Chickens coming home to roost here - conservatives in particular have roundly mocked the very idea of energy security for years; well I guess we will find out this winter the consequences of an energy policy founded on the assumption of forever being able to buy fossil fuels from monopoly suppliers who are far from politically aligned with us.
Still no Severn tidal barrage, or any material harnessing of wave power. Still no signs of a proper coordinated new nuclear programme, despite the fact that; generally, you buy uranium from much friendlier countries than sell fossil fuel. Still no coal gasification schemes to harness the vast reserves of fossil energy that still exist within the U.K.
Just another consequence for Stupid Britain; the Stupid Country that usually elects the Stupid Party, of its inexplicable love affair with the interests of the financial kind of capitalist over those of the industrial kind. Short term Britain. Stop electing twots, thanks.
0
0
The answer to your question is no. The attitude of the UK to energy (and food) security is fundamentally fvcking insane. It always was but after Brexit it is borderline suicidal. I can't see it changing though. Too much easy money for politicians to make in retirement as 'advisors' to the providers of the fossil fuels.
0
0
It’s not just the absolute short terminal of a political culture totally in hock to financial interests. It’s the thorough saturation of the same values throughout British society. Thatcher really did a good sales job with the false consciousness. The way the problems of the 1970s are still blamed on the Left, when the Right caused them, and that loads of allegedly intelligent people who weren’t even born then still parrot that line wholesale, still demonstrates the problem. Joke shop country, joke shop culture. Be European..
0
0
Have you noticed how we only ever have energy crises under a Tory government?
0
0
To be fair, the Labour Party had 13 years to start the Severn Barrage.
But they bailed out cos of the threat to a few wildfowl.
That is UK PLC’s problem. The whole system is always so in hock to a few lunatic fringe protesters, usually aided and abetted by indulgent Judges, that nothing can ever get done.
0
0
All your solutions are complicated, Laz.
They will just bend over to Putin. That costs much less intellectual capital.
0
0
Have they managed to properly sort underground coal gasification with effective CCS? If not coal gasification is a fvxking stupid idea.
0
0
This pipeline’s gonna blow
0
0
One of the arguments that is used against changing from FPTP to a form of PR is that it would allow small parties that are part of a coalition government to hold the country hostage to their fringe ideas.
The Labour Party failing to go ahead with the Severn Barrage was in part because of a vocal minority within the Labour Party that were opposed to it. (See also large industrial trade unions who like big nuclear, big gas, etc. because unionisation is easier and more productive compared with distributed energy generation.) In FPTP hostage-taking by small minorities can be just as frequent and a lot more permanent than in PR, provided the relevant minority is well-entrenched in one or other of the two big parties.
0
0
Heh @ Marshall’s idea that the systemic capture of British energy policy by Big Fossil is somehow the fault of the Woke Left! Couldn’t make it up. You really suckled hard on Thatcher’s dusty teat didn’t you sun.
0
0
The reason Labour didn’t build the severn barrage was actually that Labour’s energy policy was captured by Big Fossil, about whose getting rich Labour were intensely relaxed.
Oh, btw, when it comes to big problems, the true solutions are almost always complicated.
0
0
Energy security is more important than carbon reduction, not that coal gasification has any worse a carbon profile than buying middle eastern or russian gas anyway
0
0
The answer is no.
Not because it is the most urgent policy reform that needs to be in place but because none of its donors have asked for this policy to be implemented so that the donor and the party can benefit financially.
It has been open corruption for some time now with this lot. Competing with Saudi and Turkey on that scale.
0
0
Coal gasification has a much worse profile than gas. It has a worse profile than regular coal. Guess Laz is in bed with big Fossil...
0
0
big fossil has nothing to do with gasification, it is an indie undertaking
it doesn’t have a worse profile after you take out shipping
0
0
or rather, when you include shipping
0
0
Maybe, mind you the amount of gas shipped to the UK is pretty small compared to gas delivered by pipeline.
0
0
I haven't read this thread but is Laz suggesting by any chance that we bend over to President Xi? 'coz that would make sense.
0
0
i haven’t read this thread, but has ducks sed something ignorant, flippant and irrelevant? cos that would make sense
0
0
Energy policy is a subject I've been watching with interest because I used to work as a programmer supporting the engineers in a renewable energy engineering department of a university and Mugen senior is a mariner who then went into renewables.
Wave Energy Converters seem to be kind of a busted flush. They're really expensive to install and either not robust enough to withstand big swells, or they're so robust that they don't move enough to generate much electricity. I worked with a guy who had formerly been at Pelamis which was once considered the Great White Hope of wave energy converters and most people doing that kind of research don't seem to think that wave energy is really achievable any time soon. That's why there's no real development in wave energy installation.
Wind and floating offshore wind is having loads of money pumped into it at the moment because it's actually a stunning resource. Arguably there's between 150 and 250 gigawatts of harnessable power out in the Celtic sea alone! (Britain uses about 50 gigawatts at the maximum demand).
Tidal is really fascinating because all the technologies are there to do it - but the problem is installation (which is why there hasn't been much development there). People don't realise how challenging rich tidal energy sites are but the power in a tidal energy site moving at 5ms water speed (that's 10 knots!) is the same as a 245 mile an hour wind! Imagine trying to put up a windfarm in a hurricane that's blowing in and out 6 hours in, 6 hours out every day! The power density of tidal power is also insane. Seawater is about 800 times dense as air and you can't compress it. That means there's a lot more power available per square metre than wind. Like wind power, tidal is a function of the velocity of the current flow cubed. So you can see how good it could be!
0
0
Why do u care as an unemployed HK expat?
What u should care about is the ME. Where it's happening.
HK is dead. It is new Shenzhen.
London is in a country full of idiots. Go outside of London people can barely speak English intelligibly. Places like Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester - it's amazing they can put a sentence together. The ones that try to escape their gene pool end up in London for a bit.
London itself is pure real estate investment for the ME and Asia. Asian parents can send their sprogs their to study (90% of which are female - who want white d1ck and their parents value them less than the males). London is now just a finishing school for these young Asians.
The government is potty. Brexit is screwing up the supply chain. Europe is dying out. Just come to the sandpit, make some dollar, and hold the hand of a Sheikh with Alzeimers to invest his billions.
Join the discussion