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Keeping The Lights On...
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I wonder how many other people on this website (and in the wider UK) know just how precarious our current energy situation with regards to electricity generation?
A recent article in Private Eye may surprise many. I would include the link but it will most likely cease working soon and so I shall reproduce the short article in the first post.
A recent article in Private Eye may surprise many. I would include the link but it will most likely cease working soon and so I shall reproduce the short article in the first post.
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I've been concerned for some time. I think a hard Winter is approaching and as from tomorrow I had decided to start buying candles. Really quite worried because if our electricity goes we will have no heating or anything. A couple of weeks ago I began buying the odd extra can of corned beef etc. so that at least we will have food for a few days.
I remember the horrors of the 3-day week and rotas of electricity supply being published. Mum and Dad fortunately had an old oil lamp, which was well employed, and I'm looking around for one. I'm also thinking about buying a camping gaz ring so I can at least make a hot drink. ' Forewarned is forearmed'. The thought of no heating is horrific. Apparantly our village was cut off for 3 days about 5 years ago (it was the same for us in France the same year).
I remember the horrors of the 3-day week and rotas of electricity supply being published. Mum and Dad fortunately had an old oil lamp, which was well employed, and I'm looking around for one. I'm also thinking about buying a camping gaz ring so I can at least make a hot drink. ' Forewarned is forearmed'. The thought of no heating is horrific. Apparantly our village was cut off for 3 days about 5 years ago (it was the same for us in France the same year).
You could use a Greenhouse heater, EDDIE.
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fiction-factory - "Maybe we should subscribe to this post and then return to it in March to see if the scare stories which come up every year tunrned out to be right."
I agree that would be interesting.
The point is that the margins are now so tight now that any prolonged period of windless, very cold winter days during the normal working week may mean that the demand equals or exceeds capacity. It may well not happen this winter but in the very near future I predict that brown-outs and maybe even black-outs will occur. The energy industry has been warning successive Governments for years about this and it is only now that they are beginning to listen.
The problem is threefold. First, we have a growing population. That means more house building. This means more domestic demand. Second, the electrification of the railways and the projected increase in electric cars. These need even more reliable sources of electricity. Lastly, throw in a few more coal-fired power station closures (in order to meet our EU carbon targets) and you're guaranteed brown-outs and maybe even black-outs.
Clearly nuclear is the way to go but a single new station isn't enough and it's at least 15 years away. That's a long time. Solar and wind turbines simply don't provide enough power and are by their very nature, intermittent. Tidal is still in its infancy.
The only short-term fix is gas from hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately this is vehemently opposed by the Greenies who seem to think that sitting in the cold and dark is a price worth paying for "saving the planet" from an infinitesimally small increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The fact that black-outs will unquestionably result in the deaths of large numbers of actual human beings doesn't seem to worry them at all.
From your post I can tell that you think that this is all just scaremongering - as does "viv41". I do hope you're both right, I really do.
I agree that would be interesting.
The point is that the margins are now so tight now that any prolonged period of windless, very cold winter days during the normal working week may mean that the demand equals or exceeds capacity. It may well not happen this winter but in the very near future I predict that brown-outs and maybe even black-outs will occur. The energy industry has been warning successive Governments for years about this and it is only now that they are beginning to listen.
The problem is threefold. First, we have a growing population. That means more house building. This means more domestic demand. Second, the electrification of the railways and the projected increase in electric cars. These need even more reliable sources of electricity. Lastly, throw in a few more coal-fired power station closures (in order to meet our EU carbon targets) and you're guaranteed brown-outs and maybe even black-outs.
Clearly nuclear is the way to go but a single new station isn't enough and it's at least 15 years away. That's a long time. Solar and wind turbines simply don't provide enough power and are by their very nature, intermittent. Tidal is still in its infancy.
The only short-term fix is gas from hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately this is vehemently opposed by the Greenies who seem to think that sitting in the cold and dark is a price worth paying for "saving the planet" from an infinitesimally small increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The fact that black-outs will unquestionably result in the deaths of large numbers of actual human beings doesn't seem to worry them at all.
From your post I can tell that you think that this is all just scaremongering - as does "viv41". I do hope you're both right, I really do.
@birdie
//The only short-term fix is gas from hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately this is vehemently opposed by the Greenies who seem to think that sitting in the cold and dark is a price worth paying for "saving the planet" from an infinitesimally small increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The fact that black-outs will unquestionably result in the deaths of large numbers of actual human beings doesn't seem to worry them at all. //
So, the Greenies encapsulated, there, as people who care more for their own grandchildren's future than everybody else's granny's future?
What could be more organic and natural than that?
p.s. Good work. The cheque is in the post.
p.p.s. Generators in garages? Let's hope the integral-garage homeowners don't forget to fit a flue to theirs.
p.p.p.s. Paraffin heaters belong to the age before double glazing. If they are airtight enough to trap carbon monoxide then they're a danger, especially if left burning while you sleep. Draughty sash windows were about right, for adequate ventilation levels.
//The only short-term fix is gas from hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately this is vehemently opposed by the Greenies who seem to think that sitting in the cold and dark is a price worth paying for "saving the planet" from an infinitesimally small increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The fact that black-outs will unquestionably result in the deaths of large numbers of actual human beings doesn't seem to worry them at all. //
So, the Greenies encapsulated, there, as people who care more for their own grandchildren's future than everybody else's granny's future?
What could be more organic and natural than that?
p.s. Good work. The cheque is in the post.
p.p.s. Generators in garages? Let's hope the integral-garage homeowners don't forget to fit a flue to theirs.
p.p.p.s. Paraffin heaters belong to the age before double glazing. If they are airtight enough to trap carbon monoxide then they're a danger, especially if left burning while you sleep. Draughty sash windows were about right, for adequate ventilation levels.
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