Today I publish four answers I have received to energy questions. They reveal a slow and painful transition to a more realistic stance on UK energy capacity and needs. On the positive side the government is now recognising the need to replace the current nuclear capacity it is closing. It had already  committed to the expensive Hinkley C which should come on stream this decade and will offset part of the loss of capacity from nuclear plant closures. It now wants to put in Sizewell C which is also likely to be very expensive and is unlikely before sometime in the next decade. It is also working up plans with Rolls Royce on small modular nuclear reactors. These could be in series production in the next decade and could make a useful contribution to capacity. They are currently thought to be considerably cheaper than large nuclear. That still has to be grounded by establishing a scalable prototype.
The government’s estimate of how much electricity we will need this decade reveals relatively slow rates of growth after 2025 and practically no growth for the first half of the decade. This may be realistic, but it implies the government does not expect many additions to the electric vehicle fleet or to electric home heating before 2025 and a slow rate of climb thereafter. I would have thought they would want to have more capacity available in advance of the breakthrough in the electrical revolution they urge, to reassure potential users that there will be sufficient power for the explosion in demand they want to engineer.
Their approach on gas has shifted a bit, with more recognition of the importance of gas to our current energy needs, and recognition of it as a transition fuel. I believe Ministers also now see the need to produce more domestic gas instead of burning imported gas. However, this answer still leaves open the probability that the Regulators will weight the need to run down gas more highly than the obvious need at the moment to produce more of it at home. They clearly still want to end the three coal power stations that have kept the lights on at times of little wind this winter, which is worrying. Officials seem wedded to energy insecurity as a policy allied to maximising imports. Ministers need to press harder.Â
I will continue to press the issues of our vulnerability, both because we rely too much on imports and because their forecasts of growth in demand are so small. We need more domestic capacity.
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of trends in electricity demand in the UK up to 2030. (105322)
Tabled on: 17 January 2022
Answer:
Greg Hands:
The table below shows the Departmentâs latest published projections of total electricity supplied by UK generators from the year 2021 up to 2030, net of storage and imports. Supply is modelled to meet projected demand and takes account of demand trends.
| Year | Total electricity supplied (net of storage & imports), TWh (terawatt-hours) |
| 2021 | 313 |
| 2022 | 313 |
| 2023 | 312 |
| 2024 | 313 |
| 2025 | 315 |
| 2026 | 319 |
| 2027 | 323 |
| 2028 | 328 |
| 2029 | 334 |
| 2030 | 340 |
These figures are based on central estimates of economic growth, fossil fuel prices and contains all agreed policies where decisions on policy design were sufficiently advanced to allow robust estimates of impact as of August 2019. Further details can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/energy-and-emissions-projections. Figures provided are extracted from BEIS Energy and Emissions Projections: Net Zero Strategy baseline (partial interim update December 2021) Annex J, Total electricity generation by source.
The answer was submitted on 25 Jan 2022 at 17:16.
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to grant permits to allow companies to develop new gas and oil fields that have investment plans and proven reserves; and what the timetable is for the granting of those permits. (105318)
Tabled on: 17 January 2022
Answer:
Greg Hands:
The UK offshore oil and gas sector is important; it continues to heat homes, fuel cars and underpin security of supply while the Government grows its renewables sector and develops its low carbon infrastructure. As the Government moves to a low carbon future, the sector needs a managed transition, to avoid losing the employment and expertise which will help us achieve the energy transition.
Before proceeding to consent, proposals for field development are subject to extensive scrutiny by regulators: the Oil and Gas Authority and the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning. The Government does not comment on individual projects undergoing the regulatory process. Any decisions made by these regulators are published in due course.
The answer was submitted on 25 Jan 2022 at 17:09.
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will ensure that the coal power stations currently used when there is little wind will be kept available until the UK has more reliable domestic generating capacity to cover a shortage of wind energy. (105320)
Tabled on: 17 January 2022
Answer:
Greg Hands:
The Government is committed to phasing out unabated coal generation by October 2024. The Government is confident that the Capacity Market will ensure there is sufficient capacity to offset the retirement of the remaining coal plants. The most recent Capacity Market auctions have already secured the majority of Great Britainâs capacity needs out to 2024/25.
National Grid Electricity System Operator has the ability to manage electricity supply and demand, including at times of low wind generation. It can call on a wide range of technology types to do this, including gas, batteries, interconnectors and demand-side response.
The answer was submitted on 25 Jan 2022 at 17:06.
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to make up for the reduction in energy derived from nuclear power in this decade as the current fleet of nuclear stations close. (105321)
Tabled on: 17 January 2022
Answer:
Greg Hands:
This Government is committed to nuclear power in our future diverse energy mix:
- Hinkley Point C will supply 3.2GW of secure, low carbon electricity for around 60 years, meeting around 7% of GBâs current electricity requirements. Hinkley has roughly the equivalent output to three of its predecessors.
- The Government are progressing negotiations over Sizewell C in Suffolk.
- Our ÂŁ385m Advanced Nuclear Fund, the Government have awarded ÂŁ210m to Rolls-Royce SMR to develop their SMR design and are supporting AMR development.
- The Government also announced a new ÂŁ120m Nuclear Enabling Fund to provide targeted support to address barriers to entry for future nuclear,
- Later this year the Government will publish a nuclear roadmap setting out the governmentâs strategy in more detail.
- The Nuclear Energy (Finance) Bill will reduce the obstacles to financing new nuclear projects.
The answer was submitted on 25 Jan 2022 at 17:05.
January 29, 2022
Another question: how much of our UK energy production will be owned by foreigners and in particular, foreign governments.
January 29, 2022
It was, of course, Conservatives who flogged off our infrastructure to foreigners.
Other countries invested in their power generations, roads, railways etc.
You voted for people who sold ours off to make their mates richer.
January 29, 2022
You call them “foreigners” young Andy and yet you love everything about the EU
Do you not spot any inconsistency?
February 4, 2022
For what I can see, Shirley M started it, and yet, and yet, GOP2 only make a fuss about Andy repeating Shirleyâs qualificative.
January 29, 2022
No it wasn’t , the utilities were privatised with the Government holding a golden share, this was thought unlawful under EU competition rules, some of the golden shares were withdrawn under Major, I believe most were under Blair and Brown.
January 29, 2022
Total tosh and frightening if you really believe it.
You would of course preferred a company like BT to stay in public ownership. To this day we lag behind leading countries in communications because of the public sector dead hand that still overhangs them. Finally the market and a more aggressive Regulator pushing back against their self interest is opening up the Sector.
Look at the difference between Vodafone, yes it has made some mistakes, but truly innovative and a world leading brand and the poor old BT ferreting around trying to squeeze the most out of its dated infrastructure.
And where would all this investment come from? Are you really suggesting HMG would have the ability to both raise and manage efficiently the stratospheric amounts needed to overcome decades of infrastructure decay caused by nationalisation.
Funny you rail against foreigners. What is your beloved EU if not foreign? More nonsense.
January 29, 2022
It is you who rails against foreigners.
The comment simply pointed out how they came to own interests in our key industries, and it was through the right wing governments that you fervently elected.
January 29, 2022
Fervently? Poetic imagination, old boy. Not usually allied to reason, and not here, either.
I’m a little worried how you seem to know how people voted. Oh, imagination, of course.
January 29, 2022
Come on Martin, young Andy (claims he’s about 50) can stand on his own 2 feet, doesn’t need you to stop him crying.
January 29, 2022
So what?
NHL are you actually saying you don’t like these foreigners owning UK companies or shares onbUK companies?
January 29, 2022
The great sell-off to overseas interests happened in 2002 under Labour. How many times do you have to be told?
January 29, 2022
Andy : âIt was, of course, Conservatives who flogged off our infrastructure to foreigners.â
The original Conservative âTell Sidâ idea was to sell off our infrastructure to the ordinary people of this country.
