI. Plus they have the cost of getting to work, child careā¦
Meanwhile Socialist dope Sir Kier Starmer wants VAT on private school fees (copying the other socialist idiot Gove). These people are so thick they even think it will raise more net tax revenue. It actually will just destroy some excellent schools, destroy freedom of choice even further, disrupt and damage many children’s education and force more people to use the state system costing even more. The exact opposite of what is needed.
September 27, 2021
@Mark B; “When a business has to plan, it usually plans ahead. ie It works out the life expectancy of all major plant and equipment [../waffle/..] It therefore begs the question, why has the Conservative Party, which has been in government for over 11 years, FAILED to plan ahead and have such capacity ALREADY in place [../waffle/..]”
So why didn’t the various privatised (sine the early 1990s) UK power companies plan ahead. You also appear to have had an about face, having posted many times that you want ‘small State’, now you expect, rather hypocritically, the govt to plan such capital replacements, most likely fund then, within your beloved private energy industry…
September 27, 2021
I can see no reason why it’s not possible to have economic long-term strategic planning AND small government – the two are not mutually exclusive.
September 27, 2021
@IanT; I agree – just so long as the private companies, their shareholders etc, take ownership of their OWN responsibilities, if they do not all we end up with is Big State spending, nationalising private losses but without oversight control Big State spending should bring, at best we just get the ill fitting dentures of the toothless tigers (regulators) rearranged!
As for strategic planning within the energy sector, green issues have been around since at least the 1980s, after all they were part of the rational for closing coal mines, the converting non life-expired coal fired power stations to burn gas/oil, why the Major govt signed UNFCCC in 1992, even if the path still wasn’t a clear, in 1997 the (then new Labour) govt signed the Kyoto Protocol.
September 27, 2021
It’s a good question, to which the answer is that the market was rigged against them and in favour of unreliable renewables by government and regulators, backed with hostile attitudes to nuclear ever since David Miliband became the minister, and to coal, and now for a number of years to gas as well. Noone is going to invest when the government tells them it wants to shut their operations down.
September 27, 2021
@jerry – Privatisation there’s a thought. Selling UK industry to foreign Governments that follow the will of a different parliament and electorate – is still a nationalized industry.
September 27, 2021
Many of the energy companies that were created after they were privatised have been sold to foreign investors and, in particular, foreign governments.
The Government have always invested in energy production, especially high risk areas such as nuclear and lately, wind farms. Energy generation has always been a national strategic asset and, whist I am all for private companies running things, when it comes to energy and especially water, I believe that the State owing the assets and allowing private companies run them to be far more beneficial.
September 27, 2021
@Mark B; “The Government have always invested in energy production, especially high risk areas”
Yes and it always kept ultimate control, by way of the CEGB and its forbears, the CEGB being wholly owned by the State, answerable to parliament via the relevant Minister of state.
“I believe that the State owing the assets and allowing private companies run them to be far more beneficial.”
Yes, very beneficial for the private sector, keep the profits, nationalise the losses…
September 27, 2021
+1
September 27, 2021
Mark, Common-sense and all normal business logic seems to go out of the window whenever Politicians try to plan anything, its all about virtue signalling now, and wanting to appear to be the greenest country on earth.
The solution has been staring them all in the face for decades, a regular cost effective, build, maintain, expand, and renew power generation and distribution system, should be the very minimum plan.
Quite why we allow the very basic necessities of life, of power, water and transport (trains and airports) to be under foreign Company control is beyond stupid.
At least if there is a shortage of petrol you can choose to queue up to get some (absolutely not ideal) but when the power goes out or is rationed, your only solution is to purchase individual generator power for yourself.
With many companies now completely paperless and solely reliant on computers working just to function, there will be far greater disruption than we had during the 3 day week, which I still remember well.
September 27, 2021
+10
September 27, 2021
@alan jutson + 1 – until you need fuel for your generator
September 27, 2021
@alan jutson; “The solution has been staring them all in the face for decades, a regular cost effective, build, maintain, expand, and renew power generation and distribution system, should be the very minimum plan.”
You mean like the National Grid, with its network of strategic located power station of mixed types and outputs etc, in the days of the State owned CEGB (and forebears) with its quango planners?!
September 27, 2021
But where does a Conservative stop with banning foreign company control? what about communications, internet, computing, food, health services, education, banking. Also, I wouldn’t have though trains and aircraft were basic necessities though buses might be.
September 27, 2021
@dixie; “where does a Conservative stop with company control?”
All govts have a duty, before all other (and partisan wish-lists), to maintain the security of the State, first and foremost that is done by way of funding the military and police etc. but should include essential utilities like energy, water, telecoms and transport, if that means banning foreign ownership/investment above 49%, or the State retaining a “Golden Share” so be.
“I wouldnāt have though trains and aircraft were basic though buses might be.”
Depends if you think people should have the right to travel freely, both for work and leisure. Price business people off the railways, for example, and we will see the same issues as during the CV19 restrictions, people will either find/create a job local to their home or their existing employer will enable WFH, City centrers such as London will likely become waste lands of empty offices and shops. I live in a traditionally British tourist area, whilst accessible by car you would have been surprised (pre Covid) by how many holidaymakers still arrived by train (rather than coach or bus) for their week or two way.
September 28, 2021
The UK constitution – such as it is – is not explicit on very much at all.
So the Government’s duties are only really whatever Parliament says that they are, irrespective of what any reasonable person might say.
September 27, 2021
@dixie. Not so much just foreign ownership, the problem area is foreign Government owned.
If it is permitted for a UK company to own an organisation in foreign climes then the reverse should be permitted. If not then it should be a no go.
September 27, 2021
@dixie. Not so much just foreign ownership, the problem area is foreign Government owned.
If it is permitted for a UK company to own an organisation in foreign climes then the reverse should be permitted. If not then it should be a no go. Reprocity.
Consideration should also be considered when strategic safety and security of the UK is in play. i.e. foreign State ownership of UK energy the back bone of the UK’S economy being controlled by the political will of those you can’t vote for
September 28, 2021
@Nota#; Sorry but Reciprocity is not enough, nor can it be assured as like-for-like in any case, and many otherwise nominally non state owned foreign companies can still very much bat for their own countries interests before those of their UK holdings, even without any intended geopolitical intent.
September 28, 2021
In the countries that are an issue I don’t see much difference between government and company – China, Japan, France, Germany .. even the USA in most industries. So reciprocity may be a reasonable yardstick but “control” means being able to own the controlling interest which may not be straightforward even with the more open economies.
I asked my question because there is inevitable mission creep and even the most vociferous alleged-conservatives on here are demanding increasing government involvement/control – so what are the limits for Conservatives.
disclaimer: I came to realise some years ago that I was not really a Conservative but at that time Conservative policies were the least worst, Now they are not but there are vanishingly few serious or practical alternatives. It hasn’t mattered too much as John is my MP but from the next GE boundary changes mean I will be in a different constituency.
September 27, 2021
+several billion.
And just think ..governments have brought in all these new voters who will have to be kept warm! And their iPhones charged and many other electricity based things to keep them happy. Teslas?
In their new 6 bed detacheds in umā¦.Sonning.
So the only question (given windmills) is ā¦when will it all catch up with Johnson or his successor and smack em in the face? Cos certain sureā¦it will!
September 27, 2021
@Mark B +1
The State created monopoly, created to give political control of the UK by foreign Governments.
The UK has the resources, the knowhow, and the ability but the preference is still to give control of the Country to unelected states. This is not a Conservative Government, but a Socialist puppet panel of foreign dictators
September 27, 2021
Put simply Mark, government are not fit for purpose. They think “Sound bite short” which is tantamount to uselss, if you credit them with thinking at all.
September 27, 2021
Unfortunately, a great deal of truth here and there are no easy short term answers. This country clearly has not had a practical long term energy plan/strategy for a very long time now and there is still none in sight!
It was not a secret that there was a shrinking pool of lorry drivers but no one in government was concerned, probably they thought that it would be solved by driverless vehicles overnight. Now we have panic at the pumps. I lived near Kingsbury Terminal in the Midlands many years ago and tanker drivers then were highly paid and the jobs therefore highly prized. No driver shortage back then and no need for foreign workers.
Our Leaders are too busy having grand visions to worry about the smaller practical issues. There might be queues at the petrol pumps now but we actually have plenty of fuel. In a few years time, there will be no queues when the wind doesn’t blow, just rows of parked, uncharged electric cars going nowhere and it will happen a lot more often. Meanwhile the worlds largest carbon emitters continue to do so and nothing we do will make any difference at all – apart from making us all much poorer.
September 27, 2021
Mark,
Not we, the stupid incompetent Fake Tory party closed other forms of perfectly good energy without having its other form of energy in place while its leader still spouts utter garbage at UN last week including his Kermit drivel!!
Not fit for purpose. Do not forget cast iron guarantee Dave, or do or die Johnson!
Dom is spot on the money for these culturally Marxist clowns acting under the guise of something completely different from a different era.
September 27, 2021
Hydro and fracking are the future and much cleaner than coal or gas.
September 27, 2021
‘… keep all old power stations available on care and maintenance to be brought on if wind and solar let us down.’ Big uptick from me. This really is the most important short-term decision that the government needs to make. But it was nice to learn that SMR is likely to go ahead. We’ll need a continuous flow of them out of the Rolls Royce factory – to meet this country’s needs and for export.
P.S. And we’ll need a supply of nuclear engineers to operate them. This is something that government needs to pay attention to now – otherwise it will find itself unable to man its submarine fleet. From which university will these engineers come?
September 27, 2021
Chinese students will collect the design information and secrets and take it all home.
September 27, 2021
I found it interesting to read an article yesterday (Reuters/Sunday Times of S Africa) about China’s attitude to green energy production.
