Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

molerat

Another news item where UK has put the net zero cart before the horse. Electricity prices make it 4 times cheaper for ships to generate their own energy dockside rather than using the on shore hook ups meaning the port is left to cough up the £500K annual standing charges for the tax payer subsidised installations and are considering decommissioning them to save on costs.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/british-ports-threaten-pull-plug-070000921.html

Netexporter

Do what they do in some US ports. Make shore power compulsory.

silverwhistle

That would be popular in Southampton where the cruise liners notably contribute to local pollution, but not all berths have shore power due to lack of grid connections..

molerat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894094#Comment_81894094

In this country ports have to fight to get the business, make it more expensive and the ships will go elsewhere.

molerat

And the green sustainable revolution charges on unabated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0zg5xrrnqo

Well, it did last 10 years at a cost of £780K

QrizB

On the other hand, China's emissions seem to have peaked five years earlier than the expected date of 2030:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-have-now-been-flat-or-falling-for-21-months/

Edited to add a carriage return and make the link clickable.

Heedtheadvice

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894742#Comment_81894742

I have only one comment, government involvement.

silverwhistle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894742#Comment_81894742

Are you implying that's an argument against green, environmental or sustainable building?

The materials used (concrete anyone..) are irrelevant where incompetence, bad design or bad implementation are involved. More practise is obviously needed as there are plenty of example of building quite complicated structures (homes/libraries/offices etc.) with wood, particularly in Scandinavia.

QrizB

The geothermal research project at United Mines in Cornwall has progressed far enough that they're now connected to the grid and generating electricity.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewzg77k721o

I was hoping there would be a district heating system too, but the article doesn't mention one.

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894435#Comment_81894435

Hiya. This might be of interest. Ferries, not cruise liners, but Southampton does have those too.

Ferry Pollution Worse than Cars in Many European Port Cities

Ferries in port cities like Barcelona, Dublin and Naples are responsible for more toxic air pollution (SOx) than all the cars in those cities, a new study by T&E shows. Promisingly, 60% of Europe’s ferries could be electric by 2035, and over half (52%) would be cheaper to operate than fossil-fuelled vessels, the report shows. With the average age of ferries in Europe at 26 years, now is the time for a clean renewal, says T&E.