Energy crisis

[Deleted User]

StarTrekkie007 said:

couldn't the government create initiative for in-country energy. Have job creation scheme for UK industry to invest in home-grown energy supply rather than rely on external sources.

With regard to solar panels, if not going via home owners installation strategy. If government could install solar panels strategically around  (e.g. edges of roads and public buildings etc...) couldn't this be another source of energy?

What ideas does the rest of the community have for the UK to generate its own energy?

Solar is only a part of the solution. I have a 7kWp solar array. Last month, my worst generation day was 350Wh and my best day was 10kWh. In May, when most of us do not need central heating, my best day was nearly 50kWh. Covering Britain in solar panels will not keep the heating on in Winter.

There are 5 options to keep the lights on (ignoring fossil fuels): nuclear; solar; wind; hydrogen and fusion. The latter is the much sought after Holy Grail.

Verdigris

The thing we need most urgently is cost-effective energy storage. Government money would be best spent on R&D efforts in this field. Who knows, we could have a second (green) industrial revolution, like with steam power, and become a significant world power?

spot1034

StarTrekkie007 said:

another question on this topic. Why are we getting energy from Russia (that is so far away).
There are many counties that have sunny whether that are closer to us. For example, Spain. 
I know alot of the county's income comes from visiting tourist who come to Spain for the sun.
But now, due to covid, the people are stuggling due to the deminished tourist industry.
Couldn't Spain get income from Solar panel energy and sell it to counties close by ?

https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/#:~:text=The Morocco - UK Power Project&text=This “first of a kind,million British homes by 2030.

Captainkirk54

One of the main reasons that we are in trouble is that we have shut down our base load coal stations long before we could afford to.

As said we can never rely on renewable power for all our needs and at present we are dependent upon very expensive gas fired power stations, importing gas in sea tankers from Russia. Until now we were also reliant upon nuclear energy from EDF in France through an underwater interconnector cable under the channel. This was damaged or CUT by unknown seabed operations in 2019 and may never be replaced - particularly as France is no longer our commercial ally.

We need base load power stations if we are to be self sufficient. This may need to be coal fired, certainly hydroelectric, and more nuclear, but as the latter takes 20 years to build it will be a long term solution. Two are being built at present - one by EDF and one by the Chinese goverment - neither under our control or cost charging.

Saving the planet is all very well but in mainly relies on drastically reducing the population. I suppose freezing and starvation is a good way to start for many goverments. 

rostille

My SSE dual energy account finishes on 9th March 2022.  At the end of his ITV programme last week, Martin briefly said that most people should do nothing but their might be some companies such as SSE that might be worth fixing with.  He did not elaborate and I can find no further information.  My intuition is to do nothing unless there is any evidence to the contrary.

Verdigris

Your intuition is almost certainly correct.

BeerSavesMoney

MattMattMattUK said:

They could, but they will not. Firstly there is no such thing as "free", so that money would need to be raised via tax rises, as there was major opposition to the 1.25% NI rise I can only imagine the tantrums if they put 5-10% on all income tax bands to pay for that as a project, especially as some people are vehemently against anything environmentally friendly.

I know this isn’t energy related but it’s actually 1.25 percentage points 

Gov.uk had written that national insurance contributions would rise by 1.25% from 6 April 2022. Yet this understates the rise, which for most people sees contributions rise from 12% to 13.25% - a hike in contributions of 10.4%

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/02/martin-lewis-government-national-insurance0/

SparklyStar

StarTrekkie007 said:

Hello,

Regarding the energy crisis, several years ago UK government gave FREE cavity wall & loft installation to home owners. Could they give FREE solar panel installation (and battery storage) to homes so people generate a large proportion of energy they use from collected light & use less of the expensive energy that we import ?

thinking that in the short term the price of energy we import will continue to be high. So we should generate the energy ourselves domestically.

They wouldn’t want to do that. If everyone started lowering their demand by going off grid then energy companies would lose too much money.

that’s why they lobby the government to keep us all hooked up to the grid. We are one big subscription scheme. 

Thrugelmir

SparklyStar said:

StarTrekkie007 said:

Hello,

Regarding the energy crisis, several years ago UK government gave FREE cavity wall & loft installation to home owners. Could they give FREE solar panel installation (and battery storage) to homes so people generate a large proportion of energy they use from collected light & use less of the expensive energy that we import ?

thinking that in the short term the price of energy we import will continue to be high. So we should generate the energy ourselves domestically.

They wouldn’t want to do that. If everyone started lowering their demand by going off grid then energy companies would lose too much money.

And when people are unable to generate their own energy?  Still a requirement to have back up capacity. Whatever the solution. It's multi threaded and long term project. Cutting usage is the best policy at the current time. . 

kateryan

Received a notice from  British Gas re increase in costs and DD. Noticed that the increase is not mainly for the price of gas and electricity but for the supply (meters etc), this has more than doubled and is charged on a daily basis . How do these companies get away with this. My mother who had no gas supply was being charged for a defunct meter in her property. The only way to stop the charge was to get the meter removed. Ripping off people everywhere.