“Beijing is the largest source of financing for coal power plants globally. There are more than 20 Chinese-financed coal-fired power units under construction in S Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Serbia and the UAE. Another 17 are in the planning stage.
China’s domestic programme accounts for more than HALF of all the coal-powered plants under construction in the world, according a report published this month by E3G, a European climate think-tank.”
Just saying.
September 27, 2021
We do seem to be pee’ing into the wind with our efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
There are currently some (I’m sure well intentioned) fools protesting at Heathrow this morning – time to put them away for a week or two and give the saner parts of the population a rest from their antics. I’ve insulated my loft and I am busy trying to draft proof things – not because of their efforts but simply in anticipation of rising energy costs.
September 27, 2021
So the rest of the world is building coal-fired power stations but we are not allowed to do so? They can have cheap, reliable power, but we can’t? How can I not see this as anti-British discrimination? I challenge any government spokesman to justify why the British government is denying the British people the benefits that foreigners have. No wonder I perceive our government to be traitors. Do you blame me?
September 27, 2021
good words X-Tory….2nd class citizens in our own country
September 28, 2021
In some countries parents are allowed to make money by selling their children.
Do you think that it is also “anti-British discrimination” to deny parents that money-making opportunity here?
September 27, 2021
…and thats why you’ll not see them at cop26, because if anybody asks them questions they’ll ‘lose face’, and the cant have that
September 27, 2021
A large drop in generating capacity at the same time the government wants a change to electric vehicles. The numbers just don’t add up so either it is gross incompetence or an agenda to reduce the amount of power available. It’s almost as if all those terrible conspiracy theories were right. Oh hang on, most of them have already been proved right haven’t they.
September 27, 2021
Too late to save Boris, just waiting for the crash. If Ms Rayner plays her cards right she will be in by Summer 2022.
Fail to plan = plan to fail. Parliament fell down on the job a long way pre Covid. No room for amateurs any more.
September 27, 2021
Oh, dear Roger, Ms Rayner tells us her true thoughts “Tories are scum”. She should be encouraged to reveal more about her true thoughts and feelings that are spoken in late-night meetings. A lot of people voted Tory that is a lot of people she slurs with blanket accusations. I’m glad we’re getting to hear it. She should be encouraged to continue with the language of her youth, I grew up with the same vernacular I just grew out of using it.
September 27, 2021
Iām sure she meant āThe Tory Party / Government are scumā – not everyone who voted Tory.
September 27, 2021
I’m sure she hopes you believe that’s what she meant.
September 28, 2021
By association Mike, she slurs everyone that voted Tory. We know what she meant, she shouldn’t apologise for it, she has shown her true self. Whether the British public would want to be represented at such a high level by someone that hasn’t grown own out of childish northern slang is another thing.
September 27, 2021
Yes, Roger, it’s quite easy to smash something complicated, e.g. by throwing a brick into a TV set, or chucking brexit at a modern, complex, highly interdependent economy. It only takes a second. However, repairing the damage may take rather longer.
The brexitians are perhaps only just discovering this simple, self-evident truth, however.
Whatever enjoy this, Leave voters – it could go on for a very long time.
September 27, 2021
Unfortunately my friend there are far more amateurs than we care to name. It is going to take some time before we manage to clear out the dross.
September 27, 2021
In the midst of the threat of lack of power, what you don’t want to do is import more people to increase the demand. Yet the government that promised to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands approves immigration year on year in the hundreds of thousands.
All over our area there are housing developments going on. This in a region that also has water companies planning to install very expensive desalination plants to supply the need.
Rather than reduce immigration to the tens of thousands, the government needs to put the brake on it completely, at least for a couple of decades.
September 27, 2021
No appetite to reconsider the Severn barrage scheme? Estimated Ā£20bn cost for a reliable, consistent, carbon zero 8.5GW of power. Cost around the same as Hinkley C but approx 3x the output.
Yes it would have an environment impact, but what doesn’t?
September 27, 2021
No appetite for it at all. It’s reliably costly and reliably intermittent. The last thing we need is more intermittent sources of power that need 100% backup when they arenāt producing anything. We have too much of that already with wind and solar. Please consult this chart that shows the range of outputs from a theoretical Severn Barrage scheme;
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/D0N7k/1/
You will see that in a spring tide, generation occurs for just 6 hours and 27 minutes of the 12 hour 25 minute tide cycle, and that it drops off to low levels towards the end of the generation period. That leaves 6 hours to be covered by other sources entirely. In a neap tide, the picture is even worse, with very limited generation lasting 2 hours 38 minutes, leaving the 100% backup required for almost 10 hours of the tide cycle. The grid has to accommodate a sudden surge in generation when it is time to open the sluices at the start of generation, which means it has to arrange to switch off a similar amount elsewhere in the system, preferably located nearby so as not to create some dangerous rerouting of power flows.
Reply Good points. My main recommendation is to build some more combined cycle gas whilst they develop more reliable renewable technology.
September 27, 2021
Yes, tidal and wave power have the benefit that, unlike the wind, they are reliable and consistent. We have the technology, but are not adopting it. It just makes no sense at all.
September 27, 2021
Government in the past century have never needed to develop renewable tidal and wave power as weāve always had enough gas, coal & nuclear power stations to satisfy the UK needs
The current shortfalls are all politically driven with their need to satisfy the green party, friends, spouses and the media
September 27, 2021
“For a reliable, consistent 8.5GW of power”
Unfortunately, tidal power does NOT provide consistency – it’s actually far worse than wind or solar. Euan Mearns and his helpers, did a lot of work on this subject before he stopped posting at his blog. Fortunately, it is still accessible, and here are two links you might find interesting:
http://euanmearns.com/the-severn-barrage-revisited/
http://euanmearns.com/swansea-bay-tidal-lagoon-and-baseload-tidal-generation-in-the-uk/
“I built a generation model based on 7 lagoons spread along the English coast in areas with the highest tides. The model shows that the ideology does not work in practice. In fact, UK tidal lagoons will produce more intermittent electricity than any other form of renewable generation providing four spikes separated by four periods of zero production each day”
September 27, 2021
Consistent in this context means that you know it is going to come, every day, at a known time, without fail. Yes, it is intermittent, but that is a different thing (clue: it’s a different word).
So how do you deal with the intermitency? There are two ways: (i) you use an energy storage system (such as pumped storage hydropower) to even out the peaks and troughs, and put the electricity produced into the grid; or (ii) instead of using the electricity in the grid, you use it for an entirely separate purpose, such as producing green hydrogen to inject into the gas network.
September 27, 2021
I would comment on your ideas as follows:
1) Storage adds a whole level of cost. First you have to find a site for it. If you divide up your tidal lagoon so part provides storage, then you reduce the energy output by 70% (and you still don’t have storage to cover the difference between spring and neap tides – only the ability to store between successive tides). The result is that you have a more expensive project (you have to build a dividing barrage) and a cost of energy that is well over three times greater. You can find research on this by A Angeloudis.
2) Use for hydrogen manufacture sounds attractive at first sight. But if you look at the output from the Severn Barrage in the chart I posted above, you will see that on average it amounts to about 1.5GW compared with a peak output of 7GW – an average capacity factor of just 21.3%. If you build only a small electrolysis plant, then it will operate for an average of 545 minutes in 24 hours 50 minutes (two tide cycles), or 36.6%. So you have to decide whether it is really worth running an electrolysis plant at such low utilisations, and what is the lowest utilisation you will accept, and therefore how much power you either throw away or have to dump, and also how you handle the varying outputs across the tidal cycle every lunar month. There is a very similar problem with the idea of using either “surplus” wind energy or dedicated wind farms for the same purpose.
You are starting with expensive energy as the input, and then using a low efficiency process (intermittent electrolysis is perhaps 40% efficient) to store it as hydrogen, which may be used in turn at relatively low efficiency. This is not good energy economics. There are much cheaper ways of producing hydrogen.
September 27, 2021
We are in a mess. There will be power cuts for years to come.
There is no infrastructure for domestic charging and supplying power to thousands of heat pumps.
It will cost over Ā£50 billion to upgrade the distribution network.
You have no idea of the work involved.
Charlatans the lot of you.
You’ve lost the next election.
September 27, 2021
After 11 years in power it is gross negligence that we are this point.
We had one of the most secure power grids in the world now bowing to the green blob we have arguably the worst.
There is no hiding place for the fake Tory government virtue signalling its green credentials whilst we freeze.
September 27, 2021
Agree
September 27, 2021
Reading your piece this morning JRā¦ to use a northern expression, what a load of numpties the successive governments have been.
Itās very likely weāll have a decade of totally unreliable electricityā¦ and thatās assuming no one takes up the electric idea.
Iāve got solar lights in my garden and this summer, they havenāt always lit following a few cloudy days.
This power situation really needs action URGENTLY!
September 27, 2021
Electric idea should read electric car idea
September 27, 2021
The smart move would be (1) repeal of the Climate Change Act and (2) investment in gas. Such action offers the best chance of achieving greater national self-sufficiency, lower costs for the consumer and better reliability of supply. That will not happen so long as Johnson remains PM. Until he is replaced by someone who both understands the UK’s acute energy predicament and how to solve it, the country is doomed to suffer from high cost, unreliable energy supply and a faltering economy. There will be no levelling up only levelling down.
September 27, 2021
The CCA is the root cause of ALL of this. The Tories have an 80 seat majority. They can do this, but won’t !
September 27, 2021
has the whole party gone mad
September 28, 2021
Indeed and a few large piles of coal just incase for good measure!
