Excellent article in the Daily Mail on Friday which shows the enormous opportunity the UK is foregoing in order to reach net zero CO2 emissions. (In fact we will not reach net zero emissions, as we cannot do without fossil fuel energy).
Here is the link to the article:
When will this self-inflicted madness end? - Only when the British public realise what they are being denied.
[Britain’s energy problems can largely be traced back to then Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s Climate Change Act of 2008, which legally committed Britain to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.]
ReplyDeletehttps://inews.co.uk/news/fewer-heat-pumps-are-sold-and-installed-in-the-uk-than-almost-any-other-country-in-europe-1195405
Fewer heat pumps are sold and installed in the UK than almost any other country in Europe
Only Hungary has a worse record on rolling out green home heating
As GB has to feed itself FF because of its dependency on it, strong investments need to continue into heat pumps and RE. GB has great offshore wind resources and continue with that.
You are correct about Ed Miliband's Climate Change Act being the start of our energy problems. Since then the UK has ignored common sense completely. Now we will face massive energy cost increases. Wind can never replace fossil fuels, as it is intermittent.
ReplyDeleteFossil fuel addiction is putting Europe at the manipulation of Russia. The more you go into energy efficient heat pumps, renewable energy and storage, the less you depend on aggressive actors like Russia. 100% renewable energy is possible in most countries of the world. Russia is posturing that they haven't slowed down the natural gas to Germany and Europe. I can probably not really know if he is telling the truth. But then that makes for uncertainty if Putin is reliable in the future.
ReplyDeleteHe already arrests and kills his opposition even inside GB. Get out of Fossil Fuels and into something much more reliable.
"Get out of Fossil Fuels and into something much more reliable."
ReplyDeleteBut renewables are inherently unreliable. We all know that there are times when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. As for storage we have no way of storing more than enough for a few hours at the present time. Good storage is a pipe-dream!
Once you realise that there is no "climate emergency", then the whole renewable policy becomes an expensive side-show. Even the IPCC admits that over half of the warming of 1 degree C is natural, so such a tiny warming is easily dealt with. No doubt, in time, we will move away from fossil fuels when a good replacement is developed.
[Even the IPCC admits that over half of the warming of 1 degree C is natural]
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in your link to show your statement.
https://skepticalscience.com/a-comprehensive-review-of-the-causes-of-global-warming.html
Conservatively multiple studies show natural effects did not warm the climate. Humans did.
The same article states that Americans are happy while Brits are worried, but is that because those Americans are blissfully ignorant of what’s coming their way?
ReplyDelete“Roughly one-third of the U.S. population—or 118 million Americans—could feel one or more extreme weather events annually by 2050 if population and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, new research from the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory shows.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/millions-more-americans-will-face-climate-disasters-with-warming/
One way to smooth out the vagaries of weather for renewable energy supplies is a European super powergrid. These so-called interconnectors across national borders are already here. On 1 October, a 720km (450-mile) undersea power cable went live between the UK and Norway, the world’s longest subsea interconnector. This allows Norway to export surplus hydropower to the UK, but if water levels drop in the Norwegian hydro reservoirs during dry weather, the shortfall could be supplemented by wind generation from the UK. An even longer interconnector is proposed between the UK and Iceland, tapping into Iceland’s huge supply of renewable hydro and geothermal energy. North Africa could also be plugged in – there is an ambitious proposal to link the UK to a projected giant solar scheme in Morocco.
ReplyDeleteWith the climate of northern Europe rich in wind, and southern areas with plenty of sunshine, sharing a range of renewable energies across borders helps to even out fluctuations in weather, making power supplies more secure as well as clean.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-06-18/bloomberg-green-supergrids-to-connect-the-world-video
ReplyDeleteAdding to I walker's post about the supergrid.
There is a major problem in relying on foreign supplies of energy. That is the lack of security, as has been highlighted over the Russian gas. People will soon turn on a government that does not keep the lights and the heating on.
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening in Britain energy wise? Is the supply of natural gas low?
ReplyDelete