Unfortunately it was hijacked by the international Marxist fifth column who then allowed the shares to be sold to anyone, even to hostile states such as China.
The Government should have legislated that only those with a UK passport were allowed to hold UK infrastructure shares.
January 29, 2022
It is right wing libertarians, not marxists, who fastidiously defend the rights of private property owners to do as they please with that property.
January 29, 2022
OR – Yes I agree.
January 29, 2022
Our payments to The EU was used to build new infrastructure in Portugal,Spain,France.
January 29, 2022
Ireland – in my experience.
January 29, 2022
+1
About 40.1%
Article from May 2021 âNational Worldâ.
If correct not good.
In fact bloody stupid.
January 29, 2022
There’s something very dodgy about the figures. If as the government wants 30,000 heat pumps annually at a conservative 3kw, that would add 9gw annually to peak demand.
That doesn’t take into account any EV charging.
Someone is making things up.
January 29, 2022
Today wind supplying 44% but we still have 2 coal stations online, one on hot standby. Very expensive way to tun the grid.
January 29, 2022
+1
January 30, 2022
90 MW: 30,000 x 3,000 = 90,000,000
January 29, 2022
Rather more than before the Tories privatised them.
January 29, 2022
NLH only the Tories NLH? Are you sure?
January 29, 2022
Knowing that the European Pressurised Reactor being built at Hinkley has failed to be completed on time in France and Finland and the only one completed in China has developed new faults and has been shut down, that it is much morr expensive than the other nuked being built around the world in seven years average and that ten Hinkleys or seventy Rolls Royce SMRs will be needed, why do they want to build another EPR at Sizewell?
Also, do they realize that the finance ministers, banks and Black Rock have decided that any new non renewables will not find investment and that they want them, in the words of Mr Carney, to go bankrupt.
January 29, 2022
Isnât Black Rock the lead bank in the global, financial reset? So they will want all to fail.
January 29, 2022
Yes, along with Vanguard. They have shares in each other and everything else.
January 31, 2022
Neither BlackRock nor Vanguard is a bank. They are investment companies and anybody can buy shares in their funds, investment trusts and ETFs.
January 29, 2022
Not quite true, the Finnish EPR Olkiluoto 3 reached criticality on 21 December 2021 and has been connected to the distribution network at 30% of its potential production during January. A 100% production level is expected by end of June 2022 (world-nuclear-news.org)
January 29, 2022
hefner :
The Finnish EPR (EDF) was scheduled to be operational in 2009, so it is 12 years late. We shall see how long it lasts bearing in mind that the first EPR built in Taishan, China has been shut down to repair damaged fuel rods.
The one EPR being built in France at Flamanville was originally scheduled to be operational in 2013 and is now planned to be operating by the end of 2023.
I have no knowledge about EDFâs EPR reactors but given the history of EPR reactors I am surprised that the Government wants to commit us to a second at Sizewell C.
Especially when these are the only definite plans the Government has for nuclear power.
January 29, 2022
Quite. It’s crazy. We need a rapid build out of reliable proven technology, and not more dancing around how to finance a design that may never work properly. It’s designing in failure. Keep the ONR out of it as much as possible as well. Their purpose has only been to introduce cost and delay. Half a dozen stations to replace the ones being retired, with SMR or other technology to add capacity in the next decade.
January 29, 2022
There’s talk about SMRs but thats it; talk….its not in any actual plan or budget (well maybe 2050)
January 29, 2022
But they won’t go bankrupt China will take over as they have been allowed with every other industry.
Carney is very stupid if he thinks countries like China India and Brazil are going to stop using fossil fuels in the next 50 years.
January 29, 2022
Also the Chinese,Russians and Arabs have their own wealth funds and can invest in what they like.
January 29, 2022
Ian Wragg :
I don’t think Carney thinks that China, India and Brazil (or Russia) are going to stop using fossil fuels in the next 50 years.
He just wants the West to stop using fossil fuels.
January 29, 2022
Correct – Only Europe and North America adopting net-zero
January 29, 2022
What is clearly required is a law against economic treason to replace the treasonous Climate Change Act. Unfortunately the Tory government is the worst offender giving foreign spivs an easy ride to destroy us from within.
January 29, 2022
Good morning.
I put the figures that our kind host provided on the Twh that the UK is expected to need up until 2030 into an Excel Spreadsheet. The outcome seems a little odd to my eyes. For the first three to four years (2022 – 25) there seems no growth in demand, with a slight dip in 2024. But from 2025 onwards the demand increases exponentially. This is of rel concern since we do not have the generating capacity to meet such demand plus, where is all this demand coming from ?
But not on demand. ie Population growth.
I see trouble ahead, and I believe that is has been deliberately manufactured much like the Scamdemic.
January 29, 2022
It probably reflects an assumption that many more BEVs will be sold as battery manufacture comes on stream. Demand forecasts mean little without capacity to support them. That is not identified in any useful way. We are under mushroom management.
January 29, 2022
Q. âWhat are the governmentâs plans for the future?â
A. â The government is committed to the total ruination of the U.K. The government is currently working hard at destroying the lives of its population. The governmentâs modelling predicts that these aims have already been achieved.â
âNow stop asking pesky questions and leave me to read my âEagleâcomic.â. Itâs got some jolly good ideas this weekâŠâŠ.â.
January 29, 2022
Indeed and lemmings of the blue persuasion have been seen gathering in Westminster prior to a mass migration to the cliffs of Dover following one with a woolly hat.
January 29, 2022
+1
Lol
January 29, 2022
I had them down more as readers of “The Dandy”.
Keyhole Kate rather than Dan Dare!
January 29, 2022
+1
Ah yesâŠ
But I was thinking of all their outer space and futuristic nonsense.
Youâre right though and The Beano had some very likely characters too.
January 29, 2022
Everhopeful : âThe government is committed to the total ruination of the U.Kâ
Itâs so 20th century for the Russians to think of using troops to invade Ukraine when itâs possible to destroy a country by the corruption of its legislature, bureaucrats and business leaders through making donations and offering them plum jobs, by infiltrating the judiciary so they are unable to defend themselves against the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants sent into the country each year, by planting a hundred thousand âstudentsâ in their universities who, together with their state broadcaster sow social and cultural division and persuade the establishment to believe there is an immediate global climate crisis which can only be averted by unilaterally implementing an economy destroying Net Zero Strategy.
January 29, 2022
+100
Absolutely spot on!
January 30, 2022
If China is bent on destroying Western economies then is it their plan to kill off the increasing number of Chinese billionaires?
January 29, 2022
I seem to remember a previous âelectrical revolutionâ.
âElectricity, Clean Simplicityâ or some such vacuous slogan. Gas became âdirtyâ and âEconomy 7âwas the way to go. Do your washing at night!
A 1970s housing estate here was heated by a central oil reserve which later caused the residents much trouble and expense when they had to change to gas.
Generally speaking people are scared of nuclear. Now..where shall we build a new one? Itâs so safe. In the cellars of Westminster? Buck House gardens?
All change. All the time. Bright new initiatives and Empire building. Things just get worse!
Mine coal. Burn lots of coal and leave us alone on our slag heaps. Warm!
January 29, 2022
So hardly any increase in capacity yet they want far more EV cars, far more electrical heating with heat pumps and higher population. How much are they intending to import will it be available or cost effective? What wind levels are they predicting. What does ânet of storageâ mean? Stored energy still needs to be generated it is not stored for long. What does âunabatedâ mean in this context? Why one earth would you phase it out so quickly – this would be a mad thing to do.
If modular nuclear is cheaper than large nuclear the government are surely doing the large ones the wrong way. One would expects large economies of scale. Also far easier to protect and connect up one or two sites rather than many small ones.
Our energy department really does not seem to have a clue as to what they are doing.
January 29, 2022
+1
Not a single scooby!
And every household a positive tangle of horrible recharging.
Mining for Bitcoin too!
Not enough âleccyâ.
A bleak, cold, static sort of world. Huddled in blackout houses.
