Energy news in general

QrizB

Troytempest said:

Having a heat pump would be physically impossible for some dwellings

Pretty much any dwelling with an external wall can be heated by a heat pump. That's essentially all of them.

Troytempest said:

... and many could not charge a car at home...

The closest public charger to me is in a free public car park. It's currently 35p/kWh, so around 12p/mile for a car that gets 3 miles/kWh. That's cheaper than my 50mpg diesel.

Scot_39

matt_drummer said:

If I remember, even the BBC news article states that it was legally harvested.

The `news' is, that somebody cut down some old trees and some companies made a profit from it.

Hardly news, is it?

Some companies are carrying on their legal businesses, big deal!

The news is a company gets bits of chopped down trees - transports them c4-5000 miles - sea and land - and then burns them emitting carbon dioxide and other emissions.

And yet gets green brownie points and more importantly billions of pounds of our cash for doing so.

In large part because UK is allowed to ignore the emissions - and blame the majority of them on the countries the trees are felled in - for Drax largely USA and Canada

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

"Drax helps the UK government meet its climate targets because, on paper at least, the power station is treated as emission-free. This is because international carbon accounting rules state that greenhouse gas emissions from burning wood are counted in the country where the trees are felled as opposed to where they are burned"

And when it fails to report the fact it has misrepresented the source of it's pellets - receives a paltry fine from Ofgem - £25m

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg5v7n9rgo

And rather than letting the plants survive on own merits against gas, nuclear, even coal recently closed at Ratcliffe - which actually has a lower carbon cost per MWh - looks like the gravy train of green subsidy - was as of Feb looking like was going to go on for a few more years yet

Again

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

"The UK subsidy scheme for Drax Power Station is due to end in 2027, but the government is consulting on plans to extend it to the end of the decade, which could cost bill-payers an additional £4bn."

So a fine for £25m, but continue to rake in £1bn + pa - not a bad balance.

And as to the green credentials - burning wood and then replanting trees to replace it - is not apparently sustainable within the period we are aiming to achieve net zero - with decade old estimates - from 40 min to 100+ years.

https://iea.org.uk/publications/trees-for-burning-the-biomass-controversy/

I am sure others supporting biomass - will have lower figures - but - it does beg the question - is this really green....

And there are many environmentalists protesting against it.

debitcardmayhem

Just a thought ……Drax Energy got paid £1200 for 36 MW from DFS today.

matt_drummer

Scot_39 said:

matt_drummer said:

If I remember, even the BBC news article states that it was legally harvested.

The `news' is, that somebody cut down some old trees and some companies made a profit from it.

Hardly news, is it?

Some companies are carrying on their legal businesses, big deal!

The news is a company gets bits of chopped down trees - transports them c4-5000 miles - sea and land - and then burns them emitting carbon dioxide and other emissions.

And yet gets green brownie points and more importantly billions of pounds of our cash for doing so.

In large part because UK is allowed to ignore the emissions - and blame the majority of them on the countries the trees are felled in - for Drax largely USA and Canada

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

"Drax helps the UK government meet its climate targets because, on paper at least, the power station is treated as emission-free. This is because international carbon accounting rules state that greenhouse gas emissions from burning wood are counted in the country where the trees are felled as opposed to where they are burned"

And when it fails to report the fact it has misrepresented the source of it's pellets - receives a paltry fine from Ofgem - £25m

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg5v7n9rgo

And rather than letting the plants survive on own merits against gas, nuclear, even coal recently closed at Ratcliffe - which actually has a lower carbon cost per MWh - looks like the gravy train of green subsidy - was as of Feb looking like was going to go on for a few more years yet

Again

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

"The UK subsidy scheme for Drax Power Station is due to end in 2027, but the government is consulting on plans to extend it to the end of the decade, which could cost bill-payers an additional £4bn."

So a fine for £25m, but continue to rake in £1bn + pa - not a bad balance.

