As the electricity regulator reviews the resilience of the UK grid and generating system it needs to consider how it can encourage more investment in additional capacity. The government and big business tell us we are living through an electrical revolution when more people and businesses will switch from gas heating and petrol and diesel transport to electric versions. Meanwhile the grid operator has had to go back on the idea of closing all the coal power stations in order to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow, showing we can beĀ close to the margins even on a summer day.Ā The case seems overwhelming to put in more capacity.
It is true there is considerable further investment underway in wind farms. To solve our problems these need to be linked to battery or hydrogen based storage of output when there is a surplus to handle the shortages when the wind does not blow. It is going to take time to build enough nuclear to give us reliable baseload capacity. Indeed this decade sees the closure of most of our nuclear, making the problems of adequate supply more difficult. We will need sufficient conventional power stations to plug the gaps pending the technological and commercial breakthroughs needed in renewable power delivery. The grid managers need to keep all the capacity we still have and make sure it is available. We also need some more reliable capacity before we can store the wind energy.
August 9, 2022
Good morning.
Wind is not the answer to our supply problems. For one thing, you cannot match supply to demand and, even if you link it to batteries, of whatever type, you can only have so much storage and, what if it is not enough. Clearly things are not being thought through.
The solution is both nuclear and various carbon based fuels but, by the actions of both this and previous governments’ we have limited our choices.
The UK’s energy problems lay in Westminster. It is here that legislation and agreements have been made that have resulted in the UK embarking on a self destructive course of action. We need people able to speak up and act against this nonsense of Climate Change and to challenge both the so called science and the ecolunacy.
To claim to want to clean the air of CO2 whilst happily allowing human effluent in our waters does not strike me as a government that believes in the environment. More just happy to be blown along the latest political fad.
August 9, 2022
Coal is the answer. China, India and Germany have embarked in coal fired power stations, why not UK? Do the idiots in govt prefer people to be cold and without electricity? Tories implemented and built on āRed Edāsā Marxist (Cameronās labels) Climate Change Act. So where does that leave the Tories? Red Marxists as well? We will all die poor and of the cold together that is their levelling up for you!
Does Sunak and Truss accept any responsibility for the broke economy through their reckless economic policies? Sunak wants to blame an intimate object called pandemic. It was govt decisions to lockdown. People make policies not diseases!
They made bad choices on the economy, energy, Brexit, immigration, remaining in ECHR and we are all suffering poor public services despite highest taxation in 70 years because of the Tory party mass immigration policy.
Taxation and economic woes brought directly to you by Chancellor Sunak. Mark Harper on TV this morning seems to have a very poor memory and utterly fails to accept responsibility. He came across as a total dullard. He wants us to have more of the same punishment for Sunakās stupidity.
August 10, 2022
Unfortunately coal is not economic.
Building a coal power station takes a number of years. Between 50 and 200 months, so it cannot be done quickly enough to deal with the current crisis.
Due to the high price of coal versus all renewables, you would be left with a lot of white elephants, and end up in some horrible Scargill-esque policy where you are having to give coal subsidies to keep prices down, as well as being pilloried international for setting a terrible example.
LNG terminals take 3 – 5 years. Renewables are quicker but you have the baseline issue. Maybe try to unmothball a few creaky old power stations, but it sounds like a bit of a patch. I don’t know a good answer
August 10, 2022
While it is true that building new plant takes time it is not true that coal is more expensive than renewables, and certainly not if you discount the green levies on it. Even old, inefficient plant can produce power for under Ā£110/MWh compared with an average CFD in operation at around Ā£180/MWh. A new coal station would be much more efficient, able to produce at perhaps Ā£75/MWh on a marginal basis at current pricing, with the difference able to fund the capital cost and a good profit. Coal use is being ramped up around the world wherever it can substitute expensive gas. Cheaper CFDs are being ignored by new wind farms that are being paid much higher market prices instead: they do not have to take up the price guarantee that the CFD offers. Looking ahead, the government are already talking about tearing up all the old contracts in order to put in place subsidy mechanisms for their unworkable planned reliance on wind and hydrogen. This will be vastly more expensive.
August 9, 2022
“To solve our problems these need to be linked to battery or hydrogen based storage of output when there is a surplus to handle the shortages when the wind does not blow.”
Why do governments and their experts not realise how hugely expensive, impractical, energy wasteful and environmentally damaging battery storage and hydrogen storage “solutions” are? Interest in these areas is largely driven by a desire to farm subsidies or use the energy wind is generating when it is not needed (again due to subsidies).
In short get fracking, stop blowing up coal fired power stations and stop exporting our energy intensive industries and their CO2 and abandon the deluded war on tree, plant and crop food.
Keeping your old ICU car actually saves more CO2 than buying and causing a new EV car to be build anyway and costs far less per mile perhaps 1/3 (mainly due to finance costs and depreciation). This despite the addition taxation and market rigging against the ICU. So why are government pushing them? They have no spare low carbon electricity to charge them with anyway?
Gas, coal and oil are however very easy to store until needed and are thus available on demand.
August 9, 2022
The net zero agenda make no sense for three reasons:-
1. China, Russia, India… are just going to keep burning coal, gas & oil anyway so UK savings are trivial and irrelevant anyway.
2. The solutions being pushed by the government – wind, solar, wave, tidal, EVs, hydrogen, walking, cycling, public transport do not save any or any significant CO2 anyway when the full processes is considered. If anything they just push the CO2 production overseas and wreck the economy. (Human food for example for walking and cycling as a very energy inefficient fuel on a typical diet)
3. C02 is plant, tree and crop food anyway. It is not some World thermostat – just one of millions of things that affect the climate and not even a very large factor. On balance a net good in fact in greening the planet.
All three are true and any one alone being true is sufficient alone to render the insane government agenda pointless and damaging.
Interesting to hear about Mrs Obama’s lucrative job prior to being first Lady was a job as a hospital diversity officer and the extent of these rolls in the UK system. This on the excellent Mark Stein GBnews show. .
August 9, 2022
The coal fired power stations and blast furnaces China has planned accounts for half of our CO2 output.
August 9, 2022
Ian,
And the UK buys all those goods from those coal fired power stations made in China! All those jobs, while loosing key skilled jobs and industries that should form part of our national security infrastructures.
Tory party deliberately putting our lives at risk to unknown mass immigration, national security in energy, food and materials given away to other countries hostile to our way of life. This party and govt. are beyond help. It needs ousting.
August 9, 2022
If I go walking or cycling to my supermarket one mile away from home, I am sure I produce less CO2 than if I take the car. For a Cambridge U graduate you seem rather light at calculating an energy budget. You might repeat this strange comment every other day, it remains a stupidity.
Your assertion might only make sense if one consider the time spent in going shopping by car or on foot/bicycle. But that assumes one is spending the time gained by using a car doing more productive things than writing comments on Sir Johnās website.
I really wonder what your productivity is, LL.
August 9, 2022
You achieve nothing in global terms of stopping climate change by cycling to your local supermarket heffy
If you enjoy the exercise then fine, carry on.
Try it with two young children and the need for a big weekly shop.
Just a few olives a bottle of wine and a bit of pasta to return with I guess.