Either they are really total nut jobs or they intent to do away with us.
January 29, 2022
Indeed it looks like a whole 10% increase in electrical generation is expected by 2030, the very time when Government has banned all new Ice Cars , and when they think a substantial number of Heat Pumps will be replacing gas boilers.
I guess it also assumes very little increase in electricity usage for commercial business, when they seem to want an increase in GDP.
Fully aware that appliances and machinery is now more efficient than in the past, but we are using more of them both at home and in business, with robots, electrically operated warehouses, and storage plants.
I thought we were already using on average 10% of power from inter connectors from abroad !
This looks like an energy catastrophe just waiting to happen.!
January 29, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
Lifelogic
I donât think the intention is for most people to be able to afford an electric car.
In the Mail this week a Mercedes driver needed a new battery for his eight year old MercedesâŠ.ÂŁ15,000 . Car value ÂŁ12,000 odd.
And who is going to be able to afford to charge an EV car on our-soon-to-be new electric tariff?
January 29, 2022
Sharon, I’m inclined to agree. Roads overcrowded, recipe : make cars too expensive for most people.
Get on a bike, shame about the shopping, the baby or granny. Everyone on the bus, because they run everywhere, as in central London, don’t they?
This is the logic of Johnson’s government.
January 29, 2022
they should have bought ‘bunny’ batteries from Dodgycell or Energeezer.
January 29, 2022
SMRs.
Require.
Highly.
Enriched.
Uranium.
January 29, 2022
Your keyboard has a sticking fullstop m.a.r.t.i.n.
January 29, 2022
Indeed.
January 30, 2022
“Many SMRs are designed to address these concerns. Fuel can be low-enriched uranium, with less than 20% fissile 235U. This low quantity, sub-weapons-grade uranium is less desirable for weapons production. Once the fuel has been irradiated, the mixture of fission products and fissile materials is highly radioactive and requires special handling, preventing casual theft.”
January 29, 2022
I bumped into a friend recently who I had not seen for 20 years. His son was with mine then and they were thoroughly brainwashed by lefty watermelon teachers showing the Sl Gore disaster movie and other greencrap. Mine still won’t learn to drive a car and saves water leading to blocked toilets.
His is now working at the Decc section of the Business Dept doing computer modelling, which he loves doing. I expect that the assumptions being put in are that by 2025 all the ICE cats will be conking out and everyone will be on the hydrogen bus which runs on windmill surplus. That the heat pumps will heat our houses on a third of the electricity used now and that we wont need to go shopping for meat or drive to the pub for a meal because we will be getting insect protein delivered by battery drone.
January 29, 2022
ICE cars
January 29, 2022
He must have some right laughs with his mates.
January 29, 2022
Contrary to what they have been claiming for climate change ( more storms of greater severity ) what is taking place is a lessening of wind speeds , according to the BBC news the other day dropping by 15% , which doesn’t just have a 15% effect on the windmills, no apparently this has a knock on effect on the windmills of 30%. Of course they immediately forgot about all the dire life ending storms they have been threatening us with, and attributed this to climate change. Johnson is going to have to change his rhetoric , rather than being the Saudi Arabia of wind, its going to be one of a mild breeze.
January 30, 2022
I believe you misunderstand what “economies of scale means”. One or two large units is a custom development, hundreds of units allows a production line approach and offers more of economies of scale.
Multiple smaller units offers advantages over a few larger ones – less vulnerability to single points of failure, the ability to maintain/replace individual units without disrupting the overall service; easier, quicker and cheaper growth, phasing of commissioning.
This is the approach taken with data and telecommunications even supercomputing – there are not many “mainframes” around these days
Why wouldn’t you have power generation centres built of multiple SMRs in the same way we have data centres .. I would be very surprised if existing coal and gas power stations only had a single generator unit.
January 29, 2022
To paraphrase a famous quote “I trust the government to do the right thing, once they have exhausted all the wrong options”.
These replies are baby steps in the direction of common sense but will not prevent a supply crisis, as you have been highlighting Sir J.
January 29, 2022
And in other news, Johnson refuses to listen to his own MPs and scrap the NI increase. Why? “We had to spend over ÂŁ400 billion keeping the British economy going during the lockdowns,” was the explanation. But lockdowns were a choice, not an obligation. Yes, that wrong option has indeed been well and truly exhausted, PeteB, to the tune of ÂŁ400 billion. But where were all those MPs at the time, asking how the policy was going to be paid for? Probably they knew – Joe Public would have to fork out.
January 29, 2022
Bill B
“Joe Public would have to fork out”
Well there is no one else, the Government do not have any money, they only have what they take from us and business, or borrow it in our name.
Seems like few politicians are aware of this very simple fact.
January 29, 2022
Oh, I think all those who actually benefited from the ‘lockdowns’ and that includes all the ‘Karens’ who virtue signalled their ‘superiority’, along with all the MP’s who voted for it, should be paying for it.
Whilst all those who gained nothing or lost (jobs and businesses) should be exempt. Then watch all the ‘Karens’ inside and outside of Parliament doing a U turn. Starting with the labour party and the media…
January 29, 2022
Agreed. They have embarked on a lemming train which has to hit the buffers before they can get off. Trouble is, they are determined to take us all with them.
January 29, 2022
Pete B, +1, Honestly, the Greg Hands replies are jaw-dropping. Does Carrie dictate everything this government plans ?
Iâm no more likely to vote for such inanity than I would for any other Monster Raving Looney Party. Seems that electricity can be generated from a total vacuum.
January 29, 2022
The financial institutions have already decreed which direction of travel the country and a lot of the free world will be going. Government going by the standard of the replies are woefully short of any sensible, constructive plans to aÄdress the short to medium turn problems the country is facing.
All the predictions, estimates and guesstimate are nothing more than figures on paper and changes in government policies, population, housing construction all can throw spanners in the works.
Before concerning oneself about energy production Mr Hands and his cohorts should be concentrating on a secure sustainable energy distribution system to efficiently manage and control all these new generation plans.
January 29, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
Prioritise Rolls Royce nuclear, get fracking, open up new gas fields and burn coal. Problem solved. More jobs, warm homes and if we have to ensure EV’s, power to charge them. CHurst why does government have to complicate things? By the time they get around to even think about it and get it through planning we’ll have another useless government who can see no urgency and we’ll be back to square one.
January 29, 2022
Why does government complicate things ? Well what else have they got to do with their time. đ
January 29, 2022
YES…..and start doing it today
January 30, 2022
So gc, FuS, have you recently invested in RR., and in all the companies you want to open up these new gas fields? Or are you waiting for the state to put on seed money out of your taxes so that these companies possibly do the work (problem solved âŠ), and after a few years these companiesâ shareholders get the dividends, and the consumers pay their utility bills?
January 29, 2022
Never forget this government in opposition shredded David Milliband saying that price regulation wouldnât work then, and yet another example why no one believes anything it says, Theresa May turned 180 degrees without a scintilla of embarrassment, allowed weak regulatory oversight and the market has been destroyed as they said would happen in Opposition.
The result for me personally is my costs have gone more than if they had boosted our own production and as my company failed, I have a balance of about ÂŁ500 locked between liquidators and my new company whilst the latter is chasing me for my new expenditure.
The smuggites really need to understand why I am so hacked off and stop coming out with condescending BS to cover up their failings.
January 29, 2022
Yesterday I chanced to hear a radio discussion on the impact of lower wind speeds currently experienced in the UK. They are down c10%. Apparently the effect is to reduce power generation from wind farms by c30%. Scotland was affected more than the rest of the UK. Has the government taken this into account?
The references to regulators in the replies suggest that they are in control, not ministers. Presumably this reflects past legislation designed to embed in law the move to net zero and limit the discretion of ministers to use their initiative. Is this a correct interpretation?
The demand forecasts need to be set against capacity available to have any meaning.
January 29, 2022
There solution to lower wind speeds, apparently, is to build more wind turbines.