September 27, 2021
Good to see that Sir John Redwood has analysed the current UK energy crisis with his habitual acuity. Everybody seems to be quoting this 10 year figure for the introduction of Rolls Royce SMR – which looks overly pessimistic to me
This from the RR website:-
“Built in one location, the elements of an SMR can be shipped over sea or by rail or road and assembled on site, with a predictable programme from first concrete to commissioning in just four years, including 500 days on site for the modular build.”
SoS Kwarteng should rapidly approve RR’s design and let them build a demonstration plant – or even better a cluster of four – on one of the decommisioned sites such as Wylfa. Apparently they could be producing electricity for the grid in four years.
Reply I took advice on time horizons. Of course it could be accelerated but you need to allow quite a long planning and approval phase before the first build can begin.
September 27, 2021
‘planning and approval phase’ – is that meeting EU directives? – just asking!
September 27, 2021
It will entail securing approval from the ONR – the quango set up by Miliband ro be as obstructive as possible to new nuclear. And then endless protests from the green extremist lobbies trying to prevent planning permission or site preparation. If Alok Sharma refused access to COP26 for the nuclear industry, surely it is evident that politicians mostly fear providing proper leadership.
September 27, 2021
@Mark
The local council at Wylfa has already approved the new nuclear power station that was to have been built by Hitachi, who pulled out of the project recently after demanding excessive subsidy from the government. The local community did not object and welcomed the return of high-tech well-paid engineering jobs to Anglesea.
Proposals have now come in from a U.S. consortium involving Bechtel Group Inc. and Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC for a large-scale AP1000 reactor, and from Shearwater Group Plc for a small modular reactor project combined with a wind farm.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-24/u-k-exploring-plans-to-build-new-nuclear-power-project-in-wales
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-58668704
Do try and keep up with developments in your field. Much of what you post is interesting, but when looked at closely is clearly biased in favour of the fossil fuel propaganda
September 27, 2021
I have read about all the various proposals, and you are unobservant if you think I do not support sensible nuclear investment, and indeed I have recommended SMRs and aiming for building up an export capability, using proven Japanese and Korean designs as a stopgap to replace capacity as rapidly as we can, and pursuing fusion research. Doubtless you will now try to call me a shill for the nuclear industry – it was after all AERE Harwell where I had my first job, sharing a hostel with some of those working at Culham as well as Harwell. Equally, I am opposed to senseless investment in unreliable, costly technology, whether it is EPRs or using floating offshore wind for production of hydrogen.
September 27, 2021
Exactly, how long have they been discussing and having legal fights about a new runway at Heathrow? As with nuclear the engineering is only a tiny part of the battle.
September 27, 2021
“quite a long planning and approval phase” – tell me, did Spitfire factories need to go through quite a long planning and approval phase during the war? The government needs to declare that we are facing an energy emergency and dispense with the normal procedures. We need action TODAY, as Churchill used to say.
September 28, 2021
The country is facing the predictable – and somewhat predicted – consequences of brexit.
However, in some ways they are actually worse than anything wrongly attributed to “project fear”.
September 28, 2021
Martin, Rubbish, it’s nothing to do with Brexit. The energy emergency is due to the government’s ill-advised dash for Wind and Solar, with no back-ups. And what’s coming down the line is a conversion from reliable oil coal and gas to a (renewables?) electric future without even enough intermittent Wind to power it on windy days. And that’s down to you, and people like you clamouring about CAGW.
September 27, 2021
Maybe, as this feels like an emergency, you could stop this nonsense, pick an existing site and just get on with it. There is nothing around Sizewell for miles.
September 27, 2021
Sir John,
As others have commented “planning and approval phase” can surely be shortened. Some have quoted the production of Spitfires – but we don’t have to go that far back- the first person in the world to be vaccinated with an approved vaccine was in the UK. And we were woefully unprepared for the pandemic. Normal timescale reduced from around a decade to a few months!
Rolls Royce have just won a bid to re-engine the US B52 fleet – and are currently on target to fly the fastest electric plane in the world (it looks a bit like a Spitfire). Come on let’s cut the red tape and go for it – we have world leading scientists and engineers!
(PS I used to work for RR).
September 27, 2021
I agree with you that it would be a good idea to get on and push an SMR prototype. That is a sensible suggestion that many have been making.
September 27, 2021
Sounds like a disaster heading our way then ! Big thanks to the high Priestess of Green and all her followers.
September 27, 2021
On top of your accurate comment Old Albion, we now also have the Tories increasing taxes & NI and Labour pledging to decrease and remove taxesā¦.you couldnāt make it up, we live in interesting times
September 27, 2021
You’d have to be stupid not to see that our country would face an energy crisis sooner or later. What makes me mad is that the government’s of the past have only listened to the snake oil salesmen, those with their noses in the troughs and teenage activists. We now find ourselves firmly in the sticky and smelly. There have been so many warnings given by people who really are the experts and it has been ignored. How long have we, on your site John been talking about these smaller nuclear units and fracking? A bloody long time. We could have had it all up and running by now but instead we find ourselves with expensive energy and possible blackouts. What an incompetent lot we have in charge. The sooner we get on with the job in hand, the better. The sun ain’t shining where I am and if the wind gets up too much those useless turbines will get turned off. What a fiasco.
September 27, 2021
Certainly there is no justification for destroying billions worth of civil engineering in generating capacity, which can service emergency needs.
In fact it would appear to be criminal.
September 27, 2021
I cannot avoid thinking that this sudden spinning of HMG commissioning more nuclear is a panic response to accusations of complacency made over a number of years that have now been proved to be correct. Indeed you have been at the forefront.
Matt Ridley in his latest blog demonstrates how frankly useless and uninformed ministers from Boris down have been and still are.
And talking of incompetence IDS highlights how Covid has shown up the useless management and overwhelming bureaucracy in the public sector, specifically HGV training and testing.
What he doesnāt say specifically but we all know is that it is ultimately the fault/responsibility of the Minister of State and Mandarins who like energy, the Taliban, schools, exams Doctors appointments and the list goes on have proved to be not fit for purpose letting us all down always reacting after the event trying to pretend it was unforeseen. We donāt believe you.
The attempt to blame the Haulage industry for leaking or motorists for filling up their tanks is a transparent and shameful exercise in responsibility avoidance.
September 27, 2021
This Brexitist government is too incompetent to deliver nuclear. It canāt even deliver petrol
Hinckley Point C was first talked about seriously in 2008. It was approved in 2016 and is currently due to open in 2026. That is nearly a 20 year period. Even if we went really fast this country is unlikely to be able to open another nuclear power station before 2040. Far too late.
In any case, as being eye wateringly expensive nuclear is also dirty and dangerous. We just leave future generations to clear up the mess. Whilst that is certainly the way baby boomers operate the world has moved on.
The solution Iām afraid is far more boring than grand, expensive, undeliverable schemes. The solution is energy efficiency – so we use less. The solution is investment in renewables – not just wind and solar but tidal power, wave power and geo-thermal.
We canāt fix any of this stuff with these absolutely useless charlatans in power. So letās remove the corrupt clown and his court of incompetence first and then the grown ups can start fixing the problems they have made.
September 27, 2021
‘The solution is energy efficiency ā so we use less’.
So, Andy, turn your fridge off as our houses are going to get cold like they were when I was a lad, no ironing clothes, only use 1 television, turn all lights and standby kit off as you move room to room.
And oh should I forget – no charging that Tesla I’m afraid. Those fancy kitchen cabinet lights will have to be unplugged, and the external house lights switched off. Family use of that electric kettle will have to be coordinated at specific times – no unplanned hot drinks.
I look forward to reading all this and more in your Green manifesto.
September 27, 2021
Back in the 1970s – perhaps when you used to be more relevant – we have comparatively few gadgets and gizmos in our homes. But, guess what? We used far more electricity per home than we do today.
Whilst you lot were whinging about foreigners the EU got on with some really rather dull but important work about energy efficiency. Ensuring that our products did more with less. This work doesnāt stop. It continues. So a fridge freezer you buy today is light years more efficient than your last one from 15 years ago. Your next fridge freezer will be more efficient than the one you have today.
Triple glazing and fully insulating our homes means we have to use significantly less energy to heat our homes.
I appreciate that you Brexitist loons do not get this stuff. But the world has moved on. You are all irrelevant and it really doesnāt matter what you say or think because you lost this argument a quarter of a century ago.
September 27, 2021
But there are more of us here in the UK since those times.
Maybe 10 million more.
And you want us all to have electric heating in our homes and drived electric vehicles.
PS
Labelling people “loons” is very un PC
Why are you not got on message about mental health andy?
Dreadful
September 27, 2021
Wrong again sonny Jim. Back when you were in nappies, sometimes I think you still are, we didn’t have all the electrics we do today. Gas cooking, coal/coke/wood fires andboilers, many homes had no CH. The very basic home lighting was turned off room by room, more use of a radio than tv. Virtually no battery devices to charge up, few tape recorders, no mobiles, no PCs/laptops. Where I lived the locals voted out street lighting for years until us 20 somethings arrived and swayed the balance.
September 27, 2021
oh and by the way that fridge freezer doesn’t even use a couple of hours of a light bulb….so wrong again.
September 28, 2021
Back to your physics defying EU efficient kettles and toasters, Andy? In the 1960s and 1970s people did have fewer gadgets but electric heating was widely used, which is why electricity consumption was higher. Increasingly since then we converted to gas-fired central heating. But you want to revert to less efficient electric heating now, not me.
September 27, 2021
Yes, the rule change on voting within the Labour Party should ease the transition.
September 27, 2021
Grown ups like Angela Rayner ?
September 27, 2021
Your solutions don’t add up andy.
We need huge increases in solar and wind that is true, but to generate enough power to meet the increasing numbers of people and their needs we still need gas and nuclear.
The switch to electric vehicles and electric heating add further demands which renewables alone cannot meet.