Try to think bigger.
If the UK became zero CO2, not just net zero, China and India would make up the difference in about a year.
August 9, 2022
any chance of a photo of you with the week’s shopping on your handlebars and rucksack on back?
I imagine Sir John would allow a link to Flickr or wherever.
August 9, 2022
The supermarket may only be one mile away from home, but if you have to do a full week’s shop for a family that is irrelevant since you can’t get 6 bags of shopping home and a pack of 12 loo rolls on a bike (or carry them).
August 9, 2022
Talk of āelectricity regulator reviewsā and āencouraging more investmentā is not getting to grips with the issue.
Blackouts are imminent. New power plants need to come on stream quickly – with old technology if thatās speedy.
Net Zero needs to be ignored.
However the government has neither the intention or the drive to do this.
August 10, 2022
Again, the problem is economic, not to do with the environment.
Coal and gas are simply much more expensive than renewables. How are you going to get people to invest in it without offering Scarill-esque coal subsidies?
August 9, 2022
Are green taxes (which grow in proportion to energy prices) not inflationary ?
Mr Sunak is – yet again – talking about handouts to help out. Just stop taking our money off us in the first place.
August 9, 2022
Yesterday Fedupsoutherner produced a list of privatised company directors and the millions they have been raking in personally since the start of the pandemic.
We have water company bosses who refuse to build extra water capacity.
Energy providers who refuse to/can’t provide extra energy capacity
We have rail leasing directors who hire out trains built and paid for by the taxpayer many times over in the 40 years some of them have been running around and yet they charge Ā£80,000.00 pa to lease these knackered and unpleasant old things out – then there are the rip-off maintenance and leasing charges for the new ones.
All of these company workforces are on pay freezes so that component is not part of the inflation.
Then there are the fuel bosses, quick to put prices up but refusing to bring them down when wholesale prices fall.
What’s this lot got in common ?
The Treasury. It is raking in with all the extra tax on this inflation. Then the Chancellor has the cheek to offer us our money back to “help out.”
What was it that Reagan said about the Goverment and ‘help’ ???
The Tories only know a handful of tricks: Tax, depress, inflate house prices, mass immigrate, tell us they’re upskilling the workforce whilst offering coffee shop ‘apprenticeships’ and attacking those workforces with real skills and decent pay and conditions.
August 9, 2022
Privatisation of the utilities has been a failure. The reason is simple. Adam Smith realised that the major threat to the market economy was the market itself as businessmen had a tendency to conspire together to form monopolies, trusts and cartels which act against the public interest. So what did the Tories do? They flooded the market with ready formed monopolies which act against the public interest by prioritising return on capital over the need for investment in infrastructure. Furthermore, many of these are major owned by private companies with majority foreign shareholdings such as the ultimate owner of Thames Water.
August 9, 2022
I think you will find that the legislation that undermined competition among utilities originated with Labour. Their Utilities Act led to the great sell-off to overseas interests in 2002. They devised the anti competitive support for renewables. Next we had a succession of Lib Dem ministers undermining competition – Huhne and Davey in particular. Conservatives now seek to outdo them with net zero policies, but the origins are 20 years ago.
August 9, 2022
NLA – there are just no penalties, every day people have to go without their hosepipes to wash their car, feed their plants and trees they should have to reduce the bills because people arenāt getting the service they are paying for. These executives get all the carrots for supplying a monopoly service yet get no stick when they donāt have relief provisions for a couple of weeks of good weather. In the NW weāve had tonnes of rain for weeks, next you know weāll be getting letters saying even though it rains in Manchester during the entire year, the rain falls for 205.2 days and collects up to 524mm (20.63″) of precipitation, we canāt use our hosepipes and need to limit our showers/baths, itās not like weāre an island surround on all sides by sea.
People connect energy expense with Brexit, how would being in the EU cut the bills in half again?
August 9, 2022
Sunak is a disciple of Gordon Brown economics. High taxes with an extensive client state , where there are myriad of wheezes and gimmicks where the state generously hands back little bits of our taxes if we apply for them.
August 9, 2022
Ian,
+1
Buying welfare claimants is the name of Sunakās game.
August 9, 2022
We don’t need more inefficient and unrproductive ‘investment’ (politicised expenditure) in wind farms, we need zero investment in wind farms and an increase of investment capital-flow into nuclear and gas exploration
John’s article does reveal the mindset of a political class who irrespective of the damage it causes continually expresses loyalty to an ideology rather than public policy whose prescriptions are fact based and utilitarian in form
It is my belief that the aim of the increasingly brazen western political class is to make all normal life materially expensive and innately uncertain. This policy of creating spiritual weakness is deliberate.
As an aside. America is no longer a free nation. Vile
Reply I deal with governments as they are. They believe in energy transition to renewables and electricity. I have been making the case that for the current decade we will still be very dependent on gas and therefore finding and producing more of our own is crucial.
August 9, 2022
Net Zero is basically a plan to monetise every aspect of our lives.
Want to fly somewhere? Pay a Green Tax. Of course, if you’re massively wealthy and a member of the Elite, that doesn’t matter. It only matters to “the peasants.”
Want to drive somewhere? Net Zero will make the cost at least as expensive as taking a train.
Want to eat meat? Net Zero will add a “carbon cost.”
Etc etc. Never forget that at COP26 Sunak said it was his objective to make the City the first Net Zero financial centre and the UK would commit Ā£100 million pounds to make climate finance available for developing countries. That’s Ā£100 million of OUR money he gave away.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/rishi-sunak-reveals-plans-for-uk-as-first-net-zero-financial-centre-121110301870_1.html
August 9, 2022
+1
Reply to reply
Of the gas that may be extracted in the UK. It simply MUST be available to the UK public at favourable rates as part of our security as a nation – not sold off at global rates.
That sort of thing is precisely what an elected government is meant to do.
Privatisations were never meant to be globalist. That is not what the population were sold when they started to happen. I was there when you did it.
Reply We put in place golden shares to avoid foreign takeovers
August 9, 2022
JR,
What a load of codswallaop. The water utility never had to privatised! What benefit have we received in public services or housing through your partyās dopey policies while lying to claim something different? Water and sewage were part of our rates. Scotland still has the same rate system we had! They pay far less and provide a better service for water than England! You claim to speak for England.
Do any of the English MPs have a sense of service to the English public or are we just cash cowes for devolved nations, the EU and the world? How is the Lothian question coming along? How is right to recall coming along, cutting number of MPs?
Dom is spot on the money. MPs do not represent the people, like local authorities MPs are all self serving putting their interests and organisation/party first before any consideration they are there to serve the public at public expense. That is why no one resigns for bad behaviour or failure. Sunak should have resigned for his failed economic policies not run for PM! He has no sense of responsibility.
August 9, 2022
Hope. Why don’t you tell it like it really is? Agree with every word you say.
August 9, 2022
Not sure how stored hydrogen is going to help lack of electricity during low output from windfarms. Is the idea to burn the gas instead of natural gas in power stations? In which case how does the cost of this compare to natural gas?
August 9, 2022
Vastly more must be about 75%+ of the energy wasted in the expensive storage process.