January 29, 2022
Which lower the wind speeds even more.
The law of diminishing returns.
January 29, 2022
Oldtimer
Today with 80mph winds they won’t be doing anything either.
But there will somewhere fossil fuel units keeping the power going.
January 29, 2022
What penalties will their be for EDF ‘when’ Hinkly Point C becomes mired in problems as have the other similar reactors?
What penalties will be put in place for possible future non delivery from a future Sizewell C reactor? (Just in case the Govt choses the unreliable French reactor, again)
With head in the sand Greg Hands searches for pie in the sky, enough energy from wind, when we have our own gas. Oil and coal! Disaster awaits in net stupid.
January 29, 2022
BOF,
Penalties?
No penalties just huge government financial guarantees to EDF.
January 29, 2022
Eat more pies. Create wind.
January 29, 2022
greens personally, greens !
January 29, 2022
The penalties will be the same as that for VW over dieselgate – None !
EDF Is owned by the French government and the French government will make damned well sure that does not happen.
January 29, 2022
It simply depends on the wording of the contract.
Like the NIP, GFA, your mortgage deed, and everything else.
January 29, 2022
mortgage? – whats that?
January 30, 2022
MB, The US got $25 bn in fines and penalties from Volkswagen (Fortune, 06/02/2018). Similarly the German state got âŹ1 bn from VW and 260,000 German owners shared âŹ830 m (09/2019).
Australia got A$125 m (12/2019), Brazil R1bn, Canada CA$196.5 m (01/2020).
In 09/2020 the EU introduced a new fine for non-conformity to emission standards of âŹ30,000 per vehicle.
An action by 91,000 UK VW owners is still somewhere in the courts.
January 29, 2022
Sir John says “Officials seem wedded to energy insecurity as a policy allied to maximising imports.”
Of course they do. The Civil Service Mandarins are pro-EU and they are still wedded to the EU’s policy of Energy Interdependence. They will not change it unless they are forced.
Saying “Ministers need to press harder” is, I’m sorry to say, a bit pathetic. We have left the EU; we should not still be following the EU’s strategic policies intended to unite the continental nations under its control.
Ministers need to INSTRUCT their Officials to change the policy …. and then ensure they do it. We have our own energy resources in gas, shale, oil and coal (as well as the unreliable renewables) and we should use ALL of them.
January 29, 2022
+10
January 29, 2022
@Donna
The British geological survey has identified a layer of shale under Berkshire and directly under Wokingham. I look forward to local anti-fracking protesters in the constituency being arrested and given 12month sentences for opposing fracking in the new Hazebrouck Meadows park in Biggs Lane, under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
January 29, 2022
Ooh!
January 29, 2022
It’s an 0ld joke. ‘Coalfield discovered under Oxford University’ was an earlier one, back in c.1974.
January 29, 2022
Nice try, but I now live in Dorset. However, when I lived in Kent they mined for coal in the county and when I lived in Surrey they carried out exploratory drilling for oil ….. neither of which bothered me in the slightest.
January 29, 2022
I’m already preparing large signs ‘Frack Off!’
January 29, 2022
Is that a wind up? If itâs true, I sold up and got out just in time. Itâs best to live in an AONB.
January 30, 2022
Sizewell C is planned for an AONB, see http://www.suffolkcoastandheaths.org. The most annoying bit about this fact is that choosing cheaper, quicker to deliver and less disruptive to build RR SMRs would be a sensible choice. And would not permit involvement by Chinese General Nuclear.
Hmm. Sensible. I think I see the problem.
JF
January 29, 2022
“We have left the EU.”
Has Boris Johnson left the EU though? A little bit perhaps but not a lot.
January 29, 2022
Isnât there some story about the EU planning to take the U.K. to the WTO to force us to let them build and run our wind farms?
If true, the govt will no doubt roll over and allow it to happen. ( Grovel and beg no doubtâŠa new avenue back to the EU?).
Govts have already given away over 40% of our energy security.
Why not make it 100%? Or more even!
January 29, 2022
Just do what the French do say, NON. Get our energy back in control of the UK.
Our Labour friends on this blog tell us all the time this was always in the control of this Conservative Government, it was past conservative governments alone that sold our energy supplies out to foreign takeovers, well this needs defending and stopping immediately now that we are sovereign. Core essential needs power, water, air quality should be under the UKâs control. Our pension companies have a lot of clout and investment money how much of the UK energy companies do they collectively invest in and own on our pension savings behalf?
Better investments are going to be required for the British Nest compulsory pension. What is the median average Nest pension persons savings now since the scheme came into being voluntary in 2008. Compulsory for the large company workers from 2012 (so after 9 years?) and the compulsory inclusion of small employers from 2015 and 2016 for people with less than 30 staff. Iâd guess the latter category pot would be ÂŁ4,000 & ÂŁ6,000 after six years, for those that save in it for 30 and 45 years what would be the estimated pot? It is not going to meet the expected needs of those savings in it who have friends in the public sector putting in between 4.8 and 5.5% and getting a defined benefit pension. ÂŁ50,000 in the pot would only get an annuity of around ÂŁ2,000 to ÂŁ2,500 pa – that is not what people are expecting. Energy with the ever growing need for it seems a better safe investment with a good return canât this be co-ordinated?
January 29, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
âA meagre state pension increase leaves pensioners ÂŁ215 worse offâ meaning with increasing bills many are having to take on debt or reduce their heating etc.
The government continues to justify 25% of the bill to subsidise uncompetitive green energy and VAT that Boris and Gove promised would be reduced.
Whilst breaking another manifesto promise not to raise NI.
In the meantime their own Minister resigned because they couldnât care less about up to ÂŁ29 billion lost through fraud.
January 29, 2022
Borrow against their properties, you probably mean.
Well, yes, the still-feudalists can’t possibly have ordinary people handing on unencumbered title to land to the next generation, can they?
Why, eventually we’d own a significant part of the country.
January 29, 2022
It’s a quaint thing, that the libertarian Right are vehemently in favour of privatisation, fervently for the rights of the owners of private property, and yet generally claim to be anti-globalisation.
How would they propose that the owners of shares in energy companies – private property that is – be prevented from selling them to whomever offers them the best price, wherever in the world they might be, without affecting their claim to endorse those three principles?
January 29, 2022
You seem a tad hung up on âprivateâ at the mo.
Never mindâŠby 2030 you will own nothingâŠ
And be happyâŠđž
January 29, 2022
Irrelevant diversion, and on a false assertion in any case.
January 29, 2022
You claim the rights to ‘diversions’ – don’t you Martin!
January 29, 2022
Not really.
You asked me yesterday if I knew what private means.
I thought it might be a bit of a problem for you?
January 29, 2022
Again just like our pal young Andy you are completely inconsistent NHL
You are pro international law, pro ECHR, pro IPPC, pro UN, pro freedom of movement and pro single market yet you are on this issue a “little englander” who wants to ban “foreigners” from owning anything in the UK.
Are you also in favour of banning UK companies and individuals from owning anything abroad?
What odd globalists you both are.
January 29, 2022
Read and understand, just for once.
I asked a question.
I did not imply any answer of my own.
As I made crystal clear, I want to hear one from someone who claims to be a right wing libertarian, and who has stated their objections to foreign ownership, to nationalisation, and to intrusion into private property rights.
January 29, 2022
So, actual answers to my question came there none.
It’s because self-proclaimed libertarians cannot square their position with nationalism, that’s why.
January 29, 2022
I read your numerous posts every day.
And you should agree that this is your position.
Hilariously you love all the organisations I have listed and especially the EU and you call brext supporters little englanders yet you also rant against foreigners owning shares in UK companies.
I don’t.
January 29, 2022
Donât the Germans and French protect their companies from foreign share sales of key industries, I thought I read they did and I wouldnât consider Germany socialist yet.
January 29, 2022
That’s a side point but does not address my question for the likes of Sir John.