Even if we became more energy efficient and insulated all UK buildings.
We have enough shale gas reserves to power the UK for decades but I expect you would refuse to accept we should use these reserves.
September 27, 2021
The government doesn’t ‘deliver petrol’, Andy. The haulage industry does. One of their top people deliberately leaked information that led to a panic, expecting it would be blamed on Brexit, which he was opposed to. The BBC, which he used to work for, promptly spread the messsage. Not sure if many people have fallen for it, though.
September 27, 2021
Andy. Millions have been thrown at two Scottush companies to develop wave power. They got nowhere.
September 27, 2021
I was impressed last night to receive an email from Octopus Energy, announcing that OFGEM have appointed them as my replacement energy supplier. Octopus have promised that my new Green tarif will be less than the price quoted for new customers.
Apparently their forward planners anticipated the current quadrupling of global gas prices and purchased large amounts of cheaper natural gas on the futures market. Their green biogas from the UKs many anerobic digesters tracks the spot price.
Most impressive. However, I will still have to absorb a substantial increase in my monthly direct debits.
September 27, 2021
I’m with EDF.
Funnily enough they don’t seem to have any problems.
September 27, 2021
You would be. Supporting foreign companies is what you are good at.
September 28, 2021
Natural gas is “green”, Sakara? Well, that’s alright then.
September 27, 2021
The Electorate is shown very clearly the decade of lack of planning, indeed still no planning, for eliminating fossil fuel yet at the same type willingly embracing an electrical future for everything.
The ballot box can’t come soon enough.
September 27, 2021
Which major party is offering an alternative energy policy? We’re living in the post-democratic age.
September 27, 2021
Correct ā I wish there was a pro fossil fuels partyā¦like in China, India, Middle-East, Far-East, North Africa, Central America and now Australia and maybe Poland & Germany
September 27, 2021
correction being what – revolution?
September 27, 2021
A new centre right party acting in the interests of voters is not permitted. We have a Uniparty aided by a complicit media, like other western democracies.
September 27, 2021
They all are Gray
September 27, 2021
So Angela Rayner has called Boris Johnson ‘scum’ among lots of other idiotic and rather pathetic abuse and she refuses to apologise. Cheered on by many of her obviously rather repulsive Labour supporters.
Calling him (and Sunak) deluded, green crap pushing manifesto ratting, over tax, borrow, regulate and piss down the drain socialists would however be perfectly true and fully justified.
I assume and hope this bitter dope is too dim to ever become labour leader or PM, but then we did have John Major and nearly got Corbyn as PM – thanks to the dire Theresa Mayās best efforts to bring this about.
September 27, 2021
I can’t abide false apologies, this “say you’re sorry” thing people do is ridiculous. The “I’m sorry” that politicians wheel out about all sorts of things they weren’t responsible for from decades and centuries ago is false. They are insincere and if Angela came out with “I’m sorry Tories” no one would believe it. Let her be and give her the space to carry on. Encourage her to be truthful. If the Tory party can’t represent its members and voters to counter her then they don’t deserve to get the votes.
September 27, 2021
Now if she said ‘I know I’m a foul mouthed ***** but I’m only following in my Party’s footsteps’.
That would at least be sincere.
September 27, 2021
Not quite right, she called all government ministers scum, not just Boris. And misogynists, sexists and racists. Sheās the grown up Andy wants to pioneer our geothermal energy revolution.
September 27, 2021
Roy – I’ve listened to the video of Angela Rayner and I’m not sure her words and her diction were coherent enough for us to be sure of who the target was! (Probably not women Tory ministers, though, since at one point she said ‘Etonian’.)
I did wonder if Rayner’s outburst before the media was a way of getting Starmer off the problem of whether he understands female biology. But it seems that came the following day. No method in the madness, then.
Both party leader and deputy leader came away from the Labour conference unable to get across to the public a single positive message, only gaffes. Even the Tory conference will surely go better than that.
September 27, 2021
Just remind us of what Johnson called a whole nation, the French, LL?
If you can hand it out then you should be willing to take int back, as the saying goes, eh?
September 27, 2021
I don’t remember being old and demented, so please spell it out Martin?
September 28, 2021
Two wrongs don’t make a right Martin. Has Boris spoken like your accusation since he obtained his position as Prime Minister?
Rayner isn’t a lower-ranking MP she is “Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.”
September 28, 2021
Wasn’t he Foreign Secretary when he said it?!
September 27, 2021
No matter which way the government tries to address the situation that it finds itself in regarding energy production and supply, there now has come the moment of realisation that over last two decades they have got it wrong really wrong. The provision of providing an secure base load was all but ignored by Parliament. Add the equation that the bigger the population the bigger the demand. Ā£1.8 million payed out in one day in constraint payments. The whole process reeks of incompetence.
When in the sticky and smelly go back to common basics and start by repealing the Climate Change Act and get digging and fracking.. Politicians will be damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Wake up and smell the coffee. Winters coming Save the NHS from having to deal with the backlash from a hyperthermia, no diet elderly population outbreak. Or is that the cunning plan?
September 27, 2021
+1
September 27, 2021
The need is for more āon demandā electric generation capacity largely gas, coal , nuclear and for far cheaper gas.
September 27, 2021
Never mind electricity..
Johnson must be feeling happyā¦now he can āBring in the armyā.Once brought in it will be a permanent fixture. Always the plan?
Not to mention the fact that Merkel will now be around for as long as it takes to sort out a government!
September 27, 2021
And if this government allows him to bring in the army when we know better preparation would have been more appropriateā¦then we know exactly where we are heading.
Australia probably.
September 27, 2021
What army ? You could put them in Wembley Stadium with room to spare !
September 27, 2021
Oh good!
Latest news is āNot considering it.ā
Theyāve obviously done a head count!
September 27, 2021
There are more channel boat people (circa 17,000+) arriving this year then the number of British army infantry combat troops
September 27, 2021
Mark B
Brilliant never mentioned observation. Truly, I am involved with quite a lot of retired armed officers and when they talk about numbers of personnel then, against now its a mind blower.
September 27, 2021
Brentford’s new Community Stadium more like it.
September 27, 2021
In my view, Sir John, the ‘immediate task’ is to ditch the net zero CO2 agenda that your government seems wedded to. Unless and until that happens, your suggestions will never be anything more than sticking plaster emergency treatment. Johnson is leading a government that is destroying this country’s economy, social cohesion, and now even its ability to keep the lights on. You and your conference colleagues in Manchester next week should be embarrassed to look each other in the face. Maybe the best thing you and like-minded MPs could do, to make a point, would simply be not to go there. Assuming you do, please attend these Conservative conference presentations:
‘Employing the change: Putting green jobs at the heart of the economic recovery’
‘Build Back Greener: How can we decarbonise housing?’
āWhat happens after COP26: How can we accelerate progress towards net zero without breaking the bank?ā
āGreat Green Britain: how winning the Net Zero technology race will boost prosperityā
‘No place like home ā decarbonising Britainās homesā
And please ask speakers the kind of common-sense questions that you raise on your blog.
September 27, 2021
Excellent suggestions, but you know that the answers would simply be woolly waffle.
September 27, 2021
Net zero by 2050 was a Tory manifesto promise. The electorate gave them a mandate of it. If they want to ditch it they need a new mandate.
September 27, 2021
“When the facts change, I change my mind.” The electorate are starting to get those facts very clear in their minds now. A new mandate shouldn’t be a problem.
September 27, 2021
Then they made it 2030.
September 27, 2021
Sir John – my question to you, although in reality I mean the Government. Why so hung up on filling the French Government coffers ahead of the UK’s.. Leading to the French Government being in control of UK energy.
How about we revert to being resilient and self reliant in fulfilling our own energy requirements.
Most of the problems stem form a Government wanting to dictate, not work with and its ‘grandstanding gestures’ to COP26 to say we can do it quicker than you to the rest of the World. How about a Government that works for the UK first and simply commits to running a green agenda that is inline with the efforts of other countries.
September 27, 2021
And in other news the head of the petrol retailers organisation calls on Grant Shapps resolve the terrible performance of the DVLA.
He wonders whether Shapps has ever been there to sort it out. I think we know the answer.
September 27, 2021
Interesting read at https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/small-nuclear-power-reactors.aspx . Particularly the section “UK support for SMRs”.
“In March 2019 BEIS released a 2016 report on microreactors that defined them as having a capacity up to 100 MWt/30 MWe, and projecting a global market for around 570 units of an average 5 MWe by 2030, total 2850 MWe. It notes that they are generally not water-moderated or water cooled, but “use a compact reactor and heat exchange arrangement, frequently integrated in a single reactor vessel.”
If they can get a version that can be turned up and down quickly; packed into a couple or few 40 foot containers; and turn them out like Ford Fiesta … whoopie!!!
September 27, 2021
My understanding is that they need highly enriched, like weapons grade, fuel, Acorn.
September 27, 2021
We could trade with N.Korea for some, or possibly hidden away in ex-USSR states?
September 27, 2021
Yes, I’m sure that they’d accept market price in USD.
Would you be willing to supply that on your bills?
September 27, 2021
Right now I think Our Dear Leader would settle for a few ship loads of food, but then we are all starving too?
September 27, 2021
O/T, SJR, but just to thank you and many of your colleagues for voting against renewal of the clearly no longer needed Coronavirus Act. The threat to the NHS and other public services now comes from the consequences of lockdowns, not from the virus any longer. How sad that so many other MPs could not see what damage they are doing to the independence of Parliament from the executive, and what that means for the future of democracy in this country.