August 9, 2022
In the first instance the electricity would be
a) be used directly if possible
b) surplus stored in batteries or hydro or liquid compressed air or similar (high % return) to minimise peaking and getting steady burn high efficiency
c) stored in other ways as hydrogen or ammonia or else.
Large electrolysers say at a container port area could receive offshore power and use it to produce H2 to blend with CH4 direct into the gasgrid or produce fuel for ships or lorries with fuel cells /hybrid batteries.
In terms of replacing lost nuclear plant (why was this not delayed, its not that a plant becomes unsafe overnight).
Why were coal plant destroyed put beyond use as were some mines and nearly some fracking sites.
Given we need UK peak capacity needs in excess of the maximum interconnector outflow. Where are the replacement plants coming on stream in the next 3-5 months.
That’s a lot of demand destruction and rationing. Planned chaos some would say.
Sure remove subsidies i think the tech needs to stand on its own feet, apart from normal r&d grants. At todays prices . A lot of renewables are making lots of money. Speed the permits and add production dates & clauses into the build. Review and windfall tax overly generous contracts.
August 9, 2022
Reply to reply – “I deal with governments as they are.” That’s a perfectly fair and sensible point. You are not the PM (unfortunately!) and although you could be criticised for not standing for the leadership you are right to try to push against an open door rather than waste your time railing aginst a locked and barred one. But why then are you not pushing for the government to invest in deep geothermal energy (which is 100% ‘green’ and also completely reliable, 24/7/365)? The UK can produce around 25% of its electricity from deep geothermal, so surely this is worth promoting to the government?
Also, I get the impression the government is more willing now to consider fracking, so surely it is worth pressing the case for that? Four months ago Sir Jim Ratcliffe – head of INEOS, the UK’s biggest chemicals company – offered to do a test drill at his own expense to prove the safety of the process. Why the hell has the government STILL not taken him up on this, after all this time? This is a typical example of just how bl**dy useless this cretinous government is! Are you pushing the government on this issue, I wonder?
Reply Yes, I with a few others promoted the idea of allowing onshore gas with incentives for the local community and landowner but requiring consent. Hopeful the govt will adopt this. I have spoken in favour of geothermal in Cornwall where there are projects that local MPs think could work.
August 9, 2022
Posting facility does not seem to be working after two attempts.
August 9, 2022
Just wasting your time posting anything on here – nobody will read it – and even if they did what difference would it make – now that we have taken back control we are in a much worse position than ever
reply You do not seem to follow your own advice!
August 9, 2022
Given the interaction between posters here, you are obviously wrong about ‘nobody will read it’, and it gives our host a good idea of (some) public reactions to Westminster.
August 9, 2022
SM. Yeah and it’s not good. There are no optimistic posts today yet again . It’s more than obvious what the public think.
August 9, 2022
Before being given access to the Grid, an energy supplier must guarantee a certain minimum capacity factor, with no discrimination between generation types.
If a mix of wind, solar and liquified air can keep the lights on with no subsidies and no power cuts then so be it.
And I am Marie of Romania.
JF
August 9, 2022
Probably would be imprudent to assume that. So until it is proven, HMG should have been prudent and mothballed all coal/oil/gas plant in case of need, perhaps only in Winter. Only after a proof should the plant be released by the state for other purposes.
August 9, 2022
Sir John, the key to all of this is “viable” electrical storage. Wind, solar, tidal “green” power are so intermittent that without storage it’s all a big waste going no where.
Current battery technology is not green, stuffing vehicles with lithium ion batteries is not green, we need to jump to the next technology, don’t build huge factories to build yesterday’s technology. I liken our current position as between tungsten filament bulbs and the useless cold florescent bulbs that we were all encouraged to use. We are now on LED technology which seems to offer the best of all worlds – efficient, good light quality and only a minimum of heavy metals etc. rather than the mercury and other undesirables found in CF bulbs.
So, keep the home fires burning with coal and gas powered generation, and work on storage technology for the future.
August 9, 2022
I don’t envy the grid managers job. The more wind turbines the more difficult it will be to manage especially without the stability of nuclear. Oh, the irony of it all. Those that are running the country are the very people who have got us into this mess and yet they still can’t see or correct the errors of their ways. We are governed by idiots who have listened to the likes of darling Greta abd any other vsted interest group and ignored those who spoke from experience and knowledge. They are still doing it while laying the blame at Russia”s door. This whole scenario was avoidable but as usual our MP’S who aren’t qualified at much think they know better. I hope while the country sinks into oblivion and the nation sits around cold this winter they don’t all pat themselves on the back and say what a great job they’ve done. Putin is the winner all round.
August 9, 2022
I see Latvia which had had it’s gas supply cut off a few weeks ago(for refusing to pay in rubles) is back online as from the end of last week,so presumably “is” now paying in rubles.Resistance is futile!I also note that Turkey- a very much larger (and increasing) buyer of Russian gas agreed last week to start paying in rubles.Most of the larger Turkish banks are now connected to the Russian Mir payment system which is now also linked to the Chinese payment system.
The Moscow Exchange has started to trade in bonds for settlement in yuan-the first yuan bond issue by a Russian company-the aluminium giant,Rusal,took place last week.Business New Europe reported this week that the yuan’s share of trading volume on the MOEX has reached almost 20% -the yuan’s share of trading never exceeded 0.5% before February.Russian banks are actively offering yuan deposit accounts as replacement for dollars and euros and the Russian public is responding.I understand Russia is also discussing with Iran the possibility of Moscow making markets in Iranian financial instruments.
August 9, 2022
Yes Mitchel, sanctions are beginning to look even more of an almighty shambles than lockdowns. And just like then, we find ourselves looking for an exit strategy. I don’t see any sign it’s being worked on, though. Certainly not in the empty space in Westminster where we once had a government. A few signs that the Biden administration is starting to distance itself from the Ukraine mess before the mid-term campaigning begins in earnest, but that’s all.
In my view there is only one man who could resolve the situation, by going to Kiev and telling Zelensky he has to reach a negotiated settlement. That man is Boris Johnson, who has over and over again shown his goodwill towards Ukraine and is trusted by their president to act in its interests. I know this will at first sound an unlikely scenario, but surely if Johnson had the stature to take it on successfully, it would be a great achievement to end his premiership with. No other Western leader has the credentials with Zelensky to make it possible.
There needs to be a way out from the agony of Ukraine and a dark winter for Europe.
August 9, 2022
I imagine investments opportunities in roubles are dominated by arms manufacture.
August 9, 2022
FUS
We’ll be sitting in the dark and there will be computer shut downs. Think about that too.
August 9, 2022
I agree with that FUS, except I think Greta was a more simply a convenient tool.
Rather than listening to what she said, the WEF/UN crowd hoisted her onto a pedestal knowing she’d broadcast what they wanted people to hear. It turned out to be very effective theatre, from their viewpoint.
