The looming electricity crunch: Dark days ahead (Economist)

michaels

It's a tricky one tho isn't it - everyone tells you it is just sort of 'millennialism angst' when you look at what appears to be certain calamity that everyone else is ignoring and you start to wonder if may be you are a crackpot. On the one hand despite all the historic predictions the worst never has happened...but then that's what they said about black swan days and after all if you look at chaos theory and strange attractors there would seem to be scope in complex systems for sudden phase changes as well as the incremental damped change that is seen everyday...

FallenAngel9898 wrote: »

A storm is on the horizon, and for the first time I will use the word 'sheeple' as they have little or no idea of what that storm is going to bring.

purch

Is this a similar story to the 'Rolling Blackouts' that occured in California in the early part of this century, and were predicted by those in the 'know' to escalate and spread throughout the nation, as a huge and unsurmountable electricity shortage would hit the entire U.S.A. ?? :eek:

I wonder what happened ??

(Oh yeah....they ended in 2003 :T)

baileysbattlebus

Wookster wrote: »

The full article is here.

I wander what a power shortage would do for house prices.

Ideas on a postcard please?

I wonder it would do for generator prices?

Harry_Powell

A great tactic by EDF. A few months ago they were complaining that too much public money was being invested in Wind farms and not enough in Nuclear. Well that tactic fell flat because people much prefer windmills to reactors, for a start if anything goes wrong, windmills won't wipe out a town.

They're now rolling out the old 'blackouts are coming, give us some public money and we'll save you' argument. Laughable really.

Really2

Is this not why we are stepping up "clean coal"

Believe it or not we still have a hell of a lot of coal in this country.

More and more pits are being opened now, I presume it is now economically viable again to use our own coal instead of importing it.

Jonbvn

I have worked previously in the Nuclear power industry. I would agree that it would be optimistic to plan on getting a new nuclear power plant running within 10 years, even if we started tomorrow. IMHO, the green movement in the UK seems to have sufficient clout to severely hinder if not prevent the significant development of nuke plants.

Time to invest in an Aga?

Lotus-eater

Jonbvn wrote: »

Time to invest in an Aga?

Not really, if it's an electric one, not much help, oil ones cost an arm and a leg to run/buy (although come down), gas ones aren't too bad running wise, but you are better off saving your money and spending it on a generator if you are worried about power cuts and you have gas.

Best thing to invest in if you are worried about getting cold is a woodburner. I believe zombies when dried, make excellent fuel.

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Not really, if it's an electric one, not much help, oil ones cost an arm and a leg to run/buy (although come down), gas ones aren't too bad running wise, but you are better off saving your money and spending it on a generator if you are worried about power cuts and you have gas.

Best thing to invest in if you are worried about getting cold is a woodburner. I believe zombies when dried, make excellent fuel.

Well, there are still woodburning and solid fuel ranges. The only thing is, IIRC they need twice annual cleaning/servicing rather than annual and you reallyneed t be an early riser to stoke. I think also, that we do have to consider the environmental cost of these.

SingleSue

Best I make sure my old camping stove works! Oh and make sure I have the odd spare car battery to run my electric light off......it would be like the old camping days!

chucky

Wookster wrote: »

The full article is here.

I wander what a power shortage would do for house prices.

Ideas on a postcard please?

i had a power cut once but i looked at the fuse box and it was that, problem solved.

don't bother wondering anymore - it didn't affect my house price.