September 27, 2021
The rest of the world including the oil ruch Gulf states are building nuclear stations from start to generation in 7 years on average. These are Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Russian designs fully approved to the latest standards. The French also face closure of their numerous nuclear stations by 2030 and will be unable to export or power themselves. Our civil service chose EDF and the French European Pressurised Reactor when this design had failed to produce electricity after 10 years in France and Finland. It is over complex and only the Chinese have managed to build one that worked, perhaps because they have lower standards of regulation. The UK regulator has such slow and strict regulations that nuclear is not economic. They insist on starting from scratch and overseas approvals are not accepted.
If we had 20 new simpler 3.2GW stations on existing sites within 7 years we could be using electric storage heating again instead of expensive heat pumps and thick insulation.
The government has spent as much on useless track and trace as they could to buy at least 2 Korean nuclear stations.
September 27, 2021
JR, Your estimate of an additional 5GW of demand “for a substantial rise in domestic demand for the planned electrical revolution” is wildly optimistic.
Assume it’s 2040 and almost all cars and light vans are battery electric. That means electricity for 306 billion vehicle miles (2018 figures). For an average of 3 miles per kWh (avg Nissan Leaf to Tesla Prick) that is 102TWh at the battery. Given 10% charging loss and 10% Grid losses that means an additional 123TWh of generated electrical energy.
That’s an avg of 14GW. Or nearly 3 times your figure but just for cars and vans – no home heating. It gets worse. Battery charging will be concentrated overnight, so as much as 40GW extra demand. That’s more than double current winter overnight demand. Then add home heating on top.
Reply My forecast is for this decade, not the next
September 27, 2021
Sir John – your forecast is fine – for in just over another decade the Government of the day will encourage returning to fossil fuels and the Chinese will all fall about laughing.
September 27, 2021
NickC
No matter how you collate demand, possible and future it all adds up to one thing.
Nearly all the politicians elected over the last couple of decades have really ###### up big time with the well tried combination of ignorance and incompetence. Now there is no real places left to hide for them. Nearly all will have to fall on their swords but that takes us back to the days of pride, honour and loyalty.
September 28, 2021
Reply to reply “My forecast is for this decade, not the next“.
Sorry, that was not clear to me. However the government has a two decade program of conversion from oil coal and gas to electric (new homes 2025; new cars 2030. That means by 2040 most (domestic) energy requirements will have been transferred.
Yet there are no plans for a significant increase in overall electricity generation (BEIS Updated energy and emissions projections 2019). That doesn’t add up even this decade. Planning and building electricity generation can take up to 20 years, so we do need to look at that timespan, not just half way through.
And unfortunately your suggested extra 5GW would not even back-up existing Wind. In mild weather we have just escaped black-outs by using mothballed Coal. We probably need an extra 10GW back-up for existing Wind – twice your estimate, without any extra (at least some of the time) for the electric revolution.
September 27, 2021
Conservative MP Greg Smith (Buckingham) suggest that work on the high-speed rail project could be paused to help with lack of HGV drivers. Why only paused?
September 27, 2021
+1
Exactly.
I bet a lot of his Buckingham voters would love an end to that beauty-destroying nightmare.
But are some others making Ā£Ā£squids out of it?
Surely most people, despite compulsory purchase etc really, really hate being near it and hate this government even more!
@Chesham and Amersham!!!
September 27, 2021
Plough on! Plough on in idiocy,
āTil all your voters are no more.
Oh Tories lead us to the place,
Where Marxist treasures lie in store.
And then see how you bloody well like it!!
September 27, 2021
Great – If I’m still alive in 2035 that will be something to look forward to.
What is going to happen in the meantime?
Are we expected just to put up and shut up as the lights go out and factories remain empty?
Are the government going to reverse any of the idiotic policies it has put in place for Net-Zero that will make paupers of us all while ensuring what energy is available will be too expensive for most of us?
The British people are being badly served by a government too interested in saving face and far too interested in their own ideology, than they are in doing their basic job of keeping us safe, as well as keeping the country running normally!
September 27, 2021
+1
Their pride has to come before them inevitable fall.
September 27, 2021
”’What is going to happen in the meantime?”’
You’ll be able to have a nice trip on the new HS2….thats the priority
September 27, 2021
Bryan Harris
Bloody well said Bryan. Brilliant last paragraph. Ohhhh so true.
September 27, 2021
For once I tend to agree with DOM, Newmania and Mark B !
Successive governments, starting with Labour, under pressure from its ultra-left wing, shunned Nuclear where the French went full tilt for it. Their 70% Nuclear capacity has been a huge success story and, as the pioneer of the technology, it is a tragedy that Great Britain has fallen so far behind that we have had to invite in a State-owned French company to build Hinkley Point C. Regretably it is new technology so has been extremely expensive, long-winded and subject to repeated delays. Why have the French not just improved on their existing design : after all, of their 56 stations, 34 are built to one standard design ? Imagine the economies of scale that has achieved.
We have an opportunity to reverse our fortunes with Rolls Royce and its SMR which, given the right investment, claims it can have the first unit up and running in 2028. it seems that everything except the steam turbine can be made in the UK but, given that the export potential for the system is immense, I can see no reason why that can’t be built here as well. French attitudes have taught us that we need to be 100% self-sufficient in strategic infrastructure.
September 27, 2021
We used to make enormous numbers of steam turbines that run in power stations around the world. GEC, Reyrolle Parsons were important manufacturers.
September 27, 2021
On forecourt supplies – the BP problem is their contractors, they don’t want to pay the going rate to their staff – so suddenly they don’t have the staff.
Then you get the forecourt supply company that has collected more the Ā£200 million in VAT on behalf of the Government and doesn’t want to hand it over, so are blackmailing Government to give it a ‘free pass’
This Government has singly generated the baulk of the problems that are coming back to bite them. Their obsession with being in control, orchestrating and wanting the credit for every minute detail of daily life has lead them to the situation were they actually control nothing. Yet every one wants a share of the giveaways
Energy is a problem – Government neglect
Seeing a GP – Government neglect
Getting into Hospital – Government neglect
Care Homes – Government nationalisation with out nationalizing it
Driver replaced by Army – but the Government has sacked the Army as not needed
Giving one sector tax reliefs to manipulate the MsM – the expecting the taxpayer to stand by and not demand the same.
Criminal damage, which the taxpayer pays for – Government neglect when it is in support of heir personal Green Agenda.
There is an endless list that amounts to an out of control Government. Its them when they want the ‘headline’, but its not them when it goes wrong. The biggest errors are in not defending the people of the UK, not defending the taxpayer. Agreeing with dissenters by not defending the majority. The Countries woes are self inflicted by the ego at the centre.
September 27, 2021
Conservatives, over the decades, have dismantled all the State institutions affording proper oversight, whether it be for building regulations, financial and banking practice, the correct and safe functioning of utilities and so on, with a blind, doctrinaire faith, in leaving everything to the market and to the only-for-profit lads.
Those types know that no one with any teeth has been watching them too.
Only someone who knows literally nothing about human nature would fail to predict what is now happening all around us.
September 27, 2021
If they have that power then that is a power that has been given to them by the electorate.
I wonder if you understand how voting and elections of governments actually work MiC
September 28, 2021
Yes, airliner pilots have the factual power – entrusted in them by the passengers – to fly the plane into a mountain if they so wished too, Pete.
You really know how to move on a topic, don’t you?
September 28, 2021
Irrelevant twaddle MiC
You rage about the policies of elected governments but refuse to accept the voters don’t want the type extreme socialism that you do.
As demonstrated byLabour’s worst election result since 1935.
September 27, 2021
I am looking at getting as many solar panels as my site can cope with together with battery storage (so circa doubling the cost and likely rendering the exercise uneconomic) owing to my lack of confidence in Government energy policy and implementation.
My condemnation of Government neglect and incompetence is only very slightly ameliorated by the tax breaks at present claimable on solar installations by us baby boomers.
September 27, 2021
formula, I thought that you couldn’t store your own solar panel energy it had to go into the grid?
September 27, 2021
@ a-tracy – the people who sell batteries for domestic solar installations (like the Tesla powerwall) say that such batteries can form part of a grid-connected system. I think sales of home-generated electricity to the grid is only permitted as generated, not from that stored first in batteries.
September 28, 2021
Thanks formula, do you have the first dibs on the electricity generated by your home solar panels? How long is the energy available once stored in a home battery, eg if you store to much for your own use in the summer is it still available for your personal use in your home store through the autumn? I’m genuinely interested.
September 27, 2021
Solar panels are an excellent investment. I have had them installed on my last two homes. Despite what the naysayers on here claim, solar panels really do work.
Obviously it depends on your site but I would suggest you go for both types of panel. Solar thermal heats your hot water. You may need to upgrade your tank. For us it produced nearly all of the hot water we needed from March to October and contributed varying amounts for the rest of the year. Solar PV generates your power. With a battery you may well be able to generate two thirds or more of what you need.
We made our money back within about 4 years – and the solar installations also added about Ā£50k to the value of our houses when we sold them. Even though the installation costs were well below that. Perhaps you can report back to everyone on here about how well your panels work?
September 27, 2021
Great if you have loads of cash andy
Maybe a ten thousand pound investment?
Try that in a city flat in a tower block on average income.
September 27, 2021
To make your money back inside 4 years is a nonsense unless you were near rhe Sahara or southern Spain in a good year. Anywhere in UK it will be 10 years and you have an installation about to give up.
Most of us don’t do 10 years crap investments, Andy. And your Tesla will be crap inside 10 years too, my 11 year old hatchback will still be running, given the people haven’t used all the petrol in making molotovs by then.
September 27, 2021
@ Andy – I would be happy to report back, within the limits of this being Sir John’s diary rather than my blog.
September 27, 2021
Not very green, but you would find installing a backup generator far cheaper and easier to install.
I had one in our old house and all I had to do was flick a changeover switch which isolated the house from the incoming mains and connect it to the generator instead. It worked a treat.