January 30, 2022
Maybe relevant: globalbankingandfinance.com âProtecting European critical assets from foreign investment following the Covid-19 crisisâ.
It would be good to know whether the UK government has had a similar thought process regarding the UK industry, as looking at the past 40-50 years it is difficult to think that any such policy had really been discussed and more importantly applied, except maybe for the defence industry.
January 29, 2022
Nottingham Lad
â Itâs a quaint thing, that the libertarian Right are vehemently in favour of privatisation, fervently for the rights of the owners of private property, and yet generally claim to be anti-globalisation.â
Thereâs a difference between trading globally and being managed globally.
We left the EU to be able to run our own affairs, not to then be controlled by global governance, which is what a lot of business, banks, big tech, WEF et al want to happen. Itâs known as The Great Reset.
January 29, 2022
That still does not answer the question that I asked of “libertarians”.
January 29, 2022
Would any response satisfy you NHL?
As my grand parents used to say
you have a bee in your bonnet
January 29, 2022
tedious…
January 29, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
UK governments signed you up for all the global governance stuff at the end of WWII.You’ve been hoodwinked for decades.
The Soviets could see the intended direction of travel and refused to sign up.THAT was the main reason for the Cold War-and why it never ended -or is starting all over again depending on your point of view.
January 29, 2022
“On the positive side the government is now recognising the need to replace the current nuclear capacity it is closing.!
But much of that capacity needing to close has been a known-known for the last 30-40 years, even if the current govt is now recognising the need to replace current nuclear capacity they are still playing catch-up on decisions that should have been made way back…
“[the current govt] had already committed to the expensive Hinkley C”
Oh yes the scheme being kept off-balance sheet by HMT, govt once again taking the sheeple to be fleeced, just so Ministers could appear as a low-tax party.
As to the questions, our host appears in the most part to be asking questions he should already know the answers to, or at least have the answers to hand in his personal or office library, from work that would surely have been undertaken by govt whilst he was either head of the No.10 policy unit or an MP/Minister in the Thatcher/Major govts, or certainly that of the Cameron era.
Reply I wish to get the govt to set out their answers! When I advised Mrs T we had plenty of reserve capacity and falling prices in a competitive market.
January 29, 2022
@JR reply; We all know there was plenty of reserve capacity back in the 1980s, but we also knew then much of that energy security, forty years hence, would either have been phased out (coal), or likely run out (oil and gas), along with the necessary due-closures of existing nuclear capacity, yet the govt clearly failed plan for that known-known
Otherwise tell us, were are all the new nuclear power stations, given approval in the 1979-1997, that have come on stream in the last twenty or so years or due within the next ten (as done deals that any future Minster could not have canceled without wasting ÂŁbs of taxpayers money), thus meaning the UK is not overly exposed to current or future fluctuations of the relevant international markets. If nuclear was out of the question, to expensive/dangerous perhaps, why in hells name did we abandon coal, doing so long before the climate scam required it. Had coal still been king, I couldn’t have seen the Labour Party voting for that, just as Germany didn’t given their cheap as chips Lignite reserves!…
Reply. Pathetic. we had plenty of capacity and put in many new much more fuel efficient gas stations that were good for the next 30 years. ask Labour why they didn’t plan for now for us.
January 29, 2022
@JR reply; “we had plenty of capacity and put in many new much more fuel efficient gas stations that were good for the next 30 years”
So lets us examine the timeline of a planned new nuclear power station here in the UK typical of the regulatory and planning environment of the period in question, the 1970s & 1980s, from announcement to supplying the national grid Sizewell B, for example, announced in 1969 it was another 26 years before it was available to the grid. So any new nuclear announced by the Thatcher/Major govt between 1980 and 1997 would likely not have come in steam until 2005 at the earliest.
Anyone with a clue understood North Sea gas was (very likely) a temporary finite resource [1], hence the suggested 30 years of energy security, but what then; blame the post 1997 Labour govt all you like for not making their own announcements (and I do) but what was the Tory party saying about the future of nuclear power in their 1997 manifesto by comparison – not a lot, not one mention of ‘nuclear power’ in the document, and only one mention of the word ‘nuclear, that in connection with having updated from Polaris to Trident. Although the 2001 Tory manifesto did do a little better, promising to “review the future of nuclear energy” but still no promises, in 2005 whilst the word ‘energy’ was mentioned 5 times (on a single page) the word ‘nuclear’ was not mentioned once. Not until 2010 was there any commitment to nuclear energy…
[1] which was surely the thinking behind Norway’s Sovereign wealth fund, for when the income from oil and gas ran dry
January 29, 2022
As has been previously pointed out to you, the time for capacity decisions was during the Labour government. It was David Miliband who failed to make the necessary decisions, refusing any nuclear development at all, and not offering any reliable replacement. All documented fact.
January 29, 2022
@Mark; I thank you for your opinion… There was nothing to stop the 1979-1997 Tory govt committing to and planning for new nuclear, contracting for them to come on stream from say 2000 onward as our older coal, oil and gas fired power station were due to close, bearing in mind the Labour party was officially anti nuclear energy, still being held hostage by the NUM until 1994, thus the writing was already on the wall as to what Labour would likely do if they returned to govt -anything other than new nuclear! It was during the 1980s and early 1990s that the UK’s energy policy should have become committed to a policy of nuclear energy dominance, in the same way as France had done in the 1960s.
But even if you are correct, that for some constitutional or legal reason no decisions could have been made until after 7th May 1997 (the 52nd parliament) with regards committing ‘funding’ [1] for new nuclear energy schemes why no commitment to it in the Tory manifesto of 1997, nor any manifesto between then and 2010? All documented fact, ho-hmm.
[1] however that might have been achieved, direct from HMT, PPPs/PFIs or entirely private
January 30, 2022
Thank you for your opinion. Thete was plentiful capacity at the turn of the century, reflected in low prices for both gas and electricity. It would have been folly to add more must run nuclear at that time when there was already 13GW operational. However, if we had embarked on planning and constructing new nuclear when David Miliband was responsible it would have been coming on stream over the past 3-4 years, neatly timed to replace retiring stations. Instead, Miliband cancelled all the plans.
January 30, 2022
Perhaps it is worth pointing out that even the deeply problematic EPR at Olkiluoto is now starting up having been approved by the Finns in 2005, exactly the time when Miliband was putting spanners in the works. Selection of a proven technology would have resulted in a uch shorter construction period.
January 29, 2022
Excellent post Mark.
January 29, 2022
One of the mistakes Brexitists make is to assume we will need huge amounts of additional electricity because of new electric heating and electric cars. You have no evidence for this.
To date we have always managed to do much more with much less. We use LESS energy per person than we did 50 years ago. Despite the fact that we have many more gadgets. Why do you, mistakenly, assume this trend will not continue? .Much of this is thanks to hugely successful EU energy efficiency rules. Thank you Brussels for saving us money!
This failure to understand how quickly technology is advancing is what leads to the sort of silliness we hear from the likes of Lifelogic – who, with his (abuse left out Ed) – says with authority that electric cars need recharging every 150 yards and replacing every week and a half.
The reality is that Mercedes say theyâll have an electric car which can travel 1000km on one charge within a couple of years and Tesla will soon have a battery guaranteed for a million miles. I suspect Lifelogicâs old banger will expire long before the swanky electric car Iâll be upgrading too soon.
Iâll give you all a ride if you like! Unless youâre in Kent in which case you can make your own way through your pointless Brexit traffic jams.
January 29, 2022
Andy, I have no doubt that in the future electric cars will have more range, and the batteries will last a bit longer, but at the moment no one is even close to the figures you suggest, and given the number of cars on the road at the moment, it would take at least 20 years of production to replace the existing vehicles being used at present. Thus you are looking realistically at around 2050 to meet the Governments target, not 2030 which they are proposing at the moment.
January 29, 2022
Alan jutson
Well said Alan all good points. Never seen the Andy’s of this world ever mention the safe environmental disposal of turbine blades ,solar panels and batteries and the cost.
