Isn’t the grid already creaking? All these electric cars, electric heating etc are going to really test it. Plus the lack of base load capacity as our old nuclear fleet conks out before we replace them and we we can’t use the fossil burners, and the lack of storage needed for majority renewable? There’s 20+ years of delayed investment going to bite us if we try and increase our electrical reliance in a hurry.
As per usual the accursed tories are grimly determined to decentralise, even though nucleated power production is more efficient and hugely less resource-hungry than decentralised power production (heat pumps, photovoltaics, &c).
The killer for normal people is the high investment cost and slow payback time, tho’ that is often misrepresented.
We really should be investing in large scale ‘green’ with a side-order of new tech nukes (contaminant handling is a red herring, thanks to incompetence and mismanagement previously, but that could kill a billion pixels in a thread all of its own…)
Of course, we’ve already sold everything worth a toss to other cuntries, and the Tories will ensure the worst case scenario prevails no matter what, aided and abetted by the incredibly stupid and ill-informed ‘opposition’ living in a fantasy land of wishful thinking and impracticality.
Just glad I didn’t breed and curse another generation with suffering thru what’s to come.
Have you got a link to something quantitative on this ? A quick Google has turned up a fair bit of wordy reassurance on electric vehicles (Cooper used to be responsible for preparing for them at National Grid, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that he reckons he’s not going to let us down) but he doesn’t seem to have said much about heating/cooling, which promises to be at least as big a challenge as transportation.
This recent report seems to suggest that air conditioning may place a rather serious demand on the UK grid. But they conclude that it won’t overwhelm it because winter heating demand will present up to twice as big a problem. So a way will have to be found for the grid to cope with that, and whatever that way is it will give us plenty of capacity for summer a/c.
Is the solution West Cumbria Mines?
I suspect in older houses these make a massive amount more sense than trying to retrofit a heat pump. For this reason, watch as they are roundly ignored and the public cajoled into fitting a system of very variable efficacy when not used in conjunction with a building designed for the task.
Although if high temperature heat pumps become more common that might make switching a bit easier for most people.
It’s a significant ‘if’ though isn’t it? Even with my small, unremarkable house, the calculations don’t look that reassuring for many of the designs sold in the UK at the moment. This year was a bit of a weird one (although, given we’re told that aberrant weather is the future, maybe not that weird), but as late as May 2nd, we had weather here where the COP of most pumps would have been in the ‘not good’ category.
It is, that is why the coal fired power stations are being recommissioned to supply winter, otherwise significant power cuts.
Just for a laugh I got a quote to fully do my house (1929 4 bed 2,000 sq ft detached), from gas boiler to ground source heat pump. Came out at £29K, no thanks and twice to three times the current running costs of gas.
He really is a fucknugget
2 Likes
If you were stood at the top of a very steep flight of stairs with him, the thought would cross your mind wouldn’t it…
5 Likes
Honest, Your Honour, it was an accident
3 Likes
Guessing he has a ‘handler’ to explain the concept of stairs to him -
Every Step,
Every time.
3 Likes
Hate is too small and light a word for bunter, maybe loathing or detest.
4 Likes
My ‘two-penneth’, until the big corporations who control governments can make more money from the switch to sustainable energies than fossil fuels, the drive for change will be lethargic at best. Sad but true.
Electric cars are priced to exclude the majority, and a domestic conversion from gas fuelled boiler to ASHP comes in at circa 3 times the cost.
Being sustainable is priced out of reach of the masses intentionally.
Similar to the ‘more expensive, ethically manufactured’ versions of trainers being sold by Nike and New Balance, the cost of consuming with a conscience is being placed on the individual and their ability to afford the choice.
I’m off to watch Fight Club.
2 Likes
How to interview Boris Johnson.
Often Johnson comes through encounters with more laid back or deferential interviewers (Marr, Peston etc) by appearing more energetic & boosterish.than they are. He doesn’t look anywhere near as comfortable when his own schtick is used against him.
As far as I’m aware this interview hasn’t and probably won’t be shown on primetime news because it’s somewhat awkward for him. I doubt Rowlatt will get another shot like this & I’d fear for his future career with the BBC.
6 Likes
No, you’re conflating peak demand with base load demand and drawing the wrong conclusion.
Loved Bunter’s sideways glance when JR put the weaselly question to him 
Classic ‘can I run away/ escape’ tell 
3 Likes