Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82048616#Comment_82048616

That's a great piece of news Mart, firstly because those hydro schemes we've known about for a couple or so years now are looking likely to get the nod and secondly the number and variety of other schemes also in the running. Who would have thought that Lithium Ion would have featured at all, never mind with the number listed here.

While Hydro schemes are multi £billion affairs Lithium Ion storage comes in a variety of scale right down to those us ordinary citizens can install and utilise to help cope with daily peak demand times and without the need for costly infrastructure upgrades to carry energy from one end of the country to the other. Such a shame that an incentive scheme, similar to that in Aus could not be introduced over here. With balcony solar likely being approved shortly what a great time for administrators to onboard in conjunction with it here.

Martyn1981

Short but sweet article on UK renewable generation for Q1 (not Q2) this year.

Numbers looking good as deployment steadily rises.

Couple of small caveats, firstly the numbers seem to vary between paragraphs, and I suspect that's due to imports/exports, so %age of UK generation and %age of UK demand are not quite the same. And the improvement in Q1 percentage of demand number gets a boost, as mentioned in the article, both from higher capacity deployments, and windier weather v's 2025.

‘Wind drives quarterly UK renewables record’

New government statistics released today show renewables generated a record 53.1% of the UK’s electricity in the first quarter of the year, driven by strong wind output.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (‘DESNZ’) said renewable electricity generation reached 43.7TWh, up 18% from 37TWh in the first quarter of 2025.

RenewableUK said the increase was largely driven by wind, which accounted for over 29% of electricity during the quarter and saw generation rise 30% year-on-year due to increased capacity and higher wind speeds.

Low carbon generation, including renewables and nuclear, reached 63.8% of total electricity generation, while fossil fuels fell to 32.8%.

Gas demand dropped by 5.1%, including a 17% decline in its use for electricity generation, partly due to record wind output.

Wind generation rose to 35.6% of total generation at 29.3TWh, compared to 28.5% and 19.5TWh in the same period last year.

QrizB

Carbon Brief has an article on the sheer number of pro-FF editorials published in the UK press so far this year.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-newspapers-have-already-printed-63-editorials-in-2026-backing-north-sea-drilling/

It's almost as though there's an organised campaign.

Martyn1981

This article gives a great breakdown of where we are so far with RE rollout, and all the stages of progress going forward. It also shows how long some schemes can take, v's the quick(ish) times that are ideally possible.

I think it's positive in showing that we are on course to reach the 95% net-zero target for leccy, but is also realistic in pointing out that we may not achieve it by 2030 (perhaps 83%), and could take till 2035. I think that's still great.

Important I think to also remember that we aren't just greening the leccy grid. As we shift space heating and transport over to leccy, then that additional demand, even if partly provided by FF's, is reducing CO2(e) emissions elsewhere.

Why can’t Britain turn its green revolution into cheap energy? A visual analysis

Labour has a race on its hands if it is to lock in its promise to achieve a virtually zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.

Britain’s next prime minister will have to move fast: the climate emergency is raging, high energy bills are driving up the cost of living and the reactionary right is threatening a fossil fuel push if it wins power.

In the party’s first two years in office it approved new renewable energy projects at double the rate the Conservatives did in their last two years, a Guardian data analysis found.

So what’s stopping this turning into cheap power? Let’s take a deep dive.

QrizB

Interesting news from Australia - households in part of the country that's oversupplied with solar PV can sign up to an offer of three hours of free electricity every day.

https://www.energy.gov.au/rebates/solar-sharer-offer

This article is meant to have more details but doesn't want to load for me:

https://lenergy.com.au/free-daytime-electricity-is-coming-heres-how-it-actually-works/

With the way Agile has been this year, we can't be all that far off this situation here in the UK?

QrizB

I considered sharing this over on the main Energy forum, but wasn't brave enough 😂

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/08/carbon-capture-con-andy-burnham-fossil-fuels-renewables

George Monbiot looks at the economics of CCS and concludes it's a £264B (yes, a quarter of a trillion) subsidy to fossil fuel companies.

Roughly £170 per person, or £400 per household, annually.

debitcardmayhem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82062691#Comment_82062691

I have been against CCS from day one, never thought the Grauniad would come to agree with me.

NedS

Not sure if this was posted here or not, as it's a month old now, but worth the 20 min read:

https://dieterhelm.co.uk/energy-climate/the-cost-of-energy-and-what-to-do-about-it/

debitcardmayhem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82063089#Comment_82063089

Very good read, you could say we are in a mess and you would not be wrong.

thevilla

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82063398#Comment_82063398

Always plenty of clicks in dissing net zero efforts with half truths (Cobalt mining <sigh>, no UK coal power plants in 2022 <sigh>) and no solutions which actually give our grandchildren and their children a safer future.