I had a quick look on Amazon, and you can buy a good quality 9.5kw 240v petrol generator for under Ā£600. A single-phase UK domestic mains supply is usually 9.2kw so that generator will run most houses. It’s even on wheels so can be stored wherever you like.
We don’t have a backup generator at our current house but I am thinking about it. Far cheaper than buying battery backup for our existing 4kw solar array.
September 27, 2021
so now we all ought to have a petrol generator coughing out exhaust fumes in order to have a source of electricity that the nation cannot supply? Added to the suggestion hooking up the wiring as DIY? I fear mass electrocutions all over the place. Great idea Chris.
September 27, 2021
@ ChrisS – Thank you for the thought: Ā£600 for a generator to hold oneself harmless from Government energy failure could well be a price worth paying, although storage of adequate supplies of fuel reserve presents some logistical hazard.
The cost of solar panels alone (without battery storage) ought to see a reasonable payback period and that is part of the attraction. (I agree with Andy above that they work, although inefficiently and in winter sometimes hardly at all.) Without a battery in the system though grid power cuts would see the solar element cease to operate for the duration of the cut.
September 27, 2021
As I tried (unsuccessfully) to post here yesterday, The Times has reported that: āState support for SMRs ā¦ was revealed in the prime ministerās ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution, released last November. The government has pledged to take a final investment decision on at least one new nuclear power plant by 2024.ā So it takes this brain-dead government FOUR YEARS to go from decision in principle to decision in practice. FOUR YEARS!!! Is it any wonder we lurch from crisis to crisis? And note the wording: “one nuclear power plant”. ONE!! We need at least 20!!
You talk, Sir John, of Hinkley C, but not only is this grossly over-expensive (pushing up consumer bills through the roof), but there are severe doubts about when – and even *if* – it will ever be built. It is already NINE YEARS behind schedule, and counting! And the EDF power station in China which uses the Hinkley technology has now developed leaks – or, as EDF call them (I kid you not) “controlled emissions”!
What we need is an emergency government investment programme in the RR SMRs. These could then be available well within this decade. In the interim, we need to keep ALL the current power stations open and increase gas output from the North Sea.
September 27, 2021
I think most of us that are for a resilient self-reliant UK would like to see the Roles Royce concept get off the ground. However, there is no Government approval, no permitted sites therefore would take a long time to get past go.
The Westinghouse project quite a good idea, previously a UK taxpayer funded company sold off by Gordon Brown as not needed. But has some UK DNA at its core.
The other alternatives are with the courtesy and political will of the French Government. The UK taxpayer has already committed to pump more money into it than the whole paper value of the Company, some of that on untried and unproven technology. The UK taxpayer will be the lose, there is no payback on the risk and the ownership and IP we funded remains with the French Government. If it works we will then pay for the output. This extremely risky situation is for some bizarre reasoning is the Governments preferred option – are they expecting us in 10 years time to be back under EU rule?
September 27, 2021
I have been very reliably informed by those who are working with the French on Hinkley Point, that the French engineers there are paid at least twice as much as the British Engineers. All part of the ‘deal’ I am sure.
September 27, 2021
Nota#
Trying to get past go
If there was a war then it would be a national emergency . HELLO!! THIS IS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY. JFDI.
September 27, 2021
Sir John
Everything you have stated has its roots in a Government having lost control – from the Telegraph to day at the Heathrow protest – Liam Norton said: “You can throw as many injunctions at us as you like, but we are going nowhere.” These terrorist are immune, nothing will apply to them, criminal damage will be funded by the taxpayer, as everything they do the chimes with the direction the UK Government supports.
The UK Government doesn’t support the UK people but the irrational minority view of Socialist activists.
As an aside these people are protesting for something the UK taxpayer already funds – yet the Government wont defend the taxpayer or counter the claims
September 27, 2021
Lock them all up in that military barracks that wasn’t fit for the arrivals by dinghy.
September 27, 2021
now now, we’ll have none of that talk, its a 4*hotel or nothing…remember we’re signatories to the ECHRs
September 27, 2021
what! – not repealed it yet.?…. get on and do something H of C.
September 27, 2021
669 immigrants were allowed to cross The Channel from France yesterday.
Going on Home Office figures that takes the figure for 2021 to 17,073.
Weāre currently housing 64,000 asylum seekers, 13,000 of whom are in hotels.
September 27, 2021
Apart from this forum it doesn’t really get a mention from politicans
September 27, 2021
Disgraceful. Useless Government.
September 27, 2021
We have a bunch of half wits in charge. Never again.
September 27, 2021
“Terrorists”?
All I can say is that you on the far Right must be extremely easily terrorised.
September 27, 2021
But then Farage called that bunch of people who arrived in clown outfits, blowing party squeakers during his Sunday pub lunch “terrorists” too.
They were probably LD-voting geography teachers.
So we know where the bar is.
September 27, 2021
They were a violent mob outside trying to get in and confront him.
Do you think that kind of political discourse is acceptable MiC?
September 27, 2021
Do violent mobs usually bring their children with them, Pete?
September 27, 2021
Were you a witness to this incident, P2? If not, where did you learn about it?
In a decent debate, everybody would want to make sure that the various participants speak from an informed position, wouldnāt it?
September 27, 2021
MiC -in most of the London protests i’ve ever seen- yes they do, believing the police won’t touch them.
September 27, 2021
Depends Marty.
Have a recap on the Internet.
Because there is plenty of film of the mob outside trying to get in and attack those inside
September 28, 2021
It appears that apart from the fancy dress costumes and CND placards, it was the sight of mothers amongst the group exposing their breasts to feed their babies which completely freaked him out, Pete.
September 28, 2021
The Police were needed outside to keep order and he had to be escorted out by them to safety MiC
But I expect you would consider this to be a standard part of lefty behaviour towards political opponents.
And heffy
It was reported in the press and on TV channels.
Inform yourself
September 28, 2021
It was a comical stunt, nothing more.
September 28, 2021
It may be comical to you Marty (because you don’t like the target) but to those affected and held in that pub whilst Police came and restored order it was far from comical.
But I realise the left feel violence and intimidation aimed at those they dislike is OK
September 28, 2021
There is near-complete Establishment media silence in the UK, on the horrifying and tragic event which shows up your comment for the preposterous nonsense that it is – for some reason.
However, that is not the view on the near Continent, and its victim – of a right-wing UK terrorist – has a square named after her in Belgium.
September 28, 2021
Very odd reply and exposes just how sensitive you are about this dreadful attack on a legitimate UK politician going about his business.
I dislike many lefties but I would never engage in violence like this mob did, of any of them.
September 29, 2021
“Never argue with a blockhead. He will drag you down to his level, where he may win on experience”
September 27, 2021
Regarding the HGV driver crisis, I see that the PM is planning to possibly make a decision today on whether to use the army. The crisis has been going on for several days, so no hurry Boris, glad you enjoyed your weekend with your feet up while the petrol stations were running dry. Take your time, no rush mate …
As for the decision to offer three-month visas to 5,000 EU drivers, just how much more stupid can Boris get? Not only will it not work (there is a shortage of drivers in the EU too!), but it gives the political message that Brexit is to blame, when we know very well this is not the case (there is a shortage of drivers in the EU too!).
It is now revealed that Boris was warned way back in June that there was a shortage of HGV drivers, and what did he do? Did he spring into action and make some quick decisions (such as speeding up training and tests)? No, of course not, he went back to sleep and did nothing. And now, Lo, the crisis has unfolded exactly as predicted. Well done Boris, another victory for your brain-dead inability to make and implement decisions.
The government has now written to around a million retired HGV drivers to lure them back, and this is genuinely a good idea (although I hope there was an age bar). But typically, they have botched it, by not offering free CPC (Driver Certificate of Professional Competence) training and certification, which these drivers will need (costing several bhundred pounds) to get back behind the wheel. Does anyone in the government have a brain?
The government also relaxed the limit on hours drivers can work – but again botched it by over-complicating it, with permissions having to be sought (rather than just making the relaxation automatic), and retaining too-strict limits. So almost no drivers have gone through the ridiculous hoops for virtually no gain, and this has had no effect. Is the concept of simply removing restrictions and liberalising rules too difficult for this government to understand?
September 27, 2021
furlough should have ended 3 or even 6 months ago.
September 27, 2021
Off topic, if it is true that Labour has now abandoned free movement of persons:
https://www.cityam.com/brexit-labour-abandons-free-movement-as-shadow-chancellor-says-we-moved-on/
then it has also abandoned the EU Single Market with its other three freedoms.
No cherry-picking, you see, no enjoying three fundamental freedoms without the fourth.
September 27, 2021
Climate change protesters have defied a court order and have blocked part of the M25 at Heathrow Airport. Insulate Britain said 52 people have blocked the slip road at junction 14. Officers are making arrests, the Met said. A High Court injunction banning protests around the M25 and Dartford Crossing was issued last Thursday.The order, which was granted to National Highways Ltd, states demonstrators are banned from “causing damage to the surface of or to any apparatus on or around the M25 including but not limited to painting, damaging by fire, or affixing any item or structure thereto”.
September 27, 2021
@Micky Taking making arrests wont stop it Boris is all for it – it is part of his agenda
September 27, 2021
I just wish Johnson would be stuck in the protests for hours and be very late for his much acclaimed nappy changing. After all whatever he touches tends to be shit.
September 27, 2021
Thank you Sir John for posting it. The thousands of people frequently badly affected want action – not just restrictions on one defined motorway. Drag ’em away handcuffed, sling in black marias and take before the beak for a prison sentence and criminal record. A positive sign this Government will take action….society can get to believe leftie nonsense will not be tolerated.