January 29, 2022
At the moment I would forecast that EV manufacturers are going to be economising on offering longer range batteries. The rapid rise is raw materials costs means that batteries are now twice as costly as a year ago. There is also little likelihood of a major change in the miles per kWh you can expect from an EV other than by downsizing it so it doesn’t carry so much deadweight around in batteries. For motorists seduced into V2G schemes, there will be the shock of shortened battery lives, and likewise for those who make much use of fast chargers. I suspect we are going to see a dose of reality in the EV market quite soon.
January 30, 2022
In an article on TCW defending freedom there’s a sobering video of Chinese busses bursting into flame. Bring you own www to make the link work.
conservativewoman.co.uk/storm-clouds-ahead-down-on-the-solar-farm/
JF
January 30, 2022
But not all are required. A daughter’s husband has ordered a Mini EV. Told max charge mileage will be 120, thats fine they will use for fairly short commutes (no alternative to a car), and local ferrying around and shopping. Originally due after Christmas, then ‘chip shortage delays’ it will be March (but with a new plate), now advised ‘maybe in June?’.
January 29, 2022
Not great, Andy. You overdo the swaggering arrogance, and instead of being angered and embarrassed, we have to laugh. Do keep on trying, though. Tell us more about the “swanky electric car” you’re looking forward to. I’m sure we’ll all be envious.
January 29, 2022
Indeed. Credit where it is due. I am very pleased to have a washing machine and tumble dryer that are as much use as a chocolate teapot. They donât use much power but they donât wash and dry clothes either. Made in the EU too – Germany to be precise.
January 29, 2022
after ‘boasting’ that you had the best car ever made, a Tesla, and never paid more than ÂŁ30k for a car, you then decided to claim you didn’t – you drove a hybrid instead! I suspect it is all fanciful talk, and you are a green motorist like me (and her), we sold my 2 cars (I stopped crying after a while)and share just hers – proving a now 12 year old bought from new is fine. Guessing you own a rust bucket but can dream, so this idle talk is all big trousers, small xxxxx.
January 29, 2022
300,000 extra people a year young andy.
Just saying.
January 29, 2022
Not surprising for many, the answers seem quite dismissive. It really is about time the responders ‘put the lights on, smell the coffee, and get running to catch up from the decade long sleep’.
January 29, 2022
It will be a matter of regret to those of the green persuasion in your constituency that you did not ask the obvious question – “what support is being made to develop non-lithium grid-scale energy storage systems that complement renewable energy production?
Today our mad windfarms are producing an insane amount of electricity – 12.6GW, or 45% of demand. Clearly, we need much more lunatic wind development, which is the cheapest form of electricty available to us by far
January 29, 2022
SG
Where are there existing grid sized battery stores able to hold say a week’s energy for a nation?
And give us an idea of the costs involved.
Thanks
January 29, 2022
SG
I guarantee that offshore wind farms will have a shorter life than is being suggested, a larger maintenance cost than is being suggested, and a higher de commissioning cost when life expired, which I doubt has been factored in at all.
Of course wind can play a part as can solar and a host of other means, but at the moment there is not a real, cost effective, proven, and working system that stores electricity on a reliable basis.
January 29, 2022
Sakara Gold :
Fossil fuels are still cheaper than windmills even though windmill energy prices do not yet include the costs to cover intermittency.
12.6GW, which BTW represents about 6% of our total energy requirements, of installed windmill capacity is the equivalent to 3 GW of fossil fuel energy by the time hydrogen production, storage and burning is used to cover the windâs intermittency.
PS : You’ve been very quiet for the last few days when wind was down to about 1 or 2 GW?
January 29, 2022
SG
Where’s the other 55% coming from?
When the projected storm comes in later the turbines will need to be shut down for safety reasons. They cannot stand alone even on good days they still need back up incase the wind drops.
January 29, 2022
So the Government’s position on energy supply is one of utter complacency , virtue signalling is of greater importance than supplying the energy the country needs. If they are predicting a flat energy demand in the future it suggests they have little or no ambition for the country , and in light of their hairbrained unlimited population growth ideology our future is going to be cold , dark and jobless, no doubt expecting us to be grateful as the smart meters they foisted on us eek out a few Watts so we can warm up our insect burgers.
January 29, 2022
This department is being run by the EU-pro Civil Service and Mr Hands brings absolutely no practical knowledge or experience to the task ahead. A history graduate with 6 or 7 years on a City trading desk during his 20s is hardly the right background to develop this country’s energy policy for the next decade and beyond. His boss is no better qualified
As more of these inexperienced career politicians get into parliament the greater the control welded by the civil servants. Political parties won’t matter as we sink down under a dictatorship.
January 29, 2022
GB, +1, all so dismaying and all so remediable, but not with the current bunch.
January 29, 2022
I get the impression from what you write that power supply is shambolic. There seems to be no one organisation responsble for energy. You mention government, ministers, regulators, but fail to mention interest groups who seem to have an inordinate level of input when compared to consumers. Be warned, consumers/electorate will say it in spades during May and three years hence. Your intimation of plans beyond 2025 is at best a maybe for a time you are in opposion. The problem is here and now, figuratively it has already started to come through letter boxes. So who of you in the conservative party is capable of taking the decision to open that Cumbrian coal mine, commence fracking in the North West, ramp up maritime gas production and vastly increase gas storage. It would be UK fuel in UK control. Meaning we could supply it at cost plus a reasonable margin, rather than World /Political prices that benefit a very small number of people. The USA on a much larger scale is immune from the greed of oligarchs. Getting this right might just assure you of ongoing governance of the UK after 2024. I would suggest that the resolution of the problem is handed to the now Dame who sorted vaccines and the vaccination programme free of any of the political or interest group influence that is a current impediment. I would designate it a Lord Beaverbrook solution. Once done you might then realise how superfluous all these current input elements are. God preserve us from committee think.
January 29, 2022
The USA…is immune from the greed of oligarchs.
That’s possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever read!
January 29, 2022
Yes, it is completely in the hands of same.
January 30, 2022
You haven’t been reading contributions from some on here then.
January 30, 2022
The USA does not buy its gas from Russia where it is owned by ex KGB personnel and Putin himself. I am surprised you were unawars of this, it being published knowledge. Check out Gazprom.
The USA fracks its gas and extracts its own oil and gas outside the influence of Russian oligarchs.
If you wish to excite yourself further you will find that the UK has doubled its maritime gas selling the extra to Belgium among others to take advantage of high prices. UK gas is not under the control of the UK government, ownership is with the companies that extract it. Something you can worry about next time a fuel bill drops on the mat.
January 31, 2022
The US has it’s own oligarchs.I’m surprised you are not aware of this.
February 3, 2022
Well Mitchell, whatever the USA may have or what they call them is irrelevant when their extracted gas costs 1/6 of the price we are currently paying for it.
February 3, 2022
On GB News the CEO of Quadrilla has said that in effect, but not in my words, that UK politicians have been asleep ref energy sources for the past ten years at least. While the Chancellor juggles the figures, robbing Peter to pay Paul, bare in mind that it is our taxed income he plays slight of hand with, the answer is in government hands to implement. We have plentiful gas in the seas that surround us and even more in shale onshore. Get your fingers out government, activate permissions for extracting this gas, storing it, blocking its export, and controlling its price . As an interim step cancel VAT and the Green Levy, much more effective than todays Peter/Paul show. For Gods sake wake up and start running the country as a business rather than the third form debate you have been offering.
January 29, 2022
How much research money do we taxpayers give to British Universities to develop power solutions? How much have we spent in the past 50 years? Do we have any success from all these brightest brains working on this R&D? Do we protect the IP for at least 10 or 20 years? Our top 20 universities donât ever tell us what great leaps they make and we seem to be just educating foreign students to take the collection brain power back to other large countries. We spend so much money on pupil premiums and teachers assistants, do we spend the equal amount on the top 5% from an early age, I doubt it because I didnât see much evidence of it and when Blair came to power they killed NAGTY.