August 9, 2022
F U S
+1
August 9, 2022
If this situation had been handled differently, Putin would have had nothing to ‘win’. Let’s go back a year to August 2021. In the spring, Putin had authorised a huge military build-up but then withdrew it. Zelensky was getting nowhere on Nato membership, and the Donbass conflict was on ice. Biden dropped his objections to Nordstream 2 in July and he and Merkel signed an agreement on its completion. Gas prices still hadn’t surged much beyond pre-Covid levels, and oil was even starting to fall. No energy crisis yet, no Ukraine war. There needs to be a thorough and uncompromising enquiry into what led Putin into taking the risks he has taken, whether or not he may currently be ‘winning’.
August 9, 2022
Whatās the practical plan for storage?
August 9, 2022
Just rid yourselves of the global warming obsession foisted on you by the globalist government in waiting.
August 9, 2022
In other words, situation hopeless. Those ‘technological and commercial breakthroughs’ are just a sop to government policy wonks.
August 9, 2022
Energy Efficiency Competition:
Liz Truss should offer a prize of Ā£1m to the person entering the best original Energy idea within 18 words.
August 9, 2022
I can enter a solution for the water crisis in 7:
Millions of plastic balls on the reservoirs.
As for energy ? One:
Fracking.
Alas too late. Get those small nuclear reactors up and running.
August 9, 2022
Three words:
Cancel Net Zero.
August 9, 2022
Tidal and wave power, stored capacity using two lakes or hydro-electric dam systems, the use of microgeneration systems in homes (e.g. solar, geothermal – if you are already using groundwater heating it is possible), or bladeless wind turbines to avoid the damage to bird populations and which are more easily disguised against the landscape or installed in gardens… These have all been being discussed since I was in school, and I’ve brought them up here for many years. Nothing seems to have been done apart from the install of old fashioned bladed turbines and a now-ended subsidy on home solar for people who can afford it.
Please consider such things for their side benefits: with the current hot summers getting hotter, such dam systems also double as untreated reservoirs that additional water may be drawn from, as well as benefitting wildlife and providing opportunities to revive deprived areas if correctly designed. A prestige project or two with solid benefits (e.g. tackling energy prices by better storage) would do a lot to lift the national mood.
August 9, 2022
The deluded are leading the brain dead. Whoever is the next PM will have to take immediate and drastic action to get fracking and oil and North Sea oil and gas extraction going ASAP. And home produced coal! Stop burning wood and return to coal. Expedite SMR.
So far it is not possible to effectively store electricity with more than a couple of hours supply. Whatever intermittent energy is generated, equivalent convention has to back it up. In other words it is a waste and a scam. An immediate halt to subsidies is justified.
The greatest scam behind all this madness is the rediculous notion that man is to blame for climate change with no evidence, just thoroughly discredited modelling.
August 9, 2022
Last year wind increased from 24,400 to 25,709 gw installed.
Generation droppoed from 69tw to 66tw.
The law of diminished returns.
When will the government grasp that they are a subsidy eating con.
August 9, 2022
Only on 2 days in he last month has wind generated 10mw. This is diabolical. You can’t run a modern economy on this tripe.
But then again that may be the plan.
August 9, 2022
Why is our government ignoring this !
August 9, 2022
Sir J, all very good talking about ramping up electricity supply and that is needed to ensure reliable and predictably priced electricity solely based on current usage.
Bear in mind electricity only accounts for c20% of UK energy consumption. If we want to switch lots of the 80% gas/petrol/diesel/coal element to electricity we need 6-8 times as much green electricity as we have now. Is that realistic? How will surplus power on that scale be stored and peak demand managed?
August 9, 2022
I don’t know if I’m the insane one or if it’s those in power.
If I wanted to replace an essential item, I would make sure I keep the current one I’m using until the new replacement had arrived. I suspect I would do the same if I had a power station that I wanted to replace.
To me, it’s madness to close power stations before new sources come on line.
The whole policy seems to have been worked out on the back of an envelope sat in a pub one evening.
Our leaders need to sit down together and work out how they can do the transition from old sources to new ones and, if necessary, slow down the closures, to ensure we have enough power to keep the lights on and, more importantly, keep the manufacturers manufacturing.
August 9, 2022
Cliff. Wokingham
Leaders? What leaders we ain’t got any.
All the best possible candidates were banished to the back benches years ago when all this Save the World crap took off and the vast majority of politiciansthen as now sat on their hands and did three fifths of naff all except follow the eco loons and iffy data.
August 9, 2022
Got it in one Turbo
August 9, 2022
+ 1
You nailed it, turboT
August 9, 2022
āElectricity ā¦Clean Simplicityā
1970s?
Been there, done that, got the T shirt!
What was their problem with gas back then?
August 9, 2022
The problem with storage for back up power is you get long periods in the winter when the wind does not blow. Storing power to cover these weeks is exorbitantly expensive. You would need to invest massively in storage like batteries, most of which would only be used one or twice a year. The only way of covering these periods is from having conventional generators on standby. This is also very expensive.
The plan for next winter is also mad. The grid is relying on electricity and gas supplies from the continent where they also have a shortage. What could go wrong!
August 9, 2022
James, donāt they use all the wind energy that the UK needs on good windy days to preserve gas supplies or isnāt the grid fully connected to the wind supply?
August 10, 2022
They do and the wind turbines are connected to the grid. I am not talking about wind generation here, but the proposed storage of excess wind energy to remove the need for gas turbines.
August 9, 2022
The Conservatives have brought the UK to its knees, in energy terms. If they ran a business they would be bankrupt by now and probably suffer a corporate prosecution. They will successfully bring many companies to bankruptcy, on the present course! I do not doubt this government will find new ways to waste taxpayers money and the UK will be the last to benefit from any of it.
August 9, 2022
2 days ago the blog was about the 1970s during which the Conservatives fared badly when Ted Heath ran an election on a question of “who governs?” and it was obviously not him.
The first sentence in today’s article says the regulator (Ofgem) needs to consider how it can encourage more investment in additional capacity. Surely this is a government responsibility which begs the question of who is actually governing Britain.
August 9, 2022
+1
August 9, 2022
+1
August 9, 2022
Parliament has I think rumbled that OFGEM is doing a poor job. The responsibility for capacity decisions rests with BEIS, based on advice from National Grid. They decide on the amount of capacity they will procure via capacity market auctions held one and four years in advance of delivery. This system has proved to be not up to the task. Here is a recent version of a chart from industy consultant Timera that shows the forecast capacity deficit out to 2035 based on current plans for firm capacity. It is probably too generous in crediting firm equivalent capacity for wind.
https://timera-energy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/chart1-4.png
It should be obvious that wind is never going to plug the gap, even if we treble the current investment plan for it, which is already going to create massive problems and extra costs. National Grid want to spend Ā£54bn just to connect up wind farms to be built by 2030. What is worrying is the lack of plans to cover this gap, which will entail replacing closing thermal generation (coal, gas and nuclear) with other similarly dispatchable generation. We cannot rely on interconnectors or batteries or hydrogen to do the job.
August 9, 2022
Perhaps a cabal ? using energy as leverage to drive us back under EU control?
August 9, 2022
Yes simple fact, a shortage of supply with high demand leads to price increases, unless of course you limit supply by law, then you have a whole lot more of unintended consequences to worry about.