And as to the green credentials - burning wood and then replanting trees to replace it - is not apparently sustainable within the period we are aiming to achieve net zero - with decade old estimates - from 40 min to 100+ years.

https://iea.org.uk/publications/trees-for-burning-the-biomass-controversy/

I am sure others supporting biomass - will have lower figures - but - it does beg the question - is this really green....

And there are many environmentalists protesting against it.

Me too.

But I still love my heat pump, my battery storage, my solar panels and both of the ev's.

Despite anything Drax do.

They are not a justification that heat pumps and ev's are not viable and not in our best interests.

QrizB

Scot_39 said:

The news is a company gets bits of chopped down trees - transports them c4-5000 miles - sea and land - and then burns them emitting carbon dioxide and other emissions.

We need to go back to sailing timber across the Atlantic as disposable ships!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_ship

michaels

Gerry1 said:

michaels said:

The majority of charging has been below 10p per unit (sometimes much below) for about 2.5-4 miles per 4kwh.

Did you mean 'about 2.5-4 miles per kWh'?

Correct, should read 3.5-4miles per kwh.  2015 car so tax will be £30pa.  Almost wondering if it might be worth a battery upgrade to get a modern range without the annual tax bill.....

Spies

The_Green_Hornet said:

Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity

Uniper and a subsidiary of Vitol able to charge 50 times recent market price to ensure supply during evening peak

Two gas power station owners will be paid more than £12m to supply just three hours of electricity on Wednesday evening after freezing weather led to some of the highest market prices since the energy crisis began.

Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity | Energy industry | The Guardian

Disgusting amount of money, Friday evening is likely to be similar as well. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

matt_drummer said:

The activity was legal.

Making a profit is not a crime.

Making a profit seems to be a thing the UK despises, although we love the taxes?

Legal and moral are different, nothing necessarily wrong with profit but the way it's made is subjective, plenty of examples in the world of profit off the back of what we as a society consider immoral, just it's far away so out of mind. 

In addition to excellent post above by Scot, Drax told the BBC it had not cut down the forests itself and said it transferred the logging licences to other companies. But Panorama checked and the authorities in British Columbia confirmed that Drax still holds the licences.

Drax also stated they only make pellets out of sawdust and small, twisted, or rotten logs but documents on a Canadian forestry database show that only 11% of the logs delivered to the two Drax plants in the past year were classified as the lowest quality, which cannot be used for wood products.

mmmmikey said:

All the BBC have done is identify that one of Drax's suppliers have had a shipment of timber which is alleged to have been from what they describe as primary forest

The picture I posted relates to Drax receiving 130 lorry-loads of whole logs from that site last winter, the article then goes on to say

In total, Drax sourced about 55,000 cubic metres of whole logs - that's more than 1,100 large truck loads - from timber marks containing old-growth forest.

How is that "a shipment"? 

Chrysalis

matt_drummer said:

I wonder how much it costs to run a gas power station for three hours at short notice?

How many homes are they supplying?

The headline makes it sound like it is all profit, it isn't.

I wonder how much a gas power station costs to be sitting there ready and waiting for when we need it?

What are these `news' sources trying to do?

It seems like they just want to promote discontent and make people unhappy. And all to bolster their own profits, exactly what they are condemning others for.

They are reporting an industry problem  These things need exposing to remind the government and others we are still in a energy crisis, we have serious issues right now.  The article made no claims about profit that I can see.

On Wednesday morning, gas power accounted for 53% of electricity produced in Great Britain, while wind power made up 18%, according to Neso data. Nuclear reactors contributed 12% of the UK’s electricity, biomass burners made up 6% and the rest was imported

Its a bombshell, the whole thing has been mismanaged for decades.

Auti

QrizB said:

Troytempest said:

Having a heat pump would be physically impossible for some dwellings

Pretty much any dwelling with an external wall can be heated by a heat pump. That's essentially all of them

Looking at regulations re siting heat pump that rules out the side of terrace house (back garden) and conservation rules stop use of front of house and back wall of house as would have to be at first floor level and visible (visible at ground floor too) from the road. Let alone insulation is not up to requirements.

There are a lot of terraced houses in my area.