It is a shame Dyson doesnât work on energy solutions on a big scale.
January 29, 2022
a-tracy ; “How much research money do we taxpayers give to British Universities to develop power solutions?”
Our universities have been infiltrated by 125,000 Chinese “students”.
January 29, 2022
+1
Taking all of our research and knowledge back to china with them when they eventually return.
January 30, 2022
not to mention all the Europeans and Asians.
January 29, 2022
Knowing that the European Pressurised Reactor being built at Hinkley has failed to be completed on time in France and Finland and the only one completed in China has developed new faults and has been shut down, that it is much more expensive than the other nuke built around the world in seven years average and that ten Hinkleys or seventy Rolls Royce SMRs will be needed, why do they want to build another EPR at Sizewell?
Also, do they realize that the finance ministers, banks and Black Rock have decided that any new non renewables will not find investment and that they want them, in the words of Mr Carney, to go bankrupt.
January 29, 2022
More power cuts today, albeit from storm damage, which should concentrate their minds on their own negligence.
January 29, 2022
And the negligence of their predecessors, starting with Blair and Brown.
January 29, 2022
Keep on pressing Sir John.
It would help if those Mandarins in the Treasury and Energy Departments were to read a history of how the UK prospered in the 18th and 19th Centuries by moving to reliable, cheap, energy…
January 29, 2022
Spot On
January 29, 2022
The Wokingham Chinese plague virus case rate has risen 30% in the last 7 days, from 1,106.1 to 1,579.8 per 100,000
Curiously, this coincides with the end of the virus restrictions demanded by the CRG. We know that hospitalisations/deaths take 10-14 days to catch up. So the pandenic is over is it?
January 29, 2022
The only pandemic is in your head.
Get from behind the sofa and join the real world.
January 29, 2022
He’s serious, folks.
January 30, 2022
But you are going to the pub?
January 30, 2022
I referred to his first line.
I don’t know anyone who is hiding away as he suggests.
January 29, 2022
Yes, current strain typically causes symptoms of a common cold. Give it up, it’s over.
January 29, 2022
how many deaths are you predicting in Wokingham SG in the next 14 days from these covid cases?
January 29, 2022
+1
0000000000000000000 ad infin
Net bloody Zero!
January 29, 2022
Sakara, I gather the incubation period for COVID is between at the earliest two and at most 14 days (CDC in the US). The CDC recommends testing 5 days after exposure. The first post-plan B day was Thursday, two days ago. So it’s very unlikely you’d see any significant effects of the relaxation yet.
January 29, 2022
No not over, but the worst effects for the vast majority are now greatly reduced, especially if you have been triple jabbed, and are still sensible about possible risks.
Hence the reason why the regulations have been relaxed.
January 29, 2022
‘The Wokingham Chinese plague virus case rate has risen 30% in the last 7 days, from 1,106.1 to 1,579.8 per 100,000’
Sorry SK, that is a number, not a rate.
January 29, 2022
No, it’s a rate.
January 29, 2022
And a totally meaningless one, lad. It’s the rate of positive outcomes on a lab test where you can adjust the chances of a positive outcome by increasing the amplification cycle number. Which is not given to the testee, so there’s no comeback. Or even worse it includes LFT results which are so unreliable the Americans won’t authorise their use.
Time to move on, lad. From now on, Covid will only let you down. She ain’t worth it!
January 29, 2022
And in other news it is alleged Boris was long planning a shake up in No 10, yeah right, to quell a rebellion in his party.
Wonât quell any rebellions from me or people I know. Too late. Senior people like our host will have been warning him for months and as usually he arrogantly thought he knew better.
I always find it strange in politics that people are allowed to promise to do better next time. I voted for it to be right first time so if my and many othersâ votes count, bye bye Boris.
January 29, 2022
.. and .. “Will the SoS study the proposals being advanced in the USA for the replacement of coal-firing at existing fossil fuel power stations with banks of small nuclear reactors to generate their steam, in order to bring on line more nuclear capacity much more quickly and cheaply than is possible with new nuclear build, by means of such conversions of established coal-fired plant?”
Within the World Nuclear News website lies a most informative and detailed study on “Small Nuclear Power Reactors” wordwide. It is heartbreaking to see the UK lagging so far behind India, Pakistan and China in this field.
Good luck to R-R with their domesticated submarine pressurised-water reactor proposals, but they are far too little, too late for our country.
January 29, 2022
Using your thoughts on energy security I lobbied my own M.P. yesterday by email, asking him to please press for policy to be redirected to allow production of more oil, gas and specialist coal in the UK.
January 29, 2022
We don’t need any transition. Stick with what worked before we got sucked into unreliable, weather dependent, environmentally, aesthetically and ecologically damaging so-called renewables.
January 29, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
As our government keeps saying; the lights arenât going to be switched off, its just that most people wonât be able to afford it
Forget the Russians we have our own enemy at homeâŠ.its called ânet-zeroâ the policy of our government
January 29, 2022
+1
Very spot on indeed!
January 29, 2022
Wind Turbine power is like the publishing of the Sue Grey report, it might spin today, could be next week, maybe next month
January 29, 2022
the Met Police will likely ask for a halt in discussion of ‘Turbine Power’ as they are determining whether there should be investigations.
January 29, 2022
We need to get real, the âenergy self sufficiencyâ success can only be realised by repealing the ânet-zeroâ commitments and the green revolution policy
Its no good getting rid of Boris if his replacement continues along the same path
January 29, 2022
If Boris survives Conservative MPs need to make clear to him in private fora that the green crap and wokery needs to go. Apart from anything else (such as the inherent fatuousness of the policies), there are no votes in it. Woke leftists will never vote Conservative however much virtue signalling there is.
January 29, 2022
This insanity will end. The problem is that many many people will suffer terribly. Economic and social chaos lies ahead.
January 29, 2022
Lots of people suffered very badly when the mines, shipyards, docks, steelworks, car plants and other manufacturing was shut down, as they did when they were casualised owing to privatisation.
You didn’t care very much about them, I surmise?
So why do people suddenly matter to some of the Right?
I suspect that it’s simply pious window dressing for your own preferences in truth.
January 29, 2022
True – ‘people suffered very badly when the mines, shipyards, docks, steelworks, car plants and other manufacturing ‘ ran out of material supply or demand orders, lower quality production -them being uncompetitive due to globalisation, EU decisions and strikes.
January 29, 2022
Iâve been saying since the 1980s that globalisation was an insane pursuit for first world countries.
January 29, 2022
Because the Net Zero Strategy is to use less energy produced by intermittent windmill power it requires that demand matches supply rather than, as we have at present, supply matching demand.
Hence the need for smart meters, rolling blackouts, rationing and highly variable electricity pricing to persuade us to only use energy when the wind is blowing.
January 29, 2022
Mr Hands was being economical with the actualitĂ© in his comments over capacity. His department has just launched a T-1 “auction” for extra firm capacity for 2022-23 (i.e. next winter) for some 5.361GW with a ceiling price of ÂŁ75/kW – some ÂŁ400m of cost in the very short term capacity market. Less capacity than he is looking for has pre-qualified for the auction, so we are certain to end up short, and paying the full price. He should think again about those coal closures: the amount of coal pre-qualified reflects more closure by September. Coal burn reduces our need for expensive gas imports, and therefore lowers our national energy bill.
The reality is that BEIS are now in panic mode, with shortages looming, sky high balancing costs and gas supply vulnerabilities.
January 29, 2022
@Mark
This is absolute rubbish! Hands has provided for plenty of excess capacity. 5.4GW is a miniscule amount that gives us sufficient capacity to cope with losing one of our remaining nuclear plants.
What are you attempting to prove with this bullshit? That we are exporting windfarm electricity to the French at a loss again? I can assure you that we are not.