August 9, 2022
Even if we solve the problems of windmills, 25 years or so down the road they will need replacing ( if they havenāt all caught light in the meantime). Since they are built ( allegedly) to withstand hurricanes (lol) they will take some dismantling and where does all the waste go? How much dreaded carbon will that create/release?
How much ( child) slave labour for lithium and cobalt based wind storage?
I saw a truly harrowing video recently which should be shown full screen in the Commons and Lords every day.
Could we harness all the vapid hot air from Westminster?
August 9, 2022
Cuibono. They already started replacing some in Scotland 10 years after they were first erected due to the concrete in the platforms failing. Then they were really thoughtful to all the neighbours because they made them larger while wind farms around them were only operating at 45% because lack of facilities to get the power out. You couldn’t make it up……wait a minute…you don’t need to make it up as it’s reality.
August 9, 2022
I gather West London councils are having to put a block on any further development as the grid there has no more capacity . Brilliant , you need a load of people with Arts degrees to create a cluster **** like that, which we have in excess in SW1 . In this happy clappy land we are all going to run electric cars and heat our homes with electricity, all supplied by windmills and sunshine, with unlimited resources to cram people in to it by the million . Unfortunately we are now at a point where our emotionally incontinent arts graduate’s environmental lunacy meets hard reality, and it is the little people who get to pay the price of their idiocy.
August 9, 2022
Yes I saw that it will be 2035 before the extra capacity is in place in West London. It’s all been consumed by data centres along the M4 corridor. I don’t expect you’ll see many of those being located in SW1.
August 9, 2022
+100
August 9, 2022
Good clips on Twitter of Nick Clegg and Ed Davey boasting about how they killed/delayed nuclear power and or effectively killed fracking using absurd tiny vibration (earth quakes as they would call then) red tape. Do the LibDims ever get anything right? Oh and why are there so many LibDem pretending to be Conservative MPs – nearly all backing serial manifesto ratter, tax to death, currency debaser, net zero pusher Sunak with his etc ed
Tax cuts in 7 years just before the next but one election Sunak promises. So to get these in reality Sunak has to beat Truss (no chance), then win two elections (no chance) and then the serial manifesto ratter has to keep his promise (almost no chance). A promise about as worthless as one can get!
August 9, 2022
You have to wonder about the sanity of Rishi Sunak if he seriously thinks of the realism that he will be in a position to deliver a cut in income tax in 7 years time. Pure fantasy. He wants to explain a clear policy for the next 7 months.
August 9, 2022
Sunak is preparing a vote winner in 7 years time to oust the Labour Government – good luck with that.
August 9, 2022
7 years is a long time to wait for jamā¦.whatever happened to ājam tomorrowā
August 9, 2022
Wind and solar energy will never provide the ācheap, abundant, always there at the flick of a switchā energy promised in the Net Zero Strategy.
P33 of the BEIS āUK Energy in Brief 2022ā showed that wind turbines produced just 64.7 TWhrs of electricity in 2021. This is equivalent to an average of 7.4 GW from an installed wind capacity of around 24GW. Total demand was 308 TWhrs or an average of 35 GW.
If hydrogen is to be selected as a store of energy for when the wind doesnāt blow, then to supply an average of 35GW, it will be necessary to install 300 GW of wind turbine capacity, over 12 times current capacity. The North Sea isnāt big enough for all our energy needs, never mind the cost, and batteries are no better.
90% of wind turbines and 100% of solar panels are made in China as we cannot compete with Chinaās cheap coal energy, non-existent environmental laws and slave labour and so there will be no energy security.
The selection of EDFās disastrous EPR together with expensive Chinese funding for Hinkley Point C was deliberate to ensure that there is almost zero nuclear.
If Net Zero is not ditched and we return to all fossil fuels, including coal, we will have rationing of everything and energy will be expensive and intermittent.
There is no climate crisis, CO2 is plant food and even currently at a historically very low level.
August 9, 2022
An excellent post, thank you Richard
August 9, 2022
JR is your party capable of independent thought or strategy?
Your party has been in awe of Blaire since he left office. They have continued his policy legacy throughout 12 years using the civil service, advisers and quangos to embed in society.
Heir to Blaire Cameron made that absolutely clear. Appointing his former ministers to policy advisory roles and quangos was not a mistake or something the Tory party was forced to do. It chose to follow Blaire.
Adonis still ranting on about rejoining EU and Cameron wanted him as well!
August 9, 2022
It will require a purge of Stalinist dimensions to resolve that issue.Either that or the total systemic collapse of the UK.
August 9, 2022
2nd para āā To solve our problemsāā
Problems that have been created by this government intervention by reducing storage capacity and introduction of net-zero
To solve our problem we just need to reverse government policy, bin the climate change act and start fracking for shale gas
August 9, 2022
Oh come on Glen, it’s all too simple for this government.
August 9, 2022
Lord Mark Sedwill today āSeize the Brexit opportunity to revamp red tape
We donāt need a bonfire of regulation. But we do need to end the ratchet of excessive risk aversionā
No Mark we do indeed need a vast bonfire and the country needs it right now.
August 9, 2022
Not everyone Lord Sedwill can work in regulation or compliance some people actually have to be productive for the economy to work and compete. But then in the state sector they perhaps do not quite grasp this.
August 9, 2022
L/L. Agree. I think Guy Fawkes had the right idea. What a bonfire that would make.
August 9, 2022
The conservative party needs to be aware that the country is crying out for leadership and action whilst “Rome” wilts. The leaders debate is skin to a marathon open heart surgery operation prolonging the agony and exacerbating the problem even more from inaction.
The Enough is Enough campaign was launched today by a coalition of MPs, trade union leaders and community organisations representing British workers and is stepping in to fill the gap left by the lack of action and initiative sadly. The conservative party needs to seize the moment “Carpe diem” or regret it for ever.
August 9, 2022
Wind does not work unless the wind is favourable – you are almost alone in noticing this fact. At the time of writing this, our wind turbines are producing just 8.47% of our electricity. At the moment, only 1.21% is from hydro-storage.
Nuclear is much better – but then there is the problem of nuclear waste. (15.01%)
The heavy lifting is done by oil. (53.94%)
So – ban fracking, ban oil field exploration, put up more windmills with huge subsidies, and start digging for heat in the earth’s crust. – Oh and ban Whitby coal field while you are at it.
August 9, 2022
Will you Sir John, or any person sending in a ‘comment’ please explain why we have not used the hundreds of tidal streams that we have around our coast from the Pentland Firth to the Solent. They run 24/7 irrespective of the weather and the down-time on change of tide only happens along a small section of our coast at any one time. Yes, it happens 4 times every 24 hours, but for a very short period on each occasion and all totally predicted to the minute.
We have spent billions on these hideous wind mills littering both land and seascapes. We can get high pressure systems in the winter producing little or no power plus winter gales when they have to shut down for safety or catch fire. It defies all logic .
An answer please?
August 9, 2022
Very secure supply of potential energy.
Hugely expensive to build and would need heavy taxpayer investment (not a bad thing in my view), in the generation and distribution infrastructure.
High rate of corrosion and so expensive to maintain.
Likely to face ‘NIMBY’ type opposition, depending on location.
August 9, 2022
P.S. But still well worth doing.