September 27, 2021
Richard Tice spoke for me on his Talk Radio show on Sunday morning.
This Government is continuing with the idiotic policy of making this country energy dependent on a mix of other countries and unreliable so-called green power sources.
It has failed to provide energy security when we have all the resources we need in coal, gas, shale gas … as well as renewables, which could provide an added bonus, but will never supply our energy needs.
We are being dictated to by obsessive ecological activists and a Prime Minister who (like Blair) thinks it will benefit him personally to posture on the world stage, rather than do the hard graft necessary to benefit the people who elected him.
Another winter of discontent may be just what the CON Party needs to wake it up.
September 27, 2021
@Donna +1
September 27, 2021
A case of shutting the stable door?
This situation hasnāt just developed itās been ignored (intentionally?) for many years, the Greencrap chickens are coming home to roost
When the population/sheeple finally realises that the huge increases in their gas and electricity prices are down to a deliberate policy, it will be Heat or Eat for many of the people struggling to make ends meet
September 27, 2021
All planned, they have to destroy everything before they can 6uild 6ack 6etter.
September 27, 2021
@Lester_Cynic I think you will find it still ‘ajar’
September 27, 2021
+99
September 27, 2021
Wind turbines, solar, renewables and biomass are methods that tinker around the edges of providing sustainable & constant cheap electricity
Stop messing about and go full stream for small modular nuclear reactors, fracking gas and coal fired power stations
September 27, 2021
If only you could stand up in the H of C and shout that. Mind you few would be there to listen, and most reading their mobile screens.
September 27, 2021
@Glen Cullen +1
September 27, 2021
Mrs. Merkelās longevity was because she put Germany first. In the case of electrical power generation, when the country became concerned about nuclear power after Fukishima, she built coal fired power stations and has now constructed an enormous gas pipeline directly from Russia. So it is quite clear how she intended to provide Germanyās electrical power.
Unfortunately our PM, instead of looking after the UKās interests has now taken on the Marxist scam of CAGW (the Earth has been warming since the last ice age maximum 22,000 years ago and long before man-made emissions of CO2) and struts the World stage declaring :
āWe (the UK) started this industrial revolution in Britain: we were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural order.ā
Just as PM Heath did not politically survive the 3-day week when the lights went out to conserve stocks of coal neither will our current PM survive a winter of intermittent/rationed power, whether it be electrical or fossil fuel or both.
Fortunately for his party, the Opposition has gone into full 1984 Marxist mode, where we are informed that immutable personal characteristics can be self-defined.
September 27, 2021
Yes, it was illuminating to watch Johnson invoke the “original sin” argument to justify his planned destruction of the economy and ramping up domestic energy bills on the alter of green lunacy.
He proved that Green Lunacy is tantamount to a Religion to these obsessives.
September 27, 2021
You actually *want* the country’s energy supply to be at Putin’s mercy?
September 27, 2021
So do the 720,000 people allowed in every year or the 3 million Hong Kong Nationals invited here have any power generation needs? Has this been factored into any calculations by this lunatic green Government? Do they need any housing? Health or educational needs? This of course hasn’t and won’t impact English people now or in the future, who have repeatedly told the political class no more!
We need a truly conservative alternative to the two party dictatorship.
I read this morning in the Telegraph that Starmer thinks it’s wrong for people to say that only women have a cervex………….unbelievably woke and stupid! This Government is also as woke and out of touch.
Look at 11 years in office and no challenge to the recruitment or selection processes to all our woke/pc leaders in our health, emergency, public and broadcasting services. Blair and Campbell have won, the Tory’s confirmed no change.
September 27, 2021
I fail to see anything that the past 11 years of Tory government has achieved
September 27, 2021
well I suppose annoying the Commission for several years, and forcing additional urgent meetings in Brussels with no outcome must count for something positive?
September 27, 2021
Sir John it’s just pitiful that Britain’s energy supplies were left to effectively rot and our basic infrastructure planning and management be overruled by unproven experts who don’t know life in the real world. We are becoming a banana republic.
September 27, 2021
UK123 – – “Becoming” a banana republic??? – – when a thousand a day can arrive, knowing they will NOT be going back, they’ll be in hotels, heating, baths, fed, power, bed, no bills, no ID, no visas, no passports, NHS, no proof of identity etc etc, then the invasion will carry on AND increase.
THEY want a free life, they WILL keep coming. Why work?
September 27, 2021
The Home Office conformed at committee last week that 15,000+ where staying in hotels…..all free
September 27, 2021
At the moment bigneil it certainly looks like they are getting what they want !
You can imagine all those phone calls home .or to relatives
“its great here, a bit bored doing nothing, but warm, housed, fed, some spending money, and health care.
September 27, 2021
…and ‘zero’ threat of deportation or return to France
September 27, 2021
Going green and wet behind the ears whilst we all go bananas – one step forward and 3 steps back – when we have never before been so blessed with technologies and computers. Yet common sense and experience is in short supply. IDS helped explain bureaucracy is the weak link in many of Britain’s solvable problems. Clear the decks!
September 27, 2021
O/T but my local Tesco had desperate signs up this morning, seeking drivers. I suspect that they wanted people to man their vans, delivering shopping to people who are now too bone idle to shop.
September 27, 2021
šš»Got it in one! Keep printing money, our foreign invaders donāt want to work
September 27, 2021
maybe the benefits generation don’t want to work either.
September 27, 2021
You can sum up the situation of today in that the Government gives to much creditably to so-called trade bodies and associations. Most of these nowadays have been hijacked by those that have alternative political and profit motives to that of being a voice of a sector.
The RHA(trade association dedicated to road transport operators ā Note not Drivers) has a former BBC director on the board ā yes āI represent lorry driverā and I am against Brexit. Can I drive a lorry do I have and HGV license, do I know anyone or am I associated with any one that does? Government has a meeting with this Political Organization to solve a situation. Pull the other one!
If a trade organization exists and doesnāt represent the majority of those actually employed, active in the industry and doing the job, it should not have a voice. If its board members are not selected and elected by all those involved in the industry it should not have a voice.
The norm from this Governments perspective, is you are the voice of an industry even if it is less than 10% of those involved participate in the grouping. Its the same norm as those that are involved in lobbying Parliament/Government. They just donāt represent anyone but themselves, above all they donāt speak for the people.
Government needs to take care who they talk to and are influenced by. It should always be their real live constituents and no one else.
September 27, 2021
An interesting article in the Express today written by an actual trucker. In addition to all the previously reported problems truckers face he exposed a new one: “We have to bring in new rules forcing distribution centres to have a time limit on holding trucks making deliveries and collections. This happens in quite a lot of the USA [where] centres have only an hour to unload or load trucks then they have to pay a fine and the trucker can actually call the police to have their vehicle released. Having a truck sat for hours and days sometimes at a distribution centre when the driver could be back on the road making another delivery is ridiculous. If trucks were in and out in hour we would not need more drivers. This waiting time in the industry is rife and food and supermarkets are among the worst at this.”
September 27, 2021
Same with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) the UK trade association for the automotive sector that actually only satisfies the needs of the big international automobile makers and not the smaller UK manufactures ā¦.they as a trade body where also against brexit while most of the workforce where for it
September 27, 2021
Labour has promised to spend an extra Ā£28bn a year on making the UK economy more “green”.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the money would go on offshore wind farms, planting trees and developing batteries. In her speech to Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, she also pledged to phase out business rates to help the Covid-damaged High Street. And she said giant tech firms would pay more tax in future. An aide to Ms Reeves told the BBC the Ā£28bn would come from government borrowing and the investment should “have a positive impact” on the wider economy.
So that’s all right then…
September 27, 2021
Isn’t it reassuring that she is so completely deluded? No chance of being the next government. But we still need to reform or replace the existing one.
September 27, 2021
Bring back the CEGB. All is forgiven even though you were State Owned.
Likewise British Gas.
Will the Greens like Nuclear power – no CO2 like coal ?
September 27, 2021
Perhaps people will start asking more questions about our government’s energy decisions now. I’ve taken for granted that we have power for our needs, never really thought about who owns energy generation. No thought about who owns the power stations, who decided they were to be decommissioned quickly and why?
Why didn’t the owner of these plants seek UK owned replacements?
Who made the decision to rely on France and why?
When the Chinese bought French energy plant plans do France still own the plants in that Country?
Who owns all the windmills – government? – Or did the energy companies invest their own money into them? Does the government, if they paid for the windmills, charge for their investment?
Who asked Rolls Royce to design this small reactor?
Do they have foreign markets for them already?
What other UK Countries are working on power generation?
Do they receive R&D funds?
What do our UK universities research and create in relation to future energy needs?
From time to time we hear good news stories about energy and improvements from street lights using less power to the Tube generating electricity to power above-ground offices and homes, recycled waste is used to create energy when it used to go to landfills. Can we know more about this? Who should be telling us – the BBC perhaps – it is a public information service provider paid by our tele-taxes?
Do we have to just hear gloom mongering all the time, it is about time we start to hear about progress that has been achieved. A quick google says ‘A report launched in Washington by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on Thursday ranked the UK first among the world’s 12 largest economies for reducing pollution in industry, transport, and buildings.’
‘The United Kingdom comes in first in a new energy efficiency ranking of the world’s major economies, followed closely by Germany, Japan, and Italy.’ energy digital.com
’23 Sept 2020 ā Analysis of the energy efficiency, estimated carbon dioxide … Figure 1: EPC data shows new dwellings are more energy efficient ‘ ons
September 27, 2021
At 8pm Thursday dont forget to ‘clap for petrol’ and applaud fuel station workers
September 27, 2021
That might just catch on
September 27, 2021
Agree with Any that the chances of building any new nuclear plants in the medium term is zero, not least because all his mates will oppose and disrupt it. The only solution is more gas powered stations and fracking – when the lights go out weāll vote for a party who agrees.