Burning coal at an energy transfer efficiency of maximum 35% is insane. We should close these obsolete legacy plants imediately and build gridscale energy storage plants ready for the next North Sea windfarm developments
Reply 5.4 GW is more than 10 % of typical demand. We currently need the coal stations a lot of the time. They don’t want to use them but there is insufficient wind. More windfarms when the wind does not blow causes big problems.
January 29, 2022
Sakara Gold :
âBurning coal at an energy transfer efficiency of maximum 35% is insane. We should close these obsolete legacy plants imediately and build gridscale energy storage plants ready for the next North Sea windfarm developments.â
I agree that inefficient coal burning plants should be closed.
But they should be replaced with gas CCGTs with twice the efficency.
Efficient grid scale non-fossil fuel energy storage plants do not exist. The electricity â hydrogen â electricity cycle has the same 35% efficiency that you describe as âinsaneâ.
And BTW, many observers believe that the non-binding North Sea windmill contracts will not be fulfilled because the bid prices are too low to be economically feasible.
January 29, 2022
Sakara. My friend in Scotland has just had yet another power cut due to the high winds and the massive amount of wind turbones connected to the grid there. It’s vary inconvenient when it happens so often.
January 29, 2022
It is not rubbish. It is an official government statement. It has been greeted in the industry as being “unprecedented” and “shocking”, and reflects the rapidly escalating balancing costs that reached ÂŁ2.35bn last year, with almost ÂŁ600m in November alone. The volume requested is far in excess of previous T-1 auctions, and has been increased from an initial recommendation by National Grid for 4.5GW precisely because Kwarteng is afraid: “this target reflects the broader uncertainties within the power sector”, he wrote. It will add ÂŁ400m to bills at a time when we need to find ways to reduce them, and is the result of government failing to plan for needed capacity in advance, which it could have had almost for free with coal plants. Time to stop obsessing about plant efficiency, and think instead about costs. Incidentally, coal costs about ÂŁ45/MWh before green taxes at least when run as baseload, way below the lowest cost wind farm operational today. If we had half a dozen extra coal plants competing in the balancing mechanism we would not have such high system prices where they know currently their offers will be accepted because there is no alternative.
January 30, 2022
If the SofS Beis chooses EPR for Sizewell he deserves to be toast.
JF
January 29, 2022
The litmus test is: if I came up with a more efficient way of creating green energy; am I allowed to do it?
Or would vested interests, prescriptive regulations, ânot invented hereâ in government and the planning process stop me?
We have the PM is in bed with the green lobby. You have introduced boiler and internal combustion engine bans. There has been no civil service or planning reforms. So the answer is: I would not succeed.
To get my plans off the ground I would have to invest in an expensive lobbying operation. Then go through the lengthy planning process. Both have a high risk of failure. This is before the technical and commercial risks of deploying any new technology. It would not happen.
January 29, 2022
+1
And then youâd have to face all the woke animosity and cancelling.
All paid for by your rivals/EU.
And then your products would be rubbished and slandered.
And theyâd keep on changing the manufacturing rules until you gave up.
Real progress blocked as surely as if by a theocracy.
January 30, 2022
Good comment.
JF
January 29, 2022
I see that (as I predicted) the traffic chaos has already begun.
Cyclists âgoing slowâ in the middle of the road.
As they are perfectly entitled to from today.
They will (as a political pressure group) chase cars from towns.
Great Reset well underway.
Thanks for two world wars, for poverty, for noise and chaos and overcrowding.
Thanks for wasting all our efforts and loyalty and law abiding obedience.
Thanks for squandering all our taxes. And most of all thanks for stealing two years of our lives.
Thanks for destroying our world and leaving us bereft of all we thought weâd paid for.
January 29, 2022
Everhopeful
Yes apparently the new rules (cycling in the middle of the lane) were made so that cyclists could be visible to all other road users..
Rather than changing the rules for everyone, why not make it a simple legal requirement for them to wear a fluorescent tabard, and have lights and reflectors when riding a bike.
Oh No, most it would seem want to wear dark clothing and ride round at night with no lights on the bike at all, let alone have them fitted, then blame others when they cannot be seen.
There could be trouble ahead !
January 30, 2022
It will be interesting to watch cyclists stop in the centre at traffic lights, move onto the pavement, then break the lights with pedestrians and remount and set off beyond the red lights.
January 30, 2022
+1
January 29, 2022
My compliments and congratulations to you JR, for your tenacity in pursuing issues that really matter. Of course you should be a member of the Cabinet, but not with the present weak/woke lot.
January 29, 2022
ââFor many families, energy costs are a major source of financial pressure. We will keep our existing energy cap and introduce new measures to lower bills.ââ
Page 15 Conservative 2019 Manifesto
January 29, 2022
“Officials seem wedded to energy insecurity as a policy allied to maximising imports”.
Don’t forget few of those officials will be around in 2050 and many will be safely ensconced in lucrative inflation related public pensions by 2030/2035.
January 29, 2022
So funny reading the comments in the Mail re prospective candidates.
The one genuine comment I read said ” Its testing the water”
Tug – Mean Mouth
Dish – looks like a spider
Who sets these articles up ?
January 29, 2022
Do you not think that youâve let Greg Hands off the hook by the way he has provided electricity generation figures, as âTotal Electricity Suppliedâ? It neither confirms where that supply goes, eg export feeds to EU or Norway, nor does it give us any idea how much weâll need to import from them. If the UK economy grows more strongly than his rather tame figures imply, weâll still be reliant on imports and presumably more than now?!
Reply No, I want to know their demand forecast to assess import 3xposure
January 29, 2022
This BS reply about letting the regulators (still rampant Europhiles) decide if/where we mine/drill/frack is frankly abrogation of ministerial responsibility and as bad as misleading parliament…. a resignation office imvho.
What we need for Energy Self Sufficiency is clear leadership and then Instructions on HOW MUCH gas/oil UK needs into the future from our OWN N Sea resources, married to Wind/Solar.
Then Regulators either deliver or get out of the way, give them 6 months to fix approvals max.
Nuclear, I bow to most others on this site for their most sensible comments.
I am fed up being held to energy ramsom by EU, Russia and the out damn Spot market.
Time for ACTION! Everyone knows this and it’s a real winner for Boris if he grasps it.
January 30, 2022
Indeed Rhoddas.
January 29, 2022
A sovereign wealth fund is going to invest ÂŁ85m in Rolls-Royce project to build SMRs in the UK.
Also Rolls-Royce Group , BNF Resources UK Ltd and Exelon Generation Ltd will invest ÂŁ195m over 3 years .
Enabling the business to secure grant funding of ÂŁ210m
RR have raised the capital to establish SMRs.
Can we also set up our own sovereign wealth fund(s). Better late than never……….
January 30, 2022
RR should be able to complete a small nuclear plant very soon indeed. As has been said many times, they have been manufacturing and installing nuclear power reliable, clean power in submarines for many decades!!
January 30, 2022
+1
January 30, 2022
A question:
Is the Boris government less concerned about reduction in supply capacity in the light of the UN aim for a much reduced world population? He certainly seems enthusiastic about the other aims of his globalist chums at the UN and WEF.
Time for us to have a truly patriotic UK government, not one subject to control, or even influence, by those people.
January 30, 2022
”As the Government moves to a low carbon future, the sector needs a managed transition, to avoid losing the employment and expertise which will help us achieve the energy transition….”
What chilling words: ”low carbon future” (for which we didn’t vote) and ”energy transition” which implies giving up everything except wind turbines and solar panels. A bleak future indeed.
January 31, 2022
Dear Sir John you might like to ask how much the Government is investing in the use of Hydrogen, and longer term fusion reactors .
I can see the world polluted with dinning table sized used car batterys.
If the UK continues to provoke conflict in Ukraine we may not need to worry too much about Gas supplies now and in the future.
LNG tankers from the US make good targets. A LNG tanker from Europe is a better proposition if it is Russian Gas.