August 9, 2022
The basic answer is that it is very costly to exploit the resource, and also that it is much more intermittent than you assume on timescales from seconds to the monthly cycle of tides between spring and neap. The average capacity factor assuming no maintenance downtime is about 30% at best, because the strength of the tidal stream varies across each tide, and significantly between spring and neap tides every fortnight. It takes at least a 1 m/sec flow before the turbines operate.
Tidal streams are turbulent, with random variations caused by surface waves, and vary significantly with water depth. The result is that turbines have to endure enormous stresses, which means they need to be heavily nd expensively engineered. It also limits the maximum rotor diameter, as stresses increase substantially because of the water depth variations in flows. In turn, that limits the power per turbine which is proportional to the swept area. The turbines in the recent O2 Orbital project are just 1MW each, which is very small yet the cost per MW of capacity is around the same as Hinkley Point – but then you need to multiply by 3 to account for the low capacity factor. Recent financing of operations suggests they expect to spend Ā£80/MWh on maintenance and repairs.
The variations in output at shorter second to second timescales effectively preclude direct connection to the grid. That means a buffer system has to be installed to smooth out the fluctuations. At the Bluemull Sound project in Shetland they have a battery that takes all the output and then redelivers it to the grid in a smooth fashion that the local grid can handle. That entails more cost, and a loss of about 20% of the output for passing through the battery. At O2 they have installed hydrogen electrolysis for the same purpose. That will waste at least 40% of the energy fed to it, though complicated electronics will mean that not all of the turbine output goes to the electrolyser. The hydrogen is used to run small generators at Kirkwall Harbour. It’s all a very expensive green toy.
August 9, 2022
I’m sorry, Sir John, that I don’t have any Millerinsights (!) to grace your generous blog today, I merely want to wish you good luck in your future efforts with Team Truss. I hope you help the lady deliver on all the things that need doing.
August 9, 2022
That would be a Labour victory inā25 if ms Truss gets in.
August 9, 2022
Whatever happened to the engineering report that was written during WW2 that was for a canal canal type scheme to transport water from Scotland to Southern England which planned for hydro generator power stations as it passed all major cities along the mythical line of the 300 route?
Gathering dust in the government archives? Without all the high tech engineering plant of today it was considered to be a 10 year plan for the canal and locks etc. How many jobs would that create in construction and after completion for moving goods up the length of the country, with all the loading and distribution centres. They were even thinking green back in the 1940s bless them all.
August 9, 2022
Good point Turbo. The south east needs it to fill the gap created by leaks.
August 9, 2022
If you want to transport water build a pipeline. Gravity may provide some of the impetus, reducing the need for pumps, and the siphon effect will help with getting over hills. Water flow through a canal is limited to lock use, and only operates downhill. You must pump water up every hill along the way.
Canals lost out to rail as a means of freight transport in Victorian times. They do make for pleasant holiday cruising and towpath walks.
August 9, 2022
So basically, because of the Eco Zealots and the Net Zero lunacy, you think we should effectively be charged twice in order to get a reliable source of electricity: once, at vastly inflated prices and taxes for intermittent wind and solar power and again for the essential back-up for the 50% of the time when they contribute very little to the grid.
Meanwhile, we have sufficient gas, coal and oil …. as well as shale gas, which your Party refuses to exploit …. to provide for all our energy needs whilst small nuclear capacity is built.
Genius.
We voted Conservative. We’ve got Green Socialist idiocy and a cowardly Government which doesn’t dare stand up to the Eco Zealots or the Eco terrorists in Extremist Rebellion.
Meanwhile, and off topic, Nigel informed us yesterday that 40% of the illegal chancers being given a free ferry ride across the channel for a life of Riley courtesy of British taxpayers are Albanian. Albania is not a war-torn country; it is a member of NATO and is an applicant member of the EU. Yet STILL Priti Useless and the Home Office haven’t deported a single one of them. It rather looks like Government policy is NOT to apply the asylum rules and deport those who don’t qualify …… basically, they’re importing cheap labour whilst claiming it’s impossible to deport them.
August 9, 2022
Donna. Re your paragraph about Albanians. I wrote about this too on yesterday’s post. It’s outrageous and nothing will be done about it. How long before serious crime is no longer manageable?
August 9, 2022
We can’t criticise Albanians on this site.
August 9, 2022
One just has to look at geological maps of the USA (usgs.gov) and Britain (bgs.ac.uk) and look for the extent of terrains likely to provide shale gas, coalbed methane, tight sandstone and methane hydrate to realise that the extent of reserves, the difficulty of access, and the overall commercial potential is much more reduced in Britain. China has more areas of potential shale gas than the USA, However their first attempts at getting at the gas have been much less successful than in the USA because of the different geologies.
Huffing and puffing about āour reserves of shale gasā by people unable to consider the scientific (geology), technical, social and commercial arguments (private companies needing to make a ābuckā, which will not move without state subsidies) start to be, a word beloved here, āhilariousā.
August 9, 2022
Why worry hefner?
Various expert industry companies want to invest many hundreds of millions on exploring and developing gas from fracking.
They are being deliberately frustrated by hilariously complex rules and regulations plus deliberate delays in granting planning permission.
The hilariously low tremor level was chosen in order to make fracking as difficult as possible
These expert companies believe there are huge reserves in the UK.
When in a few years there are regular power cuts and prices are even far higher than they are today we will look back at how we stupidly never got the gas we desperately need here in the UK via fracking.
August 9, 2022
Peter. Re your last paragraph. I think those of us with a small amount of common sense are already realising that we’ve missed an opportunity with fracking.
August 9, 2022
Yes fedupsouther you are right.
Our failure to copy France’s nuclear power industry development and a deliverate reduction in coal and gas and fracked gas capacity, we are heading for power cuts and energy rationing in the future.
As well as even higher prices.
August 11, 2022
P2, Could you please provide references to reports from these āvarious expert industry companiesā showing āhuge reserves in the UKā and ready to āinvest many hundreds of millions on exploring and developing gas from frackingā.
Iāve got one to help you, from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit on 10 Feb. 2022
eciu.net āFracking in the UKā:
Potentially 1,300 Tcf (trillion cubic feet). Annual UK consumption 3 Tcf. Thatās I guess what most people on this blog salivate about. But ā¦but ā¦ only maybe 4% of that might be accessible because the UK geology is much more complex that the USās. So thatās 42 Tcf or roughly 14 years of UK consumption.
So now have a look at eia.gov āEIA/ARI World Shale Gas and Shale Oil Resource Assessmentā, p 71-96 are about the UK.
Now tell me, as an investor, would you put your money into any of these projects? As a taxpayer, would you want the future Chancellor to subsidise any of them?
Donāt be shy, answer by yes or no, (possibly after reading the report š )
August 9, 2022
Isn’t it strange …. we managed to extract mined coal for centuries without any Eco Zealots or Government Ministers obsessing about tiny earth tremors which no-one could detect without extremely sensitive electronics. Some of them were deep mines, others were much nearer the surface. The same applies to a variety of mined minerals in various parts of the country.
And we still manage to extract mined rock salt in Cumbria, without the scare-mongering zealots banning it.