September 27, 2021
Roy Grainger
We’ll vote for a party that agrees.
How I wish that was true. Come election time electors have short memories and politicians count on it.
At the moment there is not a fag papers difference between aÄŗl of them.
September 27, 2021
Good work Sir John. You dryly note that more wind and solar capacity is to be added. Obviously this needs more back up so our policy builds in paying twice. Energy is a cost for everything we make and do. Un-smart, very.
You may have read Chris Skidmore over on conservative home: āwhat is clear is that we need an urgent rethink of how we shift from an overdependence on gasā
Why? Gas is good. Carbon is food. Buy him a drink, would you?
September 27, 2021
OT: The German elections were yesterday. The BBC werenāt much interested, none of the massive coverage they gave us of the last US election with a massive team flown out for weeks on end. The usual strange lack of interest in anything that happens in a EU country from an organisation whose staff overwhelmingly opposed leaving the EU.
September 27, 2021
Most of their staff – previously permanently based there – have had to come home.
But the press have found that the British public aren’t very interested anyway, and the BBC seems to follow their agenda.
September 27, 2021
Reverse logic Marty
The BBC doesn’t cover it.
Then you claim the public isn’t interested.
September 28, 2021
Just read, and at least try to understand what is written, Pete.
September 28, 2021
The BBC can send staff to Germany to follow their elections should they want to.
But they chose not to.
September 27, 2021
how refreshing to be rid of it.
September 27, 2021
Electricity generation is not the only energy source that requires immediate investment particularly gas fracking. The crazy attempt to force people into electric cars based on false figures from the Climate Change committee means an even greater need for electrical generation just for transport, so being able to maintain gas flow will be crucial. Also we must be careful before we concentrate on electricity for almost everything to research fully the health concerns of conducting our lives permanently in high power magnetic fields. Warnings have already been issued about having you mobile phone charger near you head whilst sleeping.
September 27, 2021
The first step needs to be binning the Green Nonsense and respecting real science, not propaganda designed solely to impose control. Real pollution is a different matter.
September 27, 2021
On reading of the latest 580,000 that have been caught by promises that could never be kept. Even with 67K positive 5 star reviews. It gets to vanish, with just an oops.
To me the problem is the ‘pre-pack’, it ensures the owners, the directors are immune their personal fortunes and profits taken remain intact. All the while their customer get punished and their suppliers take on the baulk of the debt and in turn have to pass it on to their customers. The UK revenue takes a hit, in that it pays out compensation for unemployment etc. Every one pays accept those that made false promises, they can start over, they generally retain the assets, the contact numbers and addresses, the equipment and know all the customers. So they get to launch a new with a clean slate, but well ahead of their competition.
Its a flawed system that is getting abused left right and centre. A limited Company should just limit liability to encourage risk. Pre-Pack permits profit with no risk, everyone looses bar those that took the greatest reward.
September 27, 2021
And the latest figures from Gridwatch for wind power from 1st April to 26th September are:
For 23% of that period, wind generated 5% or less of demand
For 47% of that period, wind generated 10% or less of demand
For 65% of that period, wind generated 15% or less of demand
For 77% of that period, wind generated 20% or less of demand
Bearing in mind that demand is normally lower during spring/summer, it’s not a case of IF wind power lets us down, it’s a case of WHEN. In fact it has already let us down over this period of 6 months. If the same thing happens over autumn/winter………
This cardboard-cutout government needs to drastically re-focus our energy policy and get fracking/nuclear/gas and coal working in a big way and quickly.
September 27, 2021
Thanks for a great post MM
September 27, 2021
Well, it had to happen eventually, and now it has. After months of incompetence and betrayal the magic has evaporated from Teflon Boris, and he is now down to level pegging with Starmer on the question of who is best for PM. And the Conservative lead in the polls has collapsed to just 3 percentage points, meaning no overall majority in the Commons. And with the fuel crisis (petrol/diesel and electricity) and food delivery disruption set to continue I think it won’t be long before Labour are ahead. So, well done Boris, a majority of 80 and you’ve done precisely eff all with it, and now you are sinking like a stone. No more than you deserve!
September 28, 2021
And who is going to solve the “crisis”? Boris or Starmer?
September 27, 2021
Maybe we could power the country using the hot air generated here.
September 27, 2021
For crying out load this site and many others are all calling for the same thing.
CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP AND DIRECTION.
Is anybody listening or caring what happens to this country?
September 28, 2021
Precisely Turbo. This site gets more depressing by the day as it screams out the total failure of this government to get the country moving again after Brexit.
September 27, 2021
Should have read loud not load.
September 27, 2021
So what don’t you like.
September 27, 2021
Only 5.0GW for the increased demand from car charging and heat pumps !? I think you should multiply that by about ten!
Nuclear and wind are not a good mix. Wind power needs a backup that can be ramped up and down quickly as the wind generation varies. At present that is provided by gas turbines. Nuclear can’t ramp up and down quickly in the same way, not unless someone designs a station specifically to do so.
The quoted prices for wind don’t include an essential part of wind power: energy storage. Without gas turbines you will need the capacity to store something like 35 to 90 hours worth.
To go fully renewable, figures I’ve seen say we need about 200GW of wind *capacity* (bearing in mind the load factor is c. 40%) plus 35-90 hours energy storage. Oh, and interconnectors from all over Europe.
September 27, 2021
Petrol Crisis what crisis.
The country was shut down for weeks due to covid.
Stop all transport except public, three emergency services and military for 72 hours maximum, give the fuel industry time to play catch up. Stop the panic buying and show all motorists we all have to be responsible if this madness is going to end quickly.
September 27, 2021
@dixie. Not so much just foreign ownership, the problem area is foreign Government owned.
If it is permitted for a UK company to own an organisation in foreign climes then the reverse should be permitted. If not then it should be a no go. Reprocity.
Consideration should also be considered when strategic safety and security of the UK is in play. i.e. foreign State ownership of UK energy the back bone of the UK’S economy being controlled by the political will of those you can’t vote for
September 27, 2021
For once I actually agree with the news media tonight….priority should be given to nurses, doctors and teachers on every ‘cycle lane’
September 29, 2021
even if they are walking or jogging.
September 27, 2021
It’s the usual story with the big mouths. They all want to talk big about whatever the current issue is, but how many of them will actually risk their money investing in it?
Ten minutes with a newspaper will tell you the half dozen companies that are going to make money creating precisely the kind of small, modular energy production facilities that we need to fill in the gaps in renewable sources – gaps we all know are there, just from the physics of the thing.
We would be idiots to go back to fossil fuel on a large scale, we don’t want Putin’s hand on our throats with gas, and it takes years to build giant nuclear plants with unpredictable economics, so what is left?
The answer is pretty obvious, and the UK can be a leader in the field, given the required investment.
September 28, 2021
Off topic, but the driver shortage is starting to look more and more like a stitch-up by the Road Haulage Association to get cheap EU labour into the country. With four year’s notice of the end of Free Movement they can’t find drivers = or they deliberately choose to wait and not to look for them, with the intention of creating an artificial crisis?
I wonder if there are any legal remedies?
September 28, 2021
@jon Livesey in this modern world we have to look beyond the headline – the Road Haulage Association(RHA) they do not represent drivers but those that exploit drivers. Oh Why – is Government even talking and having meetings with them. They are the problem not the solution. Those companies that direct employ to satisfy their own needs are not having problems.
September 28, 2021
There is a problem when people contribute with a comment . The problem is assumption . Each individual issue should be taken on its own merit and any positive or negative comment not lumped into a category as a particular party sympathiser. It really demonstrates box thinking and I am not convinced that people who argue in this mode are suitable to lead the country .
September 28, 2021
@Margaret Brandreth +1 but is it thinking at all or just a ‘soundbite’ attention seeking
September 28, 2021
“The UK relies on imports for 10% of the electricity we need.”
On occasions recently, until the French IC went down, it has been up to 20% as wind dropped to about half a percent. Wind cannot supply our energy, in 2005, Eon-Netz, responsible for many of the wind farms in Germany, said that wind turbines cannot replace conventional energy, and needed 90% backup available. The experiences of South Australia and Texas should have been a salutary lesson, but no, we will build more.
17% from wind last year is an average. It fluctuates from very low to very high, both cause problems for the grid. The more wind farms, the less conventional power will be available, when the government wants to increase electricity usage.
Reply I was using official annual averages
September 28, 2021
We need tidal energy. Nuclear is a false pathway.
September 28, 2021
Hugely expensive and intermittent with slack tides, neap tides and spring tides.
The capital cost is very high and maintenance costs are also very high.
Mind you Harry fracking is good.
I’m told we have enough reserves for decades of cheap gas.
Like America have where now gas is really cheap.
September 28, 2021
https://highviewpower.com/technology/
For renewables to deliver consistant power, energy storage/on-demand release is required, hydro we know and liquifying air is another, see above. (I have no financial interest in this company or tech).
Keep the lights on and adopt technology selection/s to get to the net-zero-ish end game – these are all fundamental tasks for all goverments,. It might involve transitional use of fossil fuels to keep the lights on for a while more – so be it.
1) Develop the power transformation plan based on the netzero strategy…. not done HMG….. ownership?
1a) Have a tactical plan for keeping on the lights. Ditto gas/petrol etc. Some work done, not enough?
2) Develop the technical plans, business plan/risks and budget; get approval and appoint the steering group and programme team. Ownership and accountability….?
Surely we’d be better doing the above than the HS2 vanity project!
This government will not survive power cuts / another 3 day week nor fuel rationing, nor persistant inflation caused by this. It’s a recipe for losing power (sic) š