World's largest offshore windfarm starts generating

[plfrench]

Hope things are settling down and no more turbine blade failures have occurred as I suspect we might have burnt our last ever coal for electricity generation on 29th May. The stockpiles are just scrapings at Ratcliffe and it's been a fair few days since burning any now. Quite an achievement if true, from being our dominant source of electricity generation 10 years ago to zero today - really should be praised as progress we should be proud of.

[DonkeyApple]

plfrench said:

Hope things are settling down and no more turbine blade failures have occurred as I suspect we might have burnt our last ever coal for electricity generation on 29th May. The stockpiles are just scrapings at Ratcliffe and it's been a fair few days since burning any now. Quite an achievement if true, from being our dominant source of electricity generation 10 years ago to zero today - really should be praised as progress we should be proud of.

I don't think it was 'the' dominant source for a long time prior to that but it was certainly one of them and contributed hugely to the carbon emissions.

But it shows just how repeatedly lick the U.K. has been since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in terms of finding the next major power source before the current one runs out or is phased out.

Being able to slash coal use down to near enough zero inside of a decade has only been possible due to firstly the discovery of offshore nat gas and then having near perfect geology and geography for one of the cheapest and easiest renewables.

It's an enormous competitive advantage for the UK to be on target to deliver energy to industry and households that is free of carbon taxes helping them to be more price efficient than our economic competitors. Some of whom are facing a truly disastrous level of costs to even get close.

Has there been any further progress re the concept of the North Sea grid to create a more efficient energy trading network?

[plfrench]

DonkeyApple said:

plfrench said:

Hope things are settling down and no more turbine blade failures have occurred as I suspect we might have burnt our last ever coal for electricity generation on 29th May. The stockpiles are just scrapings at Ratcliffe and it's been a fair few days since burning any now. Quite an achievement if true, from being our dominant source of electricity generation 10 years ago to zero today - really should be praised as progress we should be proud of.

I don't think it was 'the' dominant source for a long time prior to that but it was certainly one of them and contributed hugely to the carbon emissions.

But it shows just how repeatedly lick the U.K. has been since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in terms of finding the next major power source before the current one runs out or is phased out.

Being able to slash coal use down to near enough zero inside of a decade has only been possible due to firstly the discovery of offshore nat gas and then having near perfect geology and geography for one of the cheapest and easiest renewables.

It's an enormous competitive advantage for the UK to be on target to deliver energy to industry and households that is free of carbon taxes helping them to be more price efficient than our economic competitors. Some of whom are facing a truly disastrous level of costs to even get close.

Has there been any further progress re the concept of the North Sea grid to create a more efficient energy trading network?

Yes, perhaps poor choice of the word dominant, but certainly the largest source in 2014 according to I am Kate (with the red line being coal):

[Mikehig]

DonkeyApple said:

plfrench said:

Hope things are settling down and no more turbine blade failures have occurred as I suspect we might have burnt our last ever coal for electricity generation on 29th May. The stockpiles are just scrapings at Ratcliffe and it's been a fair few days since burning any now. Quite an achievement if true, from being our dominant source of electricity generation 10 years ago to zero today - really should be praised as progress we should be proud of.

I don't think it was 'the' dominant source for a long time prior to that but it was certainly one of them and contributed hugely to the carbon emissions.

But it shows just how repeatedly lick the U.K. has been since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in terms of finding the next major power source before the current one runs out or is phased out.

Being able to slash coal use down to near enough zero inside of a decade has only been possible due to firstly the discovery of offshore nat gas and then having near perfect geology and geography for one of the cheapest and easiest renewables.

It's an enormous competitive advantage for the UK to be on target to deliver energy to industry and households that is free of carbon taxes helping them to be more price efficient than our economic competitors. Some of whom are facing a truly disastrous level of costs to even get close.

Has there been any further progress re the concept of the North Sea grid to create a more efficient energy trading network?

"free of carbon taxes"?
Directly, yes. Indirectly, maybe not.
Aiui the market price is usually set by gas which includes carbon taxation (£30/MWh, iirc). So that carbon tax drives up the price of power from all sources.
Happy to be corrected as I may not have the full picture.