August 9, 2022
hefner :
Nothing as hilarious as a Government minister refusing planning permission over concerns about the plan to construct a temporary three-metre fence around the fracking well to reduce noise from drilling on the site.
Apparently the fence would harm the green belt…..
No problem with the potential for earthquakes and no problem with wind turbines in AONB!
August 9, 2022
As usual, Gov thinking is swayed by climate change zealots without a care for the practicalities or cost. Storage or use of huge amounts of excess , unreliable wind generated power just doesn’t exist yet, and may not for decades. Cart before the horse!
August 9, 2022
The obvious short-medium term answer is to retain every power station currently scheduled for closure – including Hinkley Point B which EDF has just closed despite the staff saying publicly that there is plenty of life left in the plant ! Given the situation we are in, why did the government allow EDF to close it down?
For reliable power beyond 2030/35, we are rather depending on the innovative new Rolls Royce SMRs but these are still in the design process. The technology is not new and the team designing and then planning to build them has lots of experience with reactors for our submarines. The risk is probably more over the cost per gigawatt which is completely unknown at present. It will depend partly on what safeguards the regulators insist upon. Given the history of our efforts at regulation, the temptation will be to gold-plate everything and pile on huge costs.
It is interesting that Ā£100-Ā£150m is now to be spent building a hydrogen plant at Felixstowe to power trucks and trains. That is a positive move and will use renewable electricity from the North Sea to generate easily-storable hydrogen. More such plants are needed as well as much more research and development by truck manufacturers as it has been obvious for some years that battery power for large trucks would be completely uneconomical.
August 9, 2022
ChrisS
I donāt know why the Government have not ordered either RR SMRs or repeats of the successful Sizewell B to be sited in all the 15 previous/existing nuclear sites where there is no local objection to nuclear and can be found the labour, the security and infrastructure to connect to the grid.
Iām afraid hydrogen is not āeasily storableā. The energy losses are 13% to compress to 800 bar and 30% to liquefy at industrial scale as well as the costs to store at -253 degrees C. Hydrogen has a low volume energy density and is thus very expensive to distribute. It is only really economic if it is used where it is produced. For instance, it is not economic to use as a replacement for fossil fuel in small filling stations.
August 9, 2022
I would like to see the proper economics of the Felixstowe hydrogen project. I suspect they are horrendous, and will just find a way onto our bills to cover the massive subsidies needed.
August 9, 2022
I wonder how many people remember the 3 day week when Electricity was rationed, diesel generators all over the place to try and keep production running, that is if you could get one !
Better purchase or find my old LED wind up torch I guess, less risky than candles !!!!!!
I see it is being reported this morning that the forecast for the Price cap in October may be as high as Ā£4,200 which is about half of the standard State Pension, add a few thousand for Council tax on top of that, and millions will be in very real trouble.
August 9, 2022
That forecast will also hit businesses, which will lead to higher consumer prices and drive inflation even higher
This government is mad not to increase the supply of coal, oil & gasā¦get fracking now
August 9, 2022
I attended a conference in Ayr by Communities Against Turbines Scotland regarding the impact and destruction on Scotlands Jewel in the Crown its iconic scenery.
At the time Southern England was experiencing water shortages and I approached Mr Chick Brodie MSP about it would give Scotland real power and income to export water to the hated English and create a new industry for his country.
His arguement against the idea was that Scotland would once it had achieved their dream for being the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy they would be able to exercise full control of the distribution of energy to England and would be able to turn the switches off to maintain full control at any time and when Independece comes they can hold England to their prices and conditions. Back in the noughties you had politicians with the same thoughts as Putin today.
To rub salt into our wounds who pays in real terms for all of Scotlands turbines? What parliament kept throwing money at them to do it?
Along with throwing out the ECHR get rid of the Climate Change Act and Net Zero at the same time.
August 9, 2022
What the Scots forget is that they are already dependent on power from England when the wind doesn’t blow – a dependency that will only increase with the closure of Hunterston and Torness nuclear power stations. In fact at the moment if they were to lose the Western Link HVDC (as has frequently happened), and they had a bad wind day and no nuclear they would be looking at blackouts.
August 9, 2022
Love this post Turbo and wouldn’t put it past the Nats to hold us to ransome. They dislike us enough. Hate is a better description.
August 9, 2022
Drill baby drill, frack baby frack…
August 9, 2022
YES
August 9, 2022
Since the planning rules were eased, the energy storage capacity projects have doubled to 32 GW. The BEIS target and funding is to get to 30 GW by 2030. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/longer-duration-energy-storage-demonstration-programme-successful-projects
BEIS have a paper on the need for long duration storage. You only have to read the executive summary. Exhibit 1.6 is interesting; forecasting a 100 GW demand in 2050, from 44 GW this year! https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1095997/benefits-long-duration-electricity-storage.pdf
You can see the generation output useable till next Spring at https://www.bmreports.com/bmrs/?q=generation/2t52weeksfuel
August 9, 2022
acorn : āSince the planning rules were eased, the energy storage capacity projects have doubled to 32 GWā..
This means very little as energy (storage) is measured in GWhrs or, as you will see from your gas and electricity bills, in KWhrs. There is little point in 32GW for 10 minutes.
There is no economic long-term electricity storage in existence anywhere in the world other than hydro which has already been maximised in the UK.
The āsuccessful projectsā are only successful in obtaining tax-payer money to fund their projects, not actual successful methods of storing electricity.
The Executive Summary of the quoted BEIS paper only tells us what we already know ā that increasing renewables on the grid leads to increasing instability and both sufficient (viz very large) energy and storage capacity increases will be needed to overcome the intermittency of renewables.
This will be very expensive.
For instance, the 50GW of offshore wind planned for 2030 mentioned in the BEIS paper will only be producing an average of 17GW as a result of intermittency.
August 9, 2022
Great post Richard
acorn often produces lots of statistics which suit the arguments but are irrelevant.
Ask acorn how many days will these “batteries” keep the whole of the UK’s lights on
August 9, 2022
+1
August 10, 2022
You are somewhat out of date as to how this process works. It is the grid connection power GW that matters at the planning stage; which substations can handle what power levels at peak times. The energy storage capacity GWh is more of a commercial decision in combination with a partner intermittent renewable generator. Read the second document I referenced on long duration storage. The BEIS and the ETSO are trying to model a scenario the energy companies can have some long term confidence in getting a decent return on investment.
August 10, 2022
So best case scenario prediction acorn….how long would all this storage keep the power on in the UK?
Hours?
Days?
Weeks?
August 10, 2022
acorn :
Sorry but you do not understand the difference between GWhrs (energy) and GW (rate of energy flow).
As I said above, 32 GW for 10 minutes is no use.
There is as yet no economic solution to storing excess wind turbine energy.
Not that we’re anywhere near “excess” wind energy. P33 of the BEIS āUK Energy in Brief 2022ā showed that wind turbines produced just 64.7 TWhrs of electricity in 2021. This is equivalent to an average of 7.4 GW from an installed wind capacity of around 24GW. Total demand was 308 TWhrs or an average of 35 GW.
