Energy news in general

[Deleted User]

If this is what Wales thinks, I dread to think about Scotland’s thoughts on the matter.

https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/giving-wales-more-powers-over-energy-must-be-one-of-the-uks-takeaways-from-cop26 

BikingBud

Deleted_User said:

Scottish Power - Low wind speeds, apparently…

https://www.simplyswitch.com/scottish-power-profits-hit-by-high-gas-prices-and-low-wind-speeds/#

So where is the jeopardy that shareholders are not guaranteed profits? We should not just be paying extortionate amounts for basic utilities, profits would come where there is demonstrable benefit and improvement. Hey ho

Shedman

If only the wholesale price was always at this level ......

DiseasedBunny

It’s the lack of hydro that gets me. We live in an island surrounded by water! That’s tidal controlled by the moon so not subjected to low wind or sunshine, pretty much constantly operating. Even if not as efficient as the other 2 options, surely it would give us energy independence?

wittynamegoeshere

MWT said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

Have people forgotten what life was like before all this rubbish?  Bill arrives, pay bill, go out and do something interesting.

No, certainly not forgotten what it was like back then, and no desire to go back to the lack of innovation and central control that it involved either.

Innovation?  I'm not aware of any useful, tangible product that has arisen from the supposed energy market.

I'm sure there's been progress of technology over the same timeframe, but that would have occurred whether or not we were all playing let's pretend competition during that time.  Or are you trying to claim that suppliers have invented something useful to mankind - if so what?

As for central control... That all sounds a lot like the ringmaster named Ofgem that has been required to try and control all this madness.

tghe-retford

DiseasedBunny said:

It’s the lack of hydro that gets me. We live in an island surrounded by water! That’s tidal controlled by the moon so not subjected to low wind or sunshine, pretty much constantly operating. Even if not as efficient as the other 2 options, surely it would give us energy independence?

I can foresee two major problems with tidal. The first will be great expense of implementing it, probably far more than sticking a wind turbine in the sea. The second is how tidal patterns could change as a result of gathering tidal energy and bring consequences to costal regions and ecological harm from the turbines and changed habitat.

I'm sure there must be legitimate rationales for why such an obvious solution on an island surrounded by sea has not been implemented widely up to now.

[Deleted User]

When do we ever see natural wave or tide power in majestic, raw action, though? Oh yeah, most of the winter. And half of the summer. 

Apparently we'd rather be dependent on European imports, or beholden to Qatar. How come this country has gone from leading the World at everything, to being crap at everything? What did the Romans ever do for us? 

wittynamegoeshere

There was a fairly recent serious plan to dam the Severn Estuary, which has thousands of tons of water pouring in and out of it every day, as regularly as clockwork.  Stick a dam across and make that water go through a turbine, there's an utterly phenomenal amount of power there, all 100% renewable, totally clean and with no hazardous waste.  There are plenty of other estuaries to go at too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Barrage

This plan was abandoned, for fairly vague and woolly reasons.  I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories, but I could easily imagine that the fossil fuel industry might have felt motivated to bung a few quid here and there at pro-wildlife anti-progress campigners who might want to get in the way of this sort of project.

This would undoubtedly affect wildlife, but only as much as any other man-made structure does.  Some things would suffer, others would thrive, as has always happened with every dam, bridge, road or whatever.

We should at least be trialling this idea, perhaps in a smaller estuary.  Just to see the cost vs benefits.  But lots of energy company shareholders would suffer greatly if it really did turn out well.

wakeupalarm

wittynamegoeshere said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Barrage

This plan was abandoned, for fairly vague and woolly reasons.  I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories, but I could easily imagine that the fossil fuel industry might have felt motivated to bung a few quid here and there at pro-wildlife anti-progress campigners who might want to get in the way of this sort of project.

No free holiday for Boris, nor any donation to the ruling party was offered in those plans. If they can't even get those basic requirements right, then there is no chance of moving forward despite any merits to the idea.

[Deleted User]

@MWT Innovation? Well, there's certainly been some creative accounting...