Energy import benefits of UK Solar PV

PeterZ_2

But the National Grid told the Financial Times the market was "in balance" despite the price rise with supplies being brought in from elsewhere. "The market worked as it should, with supplies brought in from other places", a spokesperson said. However analyst Andrew Horstead told the paper that even without a supply issue the UK would have to pay a "premium price" for natural gas due to its growing reliance on imports.

grahamc2003

PeterZ wrote: »

But the National Grid told the Financial Times the market was "in balance" despite the price rise with supplies being brought in from elsewhere. "The market worked as it should, with supplies brought in from other places", a spokesperson said. However analyst Andrew Horstead told the paper that even without a supply issue the UK would have to pay a "premium price" for natural gas due to its growing reliance on imports.

Don't fret Pete, although it was the greens anti-Nuclear policy which led to the situation of us having to import a great deal of expensive gas, the government seems to have belatedly taken note of industry expert advice, and is now trying belatedly to get some Nuclear stations built, and at that point, you'll see our gas imports decline a great deal. The green anti-Nuclear policy has cost us tens/hundreds of millions of tons of coal, oil and gas which could have been used by future generations, but we've burnt it instead of converting mass into energy.

Unfortunately, the billions we have already spent on windmills and solar don't solve the need to import expensive gas at peak periods, so we're stuck with importing vast quantities for several more years yet - the immediate future grid requirements are being solved by a massive gas station build - probably 5 or 6 GW this year, but it largely goes unreported.

Martyn1981

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Don't fret Pete, although it was the greens anti-Nuclear policy which led to the situation of us having to import a great deal of expensive gas, the government seems to have belatedly taken note of industry expert advice, and is now trying belatedly to get some Nuclear stations built, and at that point, you'll see our gas imports decline a great deal. The green anti-Nuclear policy has cost us tens/hundreds of millions of tons of coal, oil and gas which could have been used by future generations, but we've burnt it instead of converting mass into energy.

That's odd, I didn't realise that 'greens' had stopped nuclear expansion, I thought it was Chernobyl!

then quickly followed by a steady realisation of how expensive nuclear is, once you start to uncover the hidden costs,

then followed by successive governments not wanting to invest in these £2bn, £4bn, £6bn, £8bn and still rising reactors without some idea of how much they will finally cost, how much the leccy will cost, and whether they should risk blowing their chances of another 5 year term, on a policy decision they can pass down the line,

then followed by a growing interest in nuclear,

then followed by Fukushima!

I'm green, but seeing CO2 as a greater enemy than nuclear, I'm simply unable to delete it from the energy mix (yet). I believe many more feel the same as me, we may not want nuclear but that doesn't make us anti nuclear fanatics.

I think this constant need to blame everything on the wants of 'greens' is silly, especially since most governments up to now, couldn't have taken less notice if they'd tried.

Mart.

PeterZ_2

Across a lot of the UK its a cold but very sunny day, on other threads people are talking about how high their solar PV output has been. Quite a lot of people will have put on electric heating today and also people with immersuns will have had free hot water today - this all helps reduce gas imports, all be it small at the moment.

Still lets just blame the problems on the greens shall we? Personally, I blame the NIMBYs for holding back development of renewables, just think how much wind, solar and tidal energy we could have by now...

zeupater

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Don't fret Pete, although it was the greens anti-Nuclear policy which led to the situation of us having to import a great deal of expensive gas, the government seems to have belatedly taken note of industry expert advice, and is now trying belatedly to get some Nuclear stations built, and at that point, you'll see our gas imports decline a great deal. The green anti-Nuclear policy has cost us tens/hundreds of millions of tons of coal, oil and gas which could have been used by future generations, but we've burnt it instead of converting mass into energy.

Unfortunately, the billions we have already spent on windmills and solar don't solve the need to import expensive gas at peak periods, so we're stuck with importing vast quantities for several more years yet - the immediate future grid requirements are being solved by a massive gas station build - probably 5 or 6 GW this year, but it largely goes unreported.