August 9, 2022
For BEIS long duration storage means 4 hours of delivery capability. It’s completely inadequate for handling Dunkelflaute, for which you need storage measured in tens of TWh (1TWh=1,000GWh, or less than a day’s electricity consumption in winter). Note the ‘h’: it’s the quantity of energy stored that matters, not the rate at which it can be redelivered which is a much smaller problem. They still haven’t done the sums.
August 9, 2022
Net Zero makes assumptions for which the evidence is not as strong as one would wish. I wish Truss well in reviewing it.
August 9, 2022
All Truss is reviewing and pledging to implement is a ātemporary moratorium on the green levyā on household energy billā¦.. TEMPORARY
August 9, 2022
Food scarcity and food inflation is being exacerbated by the legislation passed in the USA and EU (including us) requiring bio-fuel to be created from wheat. There’s a very interesting article in today’s Daily Sceptic which explains:
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/08/08/there-is-no-food-crisis-if-only-we-stopped-burning-it-as-green-biofuel/
The interesting invitation at the end of the article “You can choose which of the five possibilities ā incompetence, fear of the climate catastrophists, feeling trapped by their own subservience to the climate-catastrophist cult, doubling down on misguided policies or conspiracy against us ā you believe is the most credible explanation of the current food crisis.” Of course, it could be a combination of all 5. But the point is, the Government is doing nothing to address any of them.
August 9, 2022
We could perfectly well change our fuel standards to a maximum of 10% biofuel in petrol and 7% in diesel, and leave refiners to work out the most cost effective blends (lower biofuel content would increase mpg). We don’t have to ask EU permission after Brexit, do we?
I think Boris did raise the issue at G7 to be fair to him, but Biden refused to contemplate changing in the US in pursuit of making life expensive for Americans and limiting food exports to those starving elsewhere, so Boris gave up. There is if course an industry making biofuel that would shut down.
August 9, 2022
Donna, whilst only a snapshot, a motorcycle magazine performed an experiment with 2 identical 1000cc motorcycles, one with E5 fuel and the other with E10. Overall the E5 worked out very slightly cheaper as the increased mpg (6.45%) more than offset the extra cost of the petrol. With access to 3 vehicles I use E5 on 2 and E10 on the other.
August 9, 2022
Which is cheaper (E5 v E10) wasn’t the point of the article. The fact is that FOOD is being turned into bio-fuel to meet Eco Zealot objectives, when millions may starve due to lack of wheat. But the Eco Zealots don’t care about that.
August 10, 2022
The economic choice would be food not fuel. Biofuel costs are a significant premium to refined fuel, especially once you allow for mpg effects.
August 9, 2022
I emailed my MP to enquire about his views on Net Zero and much to my surprise he replied by parroting the government line word for word, I suggested that it might be wise to start looking for another job because heās not going to be an MP for much longer for forcing his poorer constituents to choose between heating and eating
August 9, 2022
Good for you, Lester.
But let’s not forget that in a – manufactured – crisis, people still turn to the BBC. Especially this MP’s older constituents, who are probably the ones that tend to vote.
August 9, 2022
Russias causing this problem. How about Russia paying for it. Why not use all the funds that have been frozen either from the oligarchs or the Russian government. It’s Just like Robin Hood giving to the poor.
Or even use the Russian oligarchs homes in London as heat hubs for those that need it and let the oligarchs pay the bill.
August 9, 2022
Donna.
+1
August 9, 2022
Get Fracking!!
August 9, 2022
Agree – Get Fracking
August 9, 2022
In todays on line blog of Stop These Things there is a very good letter about all the subsidies thrown at renewables will not change the weather.
Why Pretend Green Pork Will Stop Climate Change?
Wall Street Journal
Holman W Jenkins Jr
29 July 2022
Well worth a read. A wake up call to the way we are heading.
August 9, 2022
Another very good read if you go to the Stop These Things website.
The author’s eight principles for bringing proper valuations to energy options to bring about successful energy reform for the protection of people and the planet is well laid out.
Chasing Utopian Energy: How I Wasted 20 Years of My Life
Real Clear Energy
Brian Gitt
26 June 2022
August 9, 2022
Sadly we cannot afford Net Zero
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1650412/great-global-warming-swindle-Britain-s-Net-zero-climate-change-Boris-Johnson?mc_cid=1aa9951c06&mc_eid=4961da7cb1
You cannot make it up but nobody seems to be listening
August 9, 2022
Just another basic barrier in the government getting its wish to replace petrol and diesel vehicles to achieve the impossible Net Zero dream
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/08/08/who-can-afford-electric-cars/
Some people have really lost the plot. It is getting out of control.
August 9, 2022
I challenge everyone in government to visit a big supermarket car-park and review the average age of carsā¦.its around 10 years, average value between Ā£3k-Ā£5k
So why does our government assume that everyone wants and can afford to buy a new EV Ā£33k-Ā£40kā¦.its doesnāt add up
August 10, 2022
The government doesn’t assume anything of the kind, Glen. It assumes it can get away with depriving a lot of people of the use of their cars, some time around 2035. It doesn’t care whether people want or can afford EVs. It got away with behaviour change in 2020, imposing absurd restrictions on the public that no government in our history has ever tried. It reckons the climate panic will have a comparable effect, ‘nudging’ people out of depending on ICE vehicles.
You and I probably grew up back in an era when there was an expectation of government by consent. No longer, I fear.
August 9, 2022
Added to which, Sir John, so many of our wind farms are being placed on land that should be producing food.
Food plants, like fruit and vegetables, benefit from increased carbon dioxide.
Even grass, eaten by meat animals, needs carbon dioxide to grow.
As I am sure you are aware, the whole ‘reduce carbon dioxide, power the grid by renewables’, policy is a topsy turvey nonsense.
Added to which, there IS NO global warming. Even if there was it would not be caused by carbon dioxide.
Nor would it be particularly harmful.
Obviously eventually fossil fuels will run out. That is why we need to get cracking on nuclear energy.
Meanwhile use the fossil fuel we have close to hand.
Electricity Regulator? is that one of those you wish to review? Probably.
Well it just goes to show that they are worse than useless.
And your headline is excellent. Common sense isn’t it that shortage of supply, causes inflation, by raising prices.
Heaven help us come Winter. As you have pointed out we are likely to be in recession by then, as well as dying from hypothermia.
August 9, 2022
The stupidity of shutting down what we had before there was anything with which to replace it.
August 10, 2022
I read that Lord Frost has made some sensible suggestions about energy policy, and that BEIS now has a panic group studying what to do in the event of a Dunkelflaute cold snap in January with no imports from the Continent available. They are talking about extensive power cuts and cutting train services. Perhaps they now regret blowing up coal fired power stations.
BEIS and National Grid have been grossly negligent in considering our capacity needs. Heads should roll, including among cloth eared politicians who have been given plenty of warnings they chose to ignore.
August 10, 2022
one way of storing wind/solar power would be to use hydro-electric. Pump the water to a top reservoir using the surplus and let it turn the turbines when the wind/solar isn’t working. Although I suspect it would be a lot more efficient and cheaper to use more conventional generation. But the point is, none of these solutions are going to offer us much comfort over the winter months if Norway and France restrict our supplies.