Power Generation in the Uk
Discussion
Cant seem to understand our reliance on gas. We've had wind turbines popping up like daisy's for years.Fields being covered in PV panels. Off shore wind farms being paid to turn them off due to overload. Yet we still dont have reliable means of storing electricity . Was rumour about using energy to create molten salt ?
Are we going to get anywhere near being less reliant on gas in the future ? Or are we going to held to ransome by foreign powers ?
With electric cars being pushed and government promises being made. How is the Countries electricity production going to progress at any quicker than snails pace.
Are we going to get anywhere near being less reliant on gas in the future ? Or are we going to held to ransome by foreign powers ?
With electric cars being pushed and government promises being made. How is the Countries electricity production going to progress at any quicker than snails pace.
Bit of an odd forum to discuss this but yes we are working on moving to Wind/PV and other sources.
Its gonna take time and probably money to get there but the benefits are clear and well understood (less warming, less reliance on outside parties potentially).
Does help when people like Nigel - My Money isnt all Russian Honest - Farage whinge about progress all the time.
As for molten salt storage, thats a thing: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012018/csp-co...
Not sure its a thing for the UK. Storage is definitely something we need to work on, along with changing out behaviours regarding energy use (mostly we need to stop thinking about it as an essentially on demand infinite source).
Its gonna take time and probably money to get there but the benefits are clear and well understood (less warming, less reliance on outside parties potentially).
Does help when people like Nigel - My Money isnt all Russian Honest - Farage whinge about progress all the time.
As for molten salt storage, thats a thing: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012018/csp-co...
Not sure its a thing for the UK. Storage is definitely something we need to work on, along with changing out behaviours regarding energy use (mostly we need to stop thinking about it as an essentially on demand infinite source).
successive governments ditched coal to move to much cleaner gas generation (uk coal is very dirty)
the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
Dave Hedgehog said:
successive governments ditched coal to move to much cleaner gas generation (uk coal is very dirty)
the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
That could certainly help. If we are incentivised. They aren’t borrowing my EV battery for nothing. There will be millions of car sized batteries sat on drives soon it just needs some smarter energy tariffs to implement it. They have started trials. the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
Dave Hedgehog said:
successive governments ditched coal to move to much cleaner gas generation (uk coal is very dirty)
the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
Prior to North Sea Gas Britain produced town's gas by the gassification process of coal. How dirty is that process I wonder. By 'dirty' I mean pollution, not CO2. It had the benefit of a by product of coke IIRC.the basic problem is there is no government strategy or proper investment for net zero apart from chuck up huge numbers of windmills and ban ICE cars
energy storage is a massive part of using zero emission, i get the impression they are hoping that everyone buys an EV and has vehicle to grid so we foot the bill for the needed storage
There is so ... so so so much research into V2G (vehicle to grid) schemes going about (financing, viability the lot).
I guess we are stuck waiting for a good number of EVs to roll out before the systems can be fully proved for viability in the real world, classic chicken and egg problem. Octopus I think does at least have an EV tariff, dont think its V2G but its a stepping stone. Sadly being a niche supplier I dont think its exactly price competitive.
I guess we are stuck waiting for a good number of EVs to roll out before the systems can be fully proved for viability in the real world, classic chicken and egg problem. Octopus I think does at least have an EV tariff, dont think its V2G but its a stepping stone. Sadly being a niche supplier I dont think its exactly price competitive.
Wind power is, as of this moment producing 33 percent of the current demand with loads more being added over the next few years.
https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
So it is being dealt with, just not quick enough to fill the gap and the wind doesn't blow hard enough all the time, but it is one resource we generally have enough of and loads of coastline to site them off.
It was clear before, and even more clear that we cant rely on oil and gas imports as a strategy as a lot of the oil comes from sub optimal regimes....
https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
So it is being dealt with, just not quick enough to fill the gap and the wind doesn't blow hard enough all the time, but it is one resource we generally have enough of and loads of coastline to site them off.
It was clear before, and even more clear that we cant rely on oil and gas imports as a strategy as a lot of the oil comes from sub optimal regimes....
glennjamin said:
Are we going to get anywhere near being less reliant on gas in the future ? Or are we going to held to ransome by foreign powers ?
With electric cars being pushed and government promises being made. How is the Countries electricity production going to progress at any quicker than snails pace.
The main focus for the government is offshore wind with ambitious targets for 2030.With electric cars being pushed and government promises being made. How is the Countries electricity production going to progress at any quicker than snails pace.
Not sure what you are asking about the Home Counties, are you saying electricity needs to be produced where it is used?? Maybe you meant local availability of electricity for charging.
As a rough guide, one million EVs adds about 1% additional load to the overall grid demand. It really is a lot less than most people seem to think.
We don't buy more than 2 million new cars each year, so the annual rate of increase of load on the grid is not an immediate issue. More pressing is to install enough chargers and upgrade local electricity networks to get enough power where it is needed.
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