Hi

Would it also be correct to say that UK reserves of shale-gas would be suitable for generation, as would gas derived from UK bio-mass sources, thus offsetting what would currently be imported .... whilst, on the other hand, the UK has no current Uranium extraction facilities resulting in the necessity to import ?

Looking at the windmills, isn't it the case that much of the gas currently being imported is in the form of LNG shipped from the middle-east?, in which case, whilst the renewables sources are providing energy, the stored LNG isn't being used - therefore the renewables are offsetting a considerable need to import ?

Okay, now the gas plant build .... I thought that there was an issue with there being an energy-gap resulting from the delayed decision on replacement nuclear ?. The '5 or 6 GW this year' is a huge amount of generating capacity, not as 'green' as nuclear but schedulable and flexible enough to integrate with the intermittency of renewables ... simply looking at the ten retired UK nuclear plants ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_Kingdom ) we find that their combined rated capacity was 3.426GW, that would mean that far more than the nuclear capacity lost since 1989 is coming on line in a single year, so we've only got another 40 years or-so to build twice as much as is coming on line this year in order to match the 10.55GW which the remaining stations are rated at .

HTH
Z

PeterZ_2

Looks like we are going to be importing some very expensive gas, expect large hikes in your bills this year:

Britain's gas reserves could run out in 36 hours – leaving the country dependent on costly foreign imports.
The UK’s gas stores have less than two days’ supplies remaining after plunging temperatures forced millions of householders to turn up their heating.
With more snow forecast today and the unseasonable freeze to continue into next week, the UK could be left relying on expensive imports from Norway through an under-sea pipeline.
The shortfall is likely to push up the long-term price of gas and could result in household tariffs rising by up to 15 per cent before next winter, adding more than £200 on to family bills, analysts warned.
Gas stores were at their lowest levels for three years last night, sending UK gas prices soaring to near-record highs.

Martyn1981

PeterZ wrote: »

Looks like we are going to be importing some very expensive gas, expect large hikes in your bills this year:

A little bit of consolation - this weather is helping with wind generation. Been pumping out about 5GW, and gas consumption (for leccy generation) overnight was quite low:

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Mart.

The_Green_Hornet

PeterZ wrote: »

Looks like we are going to be importing some very expensive gas, expect large hikes in your bills this year:

Britain's gas reserves could run out in 36 hours – leaving the country dependent on costly foreign imports.
The UK’s gas stores have less than two days’ supplies remaining after plunging temperatures forced millions of householders to turn up their heating.
With more snow forecast today and the unseasonable freeze to continue into next week, the UK could be left relying on expensive imports from Norway through an under-sea pipeline.
The shortfall is likely to push up the long-term price of gas and could result in household tariffs rising by up to 15 per cent before next winter, adding more than £200 on to family bills, analysts warned.
Gas stores were at their lowest levels for three years last night, sending UK gas prices soaring to near-record highs.

Always best to reference your sources as it may influence whether they are to be believed or not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297296/British-gas-reserves-run-dry-36-HOURS-freezing-householders-turn-heating-up.html

PeterZ_2

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Always best to reference your sources as it may influence whether they are to be believed or not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297296/British-gas-reserves-run-dry-36-HOURS-freezing-householders-turn-heating-up.html

Yes, I should have mentioned this was reported in the daily fail. The £200 onto bills should be taken with a pinch of salt, but the fact that we are going to have to import ever more gas is valid.

PeterZ_2

Martyn1981 wrote: »

A little bit of consolation - this weather is helping with wind generation. Been pumping out about 5GW, and gas consumption (for leccy generation) overnight was quite low:

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Mart.

Come on Mart, everyone knows that renewables are a waste of time. I'm sure that somewhere there is 5GW of fossil fuel plant burning fuel and just wasting the electricity. Also, didn't you know that wind turbines dont work when its cold and we need the energy most? It must be lies and government scams to tax us all.

And just in case anyone reads and doesn't realise I am of course being sarcastic after reading some of the rants on the daily fail....